Incredible Photograph of the Impact of Global Warming.........

[RedEarth]

Polar bears on chunks of glacial ice in the Bering Sea in 2004. Much higher temperatures are forecast for the Arctic, climate scientists say

[halobeam]

1. OMG that is some pic......so sad

really sad.

[Squatch]

12. What it doesn't show is the photographer standing on AK's shore

[JackRiddler]

31. Cute animals to anthropomorphize as showing sadness...

Unfortunately works better in convincing a lot of people than graphs and data points. Has a lot to do with what got us into this predicament in the first place.

[Lorien]

38. Anyone who has ever known a dog

knows that animals can indeed feel sadness. In fact, most scientists now agree that higher mammals and some birds feel a whole range of emotions which are similar to those experienced by humans.

[JackRiddler]

43. Indeed

Of course animals feel sadness. But what does this picture show?

[nadinbrzezinski]

61. Tell me about it

We share our lives with three parrots and we have followed the research done with Alex

Most folks do not give them enough credit. These anilams we are blessed to share our lives with are very intelligent and they show affection all the time.

Then again they are not in their cages all day either.

As I type this the cockatiel has finally woken up (He slept in, since he waited for his dad to come home, His dad works the second shift, so he does not go to bed with the sun)

My Nanday is having some fun with his wood, shreding it and the Sun Conure is being as clingy as she usually is.

[TX-RAT]

37. I've seen that pic before.

Evidently that picture is in dispute.

http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2007/02/the_polar_bear_.html

[nam78_two]

51. I am not sure that some right wing blog using screeds from Limbaugh/Instapundit and Ann Althouse

is exactly evidence of dispute about the picture.

Ignoring the emotional impact of the picture, the drowning of polar bears has however been covered fairly extensively in journals like Nature, which I trust more than people like Althouse, Reynolds and other right-wingers who have consistently been wrong about global warming (and most other things) and who have no training in the area.

I don't claim to be a climate scientist, but typically I tend to accept the consensus conclusions of experts in the area:

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060501/full/060501-2.html
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051219/full/051219-6.html

[Joe Chi Minh]

63. Some have managed to swin a hundred miles, then finally drowned.

[mdmc]

2. i wish i didn't look

:cry:

[cui bono]

8. I know. I never read the stories either since I'm convinced and it just breaks my heart.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

3. I hope those bears were tranked and relocated.

I wouldn't wish that on any living thing.

[roguevalley]

20. I'm sure they died. this kicks my ass. I am sorry I looked. They are

thin and fewer are surviving childhood. Pray for them.

[Cabcere]

4. Oh wow

I thought the little animated polar bear scene in An Inconvenient Truth was really sad, but this is just about making me cry. :cry: Poor polar bears!

[helderheid]

5. that breaks my heart. We're next.

[Marie26]

6. How depressing

What a world we've created, huh?

[Subdivisions]

7. OMG! Those poor bears! And their extinction threatens...

http://www.solarhorizons.com/2007/01/21/polar-bears-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/

[kestrel91316]

9. I wish people would STOP posting this again and again.

It makes me physically ill.

God is coming, and BOY IS SHE PISSED.

[Straight Shooter]

10. That photo will haunt me forever.

It takes a lot to make me cry. I'm crying now.

[1620rock]

11. Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers...

...that you do unto me. ~Jesus :cry:

[Spurt]

13. Wonderful pic.

No need to be upset.
The OP pic actually tells us absolutely nothing about global warming. It is a simple depiction of normal polar bear activity.

"The polar bear, while a proficient scavenger on land, is a semi-aquatic marine mammal... "
"Polar bears are excellent swimmers and have been seen in open Arctic waters as far as 60 miles from land. In some cases they spend half their time on ice floes."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_bear#Natural_range

Look at the pic again and smile as you see two magnificent creatures living well in real freedom - freedom you and I do not have.

Cheers

[Marie26]

16. There is a need to be upset

You didn't quote the rest of that paragraph:

"Their range is limited by the availability of that sea ice they use as a platform for hunting seals, the mainstay of their diet. The destruction of its habitat on the Arctic ice threatens the bear's survival as a species; it may become functionally extinct within the century.<18> Signs of this have already been observed at the southern edges of its range.


