Candid images of fat, healthy bears taken over the last two years by unbiased photographers across the Arctic are representative of the state of polar bears in a world that’s warmer than it was in 1980.
It may seem counterintuitive but it’s true: polar bears are thriving with less summer sea ice and there are more bears now than in 2005 (not a statistically significant amount more, but more nevertheless).
In contrast, activist-photographer Paul Nicklen had to scout the Canadian Arctic for weeks to find a thin bear to tell a dramatic story about global warming because the landscape was filled with bears in good condition.
His attempt at propaganda with his emaciated bear video backfired – big time.
Yet a small portion of the general public still believes that a few images of starving polar bears represent the entire population.
The image from 2015 of a wet, emaciated polar bear captured by fellow eco-photographer Kerstin Langenberger was similar to Nicklen’s: it was an injured bear nearing a natural death. Langenberger’s image was no more “what climate change looks like” than Nicklen’s dying bear.
As I pointed out in my State of the Polar Bear Report (Crockford 2018), starvation is the leading natural cause of death for polar bears. There will always be starving polar bears, no matter the state of the sea ice.
Prospects for polar bears are no worse this year than they were 10 years ago. Norwegian polar bear specialist Jon Aars recently wrote an update on the status of Svalbard bears and stated:
“…despite the loss of good denning areas and a shrinking habitat for hunting, Svalbard’s bears seem to be doing fine.…The sea ice season is now several months shorter, and the ice edge typically lies several degrees further north than what was normal 20-40 years ago….Polar bears can survive long periods without food, provided they have accumulated a good fat reserveduring the few months in spring and summer when sea ice is present, and seals are abundant.” [Jon Aars, Norwegian Polar Institute, 2018]
REFERENCES
Aars, J. 2018. Population changes in polar bears: protected, but quickly losing habitat. Fram Forum Newsletter 2018. Fram Centre, Tromso. Download PDF here (32 MB).
Crockford, S.J. 2018. State of the Polar Bear Report 2017. Global Warming Policy Foundation Report #29. London. PDF here.
Read more at Polar Bear Science
George H.W. Bush looked rough in his later years, then he died. That is not an indictment of Capitalism. He lived as long and as well as he did because humanity strives to be #1.
The photograph of an old dying bear portrays reality, a wake up call for adolescents who don’t know what’s coming for them and every other living thing on Earth. The polar bear may be the top of the Arctic food chain, but his number one competitor is another polar bear, not you pumping gas in your Chevy.