Save the Polar Bear - Give Me a Break!

I am soooo over the Environmentalist and Al Gore (who incase you didn't know pulled one of his shots in is oh so famous movie from another movie (The Day After Tomorrow) and has semi-successfully passed that shot off as fact when it is an ENTIRELY CGI'd shot) saying that the world is getting hot, global warming, save the planet...Blah Blah Blah
But how many of the Environmentalist also believe in Evolution? Because as I understand it Evolution is part of the circle of life. Adapt or die.

"In biology, evolution is the process of change in the inherited traits of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. The genes that are passed on to an organism's offspring produce the inherited traits that are the basis of evolution. Mutations in genes can produce new or altered traits in individuals, resulting in the appearance of heritable differences between organisms, but new traits also come from the transfer of genes between populations, as in migration, or between species, in horizontal gene transfer. In species that reproduce sexually, new combinations of genes are produced by genetic recombination, which can increase the variation in traits between organisms. Evolution occurs when these heritable differences become more common or rare in a population.
There are two major mechanisms driving evolution. The first is natural selection, which is a process causing heritable traits that are helpful for survival and reproduction to become more common in a population, and harmful traits to become more rare. This occurs because individuals with advantageous traits are more likely to reproduce successfully, so that more individuals in the next generation inherit these traits.[1][2] Over many generations, adaptations occur through a combination of successive, small, random changes in traits, and natural selection of those variants best-suited for their environment.[3] In contrast, genetic drift produces random changes in the frequency of traits in a population. Genetic drift results from the role chance plays in whether a given individual will survive and reproduce. Though the changes produced in any one generation by drift and selection are small, differences accumulate with each subsequent generation and can, over time, cause substantial changes in the organisms."

While I can appricate protect a species from people hunting then, since we now have mega marts and don't need to eat them, but global warming? According to the numbers there are MORE polar bears than there were before! And there were more before than there are other animals that were taken OFF the endangered or threatened list!

"As of April 3, 2007, 41 species have been delisted; sixteen due to recovery, nine due to extinction (seven of which were extinct prior to being listed), nine due to changes in taxonomic classification, five due to discovery of new populations, one due to an error in the listing rule, and one due to an amendment to the Endangered Species Act specifically requiring the species delisting. Twenty-three others have been downlisted from "endangered" to "threatened" status

Species which increased in population size since being placed on the endangered list include:
Bald Eagle (increased from 417 to 11,040 pairs between 1963 and 2007); removed from list 2007
Whooping Crane (increased from 54 to 436 birds between 1967 and 2003)
Kirtland's Warbler (increased from 210 to 1,415 pairs between 1971 and 2005)
Peregrine Falcon (increased from 324 to 1,700 pairs between 1975 and 2000); removed from list
Gray Wolf (populations increased dramatically in the Northern Rockies, Southwest, and Great Lakes)
Gray Whale (increased from 13,095 to 26,635 whales between 1968 and 1998); removed from list
Grizzly bear (increased from about 271 to over 580 bears in the Yellowstone area between 1975 and 2005); removed from list 3/22/07
California’s Southern Sea Otter (increased from 1,789 in 1976 to 2,735 in 2005)
San Clemente Indian Paintbrush (increased from 500 plants in 1979 to more than 3,500 in 1997)
Red Wolf (increased from 17 in 1980 to 257 in 2003)
Florida's Key Deer (increased from 200 in 1971 to 750 in 2001)
Big Bend Gambusia (increased from for a couple dozen to a population of over 50,000)
Hawaiian Goose (increased from 400 birds in 1980 to 1,275 in 2003)
Virginia Big-Eared Bat (increased from 3,500 in 1979 to 18,442 in 2004)

The Polar Bear:

Warnings about the future of the polar bear are often contrasted with the fact that worldwide population estimates have increased over the past 50 years and are relatively stable today. Some estimates of the global population are around 5,000–10,000 in the early 1970s;other estimates were 20,000–40,000 during the 1980s. Current estimates put the global population at between 20,000 and 25,000.
There are several reasons for the apparent discordance between past and projected population trends: Estimates from the 1950s and 1960s were based on stories from explorers and hunters rather than on scientific surveys.] Second, controls of harvesting were introduced that allowed this previously-overhunted species to recover. Third, the recent effects of global warming have affected sea ice abundance in different areas to varying degrees.

So, all this leads me to believe that there is more to protecting the polar bear than meets the eye. What are they really worried about?

Predictions vary on the extent to which polar bears could adapt to climate change by switching to terrestrial food sources. Mitchell Taylor, the Nunavut Government Manager of Wildlife Research, wrote to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service arguing that local studies are insufficient evidence for global protection at this time. The letter stated, "At present, the polar bear is one of the best managed of the large Arctic mammals. If all Arctic nations continue to abide by the terms and intent of the Polar Bear Agreement, the future of polar bears is secure.... Clearly polar bears can adapt to climate change. They have evolved and perisisted for thousands of years in a period characterized by fluctuating climate." Ken Taylor, deputy commissioner for Alaska's Department of Fish and Game, has said, "I wouldn't be surprised if polar bears learned to feed on spawning salmon like grizzly bears."

However, many scientists consider these theories to be naive; it is noted that black and brown bears at high latitudes are smaller than elsewhere, because of the scarcity of terrestrial food resources. An additional risk to the species is that if individuals spend more time on land, they will hybridize with brown or grizzly bears.The IUCN wrote:

“Polar bears exhibit low reproductive rates with long generational spans. These factors make facultative adaptation by polar bears to significantly reduced ice coverage scenarios unlikely. Polar bears did adapt to warmer climate periods of the past. Due to their long generation time and the current greater speed of global warming, it seems unlikely that polar bear will be able to adapt to the current warming trend in the Arctic. If climatic trends continue polar bears may become extirpated from most of their range within 100 years.

they will hybridize with brown or grizzly bears. Isn't that what evolution is? So wouldn't the Polar Bears

Although it is closely related to the brown bear, it has evolved to occupy a narrow ecological niche, with many body characteristics adapted for cold temperatures, for moving across snow, ice, and open water, and for hunting the seals which make up most of its diet. As it can hunt consistently only from sea ice, the polar bear spends much of the year on the frozen sea, although most polar bears are born on land.

who is already closely related the brown bear just start doing what its cousins are doing?

In my opinion, which is all that really matters here anyway, this is just the work of the Extreme Environmentalist pushing our government to make it harder and hard to drill for oil and natural gas.
What? How are these related you ask?
Simple! There are huge oil and natural gas reserves in Alaska (where many of these oh so threatened polar bears live, hmm maybe we should just relocate them to a special reserve like we have done to other animals and people in the past) and anything that the Environmentalist can do to block more oil production and anything that would cause even one animal a headache or save a tree is a good thing in their minds!
They want to drive their solar cars (that are more than likely made light weight by some form of plastic which last I checked was made from oil) or ride their bikes (which requires some plastic as well I am sure) and live in a happy little "green" environment.

Good luck to them, I like Power, I like my car, I like Polar Bears all 25,000 of them, plus the ones in the zoo's.Sphere: Related Content