Melting Ice Pack Displaces Alaska Walrus

[Pirate Smile]

Source: Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Thousands of walrus have appeared on Alaska's northwest coast in what conservationists are calling a dramatic consequence of global warming melting the Arctic sea ice.

Alaska's walrus, especially breeding females, in summer and fall are usually found on the Arctic ice pack. But the lowest summer ice cap on record put sea ice far north of the outer continental shelf, the shallow, life-rich shelf of ocean bottom in the Bering and Chukchi seas.

-snip-
''It looks to me like animals are shifting their distribution to find prey,'' said Tim Ragen, executive director of the federal Marine Mammal Commission. ''The big question is whether they will be able to find sufficient prey in areas where they are looking.''

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, September sea ice was 39 percent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000. Sea ice cover is in a downward spiral and may have passed the point of no return, with a possible ice-free Arctic Ocean by summer 2030, senior scientist Mark Serreze said.
Starting in July, several thousand walrus abandoned the ice pack for gathering spots known as haulouts between Barrow and Cape Lisburne, a remote, 300-mile stretch of Alaska coastline.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Sea-Ice-Walrus.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[minnesota_liberal]

1. Wonderful

Another thousand stories like this and the right-wing's global warming denying "Flat Earth Society" might finally get a clue.

Well, probably not.

[f the letter]

2. Wow

So far so good

[Triana]

3. Everytime I see a story like this, it pisses me off...

...because there is NO excuse for it. The World burns and melts. George W. bu$h fiddles and kills more people in more wars.


If I was a religious person, I'd think he was SATAN himself.

[Pachamama]

10. I'm not a religious person and I think Bush is Satan....

Not sure what that makes Cheney, but they are evil pieces of crap.

And like you Triana, I get so angry and pissed off everytime I see a story like this...and it seems like lately, they are daily....

:grr: :cry: :grr: :cry:

[aquart]

4. First the polar bear, now the walrus?????

It's bad enough we ruined the earth for ourselves, but they're innocent!

[nxylas]

7. But walri can swim!

Therefore it doesn't matter if the icecaps melt. Yes, that was a real counter argument to Al Gore's polar bear animation offered by an RW friend of mine. There are times when you just have to bite your lip with these people.

[aquart]

9. Bite they little heads off. Nibble on they tiny feet.

Sorry, it just came to me.

[Zhade]

21. You should tell that idiot "not forever".

Some people are just too stupid to breed.

[nxylas]

22. Fortunately, it doesn't work like that

He actually has five kids, and the oldest ones (teenagers) already reject many of his views.

[YOY]

5. The walrus is displaced? Not any more! I found him! Let's take him back!

That's him on the left next to the chimp.

[nxylas]

6. But where's the eggman?

Goo goo g'joob.

[YOY]

8. Here

[Joey Liberal]

11. Right Wingers Don't Care about Global Warming

All right wingers care about is the following:

Oil - more oil

A church run state

Tax cuts for the rich

War forever (as long as we can't draft their punk kids)

Putting Reagan on all of our currency

Putting Reagan on Mt. Rushmore

Putting Reagan Banners on every street

Have Faux News as their state run news

Cutting down all remaining trees

Getting rid of all Liberals

[RestoreGore]

12. And with every article like this comes the validation that "politics" is a failure

People have been warning politicians about this for years and they have been ignoring it... and now look. This is what happens when you just depend on politics to solve problems that must be solved by the global community as a whole, which means all of us as individuals. I now hope it is surely not too late to get that message across. This surely is tragic.

[gasperc]

13. hmmm, 39% below average that seems, what's the word...diasterous

It terrible to wonder how bad things will have to get before decisive action will be taken on global climate change.

[Gregorian]

14. 1000 barrels of oil per second are being burned on this planet.

The US is burning 200 per second.

The cars are on their daily habit, streaming down my street again today.

It's all for the sake of survival. Got to work. And it isn't going to stop.

It was a fun party. Now we'll leave nothing more than smoking wreckage for those who come after us. Only those who design their lives to opt out of it will make a difference. I don't know more than a couple of people who have done that. We can massage the problem. We can slightly alter the course through lightbulbs and efficient cars. Just slightly.

[leftist_not_liberal]

16. Mother Nature Bats Last. n/t

[leftist_not_liberal]

15. "This has all happened faster than anyone could have predicted."

...Deborah Williams _ who was an Interior Department special assistant for Alaska under former President Bill Clinton, and who is now president of the nonprofit Alaska Conservation Solutions _ said melting of sea ice and its effects on wildlife were never even discussed during her federal service from 1995 to 2000.

"That's what so breathtaking about this," she said. "This has all happened faster than anyone could have predicted. That's why it's so urgent action must be taken."

Walrus observers on the Russian side of the Chukchi Sea have also reported more walrus at haulouts and alerted Alaska wildlife officials to the problems with the animals being spooked and stampeded.

If lack of sea ice is at the heart of upcoming problems for walrus, Ragen said, there's no solution likely available other than prevention.

"The primary problem of maintaining ice habitat, that's something way, way, way beyond us," he said. "To reverse things will require an effort on virtually everyone's part."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/06/AR2007100601206.html


This Friday, Sept. 28, 2007 photo provided by the North Slope Borough shows a young male walrus resting on the beach in Barrow, Alaska. Scientists and conservationists are expressing alarm at the appearance of thousands of walrus on Alaska's northwest coast, a dramatic demonstration of the effects of diminished Arctic sea ice brought on by global warming. (AP Photo/North Slope Borough, Noe Texeira)

[nam78_two]

17. :-/

K&R

[Divine Discontent]

18. this is where I say Al Gore doesn't make as strong as difference as he'd like

if he doesn't step into the ring. Look what CHIMPY has been able to do against the world because he's been anointed pResident. Al could help matters much more tremendously if he was President. We're in dire times. The story of the burning rainforest, the melting icecaps, oil consumption and burning of fuels - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHH!



RUN AL!

[Acadia Blue]

19. And the religious fruit cakes think there is not global warming.

[Dukkha]

20. worse they think it's part of the coming apocalypse

and they don't need to do anything about it since they will be "raptured". When I worked for Greenpeace I actually heard several use this as an excuse not to donate.

The sad irony is if nothing is done about global warming the results will indeed be apocalyptic. :(