Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Just when you thought the imaginary polar bear crisis couldn’t get any sillier;
Scientists hatch bold plan to save polar bears
It will take more than bear chow to keep the animals alive in the wild.
by David Cox / Feb.27.2018 / 6:37 PM ET
For the past two decades, scientists have been monitoring the effects of a warming Arctic on the world’s polar bears — and the bears’ future has looked increasingly bleak.
The latest estimates suggest that Arctic sea ice is disappearing by 14 percent a decade, drastically limiting the bears’ ability to hunt the seals on which they feed. And research on bears living on the Arctic islands of Svalbard shows that the animals are now reproducing at a rate one-fifth of that seen just 20 years ago.
Given these dismal statistics, scientists now predict that the global population of polar bears could fall from 20,000 to 30,000 today to fewer than 5,000 by 2100 — and beyond that no one knows. Even if a small population of bears manage to hang on, they’re not out of the woods.
…
For 5,000 bears to survive in this region (the minimum thought to be required to prevent inbreeding), scientists believe the animals may need help from humans. Derocher envisions helicopters zipping around the region, dropping bear chow. Without such deliveries, he says, hungry bears might wander south into human settlements — and risk being shot.
Airdrops of bear chow wouldn’t come cheap. Derocher estimates that delivering enough chow to sustain those 5,000 bears could cost the Canadian government $2 million a month. Given the hefty price tag, he proposes that the chow be used only during times when the bears are finding it especially difficult to catch and kill seals.
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Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/scientists-hatch-bold-plan-save-polar-bears-ncna851356
The NBC news article also suggests using artificial insemination on grizzly bear surrogates to maintain polar bear numbers. Lets just say I’m not going to be head of the queue to apply for that job.
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“Scientists say…”
“Scientists believe…”
“Scientists predict…”
Some scientists say that, but… Guess what; plenty of other scientists say differently.
Since Marx and Engels said communism is the best form of government, does that mean that I could write an article for NBC news that confidently asserts “Political leaders say communism is the best form of government.” ?
That does follow the same logic so …Absolutely…
They’ll happily pay you for it.
Salesmen say a lot of things too.
Does anyone have a link to the so called study that showed breeding success of one group of polar bears is down by 80%?
Probably refers to some zoo that had 4 pb sows, and one died…….
This is really the crux of their argument isn’t it. Maybe the Svalbard area has reached it’s natural population limit.
Socialists come up with hand-outs as a solution. Didn’t see that coming.
A proven means to cover-up their progress to minority (e.g. monopoly) consolidation of capital and control.
Max – excellent!
Auto
Real and imaginary Soviets are all the rage today. Relics of a progressive age that lurk in people’s minds, rallies, and Water Closets.
That said, it’s a cold “war”-ming.
5000 bears to avoid inbreeding? Normally inbreeding isn’t considered a problem for populations >500 individuals.
How many human populations numbered >5000 people before farming?
The polar bear population may well be close to the carrying capacity now. This is what happened when a whale stranded on Ostrov Wrangelya last summer:
Oh, that brings up a question. Is whale oil considered renewable energy?
Truth is stranger than fiction
Wow, where to begin with this crazy ignorance? A decline in the bear population would be a boon the seal population, which would encourage growth in the bear population, but would devastate the fish population.
Another gang of short-sighted hubristic humans with an insatiable taste for micromanaging with taxpayer dollars. And in the end, they won’t stop any starvation, they’ll just warp the entire ecosystem.
At least they will feel good about the micromanaging in this era of the marketed feelings.
Bears are naturally lazy, they would rather find food in the garbage dump than hunt. At least when they scrounge around the garbage dumps, they get some exercise. If we are just going to food drop for them, we might as well train them to use cell phones and be gamers, just like many humans that are too lazy to earn a living and depend on handouts to survive while spending their lives with eyeballs attached to a screen.
Polar bears don’t hunt on land or in summer. Reputedly because they are so well insulated that they risk heat-stroke if they exert themselves for long.
In summer they scrounge garbage dumps, eat carrion, bird’s eggs and nestlings and berries, but mostly fast.
Bear cubs learn how to find and catch prey by watching their mothers. Now the idiots want to train cubs to watch the sky for incoming ‘cargo” just like those poor south-sea islanders.
