Polar Bear Day...2/27/06

by SWALKER 5 Replies latest members politics

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  SWALKER

  

  Because of Global Warming this scene may soon be a thing of the past!!! Check out the website at www.worldlinktv.org

  Swalker
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  SWALKER

  DOES ANYBODY OUT THERE CARE ABOUT THE POLAR BEARS???? Polar Bear Day came and went and not 1 comment on their plight!!!

  What happened to people descending on Washington and protesting??? I want the 60's back!!!

  Swalker (Concerned about the world class!!!)
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  John Doe

  Polor bears aren't very high on my concern list. Polar bear day? Sounds like a bad joke.
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  SWALKER

  Will Climate Change Wipe Out the Polar Bear?

  Climate on the Edge. This 52-minute film, premiering in the 2004 DC Environmental Film Festival.

  The DC Environmental Film Festival website provided a capsule summary of change underway in the Arctic, drawing on some of the best-known Canadian and French scientists. Two things riveted much of the audience: a projection that by the middle of this century we are no longer likely to have year-round Arctic sea ice and that the polar bear may some time in this century disappear from the wild. Already climate change and thinning of sea ice have reduced by a couple weeks the time mother polar bears have to feed and build the fat that enables them to sustain themselves and feed their young. It is estimated that there are about 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears in the wild today, about 60% in Canada. The rapid rate of climate change underway in the Arctic could produce many reverberating effects, many scientists believe, including possible changes in ocean and atmospheric circulation patterns. The impact on the polar bear is likely, however, to be much more

  Update: US Now Studying Whether Polar Bears are an Endangered Species

  On February 8, 2006, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced that they will study whether polar bears should be listed as an endangered species.

  Their decision to proceed comes after mounting evidence of thinning Arctic sea ice including that in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment and a mounting volume of evidence reported by environmental and media source, some described in the links below, indicating that the days of the polar bear in the wild may be quite numbered.

  Links on Polar Bear Plight

  • Polar warning- San Francisco Chronicle
  • Polar bear trends- NOAA
  • Climate change threatens polar bears. U of Alberta
  • Polar bears' habitat threatened by thinning of Arctic sea ice. Science Daily
  • Polar bears in Hudson Bay threatened. New Scientist
  • Polar bears on the web. BBC
  • Polar bears starving due to climate change. Natural Life Magazine
  • Polar Bear Central- WWF-Canada
  • The Polar Bear Tracker - WWF Arctic Programme
  • Polar Bears International
  • Climate change, ecosystems and wildlife. Defenders of Wildlife

  Polar Bear photos courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife Service, Alaska Image Library
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  SWALKER

  Antarctic's ice 'melting faster'

  Guide to Climate Change Hunting climate evidence A team of UK researchers claims to have new evidence that global warming is melting the ice in Antarctica faster than had previously been thought. Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (Bas) say the rise in sea levels around the world caused by the melting may have been under-estimated. It is thought that over 13,000 sq km of sea ice in the Antarctic Peninsula has been lost over the last 50 years. The findings were announced at a Climate Change Conference in Exeter. Rising sea level Professor Chris Rapley, director of (Bas), told the conference that Antarctica could become a "giant awakened", contributing heavily to rising sea levels. Melting in the Antarctic Peninsula removes sea ice that once held back the movement of glaciers. As a result, glaciers flow into the ocean up to six times faster than before. The other region in the continent affected by the changes is West Antarctica, where warmer sea water is thought to be eroding the ice from underneath. In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted the average global sea level would rise by between 11cm (4.3in) and 77cm (30.3in) by 2100 - but forecast that Antarctic's contribution would be small. Ice chunks Over the past five years, studies have found that melting Antarctic ice caps contribute at least 15% to the current global sea level rise of 2mm (0.08in) a year. It is not known whether the melting is the result of a natural event or the result of global warming. Professor Rapley said that if this was natural variability, it might be expected to be taking place in only a handful of places. However, studies had shown that it was happening in all three major ice streams in West Antarctica, he added. Several major sections of Antarctic ice have broken off in the past decade. The Larsen A ice shelf, which measured 1,600 sq km, broke off in 1995. The 1,100 sq km Wilkins ice shelf fell off in 1998 and the 13,500 sq km Larsen B dropped away in 2002.
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  SWALKER

