Ecofascists love to use the Polar Bear as a sort of poster child for their claims that we are killing the Earth, so I decided to take an in-depth (sort of) look at what they are saying about those cute and cuddly rascals. Let me set this up so you don’t get lost as we go down the list of comments. The first set of comments has to do with a story about how Polar Bears are running out of ice, having to swim further to the next chunk of ice, and drowning along the way. The picture on the right was taken by a research group (supposedly) looking for drowning. The photo was used in an article over at Dot Earth (CORRECTION below in UPDATE #2). They talk about drowning Polar Bears, but the truth is… so far only 5 confirmed drowned Polar Bears have ever been recorded. Please note that in the picture they use, the Bear seems to be standing, not swimming in the water, and to my knowledge, a Polar Bear has never used the back-stroke. Note: It is common for Polar Bears to swim up to 70 miles at a clip. Also, Biologists consider the Polar Bear an aquatic Bear. Scientific name is… Ursus maritimus or the “sea bear.”
The second set of comments are about 1 Polar Bear that got off a chunk of ice as it was floating pass Iceland and swam to shore. The Bear came to within a half mile of a town, so one of the local Cops shot it. The one who actually did the shooting had lost sight of the Bear at one point because the weather was terrible and it got lost in the fog. Fortunately, they found it again and before it got any closer to town they killed it. A hungry Polar Bear is not something you want roaming around in any town. One exception that comes to mind would be San Francisco. BTW… No, there were no tranquilizers available.
Ok, let’s get on with it. Enjoy…
Let me first start with comments from two guys that have a great sense of humor.
“The comment by E. is hilarious. Polar bears are excellent swimmers and can swim for miles. They love the water and are known to swim and cavort in the water for hours.
I can see E. now, traveling to the North Pole on her vacation to hand out life jackets to the polar bears. What a hoot!!”
— Posted by R. C.
“I would be willing to drill right through a polar bear for more oil.”
— Posted by G.
I would like to buy these two gentlemen a Beer.
On to the looney tunes… Part One:
“It is entirely inside the realm of possibility we are destroying not only the habitat of the polar bear, but of everything else on this planet.”
— Posted by E. T.
“What a tragic photograph. We understand why the bear is in the water, yet cannot help. The bear needs help and does not understand why it is in the water. Does it know its fate? It looks so helpless.”
— Posted by T.P.S.
Dummy, did you happen to notice… IT AIN’T DROWNING!?
“that was a great message i mean it really spoke out at me i just totally luved it !!!! please send more of these articles so i may read them and enjoy every last minute of them because these articles are now the center of my life and i would not want to let my life down…”
— Posted by j. f.
She must have one crappy life.
“Your wishy-washy prose and, worst of all your, failure to provide any context (and I know that you are perfectly aware of the context) for your stories make you a great source of comfort for the denialist ideologues and ignoramuses who frequent this site.
Denialists want to talk about polar bears precisely because they don’t want to talk about these other issues where the evidence is irrefutable.”
— Posted by J. R.
This guy got pissed at Andy Revkin because Andy did not write a hateful diatribe. Wait til he see’s he got mentioned here… hehehehe.
“God damn it! Not only do Polar Bears and every other species lay at the mercy of whether we decide one day there is in fact global warming or not…”
— Posted by E. T.
“Reading these comments, it makes me sad that i’m a human being, I’m starting to think, we should de-materialize.”
— Posted by s.
Not the comments here, the ones on the site where I found the comments.
“When the Earth tilts to far off her axis, and the land an sea changes not in years but in hours an minutes i can be assured that the fault will rest intirely on Bush.”
— Posted by c.
It was just a matter of time before one of these loons blamed Bush. It was inevitable!
Part Two:
“This is sick. It seems whenever a wild animal wanders into “civilization,” the first impulse of authorities is to kill it.
This adds more confirmation to my belief that the planet would be much better off without any humans on it.”
— Posted by t.
