Three things you should know about Polar Bears

[Fargin_Bastige]

Recent research has shown

– Polar bears “are drowning because climate change is melting the Arctic ice shelf. Researchers were startled to find bears having to swim up to 60 miles across open sea to find food. They are being forced into the long voyages because the ice floes from which they feed are melting, becoming smaller and drifting farther apart.”

– “Pregnant polar bears in Alaska, which spend most of their lives on sea ice, are increasingly giving birth on land, according to researchers who say global warming is probably to blame.”

– Polar bears “may be turning to cannibalism because longer seasons without ice keep them from getting to their natural food.”

Take from it what you will.

[bush]

I for one welcome our new polar bear overlords.

[Fargin_Bastige]

Originally Posted by bush

I for one welcome our new polar bear overlords.

Don't you mean the Otters?

[malvolio]

does this mean that seals will overpopulate and we can resume clubbing their pups for furs?

[Fargin_Bastige]

This thread was in honor of that shining example of turdness that is Rush Limbaugh.

The shithead actually said, when they produced a pic of 2 Polar bears stuck on an ice flow, that they were playing. Like cats in a litter box.

When are we going to remove the fucking political talking heads from science and let scientists work this shit out?

[bush]

Originally Posted by Fargin_Bastige

When are we going to remove the fucking political talking heads from science and let scientists work this shit out?

Hopefully in the next administration.

Also, there's one thing you should know about Chicago bears.
- They lost the Superbowl.

[Ershank]

Why should I care about polar bears? If they all died tomorrow it wouldn't make the world a worse place.

[Fargin_Bastige]

Originally Posted by bush

Hopefully in the next administration.

Also, there's one thing you should know about Chicago bears.
- They lost the Superbowl.

Well, I'm sure the Steelers had a good time watching it from their respective homes.

[Fargin_Bastige]

Originally Posted by Ershank

Why should I care about polar bears? If they all died tomorrow it wouldn't make the world a worse place.

Actually, it would.

Removing a top predator from the ecosystem has profound effects. Not to mention that the reason they happen to be dying off may be the melting of the polar ice caps, which would kinda-sorta effect the earth in a bad way.

[Rascus]

I don't have the links but I saw a report that the scientist who were claiming global warming was real was getting pressure from the administration to change their opinion to reflect the opposite.

Sad, if true, which it probably is.

[Ershank]

There aren't many Polar bears to begin with, and there isn't much of an important ecosystem up in the Arctic. It's not like seal populations are kept in check by Polar bears, or that we even care if more seals exist.

Again, how would it affect anyone not living in the arctic?

If something important... aka something that isn't given attention only because it's cute and furry... was going to become extinct, then it would be a different story.

[bush]

Originally Posted by Ershank

There aren't many Polar bears to begin with, and there isn't much of an important ecosystem up in the Arctic. It's not like seal populations are kept in check by Polar bears, or that we even care if more seals exist.

Again, how would it affect anyone not living in the arctic?

Comparable to chaos theory or the butterfly effect. One small change here could drastically effect something 100 years from now.



Once a key player in an ecosystem is removed from the equation, the balance is offset. Nobody can really predict what will happen, but many of the random outcomes could be bad.

[Fargin_Bastige]

Originally Posted by Rascus

I don't have the links but I saw a report that the scientist who were claiming global warming was real was getting pressure from the administration to change their opinion to reflect the opposite.

Sad, if true, which it probably is.

Actually Exxon did this:

Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.

Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).- The Guardian.

[bush]

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