Polar Bear Expert's Opinions "Unhelpful" to GW

[davew]

Originally Posted by elysiantraveller

Meh everyone does it in the world of politics. Climatologists don't use the polar bear as proof. I don't deny climate change is occurring and find it foolish to think we have no involvement in it.

It's just also stupid to select a highly intelligent and adaptive apex predator as your standard bearer for the argument.

What does climate change have to do with the world of politics? The polar bears are adapting well to the catastrophic climate change. Their numbers have quadrupled in last 50 years.

[elysiantraveller]

Originally Posted by davew

What does climate change have to do with the world of politics? The polar bears are adapting well to the catastrophic climate change. Their numbers have quadrupled in last 50 years.

Why are you bumping this...?

[HalvOnHorseracing]

Originally Posted by davew

What does climate change have to do with the world of politics? The polar bears are adapting well to the catastrophic climate change. Their numbers have quadrupled in last 50 years.

Here was the thing. It's not the polar bears themselves who are affected by climate change. It is the floating ice. The bears hang out on the ice in the ocean waiting for an unwitting seal to take a break. If the seal serendipitously decides to take a break on the polar bear's ice floe...well you can figure the rest. The concern is the melting of the ice floes. I have a sense that there are more ice floes because of melting near the poles, and that may explain the increase in polar bears. They have more places to hang out and look for food. The seals may also be increasing in number. A number of years ago bears were starving because of the lack of food. They even took to eating grass. This is the way of nature. Here is a better example.

Wolves were not only controlling the population of deer, but occasionally getting themself some meant out of ranchers' fields. The ranchers naturally poisoned or shot the wolves until the wolves were decimated. What happened to the deer? In the absence of their major antagonizer the deer population exploded. There were two problems with that. First, there wasn't enough food to keep that many deer healthy. Second the deer started to become diseased. Hunters helped, but we changed nature's way. They are now starting to reintroduce wolves to achieve the natural balance.

If climate changes important aspects of nature's balance may change too, and then you might see a domino effect.

The thing I just can't internalize is what person or institution needs to affirm the reality and impacts of climate change before you believe it.

[Tom]

If climate changes important aspects of nature's balance may change too, and then you might see a domino effect.

Just look what happened after the dinosaurs disappeared!

[hcap]

Originally Posted by Tom

Just look what happened after the dinosaurs disappeared!

Expecting meteors?

[classhandicapper]

Originally Posted by Tom

Just look what happened after the dinosaurs disappeared!

I find assumption that climate change will automatically bad kind of amusing.

It could be a non event.

It could be disruptive in the short term but a non event in the grand scheme of things.

It could provoke a wildly positive new evolution on the planet that will make it a much better place.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by classhandicapper

I find assumption that climate change will automatically bad kind of amusing.

It could be a non event.

It could be disruptive in the short term but a non event in the grand scheme of things.

It could provoke a wildly positive new evolution on the planet that will make it a much better place.

No matter what happens, the world is nOT going to stay the same.
The continents are moving around at breakneck speed, causing earthquakes, tsunamis. The big meteor that took out the dinos is going to happen again.
We will have more ice ages and more heat waves.

You are NOT going to freeze the climate of the planet.
Who knows what new life forms are two or three degrees away from replacing US as the premier inhabitants of the world?

OK, so rivers are flooding and the sea is going to rise.
Nothing new here - BEN DoinDat for ages. God gave us legs and GM gave us trucks. MOVE inland. Adapt.


Bens - 3
hcap - 0

[jocko699]

72 degree here today and a blizzard tomorrow afternoon. Damn nature. We need a government that can control this weather.