Viral 1 hour ago Controversy swirls around viral video of starving polar bear

[Xarkan]

What do you think?

I think Amstrup sounds like some surname from Jutland

Oh you meant what do people think that is relevant?

Using examples and claiming global warming if there is not certainty that its true muddies the waters and get used by wannadonothings to claim global warming itself is not real, not a good practice.

[Krastyn]

They probably could BUT they have instincts so they wont, you can't expect a bear to make an "intelligent" decision in that regard.

Also many polar bears live in area where there are no such animals to hunt.

Well, speaking for Canada:

Caribou:
https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ab/ban...592&h=387&as=1

And for bonus points, see:
https://polarbearfacts.net/do-polar-bears-eat-caribou/

Consider yourself educated.
Polar bears:
https://polarbearfacts.net/do-polar-bears-eat-caribou/

[Dr Assbandit]

No.

Using the image of a starving polar bear to endorse global warming is dishonest and works great to discredit global warming defenders.

What's dishonest is conservatives almost pathological need to blatantly oppose anything even remotely related to global warming regardless of how much proof, facts, and research you throw their way.

Citing this video as proof that global warming exists is akin to bringing a snowball in congress to disprove global warming . Even if the video is posturing at least there is actually a chance that global warming possibly affected the bear.

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It's just nature. You can search for Pictures of Polar Bears from the same Region and they are fat and healthy. The Region also has a fairly regular Thaw/Freeze cycle throughout the year.

Is Climate Change real? Yeah.
Is it what made this bear Starve? I highly doubt it.

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Hide yo Picanic Baskets Y'all.

Pretty sure Yogi is a grizzly bear or at least supposed to be. Grizzlies are known to wear hats and ties in the wild and usually have tiny bear sidekicks. Mother Nature is amazing.

[Prothynyas]

bears live and bears die , its the circle of life ...

[Deleted]

The video isn't proof of anything for this polar bear, no one can say with certainty without having seen its history. That doesn't mean polar bears aren't affected by the effects of changing temperatures. I don't think it's a good idea to use something that isn't concrete as evidence of global warming, it just gives people excuses to deny it and undermines all other efforts.

[tankbug]

Quite frankly I'm sick about the discussion about climate change.
It's politicized to degree that makes it impossible to have a rational discussion about it.
Is climate change real? Yes it is. Look at historical data and watch the climate fluctuate.
Is man-made climate change real? Who knows... to my knowledge there is currently no scientific proof that the happening climate change is man-made. Are there indicators that it might be? Sure. Quite a lot of them. But real mathematical/physical proof? Not there.
Sadly the discussion what to do about the first point is connected to the second one and any discussion deteriorates quickly because of opinions on the second point.
We can reduce emissions as much as we want. Sooner or later those coast cities are going to sink no matter what. And not one nation has plans in place what to do when that happens.
(Except watching the economy tank, mass homelessness, civil unrest... fun times are coming)

Why do you say they don't have proof, when they say they have proof? Are you smarter than all the climate scientists?

[Vankrys]

bears live and bears die , its the circle of life ...

i tend to agree, but in the case of polar bears, their population are decreasing and the species is on "vulnerable" status.
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/polar-bear
While species have gone extinct in the past, if we reasonably can do something to prevent it, we should do it.

This is real life, not Jurassic park, we cannot revive an extinct species, we should try to preserve it, and i mean in the wild, not in zoo.

[Ishayu]

/shrug

Regardless polar bears are starving due to global warming

Yeah, no. Both Seal and Polar Bear populations are rising and have been since the mid 70'ies.

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i tend to agree, but in the case of polar bears, their population are decreasing and the species is on "vulnerable" status.
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/polar-bear
While species have gone extinct in the past, if we reasonably can do something to prevent it, we should do it.

This is real life, not Jurassic park, we cannot revive an extinct species, we should try to preserve it, and i mean in the wild, not in zoo.

