Bears: Judge Rejects Sarah Palin On Global Warming

[lakhota]

Judge Rejects Sarah Palin On Global Warming, Keeps Polar Bears On Threatened List

In 2008, the U.S. government placed the polar bear on the threatened species list because of the rapid decline in Arctic sea ice, becoming “the first to be designated as threatened because of global warming.”

But in 2008, media mega-star Sarah Palin was still the governor of Alaska. Fearing that protecting the polar bear would “cripple oil and gas development” off Alaska’s coasts, Palin — a well-worn climate science denier — sued the government to remove the species from the list. Palin pointed to the high population of polar bears in 2008 and dismissed climate models that predict continued loss of sea ice as “unreliable,” “uncertain,” and “unproven.”

But U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan backed the government scientists’ finding this week “that global warming is threatening the survival of the polar bear.” In a 116-page opinion, Sullivan dismissed Palin and hunting groups’ arguments as “nothing more than competing views about policy and science” and ruled on the side of science:


Notwithstanding a handful of references to uncertainty that appear in record documents, Joint Plaintiffs have failed to persuade this Court that FWS [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] implemented the ESA [Endangered Species Act] “haphazardly.” Accordingly, the Court concludes that FWS did not act arbitrarily in relying on and drawing reasonable conclusions from the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] reports and climate models in making its listing determination for the polar bear.

Under the judge’s ruling, the polar bear is still listed as “threatened,” not “endangered,” on the endangered species list. The U.S. Justice Department stated yesterday that “it was pleased that the court agreed with its argument that the decision was based on the science available at the time.”

The Center for Biological Diversity, however, noted after the decision that “even if polar bears could be considered only threatened in 2008, they are clearly endangered today.” While the estimated population of Arctic polar bears in 2008 stood at 20,000 to 25,000, the U.S. Geological Survey predicted that “two thirds of the world’s polar bears will disappear in the next 50 years because of a decline in Arctic sea ice.” Indeed, “climate change has turned some polar bears into cannibals as global warming melts their Arctic ice hunting grounds.”

Regardless of the facts, Palin said in a 2009 op-ed that she “took a stand against politicized science” in this case and “stood by my view that adding a healthy species to the endangered list under the guise of ‘climate change impacts’ was an abuse of the Endangered Species Act.”

thinkprogress.org/green/2011/07/01/259129/judge-rejects-palin-polar-bears/

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

It's going to take a long time to reverse the brainwashing of so many people by the watermelons. Arctic sea ice is growing and the polar bear population has exploded. How many people do you thing (let along the dopes at the "center for biological diversity")

[Deleted]

I've read antarctic is increasing... do you have a source regarding the artic sea ice levels increasing? Because last i heard was the trend towards record flooding due to melting... Thanks for the link.

[djAdvocate]

Jul 2, 2011 8:28:09 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

It's going to take a long time to reverse the brainwashing of so many people by the watermelons. Arctic sea ice is growing and the polar bear population has exploded. How many people do you thing (let along the dopes at the "center for biological diversity")

link, please.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

It took me awhile to dig it up because the news is so old. I'm not going to make it my mission to explain the Earth is round here. At some point, the average person that wants to have a discussion with me is going to have to take personal responsibility for keeping abreast of the facts. Here's one source:

www.dailytech.com/Arctic+Sees+Massive+Gain+in+Ice+Coverage/article12851.htm

Increase twice the size of Germany: "colder weather" to blame.


Data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has indicated a dramatic increase in sea ice extent in the Arctic regions. The growth over the past year covers an area of 700,000 square kilometers: an amount twice the size the nation of Germany.

With the Arctic melting season over for 2008, ice cover will continue to increase until melting begins anew next spring.

The data is for August 2008 and indicates a total sea ice area of six million square kilometers. Ice extent for the same month in 2007 covered 5.3 million square kilometers, a historic low. Earlier this year, media accounts were rife with predictions that this year would again see a new record. Instead, the Arctic has seen a gain of about thirteen percent.

William Chapman, a researcher with the Arctic Climate Research Center at the University of Illinois, tells DailyTech that this year the Arctic was "definitely colder" than 2007. Chapman also says part of the reason for the large ice loss in 2007 was strong winds from Siberia, which affect both ice formation and drift, forcing ice into warmer waters where it melts.

Earlier predictions were also wrong because researchers thought thinner ice would melt faster in subsequent years. Instead, according to the NSIDC, the new ice had less snow coverage to insulate it from the bitterly cold air, resulting in a faster rate of ice growth.

Most concern has focused on the Arctic regions, rather than Antarctica. Recent research has indicated Antarctica is on a long-term cooling trend, for reasons which remain unclear.

Earlier this year, concerns over global warming led the US to officially list the polar bear a threatened species, over objections from experts who claimed the animal's numbers were increasing.

I suppose that you also don't know the famous image of the polar bear on the allegedly melting ice is a proven hoax, either? Am I gonna have to dig that up, too?

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Fine. Here ya go:

newsbusters.org/node/11879

Remember that wonderful picture of stranded polar bears on an ice floe that were used by folks like soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore to demonstrate how dire the man-made global warming issue is?

Well, ABC television in Australia, on a show called “Media Watch,” recently debunked the entire issue (video available here, h/t NB member dscott).

It turns out -- as NewBuster Jake Gontesky reported on March 20 -- the picture was taken in August, “when every year the fringes of the Arctic ice cap melt regardless of the wider effects of global warming.”

The photographer, Australian marine biology student Amanda Byrd, didn’t think the bears were in any jeopardy:

They did not appear to be in danger…I did not see the bears get on the ice, and I did not see them get off. I cannot say either way if they were stranded or not.

Denis Simard of Environment Canada agreed:

You have to keep in mind that the bears are not in danger at all. This is a perfect picture for climate change…you have the impression they are in the middle of the ocean and they are going to die...But they were not that far from the coast, and it was possible for them to swim...They are still alive and having fun.

How delicious. Think this kind of broadcast would ever happen in America?

[djAdvocate]

paul- the reason that i asked is that i have heard a research biologist who has studied this issue extensively say that the PB will be dead (or no longer in it's natural habitat, as he put it) in half a century due to ice shelf depletion. that report was picked up by National Geographic.

so, now i am in a position of weighing this information with what you just posted. are you done considering the other research? and if so, why?

i should also add that i am not that concerned with what happens from year to year, but with the overall trend.