One of the most prominent campaigning icons to attract attention to the "climate change" issue is the plight of polar bears, and yet on close examination all the stories of these bears being wiped out are completely wrong, as can be seen when the facts are shown. This is examined in detail in this excellent new video by Paul Burgess which can be viewed here:
Bears use the ice to hunt and now the ice is decreasing in many areas of the arctic. There will be variation in populations from year to year, but this argument falls on its face. Somehow polar bears are increasing when their living condtions don't favor them anymore.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/01/27/fact-check-false-claim-global-population-polar-bears-increasing/11092356002/
Fact check: False claim global polar bear population has increased in recent decades
Population data reflects improvements in bear tracking methods
The graph shows global population estimates from 1993, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2021 taken from the Polar Bear Specialist Group’s most recent status report. But experts say those figures, especially the earliest ones, are unreliable, and the variety of methods used makes comparisons between those years illegitimate.
“Populations have not grown,” Steven Amstrup, chief scientist for Polar Bears International, said in an email. “Rather our growing knowledge has shown there may be more bears in these areas than we previously thought.”
John Whiteman, chief research scientist at Polar Bears International, pointed out that the data is sporadic and not as continuous as the graph makes it appear.
According to the 2021 report, three of the subpopulations have decreased over the past two generations. None of the subpopulations have increased over the past two generations. Sea ice concentrations have declined by 13 percent each decade since 1979 due to increasing global temperatures, according to NASA. As a result, polar bears are spending less time on sea ice, leading them to fast longer, become thinner and have fewer cubs, according to a recent study.
If ice is declining, this is not a good condition for polar bears to thrive in. Declining ice effects every aspect of their lives.
ReplyDeletehttps://interactive.carbonbrief.org/polar-bears-climate-change-what-does-science-say/
The consensus is clear – as Arctic sea ice melts, polar bears are finding it harder to hunt, mate and breed. While polar bears have shown some ability to adapt to changes in their surroundings – for example, by foraging for food on land, or swimming more to hunt for prey – scientists project that as sea ice diminishes, polar bears will find it harder to survive and populations will decline.
Polar bears and sea ice loss
Polar bears depend on sea ice for most important aspects of their lives – including hunting, mating and resting. While polar bears are strong swimmers, capable of swimming for hours on end, they find swimming much more energy intensive than walking. As such, sea ice is crucial for polar bears to survive.
However, temperatures in the Arctic are rising nearly four times as fast as the global average, and Arctic sea ice extent has declined since 1979 for every month of the year. The chart below shows how Arctic sea ice extent has diminished in recent decades.
Polar bears get around two-thirds of their energy for the entire year in late spring and early summer, when prey is abundant. They then fast throughout much of the autumn and winter when prey is scarce.
However, as the climate warms, sea ice is retreating earlier in spring and forming later in winter. This gives polar bears less time to hunt, forcing them to go without food for longer and swim greater distances.
This extra exertion and lack of food can drive a decline in body condition and cause a drop in the average weight of adult bears. Meanwhile, fewer bear cubs survive and those that do are smaller.
Still you cannot dispute the facts. The population is increasing. This should not be a total surprise. After all the polar bears have been around through many changes of climate and they are still here today!
ReplyDeleteNone of the subpopulations have increaased acording to this article. It is difficult to track them.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/01/27/fact-check-false-claim-global-population-polar-bears-increasing/11092356002/
Technological advances like satellite tracking collars and ear tags have allowed researchers to identify 19 distinct polar bear subpopulations. Since many are in particularly hard-to-access areas, though, scientists still don't have what the Polar Bear Specialist Group terms "sufficient population data" for many of those.
The areas with the best data show no increase, contrary to the post's claim.
According to the 2021 report, three of the subpopulations have decreased over the past two generations. None of the subpopulations have increased over the past two generations. Sea ice concentrations have declined by 13 percent each decade since 1979 due to increasing global temperatures, according to NASA. As a result, polar bears are spending less time on sea ice, leading them to fast longer, become thinner and have fewer cubs, according to a recent study.