Tag Archives: starving bears

Wandering polar bears are the new starving bears falsely blamed on climate change: Déjà vu

Posted on May 12, 2022 | Comments Off

I said last year that wandering polar bears appeared to be the new ‘starving’ polar bears that were formerly the go-to victims falsely blamed on lack of ice due to climate change and here we are again. Polar bear specialists and their cheer leaders so seldom disappoint.

Although not one of the Canadian news outlets that reported on the fat polar bear that was shot after unexpectedly showing up on the Gaspé peninsula two weeks ago blamed this incident on global warming, a few days later The Guardian in the UK stepped up.

Of course it did. My own report of the incident is here, from 1 May 2022, in case you missed it (with sea ice charts, as always).

Continue reading →

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Posted in Advocacy, Polar bear attacks, Sea ice habitat

Tagged advocacy, climate change, extralimital, fat bears, Gaspé, sea ice, self defense, starving bears

Claims polar bear cannibalism on the rise in Russian Arctic not supported by facts

Posted on February 26, 2020 | Comments Off

The Guardian today expanded on a story published in the Moscow Times that quotes a Russian scientist claiming cannibalism among polar bears is on the rise in the Russian Arctic. However, the scientist offered no numbers to support this claim and there is no suggestion he had done a study on this phenomenon.

Cannibalism video 2015 Nat Geo_off Baffin Island

As I’ve said before, incidents of cannibalism cannot be said to be increasing because there is no scientific baseline for which recent occurrences can be compared. Scattered anecdotal reports of any behaviour cannot be touted as evidence for a trend even though they may be of interest and worth recording.

Comments Off on Claims polar bear cannibalism on the rise in Russian Arctic not supported by facts

Posted in Advocacy, Polar bear attacks, Sea ice habitat

Tagged cannibalism, climate change, facts, polar bear, Russia, sea ice, starving bears

My Financial Post op-ed: Polar bears keep thriving even as global warming alarmists keep pretending they’re dying

Posted on March 5, 2018 | Comments Off

One powerful polar bear fact is slowly rising above the message of looming catastrophe repeated endlessly by the media: More than 15,000 polar bears have not disappeared since 2005. Although the extent of the summer sea ice after 2006 dropped abruptly to levels not expected until 2050, the predicted 67-per-cent decline in polar bear numbers simply didn’t happen. Rather, global polar bear numbers have been stable or slightly improved.

The polar bear’s resilience should have meant the end of its use as a cherished icon of global warming doom, but it didn’t. The alarmism is not going away without a struggle. Continue reading

Comments Off on My Financial Post op-ed: Polar bears keep thriving even as global warming alarmists keep pretending they’re dying

Posted in Conservation Status, Population, Sea ice habitat

Tagged bearded seals, climate change, decline, fail, global warming, icon, inconsistencies, models, op-ed, opinion, polar bears, population size, predictions, prey, resilience, ringed seals, Southern Beaufort, stable, starvation, starving bears, thick spring ice

Polar bears and melting ice: three facts that shouldn’t surprise you

Posted on July 20, 2014 | Comments Off

If I was invited by USA TODAY to discuss how climate change is affecting polar bears now – summed up in three talking points – this is what I’d say. I’d use some meaningful images rather than cute pictures of cuddly bear cubs and I’d provide links to my work with references and details to back up my answers.

Compare my responses to those supplied by Steve Amstrup in his capacity as spokesperson for Polar Bears International (“Save our sea ice!”) to Jolie Lee at USA TODAY last week, who’s word is expected to be taken as gospel.