That website doesn't say that. It wants to imply that, but it can't without lying, so it suggests it by saying that 3 of 18 populations are in decline and fails to mention the other 15 populations, so you can "draw your own conclusion" that they're all declining, even though the overall population is going up.

[Vankrys]

Quite frankly I'm sick about the discussion about climate change.
It's politicized to degree that makes it impossible to have a rational discussion about it.
Is climate change real? Yes it is. Look at historical data and watch the climate fluctuate.
Is man-made climate change real? Who knows... to my knowledge there is currently no scientific proof that the happening climate change is man-made. Are there indicators that it might be? Sure. Quite a lot of them. But real mathematical/physical proof? Not there.
Sadly the discussion what to do about the first point is connected to the second one and any discussion deteriorates quickly because of opinions on the second point.
We can reduce emissions as much as we want. Sooner or later those coast cities are going to sink no matter what. And not one nation has plans in place what to do when that happens.
(Except watching the economy tank, mass homelessness, civil unrest... fun times are coming)

I'm also sick about the political discussion about climate change. Politician that think they know more about science, climatology than scientist themselves. Donald Trump said once that he "reviewed" the data on human made climate change and didn't see any evidence.

I mean, what are Donald Trump credential on the matter? where is his PhD in any natural science like chemistry or physics?

For christ sake, the US have some of the most prestigious university of the world, has more nobel prize winners than any other country and state of the art researchers and research facility. And the US choose to ignore the very bright scientist it produces for political reasons.

At least be honest, say stuff like climate change is happening but we don't care because it won't affect our generation. That is honest and probably the truth.

[Super Kami Dende]

What's dishonest is conservatives almost pathological need to blatantly oppose anything even remotely related to global warming regardless of how much proof, facts, and research you throw their way.

That's not wholly true. I think at most like 10% of the "conservative" people I know actually oppose Climate change. Many believe it is a problem, but feel some people hyperbole it horribly. Case in point, this Polar Bear story.

Hell I've got just as many "liberal" friends that are also wary of hyperboling Climate Change.

[Nivena]

At least be honest, say stuff like climate change is happening but we don't care because it won't affect our generation. That is honest and probably the truth.

Yes, that's also what really drives me up the wall sometimes. I study Atmospheric & Climate Science and have to deal with this nearly every day. It is way more constructive if people admit they do not care about it than discredit the work of scientist without even knowing the basics about it.

Sadly most people just don't have the guts to openly admit it.

[Ishayu]

Yes, that's also what really drives me up the wall sometimes. I study Atmospheric & Climate Science and have to deal with this nearly every day. It is way more constructive if people admit they do not care about it than discredit the work of scientist without even knowing the basics about it.

Sadly most people just don't have the guts to openly admit it.

You folk are trying to model a chaotic system using stochastic models, and that model has feedbacks greater than 1. Anyone who knows a shred about mathematics can immediately tell that your models are completely wrong as a result, but they don't have a better approximation and the climate was warming for a while, lending credibility to the idea that the globe is warming.

This is generally the situation with climate science. The models are obviously wrong, and every climate scientist worth his salt knows that, but it's obviously important, and you have models that are somewhere in the ballpark - well some of them are anyway. However, because so many of the arguments are so unconvincing, opinions have been drawn along political lines, and there's a sizable number of people who disbelieve you, and with good reason.

Don't blame them. Do better science.

[ParanoiD84]

Sad as fuck.

[Shadee]

That bear is fine.

[Deleted]

Because seals are easier and in a larger supply. If they hunted moose however they would need to hunt less, since moose are much larger then seals

You're aware bears are ambush hunters, they can't chase moose and if there's no snow they have no camouflage. The success chance of successfully killing a moose is so low that it isn't a viable lifetime food source, especially for cubs

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Here I can quote the internet as well: https://polarbearscience.com/2017/02...-almost-30000/

Yes somebody already linked that dubious article

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Yeah, no. Both Seal and Polar Bear populations are rising and have been since the mid 70'ies.