From the Wikipedia link:

"The bears are in a difficult situation. The most immediate and topically recognized is the drastic changes taking place in their natural habitat, which is literally melting away due to global warming.<26> The United States Geological Survey, for example, in November 2006, stated that the loss of sea ice in the Alaskan portion of the Beaufort Sea has lead to a higher death rate for polar bear cubs.<27>

The Environmental Defense Fund said:

* Polar bears are at risk and global warming is to blame. As warmer temperatures cause sea ice to melt, the bears are unable to hunt and make it safely back to shore. <1>

The BBC reported:

* Climate change is threatening polar bears with starvation by shortening their hunting season, according to a study by scientists from the --Uncle Ed 21:37, 2 February 2007 (UTC)Canadian Wildlife Service. <2>"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_bear#Natural_range

Polar bears are actually drowning because the ice floes have melted. They can only swim 60 miles, but now there's huge expanses of open water where ice shelves used to exist. There is reason to be worried about the future of these animals, and the future of us all.

"Polar bears drown as ice shelf melts" -

SCIENTISTS have for the first time found evidence that polar bears are drowning because climate change is melting the Arctic ice shelf. The researchers were startled to find bears having to swim up to 60 miles across open sea to find food. They are being forced into the long voyages because the ice floes from which they feed are melting, becoming smaller and drifting farther apart.

Although polar bears are strong swimmers, they are adapted for swimming close to the shore. Their sea journeys leave them them vulnerable to exhaustion, hypothermia or being swamped by waves.

According to the new research, four bear carcases were found floating in one month in a single patch of sea off the north coast of Alaska, where average summer temperatures have increased by 2-3C degrees since 1950s.

The scientists believe such drownings are becoming widespread across the Arctic, an inevitable consequence of the doubling in the past 20 years of the proportion of polar bears having to swim in open seas.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article767459.ece

[Spurt]

17. Not really.

I addressed the original post.
There is nothing in the post other than a pic of polar bears undertaking normal behaviour, under a title that appears to have no relationship to the content.
There are of course wider issues as you rightly show, but they are not referenced in the OP.

If there was more info such as a statement that this pic was shot 100 miles from the coast I might view it differently. As it stands I still just see a pic of polar bears doing what polar bears do. There is no reason to be upset by the OP.

[Marie26]

19. Whatever makes you feel comfortable

First, we have no idea where the photo was taken. I also prefer to think that the polar bears were right by land, or rescued by some scientists. But we don't know their fate. And the photo symbolizes the larger plight of polar bears as a species, who are drowning in large numbers because of the loss of Arctic ice. As a species, they are precariously perched on the edge of extinction, and this photo beings that home.

[JackRiddler]

34. Rescued by some scientists?

Who's going to rescue the scientists from the bears?

You are arguing past each other - global warming is well-substantiated and poses a real threat to polar bears, as suggested by evidence that more are drowning than before. This picture shows bears hanging out on some ice, without establishing the context further, and therefore says nothing about global warming one way or another. To human eyes the bears may appear to be lonely and crying out for help, but projecting this on to the picture does not make it so. The likeliest scenario is that the photog is on the coast, right next to these ice floes, and that thus there is no immediate danger to these particular bears, or need to rescue them. (Since the bears like to swim.) But we don't know. The news story mentions polar bears, so the editor picked a picture of polar bears, probably figuring that in the eyes of some humans, they would look like refugees in a boat.

[Marie26]

36. Yeah, that's the point

That's why people respond so emotionally. It's not about these particular polar bears, who might or might not be in danger. But the picture so perfectly symbolizes the danger that polar bears face because of global warming. It's like Noah's Ark, preserving two of each animal as the rest are swept away.

[JackRiddler]

46. It may perfectly symbolize...

but it may at the same time be misleading.

One can come to the right conclusion (the earth is round) for the wrong reason (because circles are emotionally appealing to me). This photo is being employed as propaganda, albeit on behalf of a good cause. All propaganda must be questioned.

[Marie26]

52. Whatever works

The thing is, we're not rational or logical. We're just not. People respond based on emotion, not statistical analysis. This single photo probably does more to make an impact than a thousand charts on CO2 emissions. Republicans have learned how to appeal to emotion to get support for their policies, and Democrats need to do the same thing if we're ever going to move this country to action on global warming.

[nam78_two]

58. Thank you-I agree

When scientists have been sounding alarms for the last five years or so, no one paid too much attention.. Now, that they don't have too many actual scientists supporting them, people like Glen Reynolds have to resort to "debunking" a photo which to me is more symbolic, than about whether those particular bears were in danger.

It never even occurred to me to speculate on whether this bears were in danger etc. I saw it as a picture trying to capture a situation. I am really more interested in asking questions about why the Bush administration has been suppressing science they disagree with, for the last 5 years, than with "debunking" a photo. Obviously, people like Instapundit have no interest in what the actual scientists have to say....

[roguevalley]

21. you should be upset. the distance between sea ice is what is

killing them. their cubs are drowning. impossible sorry, this.

[Reterr]

14. K&R/NT

[lonestarnot]

15. Poor things.

[Pithlet]

18. I hope that wasn't taken out in the middle of the ocean.

Polar bears swim in the sea and climb ice bergs, so this might just be a picture of them doing their normal thing and those two aren't in immediate danger. It's hard to tell just from that picture. But the threat to polar bears is real due to global warming. It is sad.

[nam78_two]

22. K&R with a heavy heart.nt

[JCMach1]

23. Umm Guys, polar bears can swim...

And I doubt the photographer was walking on water. HE was either on a sturdy piece of ice, or land.


But point taken, the arctic ice shelf is fast disappearing.

[Solon]

24. I don't think that is the point...

Polar Bears can swim and they barely survive on shore, mostly by getting into trash dumps, but to actually survive and thrive, they NEED the ice cap. It allows for a few things, first is migration, and therefore genetic diversity, and second, their primary food source, seals, reproduce in the ice, and the seal pups are their primary source of food.

[nam78_two]

25. Precisely.nt

[Solon]

26. One thing people are missing in this photograph is this...

I'm assuming it was taken this winter, hence the ice those polar bears are standing on should EXTEND TO THE SHORE, and damned near to the horizon. If this was in the middle of Summer, I would be less alarmed.

These two bears in the photograph aren't in immediate danger, as far as I can tell, they look like they stored up enough fat to survive the winter, that's a blessing in itself. They can also swim to shore, or find another ice flow in a pinch.

However, the question to ask is this, will these bears survive yet another winter, or, more importantly, will their cubs survive? There are several ways that species die out, polar bears are suffering from a disappearing habitat, in their case, this will lead to many different things, first, cub mortality is already going up, this mortality will increase as availability of food, and the separation of Polar Bears continue.

As the Bears get separated from other, non-related groups, then they will start inbreeding, increasing still born rates and deformities. In addition, they will be separated from their primary food source, and basically subsist on human garbage. This will increase bear attacks on people, and also bear mortality, rarely do wild animals of this size survive sustained human contact.

All this leads me to believe that these Bears will be extinct by the end of this century, at least in the wild.

[AngryAmish]

59. If taken this winter you couldn't see the bears

Awful bright for the artic in winter.

on edit, the photo was taken summer of 2004.

[KansDem]

33. I can swim too, but I can't swim for long distances...

I believe the point is that polar bears are having more difficulty swimming from one chunk of ice to another as the chunks are becoming fewer and further between due to global warming. At least that's what I've surmised having read reports of late that more polar bears are drowning.

Like this one:

Scientists for the first time have documented multiple deaths of polar bears off Alaska, where they likely drowned after swimming long distances in the ocean amid the melting of the Arctic ice shelf. The bears spend most of their time hunting and raising their young on ice floes.
WSJ

The above photo only accentuates this...

[Lorien]

40. Polar bears are drowning in huge numbers

there were news articles everywhere about it last year. They can't swim hundreds and hundreds of miles. They drown from exhaustion.

