POLAR BEARS!

[Fash]

So.... despite the fact that the population of Polar Bears has increased FIVE FOLD in 26 years, the US just listed them as an Endangered Species.

Discuss.

[Funkmasterr]

Ummmmm, global warming, duh!

(ok im done now.)

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

So.... despite the fact that the population of Polar Bears has increased FIVE FOLD in 26 years, the US just listed them as an Endangered Species.

Discuss.

It helps support their fake cause.

[Noysyrump]

Where in the hell did they get a penguin? Trade routes to antartica?

[Forthe]

This is a THREATDOWN!
OUR #1 THREAT...BEARS!!!!

They really are fucked tho. We have a crazy amount of ice coming down the Labrador shoreline. I've never heard of a polar bear sighting here until last month there was a sighting in the central part of the island.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-l ... -bear.html

[Drolgin Steingrinder]

Where in the hell did they get a penguin? Trade routes to antartica?

yeah, dude, that's a scientific sin on par with portraying dinosaurs and hominids in the same picture!

[Sylvus]

It helps support their fake cause.

The Bush Administration's?

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

Bush signed off on it. It was brought to life by the WWF and other green freak organizations. If the population is increasing it kind of makes no sense. If it's been determined there is no global warming how can they claim this was a result of global warming? That doesn't make you question this at all?

[Forthe]

Bush signed off on it. It was brought to life by the WWF and other green freak organizations. If the population is increasing it kind of makes no sense. If it's been determined there is no global warming how can they claim this was a result of global warming? That doesn't make you question this at all?

Regardless of global warming the artic ice has receeded drastically the last few years. No ice fucks up polar bears. It makes sense as a temporary measure as a resulting population decline is expected. You can always take them off when the ice conditions improve or we know the polar bear population isn't going to crash.

[Sylvus]

It's been determined that there's no Global Warming?

It was my understanding that, Global Warming or no, the ice that polar bears live on and need for hunting is shrinking, and the reason people wanted to get them on the list was to protect their habitats from oil drilling and the like in the case that the ice is melting. Once again, it's another one of those problems that if it isn't anticipated quickly enough, it could potentially be too late.

I'm not sure where Fash's "fivefold increase" numbers come from...

The U.S. government has decided to list polar bears as a threatened species under its Endangered Species Act because of the effects of global warming — a decision that could deal a severe blow to the lucrative sport hunt in Canada's North.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, who made the announcement in Washington Wednesday, said the decision was based on findings that the polar bears' sea ice habitat, vital to its survival, has dramatically melted in recent decades.

He said that computer models projected declines in sea ice averaging 30 per cent by the middle of the century. Scientists predict that as a result, two-thirds of polar bears could disappear by then.

“Because polar bears are vulnerable to this loss of habitat, they are, in my judgment, likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. In this case, [in] 45 years," Kempthorne said.

A threatened species is considered one that is likely to become endangered of extinction in the foreseeable future.

Several American activist groups, including Greenpeace and the Center for Biological Diversity, have also been lobbying hard to have polar bears listed as threatened. Experts now believe there are up to 25,000 polar bears remaining on the planet, and that number is in decline.

They've been one step below threatened (which is below endangered) in Canada since 1991, and recently were kept on that list. Again, I'd be interested to see Fash's numbers.

[Fash]

They've been one step below threatened (which is below endangered) in Canada since 1991, and recently were kept on that list. Again, I'd be interested to see Fash's numbers.

Unfortunately, I don't have a source for the 5x number, I over-heard it... but here's a canadian link from a year ago that references a near 3x increase since the 80's. It is obviously not conclusive or representative of all Polar Bears world-wide.

The latest government survey of polar bears roaming the vast Arctic expanses of northern Quebec, Labrador and southern Baffin Island show the population of polar bears has jumped to 2,100 animals from around 800 in the mid-1980s.

As recently as three years ago, a less official count placed the number at 1,400.

The Inuit have always insisted the bears' demise was greatly exaggerated by scientists doing projections based on fly-over counts, but their input was usually dismissed as the ramblings of self-interested hunters.

As Nunavut government biologist Mitch Taylor observed in a front-page story in the Nunatsiaq News last month, "the Inuit were right. There aren't just a few more bears. There are a hell of a lot more bears."

