WASHINGTON, Sept. 7, 2007
Scientists: Most Polar Bears Dead By 2050
Government Scientists Project Two-Thirds Drop In Bear Population Due To Global Warming
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(Steve Romaine)
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Special Report Arctic Adventure CBS News' Daniel Sieberg sets sail for the Arctic to learn more about climate change.
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Photo Essay A Warming Effect A behind-the-scenes look at the 60 Minutes team's trip to Patagonia, Chile and Antarctica.
The agency projects that polar bears during that time will lose 42 percent of the Arctic range they need to live in during summer in the Polar Basin when they hunt and breed.
Polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform for hunting seals, their primary food. But the sea ice is decreasing due to climate change.
"It's that declining sea ice that appears to be driving the results in our models," said U.S. Geological Survey scientist Steven Amstrup, the lead author of the new studies. "As the sea ice goes, so goes the polar bear."
Scientists do not hold out much hope that the buildup of carbon dioxide and other industrial gases blamed for heating the atmosphere like a greenhouse can be turned around in time to help the polar bears anytime soon.
"Despite any mitigation of greenhouse gases, we are going to see the same amount of energy in the system the next 20, 30 or 40 years," Mark Myers, the USGS director, said.
Greenland and Norway have the most polar bears, while a quarter of them live mainly in Alaska and travel to Canada and Russia. But the USGS says their range will shrink to no longer include Alaska and other southern regions.
The findings of U.S. and Canadian scientists are based on six months of new studies, during which the health of three polar bear groups and their dependency on Arctic sea ice were examined using "new and traditional models," Myers said.
They were made public to help guide Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne's decision expected in January on his agency's proposal to add the polar bear to the government's endangered species list.
Last December, Kempthorne proposed designating polar bears as a "threatened" species deserving of federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, because of melting Arctic sea ice from global warming. That category is second to "endangered" on the government's list of species believed most likely to become extinct.
A separate organization, the World Conservation Union, based in Gland, Switzerland, has estimated the polar bear population in the Arctic is about 20,000 to 25,000, put at risk by melting sea ice, pollution, hunting, development and tourism.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 83 CommentsActually one was shot this year and the examining scientists were indeed surprised. It has been speculated that this may be one of natures ways of adaptation to environmental change.
That''s right....I forgot that Bush is the only President we have had as a nation and the issues and problems we have could not have been addressed earlier.
Give me a break....If you care so much then do something besides complain on a messageboard.
Oh one more thing....have you been to Iraq to see what is going on? Have you talked to the people, the soliders? Until then don''t believe all the info on TV or the newspapers. Get the facts for yourself. Don''t just parrot them from someone else.
Posted by ubrew12 at 08:00 PM : Sep 09, 2007
Are you kidding me?? So "do as I say and not as I do is acceptable to you"?? Give me a break!!
It%u2019s not ALL Bush''s fault, but Bush is not without fault. By denying the current global warming trend, and refusing to participate in any attempt to fix it, he is responsible for delaying the work that must be done. This will force us to take even more drastic and costly action in the future.
Through obfuscation, misdirection, and outright lying, Bush has convinced many of you that there is no consensus on global warming, when there is. He is supposed to protect the nation. He has failed.
Which brings up another failure: Iraq. Oh, yeah. He''s going to "protect us" by killing a lot of people all around the world. He didn''t protect us on 9/11, as he sat there like a total re-****, reading "My Pet Goat". He didn%u2019t catch bin Laden. He never accomplished anything, yet declared "Mission Accomplished" years ago. He let re-tards plan the war, who didn''t send in enough troops. He didn''t supply the troops with the armor they needed. He didn''t plan at all for what happens after "winning". He is simply the world''s biggest f-u-k up, bar none.
Every 2 or 3 months, Bush claims "significant progress" is "around the corner". BS! Four years into this "cakewalk" that has killed 3800 American soldiers + wounded 27000, while killing over a million Iraqis who did not attack us on 9/11, and you mo-rons think that NOW were starting to see some progress?
Go back to whatever slimy hole you inbred re-tards crawled out of, why don''t ya?
