Receding ice pushes polar bears into sea

[Algorem]

http://www.adn.com/front/story/7287946p-7199673c.html


WARMING: Bruins are drowning, living ashore.

By JIM CARLTON
The Wall Street Journal

Published: December 15, 2005
Last Modified: December 15, 2005 at 12:36 AM


It may be the latest evidence of global warming: Polar bears are drowning.


Scientists for the first time have documented multiple deaths of polar bears off Alaska, where they likely drowned after swimming long distances in the ocean amid the melting of the Arctic ice shelf. The bears spend most of their time hunting and raising their young on ice floes.

In a quarter-century of aerial surveys of the Alaska coastline before 2004, researchers from the U.S. Minerals Management Service said they typically spotted a lone polar bear swimming in the ocean far from ice about once every two years. Polar-bear drownings were so rare that they have never been documented in the surveys.

But in September 2004, when the polar ice cap had retreated a record 160 miles north of the northern coast of Alaska, researchers counted 10 polar bears swimming as far as 60 miles offshore. Polar bears can swim long distances but have evolved to mainly swim between sheets of ice, scientists say...

[fooj]

1. Oh no...

:cry: :cry: :cry:

[lonestarnot]

10. poor creatures....

:cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry:

[Barrett808]

22. Yes, very sad. This has really made me depressed today.

Witnessing the end of the world is proving to be very difficult.

Or, as we say in the Church of SubGenius (http://www.subgenius.com), "Watching the world fall apart on TV may be too much for even the stoutest brains to take."

[Kindigger]

2. Sh*t

One thing on my life "to do" list is to go to Churchill, Manitoba to see the Polar bears. This makes me want to puke. :cry:

[TX-RAT]

11. Went fishing about 120 miles east of there.

I was amazed how far inland they travel during the summer, we saw 3, their fur turns to a very light brown, or a dark yellow. The size of them is incredible.

[Sequoia]

19. Check out this really good novel: The Cage

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0380729709.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Publisher's Weekly:

This riveting, assured first novel about a nature photographer who joins an all-male expedition to record polar bears on the Canadian tundra is difficult to classify. Part survival story, part coming-of-age tale, the narrative mixes rich characterization with detailed observation of the natural world and crisply described action, and the effect is startling and memorable. The only child of older parents, Beryl Findham is a small, weak, fearful woman who is ill at ease with most people. She lives alone in Boston, photographing animals in zoos, imagining a diminished future world where her size will be an advantage. Chosen to join the expedition because she fits inside the cage designed to let a photographer get close to the deadly bears, Beryl soon realizes that the trip will test her in ways she can hardly imagine. As the setting moves from Boston to Churchill, the small Manitoba town on the shore of Hudson Bay where the expedition assembles, to the frozen wilderness where Beryl will confront the bears, Schulman artfully builds suspense with details of chilling authenticity, cohesively streamlining a compact, efficient narrative. Some of her scenes are truly terrifying, conjuring up the spine-tingling feel of a bear's breath on the back of the neck. People will talk about this book.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Amazon.com

Scary story.

[Lisa]

25. seconded! Some really moving passages ...

She describes a heartrending scene where first the seals, and then the polar bears starve and drown, because the ice has vanished.

I used to work in Churchill. The scientists up there have noticed that, indeed, the bears are becoming weaker and more malnourished, over the past 2 decades.

Nonfiction article by Schulman:

http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/01/25/schulman-seabirds/

[roguevalley]

3. this species will go out in our lifetime if something doesn't change.

[Lost4words]

4. and mankind will follow, the earth will have the last laugh IMO!

[Earth_First]

5. Unfortunately this is not merely just one man's 'opinion' rather *fact*

We need Mother Nature MUCH more than she needs us. It's a humbling effect that many don't seem to understand.

[leftchick]

6. cockroaches and microchips

will be all that is left. :(

[Javaman]

14. Insects will be the next dominate speices to evolve...

reptiles have so far been the most successful.

And since we are creating our own extiction, the next in line will be insects.

