Yes, but how will they ever know?

From Reuters:

Polar bear populations are likely to fall by more than 30 percent by around mid-century as global warming thaws Arctic sea ice, experts said on Thursday in the most detailed review of the predators to date.

The report, by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), estimated there are between 22,000 and 31,000 polar bears in the Arctic and said they will be increasingly vulnerable as their habitat shrinks.

"Feed the bears"

Barkingly insane reader's letter from yesterday's Metro:

Copycat killing?

From the BBC:

A polar bear has mauled a 17-year-old British boy to death in the Arctic and left four other UK tourists badly hurt. A party of 80 mainly 16 to 23-year-olds were on a trip with the British Schools Exploring Society near a glacier on the remote Norwegian island of Svalbard...

I wonder whether politicians and journalists will describe this as the action of a mentally disturbed right-wing extremist.

UPDATE; Chuckles refers us to this article, adding "Pierre Gosselin notes an interesting legal wrinkle. Don't let the cows twig on to this one." Actually, AFAIAA, if you were to shoot a cow in England, that counts as damage to the farmer's property so unless you did in self-defence, you would be in (very mild) trouble.

Terrible news for arctic seals!

... it seems that the bloody polar bears aren't dying out after all*:

"There are 19 populations of polar bears on the planet. At present we know that eight are decreasing, three are stable, seven we are not sure about, and the only one we know for sure that is growing is in Canada. But in my opinion the bear numbers in Svalbard are increasing."

* Which we all knew a year ago.

Sarah Palin for Vice President (2)

Neil Craig explains why.

Ian_QT looks at that Bizarre Sarah Palin Rumour.

"Polar Bears are not dying out"

Yup, it's official.

"Zoo to hand rear polar bear cub"

Here's a not-particularly-interesting-story about polar bears in a German zoo.

So what's the relevance?

It has been alleged that "the polar bear is the first animal to become endangered because of global warming". Er ... given that the average temperature in a German zoo is far higher than it ever will be in the Arctic Circle (unless they keep the bears in a fridge with a glass door) and they seem to be surviving in a German zoo perfectly well, doesn't this dispel the whole myth at a stroke?

As the second article to which I have linked points out:

1. We have absolutely no idea how many polar bears there are, in other words, we have absolutely no way of telling whether numbers are increasing or decreasing.

2. Polar bears seem to live off seals. In winter they catch them through holes in the ice, in summer they catch them off beaches. In other words, even if the ice disappeared, it wouldn't make much difference.

3. The range of temperatures that polar bears can endure is collossal - from a staggering minus 90 degrees C to plus 25 degrees C. If, in future, the Arctic were to warm by five degrees, is it not likely that bears will learn to adapt to temperatures ranging between minus 85 and plus 30? Methinks yes.