Icing The Hype
May 03, 2007
Canadian Controversy: How do Polar Bears Fare?

The Christian Science Monitor

Polar bears are the poster animals of global warming. The image of a polar bear floating on an ice flow is one of the most dramatic visual statements in the fight against rising temperatures in the Arctic.  But global warming is not killing the polar bears of Canada’s eastern Arctic, according to one ongoing study. Scheduled for release next year, it says the number of polar bears in the Davis Strait area of Canada’s eastern Arctic – one of 19 polar bear populations worldwide – has grown to 2,100, up from 850 in the mid-1980s

“There aren’t just a few more bears. There are a ... lot more bears,” biologist Mitchell Taylor told the Nunatsiaq News of Iqaluit in the Arctic territory of Nunavut. Earlier, in a long telephone conversation, Dr. Taylor explained his conviction that threats to polar bears from global warming are exaggerated and that their numbers are increasing. He has studied the animals for the Nunavut government for two decades. See full story here

Mitchell had earlier written to the US Fish and Wildlife Service on this issue. See letter here

Polar bears are the poster animals of global warming. The image of a polar bear floating on an ice flow is one of the most dramatic visual statements in the fight against rising temperatures in the Arctic.  But global warming is not killing the polar bears of Canada’s eastern Arctic, according to one ongoing study. Scheduled for release next year, it says the number of polar bears in the Davis Strait area of Canada’s eastern Arctic – one of 19 polar bear populations worldwide – has grown to 2,100, up from 850 in the mid-1980s

“There aren’t just a few more bears. There are a ... lot more bears,” biologist Mitchell Taylor told the Nunatsiaq News of Iqaluit in the Arctic territory of Nunavut. Earlier, in a long telephone conversation, Dr. Taylor explained his conviction that threats to polar bears from global warming are exaggerated and that their numbers are increasing. He has studied the animals for the Nunavut government for two decades. See full story here

Mitchell had earlier written to the US Fish and Wildlife Service on this issue. See letter here


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