So far, we are a mere blip on the history line of the earth.

to quote the simpsons:"I welcome our new ant overlords" -Kirk Brokman.

[Uncle Joe]

24. Yes, we have separated our selves from the natural world

so much we don't even recognize it's import to our very own survival anymore. Nature in it's ongoing process to balance things out will however pay us back with a vengeance for our wanton hubris.

[booksenkatz]

9. Yeah, I was just thinking about that

Start warming up those muscles, folks! How long can YOU tread water?

I was going to say that this report sickens me, but that word trivializes how I really feel about it. It's beyond words.

[0007]

7. We're reached the end by the square root. Soon genocide

will no longer be an option.

[Solly Mack]

8. Damn

:(

[ramapo]

12. Makes me sick

I can't even read this stuff anymore. The horror we've inflicted on innocent species is unspeakable but then it isn't much worse than we do to our own.

[schmuls]

13. This is heartbreaking. It was only a matter of time before we

heard about this.

[Coventina]

15. Well, the Bush family can congratulate themselves for being the cause of

even more deaths.

I fucking hate that clan.

I suppose we're all co-conspirators on this one, though.

I fucking hate my species.

[jus_the_facts]

17. Indeed we are co-conspirators.....

.....KNOWING when we drive we're killin' ourselves and everything else in our wake....KNOWING every time we flush the toilet or use chemicals inside and outside our homes...and we're literally brainwashed to think we can not survive..or won't want to....without our cushy conveniences....sigh. :nopity:

[lakeguy]

16. another indicator species dies off and nothing happens...

guess who is soon to follow.

[Jakey]

20. guess who is soon to follow....

On the cosmic scale of significance, a non-event.

[corporatemedia]

18. But they always look so happy drinking Coca Cola in the TV ads!!! eom

[hatrack]

21. Saw the polar bear/penguin ad in the frickin' theater this weekend

Maybe next year's commercial can feature some skinny polar bears with ribs sticking out, drowning slowly in open water.

Cute, don't you think?

:mad:

[olddad56]

23. December issue of Nat'l Geographic has an article on the Polar Bears

[CrispyQ]

26. Heartbreaking news. I love polar bears.

The scourge of 'humanity' continues to leave a wake of destruction in it's path. We really should change our name from human to 'inhuman.'


:cry:



A fave Far Side:

Two polar bears are standing over an igloo. There are human footprints leading into the igloo. The one polar bear says to the other, "Oh hey, I just love these things. A crispy outside & a crunchy center!"

[Algorem]

27. Nightline's 3rd subject-polar bears&global warming &lawsuit about,tonight

someone's suing government over it I guess,not on Nightline's crappy website yet

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/

[flamingyouth]

28. kick

[Olney Blue]

29. Polar bears drown as ice shelf melts

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.



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1938132,00.html

[ananda]

30. Oh my stars!

This is terrible!

Sigh.

[Botany]

31. I really hate bush

[Olney Blue]

34. I'm with the bay-air on this one.

:thumbsup:

[rodeodance]

32. damn

[liberalhistorian]

33. OMG, how horrible!

I've been afraid of this for awhile since reading about the very real possibility of it given the unprecedented melting of the Arctic ice shelf and the fact that it was becoming difficult for polar bears to find food. But to have it actually happen! Nope, no global warming/significant climate change here, nosiree Bob, that's just typical wacko tree-hugging America-hating granola-crunching environmentalist propaganda from the looney liberal media. Move along now, folks, move along, nothing to see here. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

Good God in heaven, what are we doing to ourselves and our planet?

[rooboy]

35. This seems eerily like the beginning of a Hollywood disaster movie...

a carcass or two here, a tree blooming out of season somewhere else... then all of a sudden some very, very serious shit starts to happen.

:scared:

[Olney Blue]

38. Or perhaps like the current * administration...

[MissB]

36. I wonder what is happening with the penguins.

[Olney Blue]

37. They are suffering too.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0913_040913_penguins.html


:cry:

[roguevalley]

39. these are only the bears they found. imagine what is happening

to the babies.

[gristy]

40. This is very sad

:(