[Noysyrump]

You realize these monsters would eat you given the chance? And you guys wanna save them...~

[Bagar-]

You realize these monsters would eat you given the chance? And you guys wanna save them...~

Since I don't think you're intelligent enough to be trolling... congratulations on proving how fucking stupid you are. Again.

[Noysyrump]

You realize these monsters would eat you given the chance? And you guys wanna save them...~

Since I don't think you're intelligent enough to be trolling... congratulations on proving how fucking stupid you are. Again.

I like pie.



... and shiney things.

[Forthe]

You realize these monsters would eat you given the chance? And you guys wanna save them...~

#1 THREAT!!!!

[Nick]

If it's been determined there is no global warming how can they claim this was a result of global warming?

Right, had enough, blocked for being a moron. all the best.

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

Christmas has come early.

[Funkmasterr]

Christmas has come early.

Funny how tables get turned.

[Nick]

I haven't been able to stop posting here in the past (it's sad I can quit smoking, but not posting on vv), so I'm gonna try and start by straying away from current events, and now audio as well apparently - with the ultimate goal being not leaving VV entirely.

[Funkmasterr]

I haven't been able to stop posting here in the past (it's sad I can quit smoking, but not posting on vv), so I'm gonna try and start by straying away from current events, and now audio as well apparently - with the ultimate goal being not leaving VV entirely.

what a bitter little man you are.

Want me to dig up shit you've not followed through on? I'm sure I could find more than one thing. Not sure precisely what you are trying to prove.

[Nick]

I haven't been able to stop posting here in the past (it's sad I can quit smoking, but not posting on vv), so I'm gonna try and start by straying away from current events, and now audio as well apparently - with the ultimate goal being not leaving VV entirely.

[Animale]

The so-called "5-fold" increase is based upon questionable bear census data from the 60's (so not 24 years, more like 40+ years) and is due to the elimination of large scale polar bear hunting, not climate issues. So, in the last 24 years the data indicates approximately a 2 fold increase as the bears return to a number that is under less predatory pressure from man.

Like it or not, the arctic climate is changing in a way that means polar bear numbers will soon drop. The summer ice sheet is shrinking, and bears rely upon that to hunt their prey. Will they become extinct without a summer ice sheet? Well, their numbers would shrink to the point where it is a danger - thus the preemptive assigning of endangered status.

The permafrost is also shrinking, and traditional hunting grounds of the Inuit and other northern peoples are changing dramatically. Settlements are under pressure to move as their traditional food sources have moved further north as the permafrost has melted.

Of course, if you'd read the IPCC report you'd know most of this. Oh well.

Animale

[Fash]

Well I predict this to be a huge waste of money and resources, so I'm preemptively assigning this 'bullshit' status.

I'll come collect in a few years.

[Forthe]

Well I predict this to be a huge waste of money and resources, so I'm preemptively assigning this 'bullshit' status.

I'll come collect in a few years.

Some info if you are interested. Suzuki is a pro environment scientist but it seems fairly balanced. Suzuki is a household name up here, he has been doing this stuff since the 70s.

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/files/SWAG/D ... r-Bear.pdf

[Aslanna]

I'm not sure where Fash's "fivefold increase" numbers come from...

Ummmmm, it helps support their fake cause, duh!

[Fash]

I'm not sure where Fash's "fivefold increase" numbers come from...

Ummmmm, it helps support their fake cause, duh!

i don't agree... but, zing!

[Sirton]

http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/ ... opulation/

In general...I think they should be partially protected. There are areas of high population or were even over population occur I've read. Hunting should still be permitted for high level payers in high populated areas, and use that money directly to protect and increase the numbers in depressed areas. Of coarse in areas were they can still survive. Its all about proper management for the long term survival of many of these wonderful animals.

As a side note: Even though I know abit about the animal Polar bear. I personally haven't studied polar bear populations, so there situation could be abit different than most species were I have, so I could be looking at it in the wrong perspective.

[Noysyrump]

Man trying to play god? Bah if the big white monsters can't adapt, then who needs em.

[Forthe]

Man trying to play god? Bah if the big white monsters can't adapt, then who needs em.

Coca-Cola!

[Forthe]

Stephan Colbert's worst nightmare...Pizzly bears!

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story. ... 87&k=95255