  Arctic ice 'disappearing quickly'

  By Richard Black Environment Correspondent, BBC News website Part of what we're seeing is the increased greenhouse effect; I'd bet the mortgage on it Mark Serreze, NSIDC The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk for a fourth consecutive year, according to new data released by US scientists. They say that this month sees the lowest extent of ice cover for more than a century. The Arctic climate varies naturally, but the researchers conclude that human-induced global warming is at least partially responsible. They warn the shrinkage could lead to even faster melting in coming years. "September 2005 will set a new record minimum in the amount of Arctic sea ice cover," said Mark Serreze, of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Boulder, Colorado. "It's the least sea ice we've seen in the satellite record, and continues a pattern of extreme low extents of sea ice which we've now seen for the last four years," he told BBC News. September lows September is the month when the Arctic ice usually reaches a minimum. The new data shows that on 19 September, the area covered by ice fell to 5.35 million sq km (2.01 million sq miles), the lowest recorded since 1978, when satellite records became available; it is now 20% less than the 1978-2000 average. ARCTIC SEA ICE EXTENT - SEPTEMBER TREND, 1978-2005 The straight line tracks a more than 8% decline per decade The current rate of shrinkage they calculate at 8% per decade; at this rate there may be no ice at all during the summer of 2060. An NSIDC analysis of historical records also suggests that ice cover is less this year than during the low periods of the 1930s and 40s. Mark Serreze believes that the findings are evidence of climate change induced by human activities. "It's still a controversial issue, and there's always going to be some uncertainty because the climate system does have a lot of natural variability, especially in the Arctic," he said. "But I think the evidence is growing very, very strong that part of what we're seeing now is the increased greenhouse effect. If you asked me, I'd bet the mortgage that that's just what's happening." Confusing movement One of the limitations of these records is that they measure only the area of ice, rather than the volume. "One other factor could be movements of sea ice," said Liz Morris, of the British Antarctic Survey, currently working at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, UK. "If it all piles up in one place, you might have the same total amount of ice," she told the BBC News website, "and there is some evidence that ice is piling up along the north Canadian coast, driven by changes in the pattern of winds and perhaps ocean currents." Most data on sea ice thickness comes from records of military submarines, which regularly explored passages under the Arctic ice cap during the Cold War years. Europe's ice explorer Submarines can cross the Arctic Ocean along tracks taken decades before, and note differences in the ice thickness above; but that may mean little if the ice itself has moved. Professor Morris is involved in a new European satellite, Cryosat, which should be able to give definitive measurements of ice thickness as well as extent; its launch is scheduled for 8 October. But she also believes that the NSIDC data suggests an impact from the human-enhanced greenhouse effect. "All data goes through cycles, and so you have to be careful," she said, "but it's also true to say that we wouldn't expect to have four years in a row of shrinkage. "That, combined with rising temperatures in the Arctic, suggests a human impact; and I would also bet my mortgage on it, because if you change the radiation absorption process of the atmosphere (through increased production of greenhouse gases) so there is more heating of the lower atmosphere, sooner or later you are going to melt ice." Arctic warming fast Though there are significant variations across the region, on average the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, according to a major report released last year. Further warming for Arctic The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, a four-year study involving hundreds of scientists, projected an additional temperature rise of 4-7C by 2100. If the current trend can be ascribed in part to human-induced climate change, Mark Serreze sees major reasons for concern. "What we're seeing is a process in which we start to lose ice cover during the summer," he said, "so areas which formerly had ice are now open water, which is dark. "These dark areas absorb a lot of the Sun's energy, much more than the ice; and what happens then is that the oceans start to warm up, and it becomes very difficult for ice to form during the following autumn and winter. "It looks like this is exactly what we're seeing - a positive feedback effect, a 'tipping-point'." The idea behind tipping-points is that at some stage the rate of global warming would accelerate, as rising temperatures break down natural restraints or trigger environmental changes which release further amounts of greenhouse gases. Possible tipping-points include the disappearance of sea ice leading to greater absorption of solar radiation a switch from forests being net absorbers of carbon dioxide to net producers melting permafrost, releasing trapped methane This study is the latest to indicate that such positive feedback mechanisms may be in operation, though definitive proof of their influence on the Earth's climatic future remains elusive.