Did anyone else just hear that ad on AAR about an artificial ice shelf to save polar bears?

[Beaverhausen]

Was that a joke, or was it something that Gore is actually proposing?

[anniebelle]

1. Heard earlier they are dropping these like life preservers

for the drowning polar bears.

[Beaverhausen]

2. Well, I hope it works

[itsmesgd]

3. isn't that like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?

fix the problem, don't throw a life jacket to the polar bears. People think that we can/will break the earth, but Mother Earth will toss us off her back when and if she feels threatened, just like a dog shakes the water off his back. The Earth was here before us and will be here long after we are gone, but we need to stop pissing her off.

[pitohui]

4. the polar bear who is drowning now might not appreciate your plan to save the world a century hence

obviously it is not a permanent plan but if it can save the bears now until we get the environment back on track, it's worth doing, and it's jobs

in my opinion we need a new "new deal" with lots of new jobs for americans that involve fixing and studying the environment, helping polar bear is just one, it will help this hurting economy and help the environment too

anyway that's my idea for saving the world, it is not original, it is just not currently being "done"

a lot of people studying the flora and fauna of our planet are currently working for NOTHING and have to raise funds by leading bird tours or holding other jobs on top of their actual research

i wouldn't call such programs mere deck chair re-arranging, they buy time which is coming to be an increasingly important commodity as it runs out

[NickB79]

8. It will be centuries before the environment is "back on track"

Even if tomorrow we completely stopped emitting CO2 from our cars and power plants, the planet will continue to warm for decades. The warming we're seeing now is due to CO2 released decades ago, as there is a lag-time effect with regard to CO2 vs. global warming.

Currently, there are only proposals underway on how to reduce our CO2 emmissions, not cut them to nothing. That's the bugger of it all: we are so far gone with regards to global warming that not only must we be carbon-neutral, we must be carbon-negative, finding ways to re-inject existing CO2 back into the ground. The technology to produce not only CO2-free energy, but also enough excess energy to sequester CO2 from the atmosphere, is decades away in the form of fusion reactors. By then the sea ice around the Arctic will be almost completely gone.

Sorry to be a pessimist, but the polar bears are doomed, as are many other species around the world. Putting up artificial ice sheets won't save the seals they rely on for food, as they'll likely decline as sea temps rise and their food sources decline. The best we can do now is put fertlized embryos into cryostasis and hope that at some point in the future we can resurrect them.

[TornadoTN]

6. In the larger scope, yes, but short-term this is spot on

I think of it as "putting more life-boats on the Titanic". That way we save more people in the short-term and then work to find new ways to stop this from occurring in the future.

Besides, saving the polar bears is a noble priority while we try to convince the rest of the country about the dire consequences of our impact on the environment.

[Double T]

5. Attempting ANYTHING to save the polar bears and walrus..........

is better than sitting around and doing absolutely nothing. If this doesn't work, we need to try something else. Man created this disaster and he better get busy trying to abate it.

[kestrel91316]

7. That was Randi Rhodes doing a little spiel about

if Gore was president, he would have a temporary fix for the polar bears (artificial ice floes) and then attack global warming and have a permanent fix. It was funny but sad.