[TX-RAT]

56. Polar bears are drowning in huge numbers

Must be allot of pictures of drowned Polar Bears out there. Anybody have a link?

[nam78_two]

65. Is Nature a reputable enough journal for you?

:eyes:

http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=2246
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051219/full/051219-6.html

http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/051012.asp

Turning Up the Arctic Heat

Last year, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report, involving 300 scientists from the U.S. and seven other nations, also found that Arctic sea ice is melting at an alarming rate, and identified global warming as the cause. Even under conservative estimates, the scientists said Arctic winter temperatures could rise as much as eighteen degrees Fahrenheit, eliminating year-round ice completely by the end of the century.

In Canada's Western Hudson Bay, where the sea ice season has shortened by three weeks in recent decades, polar bears are already in decline. Fewer cubs are surviving, and the total bear population declined almost 14 percent from 1995 to 2004.

The photo may be "fake" -I never thought it was anything but symbolic anyway. The problem is real....

Which is why the right wing people like Glenn Reynods, who like to ignore incovenient science, pick the photo to nit-pick at and not the actual issue.

[TX-RAT]

80. OK

From some of the links you've posted, it was determined that a total of 4 bears drowned and that was after a big storm.

[meow mix]

50. yes, but they are not fish. these are dead bears.

sorry i wish this wasnt happening

[uppityperson]

27. That is a beautiful picture. Wonder how far out it was, where photographer was.

Polar bears are very cool, very big carnivorous animals. Cool shot of them. I'd like more info on the picture to pass judgment on the impact of global warming regarding the picture. Yes, global warming is very real and the ice pack is melting and the bears are starting to have trouble but these look like a couple rat healthy ones somewhere. Anyone have more info?

[meow mix]

42. apparently stranded, far out to sea and doomed to die

from what was being said a week ago

[RedEarth]

28. This picture was from an article in the NYT reporting on Global Warming summit

that took place last week in France. Whether or not these particular polar bears are in jeopardy is unknown, however, it has been reported in a number of other articles that polar bears in general are at risk due to global warming.

Science Panel Calls Global Warming ‘Unequivocal’

PARIS, Feb. 2 — In a grim and powerful assessment of the future of the planet, the leading international network of climate scientists has concluded for the first time that global warming is “unequivocal” and that human activity is the main driver, “very likely” causing most of the rise in temperatures since 1950.

They said the world was in for centuries of climbing temperatures, rising seas and shifting weather patterns — unavoidable results of the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.

But their report, released here on Friday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said warming and its harmful consequences could be substantially blunted by prompt action.

While the report provided scant new evidence of a climate apocalypse now, and while it expressly avoided recommending courses of action, officials from the United Nations agencies that created the panel in 1988 said it spoke of the urgent need to limit looming and momentous risks.

“In our daily lives we all respond urgently to dangers that are much less likely than climate change to affect the future of our children,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, which administers the panel along with the World Meteorological Organization.

“Feb. 2 will be remembered as the date when uncertainty was removed as to whether humans had anything to do with climate change on this planet,” he went on. “The evidence is on the table.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/science/earth/03climate.html?ex=1328158800&en=3a845c85a21df549&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss

[liberalla]

30. Thank you for this post. Everyone should see it.

The picture was also used in this article at The Sun (UK) from Feb. 2, 2007, and includes this paragraph:

This pair, surrounded by miles of open ocean, will almost certainly die from starvation or drowning as global warming melts what little ice they have left. The bears, which hunt on land and in the sea, can swim short distances near the shore.

Has a couple other photos too.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007050462,00.html

[raccoon]

29. God, that photo hits you like a punch in the stomach. nt

[aceman2373]

32. Wow, and look at this incredible photo!

[fla nocount]

35. Thanks, it replaces Downtown Baghdad 2001 as my backgorund n/t

[Virginia Dare]

39. Polar Bears will be extinct in our lifetimes...

along with many other species, at this rate, mankind doesn't have much longer either, maybe 500 years tops.

[NashVegas]

41. That Photo Does Not Show Me The Impact of Anything

All I see are polar bears on ice.

