Monday, January 18, 2010
"...growing polar bear population 'becoming a problem,' locals say"
Who to believe? Your guess is as good as mine.
Now, let's apply that old theory of who has what to gain...
Now, let's apply that old theory of who has what to gain...
Here's part of an article by Kirk Myers at Examiner.com:
"According to a U.S. Senate and Public Works Committee report, the 'alarm about the future of polar bear decline is based on speculative computer model predictions many decades in the future. Those predictions are being 'challenged by scientists and forecasting experts,' said the report.
Those challenges, supported by facts on the ground, including observations from Inuit hunters in the region, haven’t stopped climate fear-mongers at the U.S. Geological Survey from proclaiming that future sea ice conditions 'will result in the loss of approximately two-thirds of the world’s current polar bear population by the mid 21st century.'
Such sky-is-falling rhetoric brings smiles to the Inuit population of Canada’s Nunavut Territory. They, too, know how to count, and they claim the bear population is stable or on the rise in their own backyard. Polar bears may be on the decline in some areas, but during their frequent visits to Inuit towns and outposts they rarely decline an easy meal from the local dump or a poorly secured garbage can.
Harry Flaherty, chair of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board in the capital of Iqaluit, says the polar bear population in the region, along the Davis Strait, has doubled during the past 10 years. He questions the official figures, which are based to a large extent on helicopter surveys.
'Scientists do a quick study one to two weeks in a helicopter, and don’t see all the polar bears. We’re getting totally different stories [about the bear numbers] on a daily basis from hunters and harvesters on the ground,' he says."
