For more than three decades, scientists have been warning that climate change could drive polar bear populations extinct. That message infiltrated the public psyche, perhaps more than any other about the scourge of global warming. . . .
Now, research in the journal Scientific Reports adds yet another wrinkle of hope for the species. The study, an analysis of hundreds of polar bears in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, found that declining sea ice is not causing polar bears to starve. They actually appeared healthier in the last two decades of the analysis, from 2000 to 2019. The overall population, meanwhile, is either stable or growing, according to Jon Aars, the study’s lead author and a scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute.
“I was surprised,” Aars told Vox from Svalbard. “I would have predicted that body condition would decline. We see the opposite.”
Mother Nature designed creatures, individual & species for survival by mandating the "Survival of the Fittest" rule. Incidentally, although most deny it, despite a very thin veneer of human created "civility" that rule applies to us creatures as well.
ReplyDelete“Mother Nature”. Ha.
DeleteJob 38:4-41
[4] “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
[5] Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
[6] On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
[7] when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
[8] “Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,
[9] when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
[10] and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
[11] and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
[12] “Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
[13] that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
[14] It is changed like clay under the seal,
and its features stand out like a garment.
[15] From the wicked their light is withheld,
and their uplifted arm is broken.
[16] “Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
[17] Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
[18] Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.
[19] “Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
and where is the place of darkness,
[20] that you may take it to its territory
and that you may discern the paths to its home?
[21] You know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great!
[22] “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,
or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
[23] which I have reserved for the time of trouble,
for the day of battle and war?
[24] What is the way to the place where the light is distributed,
or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?
[25] “Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain
and a way for the thunderbolt,
[26] to bring rain on a land where no man is,
on the desert in which there is no man,
[27] to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
and to make the ground sprout with grass?
[28] “Has the rain a father,
or who has begotten the drops of dew?
[29] From whose womb did the ice come forth,
and who has given birth to the frost of heaven?
[30] The waters become hard like stone,
and the face of the deep is frozen.
[31] “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades
or loose the cords of Orion?
[32] Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season,
or can you guide the Bear with its children?
[33] Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
Can you establish their rule on the earth?
[34] “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
that a flood of waters may cover you?
[35] Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go
and say to you, ‘Here we are’?
[36] Who has put wisdom in the inward parts
or given understanding to the mind?
[37] Who can number the clouds by wisdom?
Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,
[38] when the dust runs into a mass
and the clods stick fast together?
[39] “Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
[40] when they crouch in their dens
or lie in wait in their thicket?
[41] Who provides for the raven its prey,
when its young ones cry to God for help,
and wander about for lack of food?
Absolutely. Amen
DeleteThe other aspect of this that is hard to pick out of this text is that polar bear populations have been doing better throughout the global warming fad. They've been predicting polar bear populations would collapse since the warming idea started and every measurement echoes that last line from Jon Ars. “I would have predicted that body condition would decline. We see the opposite.”
ReplyDeleteNor do global warming alarmists ever mention the scary increase in temperatures they scream about are in reference to the 1800s Little Ice Age, which works out to be one of the coldest points in the last half billion years.
It's a wonder people still fall for that stuff.
They also never mention the correlation of Milankovitch cycles to climate temperatures OR that we've just past the peak warming of the current cycle and are on an 11000 year donward slide to lower temps that no amount of money or geo engineering can do anything about.
DeleteI'm sure that most have heard that the planet has been steadily warming for 10,000 years with a few exceptions for other aberrations in the planet's life, like volcanoes and asteroid strikes. It's Milankovitch cycles, not man made glowbull warming, that has the greater impact along with cyclic variations in the sun's output spectrum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles
Nemo
Nemo, are you sure if we don't pay more taxes and time more money to alford that we can't control this whole thing?
DeleteBullshit post, that's just ONE group of bears. "The overall polar bear population is considered to be in jeopardy, primarily due to the loss of sea ice habitat caused by climate change. While the global population is estimated to be approximately 26,000,, they are listed as a vulnerable species by the IUCN and as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act." https://polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears-changing-arctic/polar-bear-facts/status/
ReplyDeleteAnd our cities will be underwater. in five years. Or ten years. Or ... or ... it's a crisis! Give me your money, drive electric cars and eat bugs! Nope, the bullshit is anthropogenic climate change (the climate is always changing).
DeleteProverbs 29:9
DeleteIf a wise man has an argument with a fool,
the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.
Al gore has no comment
ReplyDeleteTo be clear, my comment was for Anon 6:54.
ReplyDeleteGood, positive news. One study is not enough, flukes happen. Need other studies in other areas of the Arctic to offer similar findings to confirm.
ReplyDeleteWe don’t know squat about why the earth cycles, or how. Theories abound, but that’s all they are. Science may help us understand it better, but that’s will only come with more study.
Science is a gift of God, it allows us deeper glimpses into the wonderous workings of the Creator. Never would have walked on the moon without science. God gave us brains for a reason, we should be using them as intended.
Rough estimates coming out of the late 1960s were about 5000 to 12,000 total, extrapolated from various sub-populations and sources. This was known to be a nadir in total population, due to over-hunting post-WWII. Controlled hunting was implemented and populations began to rebound.
ReplyDeleteScientific estimates of polar bear populations started being developed in the early 1970s with the formation of Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG). By 1981 a more organized approach developed a preliminary estimate of 16,000 to 27,000.
By 1993 the estimate was 22,000-27,000.
Through the early 2000s the estimate stabilized around 20,000-25,000.
In 2015 the PBSG estimated 25,000 with a confidence interval of 95%. That remains the baseline figure, although estimates of individual populations of polar bears have varied. The PBSG tracks 20 sub-populations, half of which do not have recent surveys.
The overall trend since the PBSG began estimating total bear population is stable or slightly increasing. Individual bear sub-populations have been losing and increasing, roughly offsetting each other.