Polar bears drowning due to melting ice

[Cain]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article767459.ece

SCIENTISTS have for the first time found evidence that polar bears are drowning because climate change is melting the Arctic ice shelf.

The 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.

Although polar bears are strong swimmers, they are adapted for swimming close to the shore. Their sea journeys leave them them vulnerable to exhaustion, hypothermia or being swamped by waves.

According to the new research, four bear carcases were found floating in one month in a single patch of sea off the north coast of Alaska, where average summer temperatures have increased by 2-3C degrees since 1950s.

The scientists believe such drownings are becoming widespread across the Arctic, an inevitable consequence of the doubling in the past 20 years of the proportion of polar bears having to swim in open seas.

Which sucks.

More info about Arctic sea ice is available here http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/index.html

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Poor polar bears. 

[Doktor Howl]

Polar bears have been known to eat people, so it saddens me to watch them die like this.

[Jenne]

Yeah, that Discovery series that looks ubercool on HD has a segment where you watch this poor polar bear hunt seals, but he's so exhausted and famished he fails and ends up dying in a stretch not far from his prey.

It's really pathetic. 

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

Old news is old. I can't be bothered with this, the Olympics are on!

[Remington]

Old news is old. I can't be bothered with this, the Olympics are on!

[Kai]

I'm more worried about the 20 insect species that go extinct every day due to deforestation in the tropics than I am about one species of mammal.

If polar bears were a bug the public wouldn't give a shit.





Not that I'm saying "Yeah, fuck polar bears". Rather, this is an illustration of sexy megafauna syndrome in endangered species conservation.

[Reginald Ret]

All is fair in the war on stupid.
Whatever works.

[LMNO]

I'm more worried about the 20 insect species that go extinct every day due to deforestation in the tropics than I am about one species of mammal.

If polar bears were a bug the public wouldn't give a shit.



Not that I'm saying "Yeah, fuck polar bears". Rather, this is an illustration of sexy megafauna syndrome in endangered species conservation.

It appears the only solution is to make bugs as big as polar bears.


Get to work on that, Kai.

[Doktor Howl]

Yeah, that Discovery series that looks ubercool on HD has a segment where you watch this poor polar bear hunt seals, but he's so exhausted and famished he fails and ends up dying in a stretch not far from his prey.

It's really pathetic. 

Unless you're the seal.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

you know you are all wondering what polar bear would taste like, and if they all drown would we miss out on tasty steak? and by 'you all' I mean me and we I mean 'I'

My understanding is that they taste strongly of fish.

[hooplala]

It is sad, but we need to remember that over 99% of ALL the life that has ever existed on this planet is now extinct.  It happens.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Is it coincidence that polar ice melts faster when the ozone hole is closed?

[hooplala]

Does it?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Does it?

I was reading an article a while back that talked about the correlation, but I wasn't really left with a conclusion one way or another. I figured someone here might know.