Polar Bears

2008-5-16 17:05:00

My Friends,

I read a biased article in my local paper and had to respond. Unfortunately, I am limited to 200 words.

Dear Editor:

The text from the Statesman, May 16, reads: "The Arctic bear facing extinction because of global warming...."

You guys need to do your homework rather than just automatically accepting everything that comes from the AP.

Here are some facts:

"Between 700 and 900 polar bears are shot every year...."

Source: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/03/17/polar_bear_hunting/

If they are so endangered why are they allowed to be hunted?

Wikipeadia tells us that the population has grown from 5-10,000 in the early 70's to 20-25,000 today. I quote:

"For the most part, polar bear populations have increased or remained stable under the current regulatory regime."

This doesn't sound like a crisis to me.

Out of 20 population areas only two are declining, two are growing and the rest are stable. The two that are declining have had decreasing temperatures and the two that have risen have had rising temperatures -- inconvenient facts running completely contrary to warnings of global warming alarmists.

Source: http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=20631

Worldwide temperatures decreased between 1998-2005.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/04/09/do0907.xml

There's been no warming of the oceans since 2003.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88520025

And, the next 10 years are expected to be years of global cooling.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aU.evtnk6DPo&refer=worldwide

It looks like the crisis here is in someone's imagination.