In my last post, Western Hudson Bay polar bears are not like the others – Part 1 I stopped at the point where the following question arose: “The documented decline in cub survival and condition of females documented above occurred between 1985 and 1992 – what about now?”
I promised to address that question in a separate post because it revealed some interesting issues that deserve star billing.
What I found might surprise you: apparently, virtually all of the data supporting a decline in the western Hudson Bay polar bear population since 1985 has been collected but has not been published. This revelation came from none other than the 2012 summary by Ian Stirling and Andrew Derocher that I’ve mentioned before here.
[updated Sept. 28, 2012 – reference added, see below]
First month for Polar Bear Science – Aug, 2012
First posts went up July 26.
Total views @ Aug. 31 – 2454
Total views:
July 2012 – 567
Aug. 2012 – 1887
Over the last three weeks, views have been >600/week, an average of 91/day.
Largest spikes in readership were generated not by new posts (surprise!) but by media coverage:
1) television, newspaper and radio interviews associated with my lecture at the University of Toronto Aug. 14, “Polar Bears: Outstanding Survivors of Climate Change”;
2) one of my posts was featured at Climate Depote on Aug. 31.
I am happy to report that so far, all of the comments I have received via the “comments/tips” page have been positive.
No one has yet asked for references. So, just to be clear, I am happy to send pdfs of any references I cite in my posts (if I have them – not always available, e.g. book chapters). Simply use the “Requests” contact page. Just because you don’t have access to a university library should not mean you can’t get to the science. Don’t take my word for anything – if you have doubts about what the research papers say, go to the source. Just ask!
I felt one comment by a reader was worth posting, so with their permission, I added it to the post as an update. Another commenter sent me photos, which I happily added, noted as an update.
I’ve got some interesting posts lined up, including another book review – stay tuned.
Enjoy the rest of your long weeekend.
PS. Huge thanks to Tom Nelson for highlighting my posts and Hilary Ostrov for technical advice to this novice blogger.
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