It's a myth

https://www.newscientist.com/article...re-increasing/

[Ishayu]

It's a myth

https://www.newscientist.com/article...re-increasing/

That's funny, that article directly contradicts with WWF on 2 counts: The number of groups in decline, and whether or not there is an overall known decline right now or we just don't know.

Either way, the latest figures I heard was 30,000, which would be up from the 25,000 at the end of the 1970'ies. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but regardless it doesn't appear as if you, or even the WWF or the New Scientist, know. According to the science, nobody actually knows for sure, but I had heard it was slightly on the up. It was probably a false rumour, but there's just as little basis for saying they're in decline, which is why it annoys me that people are campaigning for this. I'm not campaigning for killing polar bears - I'm indifferent.

Sadly the best I've got is a friend who hunts in Greenland. No, he doesn't hunt bears, but he does stumble upon them, and he can't say he's noticed decline. I know that's anecdotal and anonymous, but the simple answer is we don't know. We now have 3 sources contradicting each other, all 3 admitting they're very unsure.

[Deleted]

That's funny, that article directly contradicts with WWF on 2 counts: The number of groups in decline, and whether or not there is an overall known decline right now or we just don't know.

Either way, the latest figures I heard was 30,000, which would be up from the 25,000 at the end of the 1970'ies. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but regardless it doesn't appear as if you, or even the WWF or the New Scientist, know.

Sadly the best I've got is a friend who hunts in Greenland. No, he doesn't hunt bears, but he does stumble upon them, and he can't say he's noticed decline. I know that's anecdotal and anonymous, but the simple answer is we don't know. We now have 3 sources contradicting each other, all 3 admitting they're very unsure.

What it says is only certain polar bears (unaffected by global warming) are on the increase whereas the estimate is other polar bears will decline and are. WWF does state some are more vulnerable than others

[Krastyn]

Yawn.

You realize that Polar Bears exists other places than North America right?

Sorry, one of my links was doubled.

Here's the polar bear map:
http://animalfactguide.com/wp-conten..._polarbear.png

Here's the Canadain caribou map again:
https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ab/ban...592&h=387&as=1

And here's Russia / Scandinavia:
http://www.theanimalfiles.com/images/reindeer_range.jpg

Iceland:
https://www.icelandairhotels.com/mag...er-iceland-mag

So yeah, there are caribou in 90% of the locations polar bears are at. You really shouldn't be so smug when you're wrong.

[Deleted]

Sorry, one of my links was doubled.

Here's the polar bear map:
http://animalfactguide.com/wp-conten..._polarbear.png

Here's the Canadain caribou map again:
https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ab/ban...592&h=387&as=1

And here's Russia / Scandinavia:
http://www.theanimalfiles.com/images/reindeer_range.jpg

Iceland:
https://www.icelandairhotels.com/mag...er-iceland-mag

So yeah, there are caribou in 90% of the locations polar bears are at. You really shouldn't be so smug when you're wrong.

And polar bears are not biologically designed to chase down caribou

[igualitarist]

What's dishonest is conservatives almost pathological need to blatantly oppose anything even remotely related to global warming regardless of how much proof, facts, and research you throw their way.

This video is not even a proof or evidence, so using it to prove global warming is dishonest and will only give ammunition to global warming deniers, with reason. And the thread is about this video, not about other proofs or evidences.

People may think: If global warming is real, than whats the reason to appeal to emotion in such dishonest way ?

Citing this video as proof that global warming exists is akin to bringing a snowball in congress to disprove global warming . Even if the video is posturing at least there is actually a chance that global warming possibly affected the bear.

Yeah, just like theres a chance that snowball was formed due to global freezing. /facapalm

Its absurdly arbitrary saying that bear was affected by global warming considering polar bear population is increasing in a rate higher than we expected, and that malnutrition has always been a major cause of death for polar bears.