Polar Bears: The End Of A Climate Delusion Icon

One of the climate delusion’s greatest frauds was issued by the Center for Biological Diversity which said

“Climate change is drowning and starving polar bears. If greenhouse gas-fueled climate change keeps melting their sea ice habitat, an Arctic apocalypse will wipe them out in a century – and they will disappear from the United States by 2050.”

This was echoed by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which stated in 2013: “Our analyses highlight the potential for large reductions in the global polar bear populations if sea ice loss continues which is forecast by climate models and other studies.”

In May 2008, the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, predicting that polar bear populations would decline by two thirds as the sea ice they rely on for hunting continued to shrink.

This conclusion was not based on numbers observed but was put on the list by mathematical models woven from thin air.  The actual numbers observed during these years showed the opposite to be true.

Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute, disputed the flawed models and perverted science saying that “this was the first time an animal was ever placed on the threatened or endangered list based on a mathematical model.”

The reader should understand that such models guess at the controlling variables and are actually only of value when attempting to learn what variables if any might be of importance.

But it must be understood that the real measured data would be inconvenient for the environmental groups trying to raise money on their claims of harm coming to these cute and cuddly creatures.

Creatures which in fact are as dangerous as any of the grizzly bear, brown or black bear species.

The real facts of the matter are that polar bear populations are increasing and that the regions with the greatest ice loss are thriving.

Susan Crockford, considered to be among the world’s leading experts on this species, reports from a recent study that the current population of between 22,000 and 31,000 is the highest it has been in the past 50 years.

A recent study of Canadian polar bears found stable or increasing numbers in 12 of 13 colonies in their country. The evidence is really overwhelming.

The chart below shows Crockford’s estimates since 1960 based on actual surveys in Canada and the Arctic region.

Even more interesting and telling are the results of recent polar bear research.

It shows that the belief that declining sea ice is detrimental to these white furry animals is untrue. They actually are healthier and heavier in the areas of greater ice loss.

Below is a map showing two areas of the Arctic Ocean: the Chukchi Sea and the Beaufort Sea.

The Chukchi Sea has lost twice as much ice as the Beaufort Sea in recent decades of slight warming.

While researchers supported by the global warming alarmists had expected to find that the polar bears in the Chukchi Sea would have suffered as a result, they found the opposite to be true.

The females in the Chukchi Sea were on average 70 pounds heavier and the males 110 pounds heavier than those in the Beaufort Sea.

Furthermore, the females gave birth to larger litters with the yearlings weighing as much as 50 pounds more than their counterparts on the Beaufort Sea where the ice loss was double that of the Chukchi Sea.

The saddest part of the story was the confusion voiced in the researchers’ reports trying to justify the unanticipated outcome for their funders who were certain they would be gaining more evidence of the negative impact of man-caused Climate change.

A joint report by the US Geological Survey, a once-great government science agency, and the University of Wyoming, a once-fine academic institution, developed a negative reason for the outcome of their study claiming that with less sea ice they needed to devour more seals to keep their strength up.

So it appears now that the “simple bear necessities” may not actually include ice.  Indeed, it will be a lot harder to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund once it gets out that warmer temperatures mean more polar bears.

The bears, after all, originated on land and migrated to the ice about 150,000 years ago. Like us, they are warm-blooded creatures and like us, they prefer warmer weather over colder.

As time goes by you will see less and less of the polar bear as an icon of the climate change delusion.

Note: Portions of this essay have been excerpted from the outstanding book INCONVENIENT FACTS: The Science That Al Gore Does Not Want You To Know, with permission of the author Gregory Wrightstone. For a detailed discussion of the many frauds in the climate change delusion, his book is among the very best sources.

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