If I were arguing for banning gay ***, and were Larry Craig, you would be right.
But if I think mpg standards should be raised, and gas taxes likewise, to combat Global Warming, but drive a Hummer to work, you would NOT be right. Cuz driving a Hummer is a personal choice; recognizing the dangers of warming is not.
Not all morality ''begins at home''. In the case of Global Warming, just getting people to recognize that there''s a problem is sufficient, and Gore can be thanked for that.
ubrew12, Global Warming isn''t a personal problem?
Algore said it''s a moral issue. That sounds personal to me.
Your arguement is nothing more than the classic "Do as I say, not as I do."
Try it out on your kids and see how it goes over. Adults don''t appreciate it much either.
Erasmus, we have a queen size sleeper sofa, one of the kids could sleep on that and you could have their room.
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Global Warming is a global problem, not a personal one. Homosexuality is a personal ''problem'', not a global one. Hence, someone who is personally polluting, but favors global solutions to the warming problem is NOT a hypocrit, while someone who favors ''global'' solutions to homosexuality, like making it illegal, but is personally gay, IS a hypocrit. Gore is not a hypocrit, Craig is: it''s that simple.
Gore favors, as do I, a cap and trade system that allows developed countries to continue polluting AS LONG AS steps are taken (perhaps in other countries), to COUNTER the effects of that pollution. That MAY seem hypocritical to YOU, but the atmosphere doesn''t distinguish between personal and global pollution either way. And it IS the atmosphere that we''re talking about, after all.
" when B.C. is underwater, you can move here. We have lots of room."
Hahahaha, do you have an extra bedroom?
And when I come, I am going to give you a spankin'' for every time you have said Al Gores name!
"...I hope they don''t give him access to a computer in the slammer."
We wouldn''t be that lucky.
Brush up on your science and YOUR spelling.
ubrew12:
"Species" may not have been the appropriate term but the science is good. The basic difference between most varieties of bears is the color of their fur. If bears of different fur colors can''t interbreed then neither can humans of different skin colors...
"As long as the Republican mantra is profits before responsibility and accountability - man will continue to destroy his habitat. I guess that is why the super-rich have so many homes - at least one should offer both safety and a water front view - even if the home is in Vail."
Posted by afmca
I''m sorry afmca, I need to take you to task for this lopsided post.
How about the Democrats who put profits before responsibilty and accountability, and have many homes... Democrats like Algore. Algore has multiple homes, which are excessively large and grossly inefficient with outdoor heated pools. But he doesn''t have to worry about the utility bills because he is super-rich, benefiting from the hysteria he tries to create about Global Warming. All this while he jets around the world in private jets.
Where is Algore''s accountability?
Where is Algore''s responsibility?
Will you hold Algore to the same standard as Republicans?
Will you paint Algore with the same brush you paint all Republicans?
I doubt it.
Liberals are RARELY consistent.
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I must say I am a fairly tolerant person, however, I am also getting fed up with oakishpines ramblings (which I seldom bother to read). Hopefully someday cbs will have an article about the arrest of some deranged nut case getting busted for drugs etc and oakishpines will be gone...I hope they don''t give him access to a computer in the slammer.
erasmus, when B.C. is underwater, you can move here. We have lots of room.
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Geez, you would think with all that hot air coming from you, it would be warmer there!
I think that for some reason Wyoming just isn''t seeing the "signs" yet. Here our lows are around 52 and highs are between 70 and 80.
And as far as that 2x4 goes, my focus has changed to oakishpines.:)
'' ... given enough time, the good generals wil build for themselves an eternity of infinite numbers of eternitys where they never have to pay for anything at all as they no more are forced by the people to invest there dollars and votes in non charity and taxation and having so built that place where they no longer must pay for anything, they will afford themselves infinite divergence, meaning anyone may slay and slayve them at will without bringing any real harm or suffering or other detention to them, and having built that eternity, they will find that that eternity was already built for them long before they built it for themselves because they would have built it for themselves such that it had already been built for them long before they ever had to build it for themselves ... ''
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