Is there hope for Polar Bears in a Fossil?

It used to be that the scientific community would couch their arguments on climate change with comments that “It appears…” or “the models indicate…” or other such caveats so that they didn’t appear alarmist. There is a new sense of urgency in the scientific community as the predictions of the climate models are coming to fruition thirty and forty years ahead of what the models expected. This is even more pronounced in the Artic and Antarctic. Even some of the most sceptical sat up and took notice when the Larson B ice shelf disintegrated in only a few months.

When this area of sea ice, the area of Cornwall, broke away from the Antarctic, suddenly climate change switched from being something that could or would occur in the future, but became something that’s happening now.

While many people have been trying to raise awareness of the very real threat of this, our voices have been drowned out by the noise of the hot air of they nay Sayers.

The new scientific reports on climate change are having to revise forward the dates when certain events are expected to occur. The most noticeable is the loss of the summer sea ice at the artic. This year the volume and area of Sea Ice, matched what was predicted in climate models it to be by the year 2050.

While I could tell you of the implications of this for our climate, it is the effect upon two important species that rely upon the Sea Ice that is really alarming. With a reduction in the size of the habitat, the ring seal population will eventually fall to about thirty-five to forty percent of existing numbers. This will impact even more on the numbers of Polar Bears.

While the discovery of this part of a jawbone of an ancient Polar bear shows that they could have survived a previous inter-glacial period, the fact remains that polar bears will loose ninety-five percent of their territory when the sea ice disappears. Further, while some may be lucky and find themselves stranded on some of the islands dotted around the Artic, unless they have a food source, i.e. Ring Seals, they will still die off.

While I would love this discovery to be a source of hope, I don’t see it as much of one.

The News Story Here.



My thanks to WWF for the image

The Extinction of the Polar Bear

While my primary concern is the fate and protection of the wildlife and habitats in my local wood and its surrounding countryside, I am still deeply concerned about the fate of the Flora and Fauna of the entire globe.

Global climate change is predicted to cause the loss of up to forty percent of species on our planet. The extinction of the Polar Bear is rapidly becoming an Icon of our collective failure to take seriously the crisis that is the pollution of greenhouse gasses.

Over the last decade we have witnessed the acceleration of loss of sea ice in the artic. It is happening faster then any of the respected climate models would have predicted. This is one of the problems, very few scientists wanted to put their head on the block and say that the situation really is a crisis. Even now, the predictions are cautious and they are saying that in fifty years we will have lost forty percent of the sea ice habitat used by the Polar Bear.

This caution is what is really holding back the politicians from making the bold moves that are really needed. If the rate of acceleration stays the same the sea ice will be gone in five years not fifty. That will mean the extinction of the Polar Bear, as they need the Sea ice to hunt from.

As well as losing this Icon to Climate change, the loss of the sea ice will cause the accelerated melting of the land Ice, particularly from the Greenland Ice shelf. That will cause a seven-meter rise in sea levels and such a dramatic change to climate and weather that we will be shown once and for all the true effect of climate change.