Polar bears resort to cannibalism as Arctic ice shrinks

[NeoConsSuck]

Source: CNN.COM

Summer is over in the northern hemisphere, but it's been another chilling season for researchers who study Arctic sea ice.

"It's definitely a bad report. We did pick up little bit from last year, but this is over 30 percent below what used to be normal," said Walt Meier, a research scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

This past summer, the Arctic sea ice dwindled to its second lowest level. Arctic sea ice is usually one to three meters, or as much as 9 feet thick. It grows during autumn and winter and shrinks in the spring and summer.

"The Arctic sea ice melt is a disaster for the polar bears," according to Kassie Siegel, staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. "They are dependent on the Arctic sea ice for all of their essential behaviors, and as the ice melts and global warming transforms the Arctic, polar bears are starving, drowning, even resorting to cannibalism because they don't have access to their usual food sources."

Scientists have noticed increasing reports of starving Arctic polar bears attacking and feeding on one another in recent years. In one documented 2004 incident in northern Alaska, a male bear broke into a female's den and killed her.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/09/23/arctic.ice/index.html

[NashVegas]

1. .. and we will, too

[arbusto_baboso]

2. Yep. Take a good look, humanity: this is your future.

Unless, of course, it isn't actually too late and we can reverse global warming.

What's that? Who CARES if it's manmade or not.

[Zuiderelle]

3. Well, that's depressing.

:(

[CountAllVotes]

4. and Falin Palin doesn't think they are endangered

:( :( :(

:dem:

[Demeter]

5. It's Already Happening on Wall Street

Gives new meaning to the term "bear market".

[Faygo Kid]

6. This is awful stuff, but so very important. We must fight back.

Terrible to even post such stuff, but thank you for doing it.

[NeoConsSuck]

9. I had second thoughts about even reading it.

Usually stories about child abuse or animal abuse I won't even read they upset me so much.

But this needs to get out. I think it's more important than stories of Paulson stealing from the poor and giving to the rich.

[The Stranger]

7. Please, someone help them.

[chupacabranation]

8. I can't get rid of this sinking feeling...

...that we are losing our planet...

...and this isn't something replaceable...

https://secure.nrdconline.org/08/polarbearsos_052008 if you'd like to donate to the NRDC campaign....

[bluesmail]

10. Well nobody of consequence has gotten any where

on the subject ( Gore has the voice of the enviornment. Thanks * Thanks DARTH! Thank you BigOil!) so Ma Earth, aka Our Planet is just going to start rejecting little by little (in universe terms), what has been feeding off her. Crap This is bad news.