Are they stranded in the middle of a sea, with no other ice or land to swim to? Will they drown if they leave that ice? There is nothing in the photo to suggest that.


That photo shows me nothing of the impact. You telling me and a photo showing me are two different things. If, in 1982 I put up a photo of a two men kissing and claimed it showed the impact of AIDS, there'd be a few things missing.

I'm not writing this to discount global warming, I'm writing this to tell you you're using a poor example for show & tell.

[meow mix]

44. these are dead bears

which is why the picture is suppose to be very compelling, they are stranded.

[NashVegas]

45. And You Know This ...

How?

[meow mix]

47. look at them, why arent they leaving.. instead of dying?

it looks like a mother and a small one.
for one thing you can look at them, for another this is what i read. sorry i dont have link.

edit, it also appears they are asking (the boat?) for help.

[meow mix]

49. oooooh also heres this part from liberella's post

"This pair, surrounded by miles of open ocean, will almost certainly die from starvation or drowning as global warming melts what little ice they have left. The bears, which hunt on land and in the sea, can swim short distances near the shore"


"Has a couple other photos too."

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007050462,00.html

[NashVegas]

54. This Is the BEST Stephen Colbert Impersonation, Ever

It has truthiness!

Hat's off.

[nam78_two]

53. Well then there is always this

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051219/full/051219-6.html
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060501/full/060501-2.html

Though Glenn Beck might think Nature is some hippie magazine about nudists or whatever, it is one of the most respected, high impact journals in the natural sciences.
I would log in and retrieve the actual articles to post here, but I am not sure if that would be a copyright violation.

Besides, ok the photo's impact is more emotional than quantitative, but if it gets a few more people thinking seriously about global warming, I am fine with that.

[NashVegas]

55. Look, I'm Not Arguing Against Warming

I'm arguing against seriously weak arguments, and using misleading information.

Further up this thread, there is a link to a debunking - Instapundit - which, as much as you may dislike them, links to the website where the photo was originally published. And there is nothing on that page indicating the bears were in any danger.

[spoony]

57. Also, are we to assume

that these bears stood there while the ground around them melted and drifted off to sea? Did they wake up from a nap in this predicament? I don't get how this could've happened.

[nam78_two]

60. Well all the serious arguments scientists have made for the last few years

have been ignored by the Bush adminstration and the public at large. I get your point, but if emotionally manipulative pictures get more attention -I say hey whatever works. It isn't as though anyone is lying about the actual situation. The science overwhelmingly supports the conclusions that polar bears are threatened by warming, whether Glenn Reynolds chooses to nitpick over the photo or not. People like Reynolds have been "skeptics" for the last 5 years anyway and I am really not interested in what people like him have to say on the subject.

I am more interested in why the science on this issue has been suppressed for so long, than whether a photo (which I took to be symbolic rather than belonging in an actual scientific journal) is "fake" or not. People like Reynolds are going to argue against taking action against climate change no matter what, progressives who know more about the issue will not be turned off because the picture is "dishonest", that leaves the people who haven't been following the issue much at all. And, I think something like this will make more of an impression on them graphs and charts. I am fine with that. Just my two cents.

[Mrspeeker]

62. THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE HAS BEEN IGNORED

BY OUR ENTIRE GOVERNMENT!

[dysfunctional press]

48. how so?

the picture doesn't really say ANYTHING.

polar bears on a chunk of ice...? one picture out of context has absolutely no meaning.

[CA_Baby]

64. Read the real caption of this photo

Sorry guys and gals but this picture originated here. Scroll down and look at the right side of the page. Just a mother and a cub enjoying the weather

http://www.whoi.edu/beaufortgyre/dispatch2004/dispatch02.html

[nam78_two]

66. Not for much longer...

That may be the source of the photo-the actual problem is real....

http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=2246
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051219/full/051219-6.ht...

http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/051012.asp

http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB113452435089621905-vnekw47PQGtDyf3iv5XEN71_o5I_20061214.html

It may be the latest evidence of global warming: Polar bears are drowning.