If the person who wrote the comment above believes so strongly in what they say, then why are they still alive? Hmmmm???
“How can we humans be so cruel and so insensitive? I will never think of Iceland again as a friendly place to visit. Don’t they know how endangered these Polar Bears are? Shame on them!”
— Posted by F. E.
“As for the innocent animal, I am ashamed to be of the same species as the bloodlusting cretins who murdered this magnificent creature. I did not watch the video. It would have haunted me forever.”
— Posted by R.
I would bet my Home and my 401k, that this very same person has no problem, and would never be haunted, by an abortion.
“Imagine being that polar bear, having endured a life-threatening swim created by ever-distant ice floes created by our global warming, only to finally find a nice big chunk of ice where he could finally go fishing, only to confront and be murdered by enemy no. 1: mankind, in this case Icelanders.”
— Posted by n._y._n.
“Stop eating meat.”
— Posted by G.
What the hell do they think a Polar Bear eats?
“But if you really want to know the truth, I’d value the life of a Polar Bear any day over the life of George Bush.”
— Posted by E. T.
You just knew this was coming. Poor George, I wish him well in retirement.
Finally, a voice of reason… “Do you know why we shot it? We don’t have anything that can store him! the third time a polar bear came we had to call in a specialist from Denmark who had to bring a shit load of stuff. So yea it would have taken a LONG time to get the right equipment and it was to close.”
— Posted by Gísli Dan
So once again, I will let you decide. Are these the kinds of people we want setting policy in our country? Dear God I hope you said NO!
UPDATE: I just found this link that totally validates why the Bear was killed… http://www.polarbearalley.com/polar-bears-of-churchill-polar-bear-attack.html
UPDATE #2: The article over at Dot Earth talks about how a recent research survey found “around 10 Polar Bears” swimming in open water. For some reason they find this highly unusual. But it get’s better. The Ecofascists are using the supposed plight of the Polar Bear to further their agenda, but I seem to have latched on to more Ecofascist BULL SH*T. I just sent Andy Revkin what is written below. Enjoy…
Andy, I think you got caught with your pants down on this one…
I actually looked at the research site: National Marine Mammal Laboratory
Cetacean Assessment & Ecology Program
BWASP – Bowhead Whale Aerial Survey Project 2008 Preliminary Data.
Here’s all it said about Polar Bears during the survey…
1. “one polar bear with seal kill…COMIDA1 – Flight 4 – June 23 2008
Area flown: Block 18; entire; Block 14, ice percentage was variable .The lower 1/3 portion of block 18 was largely ice free.”
2. “and multiple bears swimming in open water…COMIDA2 – Flight 12 – August 16 2008
Area flown: Block 13, completed with excellent conditions; Block 14, four easternmost transects
Broken floe ice (up to 50%) was present in the northern half of block 14 and the upper northwest corner of block 13.” CORRECTION: See comments below.
3. “one swimming polar bear…COMIDA2 – Flight 14 – August 18 2008
Area flown: Block 12, search survey conducted parallel to the shoreline at 5 miles and 15 miles off shore;”
Out of 15 survey flights, these are the only Bears they saw swimming. Flight 4 has a Polar Bear with a Seal kill. Also, there seemed to be plenty of ice in both search blocks. Nothing unusual!
Flight 12 says “multiple Bears”, so all we know is there was more than one. I’m betting they did not give an exact count for fear of counting the same Bear/s over again. And yes, there was ice close by.
Flight 14 counts one Bear, and this while flying just off the coast. Nothing unusual! The entire survey can be found here… http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/nmml/cetacean/bwasp/index.php
CORRECTION: Korey Olsen has correctly pointed out where the #9 PB’s came from. See his comment and my response in the comments section.
That’s it. Even by any stretch of the imagination this does not add up to “around 10 Bears”. Add in the ice, and a fresh kill, I see nothing that portends the end of the Polar Bear! Or as this guy says…
“The hell emerging in the Arctic….”
Posted by Dr. Glen Barry
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