Most polar bears could die out by 2050

[maseman]

Source: MSNBC/AP

WASHINGTON - Two-thirds of the world's polar bears will be killed off by 2050 — and the entire population gone from Alaska — because of thinning sea ice from global warming in the Arctic, government scientists forecast Friday.

Only in the northern Canadian Arctic islands and the west coast of Greenland are any of the world's 16,000 polar bears expected to survive through the end of the century, said the U.S. Geological Survey, which is the scientific arm of the Interior Department.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20645362/

---

More good news on a Saturday morning.

[zonkers]

1. Grim. Guess its time to collect diverse samples of DNA in the hopes of restoring

the species hundreds or thousands of years from now.

[L1A1Rocker]

2. Ok

Well now if we can only get rid of those damn caribou maybe we can get some oil out of Alaska.

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. ...

:eyes: Or were you being sarcastic, and I missed it? :shrug:

[CountAllVotes]

3. I just heard they were *thinking* about adding Polar bears to

the endangered species list! THINKING ABOUT IT!?

What an outrage!! :grr: :mad: :grr:

:kick:

[BadgerLaw2010]

4. Polar bears survived the medieval warm period, they should be able to survive this.

[WindRavenX]

8. The medieval warm period is nothing like what we're experiencing.

What's with the influx of global warming deniers on DU today? :shrug:

[NickB79]

9. The Medieval Warm Period didn't melt the ENTIRE ice cap

But they're predicting the Arctic will be ice-free in the summer by 2030 or so. We're pretty much matching what the maximum extent of the Arctic melting was in the Medieval Warm Period today, with a navigable Northwest Passage. However, the ice melting will only increase more rapidly now that the CO2 levels remain high and the albedo effect is greatly diminished. We'll surpass anything the M.W.P. created by the end of this decade, and Mother Nature is just getting started.

By 2050, the only polar bears left alive will either be hybrids with grizzlies (hunters actually shot one a year or two ago) or in zoos.

[Lisa]

14. besides the ice-albedo feedback, I'm also worried about the effects of a warming Arctic ocean

If the warming extends far enough down into the depths, there could be impacts on ocean currents, nutrient cycling, and biological productivity.

[Lisa]

13. they're also facing pressures from environmental contamination, hunting ...

... habitat disruption, and various other things humans are doing. So even if they were okay during the MWP (and I've heard evidence from climatologists working in the Canadian Arctic and subarctic that the MWP signal wasn't as strong here as it was in western Europe) -- things could well be different this century.

[Harper_is_Bush]

15. And what, exactly, do YOU believe "this" is?

Do you believe it's global warming caused by human activity?

[truthisfreedom]

6. They've been so ridiculously off in their predictions (things are so accelerated) that I'm going to

make my own prediction:

Whatever the "authorities" say is going to happen by 2050 will certainly happen by 2020.

The only thing we can be sure of happening by 2050 is that the year will actually be 2050.

[Cronus Protagonist]

7. Someone should move some to the South pole.

Then they would be bi-polar bears.

:P

[WindRavenX]

10. nyuk nyuk nyuk

:P

[Cronus Protagonist]

16. Someone had to say it

Sometimes jokes just scream at you until you get them out of your system.

:)

[gauguin57]

11. The Mayans were right ....

... we're all gonna die in 2012!

[fedupfisherman]

12. Good

Polar bears are known maneaters and seal killers

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. So are people.

[OnyxCollie]

18. Trolls have been known to eat people, too.

[Critters2]

19. I hope you forgot this:

:sarcasm: