Text 5836, 57 rader
Skriven 2007-09-08 20:45:14 av Janis Kracht (1:261/38)
   Kommentar till text 5834 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
Ärende: Re: Global Warming
==========================
Hi Ward,

>> It would seem to me that the evidence of the earth warming up is quite
>> overwhelming ... interestingly enough, one of today's headlines over here
>> was the report that most polar bears could die out by 2050.. incredible.
>> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20645362/

>I heard that too. There are a couple of observations to be made because what I
> heard spoke about "drowning".

Yes indeed.. Several articles have been published about that.  Incredibly sad.

> Polar bears might be faced with 2 issues:

>1) Their foodsupply. They mainly hunt on or near the ice rim. When the ice rim
>is gone, then they are at a disadvantage vis-a-vis their prey. The possibility
> exists however that their prey, mainly seals, will be gone completely as well
> when the ice disappears.

It's so hard to conceive of an adminstration over here that for years denied
global warming.. and now it's obvious they cannot do so.  I've seen articles
mentioning canabalism amongst the polar bears as well so you know their food
supply is drasticallly dwindling.

> 2) They are built to den in the snow and the ice. Polar bears are not made to
> dig a hole in the ground to den in and have their cubs.

In an article in July 6th of _2005_, already scientists were reporting that ice
was breaking up 3 weeks earlier than it did 30 years ago and was affecting the
survival of the polar bears (Washington Post) - also in that article, it was
reported that some polar bears weighed something like 15% less than they did 30
years ago :(

> Other than that ... because of the warming the territory of North American
> brown bears, Ursus Arctus Horriblis also know as Grizzly, is expanding north
>and confrontations between Polar and non-Polar bears will become more frequent
>When the confrontation is violent, then the Polar bear is at the disadvantage.

Isn't that incredible.. to think that a polar bear would be at a disadvantage..
but given the lack of food, etc. it is suddenly very believable.

> When the confrontation is male (Grizzly)/female (Polar) and there are no cubs
> around, then they may mate and the result is a hybrid Polar/Brown bear. Both
> types of confrontations have already occured. I was unaware about the latter
> but Bob Seaborn pointed me in the right direction with some articles.

Once article I read stated that not only is the climate change happening too
fast for the bears to adapt, but "They don't have time to evolve backwards" to
the brown bears they derived from, about a quarter-million years ago.

:(

Take care,
Janis

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