Reminds me of Florida, which has banned feeding the manatees. They say it is because they will become dependent on humans for food.
Wow. Never thought I’d say this: Floridians are smarter than climate scientists. Wait a minute… isn’t everyone?
Are climate scientists also behind food stamps and welfare?
Manatees eat the stuff that grows on the bottoms of streams.
It’s not like they need their parents to teach them how to hunt.
Thank you, Mr. Worrall for having drawn our attention to one of the stupidest suggestions that I have ever seen – and heaven knows that the CAGW apostles have come up with any number of stupid suggestions in the past. His posting has led to so many genuinely funny comments that I shall still be laughing next week. To those who have posted them “Keep it up” and thanks.
I’d reserve judgement on “stupidest”. The week is young.
“Arctic sea ice is disappearing by 14 per cent a decade”
So Arctic sea ice will be gone completely in seven years time!
Rob clearly got a calculator for his birthday.
It depends on whether the loss is linear to zero, or a compound function à la Zeno’s paradox.
I question the digits of accuracy being used.
Hey Rob,
As I walked along the local canal today, two beautiful swans approached me for food.
I had and gave nothing, but I remembered that swans have been doing this for generations. This is probably the best way of ensuring that swans will be there for generations to come. Polar bears are far more intelligent and adaptable than swans.
You just can’t farce this.
‘Air-drop’. My God.
Me thinks that it’s best if they’d just leave Mother Nature alone. She’ll dish out whatever she wishes to dish out.
The article has, by mishap, obviously been published 32 days too early.
From the report PDF of the other WUWT post…… A bit of contradiction??
“The Svalbard area count was initially reported to have increased by 42% over the count per-
formed in 2004, with most bears found to be in good or excellent condition….”
From the NBC News article:
From Susan Crawford’s just released report:
It may be that when population concentrations hit high enough levels, fecundity drops. Maybe more bears are living beyond the age to reproduce.
I doubt both notions. More likely someone is using bad numbers or inverted statistical results.
Is it reduced pregnancy rate or reduced cub survival? Either one might be explained by increased competition for food.
I’ve read that well fed sows have more cubs.
Those Polar Bears in the picture are definitely showing us that man-made climate change is real and we should prepare for it. They are foraging for wood, as shown by the wooden pallets in the picture, to build a Polar Bear Ark. After building the Ark with the scrap wood they will be prepared for the rising sea levels. They are adapting. So we all must prepare for the impending doom. Buy a kayak, row boat, or build a raft to prepare. 🙂
While I haven’t reviewed the counting techniques used for polar bears if anyone believes that some scientists in the game wouldn’t fudge the numbers to keep themselves employed they are very sadly mistaken. I was put in charge of a program that did exactly that for over a decade for a large listed charismatic megafauna. Once in charge I began to question their “science” I became the enemy, Darth Vader, the evil one, etc. [Note all those names and more were used to describe me to the public and in my face.]
It is similar to what welfare does with humans- we feed those that do not produce, then they multiply in numbers. This will eventually collapse the system. The same thing will happen with the bears- they WILL come to rely on CO2 emitting helicopter food drops.
The best and most evolutionary sustainable solution is for brainless warmists (natural selection) to go up to the Arctic so the bears can hunt them and eat them.
Worse, when given the choice of working for a living and just being given what they need, both humans and bears choose the handouts.
Bet any jobs associated with the dropping of the food to those polar bears (should it happen) gets counted as green jobs.
Fixed that typo. I’m the king of typos. I can spot all but my own a mile away!
Well, there’s yur’ problem!!!
Polar bears don’t live in the woods!!
Try counting them where they are!
Every wildlife biologist I have even spoken to or heard of emphasizes the same point: feeding the wildlife is a BAD thing. “DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!”
The real threat to the polar bears is that global warming has killed every penguin in the Arctic so the polar bears are force to hunt unicorns
With less hunting of seals need lots more polar bears, humans need to stop hunting polar bears. So many seals now, and they eat COD, less food for humans…
I dont know how many seals 1 bear eats, and how many fish 1 seal eats, but 1 bear may save lots of fish…although some bears eat fish…..my head hurts..