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Subscribe to RSSA recent voyage by the National Geographic Explorer ship to the Arctic captured a female polar bear fighting a male for food. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports on the trip, which allowed experts to evaluate the environmental changes in the Arctic.
Wildlife biologist Ian Bullock is a seasoned visitor to the Arctic, but even he was surprised by what he saw last month: a thin female polar bear, shadowed by her cub, trying to challenge a much bigger, stronger male for food.
It wasn't much of a challenge, but it showed just how desperate she was, Bullock told NBC News on returning from his 10th straight summer cruise to the Arctic.
That desperation, he feels, stems from the fact that the Arctic's summer sea ice — which polar bears using as floating stations from which to hunt seals — has been shrinking over the last few decades due to a warming Arctic, forcing polar bears into smaller areas and more intense competition.
"She was the thinnest female with cub I have ever seen," he said. "She had a single cub which implies she has already lost one other cub this year.
"If she cannot feed, she cannot suckle her cub; with a hungry cub it is even harder for her to hunt effectively, so from what I saw her last cub is at risk and ultimately so is she," he added. "This is why she was challenging a big male with food. She was hungry enough to take a big risk."
In a video filmed during the National Geographic Explorer cruise to the Arctic's Svalbard region, Bullock said it looks like that reduced ice is "really putting the bears under stress."
"The worst thing is when we've encountered bears, we've found them really packed in tight, in the last little areas of fast ice attached to land, or the last little patches of pack ice at sea," said Bullock, who served as a guide on the cruise ship. "And there they've been in competition."
Polar bears are listed as "vulnerable" and in decline by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which estimates the population at no more than 25,000 across the Arctic.
The U.S., which has two Arctic regions where polar bears live, in 2008 listed its population as "threatened".
Last year, researchers cited three incidents where polar bears might even have resorted to cannibalism due to warming and reduced sea ice.
The diminished sea ice also got the attention of the National Geographic Explorer's skipper.
Captain Leif Skog told NBC News that he had e-mailed his boss, Sven Lindblad of Lindblad Expeditions, to describe "a shocking escalation of the reduction of sea ice."
One data graph he monitored daily, showing the total volume of Arctic sea ice, "could be called the death spiral of the Arctic sea ice," he said in his e-mail to Lindblad.
Because of the reduced sea ice, he added, the cruise was able to visit northeast Greenland "a month earlier than what was normal in the past."
"We expected to face some sea ice but everything was gone in the fjords upon our arrival," he added. "The sea water temperature in the fjords was also unbelievably high."
Another expert on the cruise called the outside temperature "surprisingly warm."
"It was T-shirt weather," Paul Berkman, an environmental science professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, told NBC News. Berkman noted two other major Arctic developments over the summer:
- The amount of summer sea ice reached its lowest point in 30 years of records.
- Nearly the entire surface of Greenland's ice cap saw some melting in July, a phenomenon not seen in 150 years of ice records.
Berkman said the polar regions, and the Arctic in particular, show an "amplified response" to a warming climate ahead of other parts of the globe.
That response is twofold, he adds: Arctic temperatures have warmed 3-6 degrees F above the global average, and reduced ice removes huge amounts of reflective white from the sea and reveals a dark sea that absorbs heat.
The sea ice is like "a giant mirror on Earth's surface" he said. "Without summer Arctic sea ice, more heat from the sun is absorbed into the Earth system, which is a feedback that further accelerates warming of our climate."
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What is the American Indian saying now (with a tear in his eye). It's not "don't be a litter bug" or "the throw away society" or "waste management" or "the clean water act." It's what it always was? Pollution. The Oceans aren't dark and blue, they're brown and filled with garbage, our skies are still yellow or a faded blue, not deep blue, as they were before. The ozone depletion is causing cancers. Who the heck is going to pray now? Will you leave prayer to the "suffering" publican, while you "sugar daddie's" go have your Mercedes detailed and maintain a mistress like Herod, and you "cougars" date your "cubs" as menopause feminists. Either we all pray or none pray, the poor are not the mercy or slave of the rich. We're all in this together, to do clean-up and I don't mean "cuckolds!" We are "custodians" of thee Earth and "custodians" of our children. Salvation is at Christs' feet, at the right hand of God. Do the will of God. Then preservation will come to all. "Even when a sparrow falls God cares, how much more does He care if a human (God's image) falls?" I'll tell you... if you don't care a sparrow falls (or in this case: a Polar Bear), God don't care if you fall either. How long does it take God to create man? He can just look in a mirror. But a sparrow might take longer with its fine feathers and to fly. Fear not: God has counted every hair on your head. Jesus "will never leave you or forsake you." Let us pray. Thank you.
