Leave The Bears Out Of It

No one at The Independent bothered to ask the bears how they're going:

The memorandum from Mr Hannon was criticised by the Natural Resources Defence Council in Washington, which wants the US Department of Interior to list the polar bear as an endangered species because of the projected loss of sea ice in the Arctic over the coming century.

Arctic sea ice and the polar bear are especially sensitive issues at present because American scientists have pointed out that the world's biggest land carnivore is unlikely to survive if the Arctic sea ice disappears in summer, which it is predicted to do by the end of the century.

Poor bears, whatever will they do without their ice?

Pictures of a polar bear floating precariously on a tiny iceberg have become the defining image of global warming but may be misleading, according to a new study.

A survey of the animals' numbers in Canada's eastern Arctic has revealed that they are thriving, not declining, because of mankind's interference in the environment.

In the Davis Strait area, a 140,000-square kilometre region, the polar bear population has grown from 850 in the mid-1980s to 2,100 today.

"There aren't just a few more bears. There are a hell of a lot more bears," said Mitch Taylor, a polar bear biologist who has spent 20 years studying the animals.

Stupid bears, they didn't get the heads-up to drop dead with the rising mercury. In fact, did anyone bother to ask the bears?

Oh yeah, 60 Minutes did, and proved without a shadow of a doubt....Polar Bears don't like Tara Brown!

(S)omething drastically wrong with the world's weather. It came in the shape of a very large, very hungry polar bear - an angry predator, with us as its prey. Stranded in the middle of nowhere with a three-metre, 300kg bear on the attack is a frightening experience. It's also a graphic lesson in what happens when we mess with nature. As global temperatures rise, the ice cap melts and the polar bears' hunting grounds disappear. Now they're starving, desperate for food - so desperate even humans look appetising.

Oh, brother.