Scientists for the first time have documented multiple deaths of polar bears off Alaska, where they likely drowned after swimming long distances in the ocean amid the melting of the Arctic ice shelf. The bears spend most of their time hunting and raising their young on ice floes.

In a quarter-century of aerial surveys of the Alaskan coastline before 2004, researchers from the U.S. Minerals Management Service said they typically spotted a lone polar bear swimming in the ocean far from ice about once every two years. Polar-bear drownings were so rare that they have never been documented in the surveys.

But in September 2004, when the polar ice cap had retreated a record 160 miles north of the northern coast of Alaska, researchers counted 10 polar bears swimming as far as 60 miles offshore. Polar bears can swim long distances but have evolved to mainly swim between sheets of ice, scientists say.

The researchers returned to the vicinity a few days after a fierce storm and found four dead bears floating in the water. "Extrapolation of survey data suggests that on the order of 40 bears may have been swimming and that many of those probably drowned as a result of rough seas caused by high winds," the researchers say in a report set to be released today.

While the government researchers won't speculate on why a climate change is taking place in the Arctic, environmentalists unconnected to the survey say U.S. policies emphasizing oil and gas development are exacerbating global warming, which is accelerating the melting of the ice. "For anyone who has wondered how global warming and reduced sea ice will affect polar bears, the answer is simple -- they die," said Richard Steiner, a marine-biology professor at the University of Alaska.

[CA_Baby]

67. It's all too real

Not commenting on global warming in general just where the picture came from.

[dysfunctional press]

70. like i said...

one picture, out of context doesn't really say much...and in this case, when taken in it's original context- doesn't quite deliver the goods the OP was looking for.

[Nikki Stone1]

76. Thanks! Great catch!

kick

[NotGivingUp]

68. omg...this is so horrible!

damn all these frigging monopolies and politicians that have done this to all of us. these low-life, scum-sucking assholes that deserve to be locked away forever. we out-number them, folks. we shouldn't be letting them get away with it.

[dysfunctional press]

69. not in this particular instance...

as someone else has posted- check out this link for the picture in it's original context-

http://www.whoi.edu/beaufortgyre/dispatch2004/dispatch02.html

just a mother polar bear and her cub enjoying the sunshine on an interesting ice formation caused by waves.

[meow mix]

71. in the open ocean checking bouys.. 50 miles from shore..

just because they are as non-compassionate as a lot of duers seem to be, doesnt solve the plight of these bears.

[dysfunctional press]

72. where does it say "50 miles from shore"?

i've read the entire page, and several other dispathes from the site, and can't find anything indicating that that particular photograph was taken 50 miles offshore.

[meow mix]

73. i looked at some of the maps and thier given long/lat plus the locations of the bouys

are widely dispersed starting from where i said, to much further out. from what i read on the site.. ok it was the best guess i could make. i guess thats why they are on a boat instead of walking huh ;p

[dysfunctional press]

74. try reading the 1st paragraph of the page the picture is on...

"we’ve come to respect what the Arctic is all about. The main ice pack is all around and it is breathtaking to see and hear the LSL slowly crack and break it..."

with the main pack ice all around, it doesn't sound too much like "open ocean"...polar bears are SUPPOSED to be on the pack ice- that's where they hunt for seals and such.

[Nikki Stone1]

75. Anybody check Snopes on this?

Just asking.

[Nihil]

79. Why bother?

We have enough people upthread who point out that the photo was taken
from a boat (not from land as some of the less interested people guessed)
and was taken for the tourist value ("Gee, they look nice") rather than
as further evidence of the problems in the Arctic.

This means that it should not be used to support climate change arguments
or the Democratic Party might be painted as ignorant alarmists.

Be glad that there is apparently nothing unnatural in the OP's photo
and rest assured that the Democratic leadership are not alarmists.

:shrug:

[goforit]

77. Speechless.

[proud patriot]

78. Crap

:cry: I love polar bears

[happy5]

81. Please always post the source...

of the images you are using. The image properties of the file mentions the picture is from NY Times, from a global climate change article or something.

RedEarth, remember to always provide a link, so at least people have an idea of where the picture came from.