By Kester Kenn KlomegahAugust 26, 2010 MOSCOW (IPS/IFEJ) — Environmental experts in Russia have warned that unless urgent steps are taken internationally, climatic changes combined with man-made factors could reduce the world’s population of polar bears by as much as 70 percent by 2060. The polar region — which includes the Arctic Ocean and parts […]
By Mark TamhanePosted Fri Aug 6, 2010 6:03pm AEST Polar bears, the icon of the Arctic, are under threat from the twin challenges of climate change and chemicals that are not breaking down in the region’s cold waters. Research published in the journal Science of The Total Environment shows the retreat of sea-ice in the […]
The polar bear has long been a symbol of the damage wrought by global warming, but now biologist Andrew Derocher and his colleagues have calculated how long one southerly population can hold out. Their answer? No more than a few decades, as the bears’ decline closely tracks that of the Arctic’s disappearing sea ice. No […]
Climate change will trigger a dramatic and sudden decline in the number of polar bears, a new study has concluded. The research is the first to directly model how changing climate will affect polar bear reproduction and survival. Based on what is known of polar bear physiology, behaviour and ecology, it predicts pregnancy rates […]
By John PlattMay 24, 2010 02:03 PM An extremely rare “grolar bear”–a polar bear/grizzly bear hybrid–was shot and killed by an Inuit hunter in Canada’s Northwest Territories last month. Global warming has reportedly been driving grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) further north in search of food, bringing them into polar bear (U. maritimus) territory. […]
STRANDED: With nowhere to go they stay on land, creating hazard. By KYLE HOPKINSkhopkins@adn.com Published: May 3rd, 2010 02:23 PMLast Modified: May 3rd, 2010 03:14 PM For $16 an hour, Morgan VanHatten patrolled the streets of Kaktovik in a Ford pickup last fall armed with a 12-gauge shotgun and an iPhone full of Lil Wayne. […]
Desdemona has a pretty thick skin for catastrophe and mass death, but sometimes an ultra-violent killing spree seems like the only solution. Adult Swim presents Polar Bear PaybackUPDATE: Adult Swim no longer hosts this game, but fortunately it lives on at Crazy Games: Polar Bear Payback. Thanks to reader Emily for the research!
By Fiona Harvey Published: October 30 2009 13:33 | Last updated: October 30 2009 13:33 Disko Bay lay glinting with ice on the bright afternoon we sailed in. Bergs as big as buses floated among others the size of houses. But houses from another world – these were castles and fairy grottoes, crazy monumental statues […]
By John Platt Mammals, birds and fish living in the High Arctic experienced an average 26 percent drop in their populations between 1970 and 2004 due to the loss of sea ice, according to a new report from The Arctic Species Trend Index (ASTI), Tracking Trends in Arctic Wildlife [pdf]. The 2010 report, commissioned and […]
By Louise Gray, Environment CorrespondentPublished: 12:40PM GMT 02 Mar 2010 The future looks bleak for this polar bear and her cub huddled on a rapidly shrinking iceberg 12 miles out to sea. The pair became stranded after climbing onto the chunk of ice during a expedition to hunt seals. Soon the ice floe shrank down […]