Polar Bears - Data, Pictures and Videos

[Pckts]

(10-29-2019, 08:57 PM)Ashutosh Wrote: I read some news which was shocking recently and it involved polar bears. So, a professor Susan Crockford claimed that “the result of her research showing that polar bear populations are stable and even thriving, not plummeting as a result of shrinking Arctic sea ice, defying claims of the climate change movement.”

Now the controversy surrounds the fact that she was kind of terminated and her insinuation is that is because her research did not push the climate catastrophe narrative.

Of course this case has more to do with freedom of expression versus pushing a narrative especially in academia. But, the polar bear part stuck out because she has also worked with PBS on some documentaries (it was about dogs).


https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/oct/20/susan-crockford-fired-after-finding-polar-bears-th/

Yet recently there have been claims that polar bear populations are increasing. So what’s going on? There are thought to be between 20,000 and 25,000 polar bears in 19 population groups around the Arctic. While polar bear numbers are increasing in two of these populations, two others are definitely in decline. We don’t really know how the rest of the populations are faring, so the truth is that no one can say for sure how overall numbers are changing.
The two populations that are increasing, both in north-eastern Canada, were severely reduced by hunting in the past and are recovering thanks to the protection they and their prey now enjoy.



The best-studied population, in Canada’s western Hudson Bay, fell by 22% from 1194 animals in 1987 to 935 in 2004, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. A second group in the Beaufort Sea, off Alaska’s north coast, is now experiencing the same pattern of reduced adult weights and cub survival as the Hudson Bay group.
A comprehensive review (pdf) by the US Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that shrinking sea ice is the primary cause for the decline seen in these populations, and it recently proposed listing polar bears as threatened (pdf) under the Endangered Species Act. The World Conservation Union projects the bears’ numbers will drop by 30% by 2050 (pdf) due to continued loss of Arctic sea ice.


Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11656-climate-myths-polar-bear-numbers-are-increasing/#ixzz63lLe2TBi

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https://arcticwwf.org/species/polar-bear/population/ Reply