1.0Climate Change Dispatchhttps://climatechangedispatch.comThomas Richardhttps://climatechangedispatch.com/author/ccdeditor/rich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="NyPhjKpBlm"><a href="https://climatechangedispatch.com/polar-bear-behaviour-gets-the-animal-tragedy-porn-treatment-two-new-papers/">Polar bear behaviour gets the animal tragedy porn treatment ‚Äì two new papers</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://climatechangedispatch.com/polar-bear-behaviour-gets-the-animal-tragedy-porn-treatment-two-new-papers/embed/#?secret=NyPhjKpBlm" width="600" height="338" title="“Polar bear behaviour gets the animal tragedy porn treatment ‚Äì two new papers” — Climate Change Dispatch" data-secret="NyPhjKpBlm" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document); /* ]]> */ </script> Recently, several polar bear biologists have teamed up with photographers to get pictures of starving bears into the scientific literature ‚Äì and picked up by the media, with mixed results. For the second time in five years, polar bear biologist Ian Stirling has teamed up with a photographer to give unwarranted scientific credence to an anecdotal account of polar bear behaviour. It included a picture of a pitifully thin animal  (classic animal tragedy porn) and was framed to increase alarm over predicted effects of global warming. It got little media attention. His Norwegian colleagues Jon Aars and Magnus Andersen have just done the same with a bear caught eating a white-beaked dolphin (photo above) ‚Äì but this time the media took the bait.https://climatechangedispatch.com/wp-content/uploads/images_pics8_aars-et-al-2015-fig-1-polar-bear-and-dolphin.jpg