You can stop worrying about the polar bears
E. Thomas McClanahanGiven the miserable predictive record of so many environmentists (the latest word from the ever-gloomy Paul Ehrlich is that we have only a 10 percent chance of avoiding a collapse of global civilization) it’s surprising so many people still pay attention. Maybe as a species we’re simply inclined to believe the worse, or at least worry about it.
Case in point: When a green group sued the U.S. government demanding that polar bears be placed on the endangered species list because Arctic sea ice was disappearing, the polar bear suddenly became the poster child for the latest enviro scare.
Zac Unger was one of those who went north to write about the looming polar bear extinction. “I wanted to be a hero of the environmental movement and write a poetic obituary for a doomed species,” he said in a recent Wall Street Journal article.
But when he got to polar bear country, he was no longer sure the problem existed. What he did find was that some environmentalists saw only what they wanted to see.
When he was in Churchill, near Hudson Bay (“ground zero for anything having to do with polar bears”), a woman from an enviro group told him the “bears all look so skinny … It’s so sad.” The next person he talked to was a biologist from the Manitoba Conservation Department who said, “The bears look good. I haven’t seen them this fat in years.”
Once again, an environmental cause becomes less dire and maybe not even a problem on closer study. There are a lot more them that there were 40 years ago. Yes, there are worrisome omens: Fewer females seem to be bearing twins or triplets. But the notion that polar bears are on the verge of extinction now seems ridiculous.
Unger also explodes the theory that the bears’ future depends on sea ice: He points out that bears in more southerly latitudes have been accustomed to ice-free summers “since before the Industrial Revolution.”
The wildlife director for the Canadian territory of Nunavut tells Unger, “Polar bears are one of the biggest conservation success stories in the world.”
Sometimes, it seems a good rule of thumb for any environmental scare story would be to flip the scenario 180 degrees; you’d have a reasonable chance of being closer to reality than the environmentalists.
Matt Henry
3 months, 1 week agoI thought the threat to polar bears was settled science.
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months, 1 week agoBut E, you are talking jobs and seminars and demonstrations and the ability to write regulations telling people what the libs want them to do and taxing power. And most importantly, after the jobs and power of course, is the platform to denigrate BIG OIL.
Why it is simply unconscionable to think that FACTS show the polar bear is not endangered!!!!
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months, 1 week agoLuckily the ecofreaks have the lsm looking-out for all these “causes”….
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/02/11/cnn-anchor-blames-asteroid-on-global-warming/?test=latestnews
Matt Henry
3 months, 1 week agoIt’s my understanding that Charles Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are looking into forming a bicameral “solar panel” to find out how our consumer-based lifestyles are responsible for increasing activity in the sun which is leading to global warming. They will also be probing how Bush and Cheney were involved, why women, children and minorities are hit the hardest, and how more investment in turbines will harness this phenomenon of “solar wind” to our advantage.
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months, 1 week agoyup Matt, it is all Bush’s fault… Just Benghazi where zero was MIA and Hillary wasn’t around either… What a “leader” we have….