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| Are polar bear numbers declining from global warming as much as we think? Perhaps not! Read on to find out the truth! |
First of all, what is this Pamiuq Peninsula? Well, it's a relatively small peninsula, “about 200 miles north of freezing and 200 south of frostbite”, as the locals say. Pamiuq Peninsula gets its name from the Inuit (otherwise known as an Eskimo) word “Pamiuq”, which means “seal tail”, because the Inuits who first arrived in this area about 4,120 years ago thought it looked like the tail of a seal. One of the animals these Inuit pioneers encountered still strikes us with fear and wonder today, the polar bear. Polar bears began to inhabit the northern polar regions of our world around 4,150 years ago; descending from a population of brown bears, Ursus maritimus adapted to survive in one of the coldest climates on earth. Everything about the polar bear is designed to keep it alive in the frigid arctic: it has two layers of fur (one for warmth and the other to keep its body dry when swimming), black skin (which helps it to retain warmth), claws for digging through snow, catching prey or to keep them upright on slippery ice and an excellent sense of smell, capable of sniffing something out from over 20 miles away.
With all these adaptations, it makes sense that people would get worry about the polar bear's survival if global warming caused the ice and snow in their habitat to melt. Many of these alarmists, such as meteorologist Dr. Bill Manly, is quoted for saying, “Global warming...[is] a real problem that is occurring as we speak! Resent studies have concluded that if global warming doesn't stop, the sea ice in the polar regions will be gone by 2040, polar bears won't have a place to live and sea levels will rise to over 20 feet above their present level. We must act now to save our planet from [this] global crisis! Polar bears will suffer! We will suffer! The planet suffer!” But how true are these claims in regards to polar bears? Well, my trusty, junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater, and I went to Animal Adventures Institute's head zoologist (and certified ecologist) Dr. Arizona Stevenson, who was actually involved in the recent polar bear population study in Pamiuq, to find out the truth.
“In 2012,” Dr. Arizona explained, “I became involved with PESP, the Pamiuq Ecological Surveillance Project. Set up in 1985, this project started it up so that scientists could constantly keep track of how healthy the animal population is in that part of Alaska. We especially wanted to find out how the animals were doing despite threats of global warming.” And according to Dr. Arizona, the results are nonetheless surprising. One of their primary focuses was the apex predator of the region: polar bears. In order to learn how the polar bears were coping, they looked at everything: how many cubs were being birthed each year, how were the fish and seal stocks (seals are the favorite food of polar bears), and how much the climate and environment (e.g. amounts of sea ice developing each year) had changed in the past several years to see if a warming trend was visible.
Dr. Arizona is quoted for saying, “Essentially, what we found that the reports – even peer-reviewed ones – that spoke of doom for polar bear populations as sea ice vanished were a bunch of hogwash, (or rather, bear-wash).” The original studies done on polar bear populations in the Pamiuq area and the other 18 bear populations worldwide, concluded that, yes, polar bear numbers did drop...but the drop was between the years 2004 and 2006. “But what they didn't mention,” Dr. Arizona further explained, “was that polar bear numbers worldwide (especially in Davis Strait, in northeastern Canada and Pamiuq Peninsula) actually increased in 2007, and again in 2010. Yet, the decline in sea ice remained the same.” In fact, polar bear populations in Pamiuq had grown from a measly 850 bears when the research here began in the mid-80's, to over 2,100 as of last year! Talk about population BOOM! “Many people try to claim that polar bears are endangered,” Dr. Arizona says. “But they're not.” In addition to this, Dr. Arizona's team concluded that the assertions that sea ice would be absent by 2040 and that the sea levels would rise 20 feet to be unfounded.
Animal Adventures Institute's chief paleontologist Dr. Samuel Adamson, also had something to say regarding the study. “We shouldn't really be surprised to find an unstable climate,” he says, “in fact, it's been changing ever since the Genesis Flood described in Genesis 6-9 in the Bible occurred! Soon after the Flood, we find evidence of rainforests stretching as far north as Alaska and Germany, all the way down to Antarctica. It was literally a 'greenhouse earth'. Afterward, the planet got cooler and drier as the Ice Age came forth; this time in history, the earth was held in an icy grip. Enormous glaciers, some over 2,000 feet high, covered 1/3 of the total land area. Since the Flood, earth's climate has never been stable.”
Since polar bears clearly aren't threatened by global warming as we once thought, that must mean we don't need to be concerned about them, right? Dr. Arizona doesn't think so. “Polar bears are considered a vulnerable species,” Dr. Arizona explains, “meaning they could become endangered in the future if we're not careful about our actions. There are many things threatening the lives of polar bears that have nothing to do with global warming. Pollution in general, oil and gas development, habitat loss, and with some populations, illegal hunting practices, are doing these bears harm. If we want to have polar bears in our future, they must continued to be monitored and protected.”
Written by: Mr. Smiley
Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater
Edited by: Christian Ryan
For more information on how polar bear populations are really fairing, please visit the two links below:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0503/p13s01-wogi.html
https://answersingenesis.org/reviews/movies/arctic-tale-exaggerating-the-effects-of-global-warming/
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