Your "god" cares more for the sparrow than the millions of babies that are starving to DEATH.
let 'em starve. natures way of reducing population. reduce population, consume less resource, pollute less, planet and mankind live. feed babies, make more, consume more, pollute more, everything dies...
Oh I thought global warming was not heppening? *Rolls Eyes* Most people can't see things happen or going to happen, untill it effects their life in some way and is right in front of their eyes.
Good news for the seal populations... and perhaps as they multiply, there will be more food for the hungry bears.
from 285.8:
BD,
I am having a hard time gaging you. Regulating reproduction seems difficult.
We are already dumping too much carbon (i.e. atmospheric insulation) into our air (the trees / plants cannot absorb the carbon at the same rate); thus trapping too much solar heat; dumping MORE insulation will trap MORE heat; and that would not be good
shallowred, so is significantly regulating carbon emmissions. population contributes the most to these emissions. driving cars, heating homes, manufacturing production, deforestation, all to feed the population machine. and the US is only a small portion of that bigger picture. there's a billion chinese, a billion indians, a billion africans, 7 billion on the planet and growing, all wanting to increase their standards of living, some just getting into the industrial age, and more to follow. gonna be a lot more emissions to come. sure we can decrease in the US, but its a drop in the bucket...
we should lead
nice sentiment. but if you were a poor african, indian, brazilian, whoever, would you sacrifice your advancement because the US or europe told you to?
And continue to kid yourself that if we all did the same CO2 levels would suddenly start to go down and global warming would go away. The electricity in you car comes from burning coal in the southwest or somewhere else. There is no way to reduce CO2 levels that does not require an extreme reduction in the standard of living. Even if every American were to follow that path there is no way in hell that the Chinese, Indians, Brazilians and every other emerging country would do the same. Even if the Prius were the only car sold in the world CO2 would not go down, the rate of increase would only slow. Luckily more CO2 in the atmosphere won't worsen global warming because the CO2 there already produces the maximum amount of heat it can and adding more doesn't increase the heat production. Warming is here to stay and we would be better served if our leaders started working on strategies to reduce the impact of higher temperatures rather than make believe solutions like cap and trade.
Shallow you are mistaken when you say CO2 traps heat. What CO2 does is convert certain wavelengths of sunlight into heat. All of the particular wavelength that CO2 absorbs is already completely converted. Reducing CO2 will have no impact until the levels are much much lower that they are today. Go look up how CO2 actually works. Become truly informed. Read a book called The Skepical Environmentalist.
well, for starters, 2 bear argueing over food is nature in real life. It isn't all like they show you on tv. Is the whole world going to stop using fossil fuel? fat chance. basically impossible unless everyone goes back to horse & buggy. That outa be an awakening for the city folk who think food magically appears in grocery stores. What about refrigerants and all the other garbage? How many gallons duz it take to more our fearless leaders from pt A to B? hell, still have yet to find a competitor who actually fixes leaks on a/c units around here. Just keep addin couple times a yr. As an hvac'r, be forwarned, your hvac epuip is going to go waaay up in price soon. electronics have taken over the simple tin box the heats your house. No more 80% eff furnaces next yr up north & higher eff mandates for a/c's in the south. Far as the bear.....I'm sure there is a "bear claws" in Obamacare somewhere.
Damned religious, greedy flatlanders always talking about "our children's future". No matter how we get our economy going again, our grandchildren are screwed without a planet to live on... which is likely already out of our control.
Thank you Christians, Muslims, Islamist's, Hindu's. et al. And lets not forget the corporations that know how to play you fidiot religious factions for their insatiable greed. Weak minded morons; every last one of you.
And there you have it folks...in the wild, the females usually get defeated or screwed by the males. None of that all-powerful female crap you get here in the States. Move b-tch, get out da way, get out da way!
I can't wait for all of that ice to go away, so that shipping companies can transport goods through there , rather than having to go the long way around. Also, it will make that oil easier to reach.
Can't fool my sarcasm meter.
Sometimes a picture is worth 1,000 words, and two pictures side-by-side are worth even more:
http:/ /igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh?fm=09&fd=12&fy=1979&sm=09&sd=12&sy=2012
Exactly! What can we do? What can a politician or their parties do? That is why I lean towards the Bible. It says
Revelation 11:18 He will bring to ruin those ruining the earth. It is in a dying state and we can't bring it back.
what to do now? as I say through my tears when looking at that video.