It's Cold in Here!

I came across this interesting data on the internet a few days back, and thought I would share the wealth. Everyone I am sure remembers that Polar Bears were put on some stage of the endangered species list, mainly as a tactic to open doors for more global warming initiatives. The reasoning was that with the warming of the globe and the melting of all the polar ice, the bears were all going to drown and go extinct. You've all seen the image of a poor polar bear swimming, exhausted, searching for the ice that has turned into water because I drove my car to work this morning.

Before I go any further, let's get a few facts straight. First, polar bears don't drown- they are actually excellent swimmers. They have been spotted in the open ocean as far as 200 miles from land. Certainly they hunt at the polar ice/water's edge, so I suppose if that edge were to disappear completely all the seals they kill there would disappear...or would they? In any case, it's also important to note that according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, this loss of the polar bear's range would take at least the next 100 years. This won't happen tomorrow.

The info from the University of Illinois Artic Research Center is shockingly boring and even more regular than one could imagine. Rapid ice melt last summer was decried as the beginning of the end (of the world), despite the fact that an ice-free pole has occurred before, and is both normal and natural. However, all the sky-is-falling talk may be premature: as the year ended, the study showed that polar ice ended on a high note (as polar bear populations continue to soar). In fact, ice levels sit at almost exactly where they were in 1979, which I believe was shortly after the mini Ice Age golbal hysteria had passed. Certainly this isn't conclusive proof that Global Warming is a myth, or that it is a non-naturally occurring phenomenon. But it's important to remember that scientific studies and suggested causation for the current climate do not point to a clear consesus, and there's a lot more to this idea than the assertion that big bad humans are killing the planet. Remember that next time you see a commercial with a sad polar bear...he'll probably be okay.