The current scientific consensus places the worldwide polar bear population between 20,000 and 25,000 animals, more polar bears than existed prior to the 1973 International Agreement worldwide restriction on polar bear hunting.
"This is the time the Inuit call 'The one with most bears'," Taylor says.
Harvesting of polar bears reduced their number (credit: Mike Beauregard / CC by 2.0)
Harvesting of polar bears reduced their number (credit: Mike Beauregard / CC by 2.0)
Derocher doesn't dispute the numbers but argues they don't tell the whole story.
Back in the early 1800s there was commercial harvesting of polar bears, which led to a steady decline in their numbers, he says. The numbers may have increased since the hunting restrictions but they are still greatly depleted from pre-hunting levels.
A population can't be healthy for long if its cubs aren't surviving
In the Hudson Bay, when Derocher first started doing research in the region there were 1200 bears. Now there are barely 800. "The current status is the numbers have dropped by about a third," Derocher says. "It certainly doesn't seem like it's on a continuous precipitous climb."
Overall, the number of bears that scientists can adequately monitor appears to be on a downward trajectory, Derocher says.
And what about the health of the bears? Research shows that the bears are becoming leaner and that fewer cubs are being born and surviving in the western Hudson Bay. "A population can't be healthy for long if its cubs aren't surviving," Amstrup says.
Bears in higher latitudes are thriving (credit: NOAA / CC by 2.0)
Bears in higher latitudes are thriving (credit: NOAA / CC by 2.0)
Not all the bear populations are suffering though, Amstrup says. Bears in the higher latitudes, such as those in the Davis Strait, are thriving. With warming, annual ice cover replaces the thick multilayer ice, making it more suitable for seals, the polar bears' main food supply. "We think that maybe many of the populations are still doing OK and we aren't seeing those effects yet," Amstrup says. "But you could liken it to the passengers on the Titanic. They were fat and happy until the Titanic slipped under the waves."
None of us in the polar bear community are standing up and saying it is a catastrophe right now, what we are talking about is the threat for the future
Current bear population numbers aren't really the problem. It is what is going to happen to bears in the future, Derocher says. He cites the international standard to consider conservation of a species, that of using the "three generation rule" looking forward in time. For polar bears, three generations is somewhere in the 36- to 45-year timeframe. In this timeframe, scientists predict rapid declines in sea ice.
Amstrup agrees. "There are none of us in the polar bear community that are standing up and saying it is a catastrophe right now, what we are talking about is the threat for the future," Amstrup says. "In the places where the ice has dramatically changed, we are seeing effects and, if we allow those changes to continue on to the higher latitudes, then it will affect all polar bears."
Does the past predict the future?
An additional argument against polar bear extinction lies in the theory that, as a species, polar bears have already survived warming periods. Using molecular genetics, Matthew Cronin, a genetics professor at the University of Alaska, in Fairbanks, US determined that polar bears split from brown bears, and became an independent species, about 1.2 million years ago.
Brown and polar bears were once close (credit: NPS Photo / Ken Conger / CC by 2.0)
Brown and polar bears were once close (credit: NPS Photo / Ken Conger / CC by 2.0)
"These results, combined with the fossil record, indicate that polar bears have been around as polar bears for at least 125,000 and maybe as long as several million years," Cronin says. "That means they've survived their loss of habitat previously so they could very well survive loss of their habitat in the future."
It is a theory that Taylor also embraces, and one that Amstrup is quick to counteract. "We don't have any evidence that polar bears have experienced anything more than about a degree and a half temperature rise during their whole evolutionary history," Amstrup says.
And, according to most of the predictive models we will be close to 2 degrees Celsius warmer for a global mean temperature within 50 years, and certainly within 100 years, Amstrup says. "Polar bears just simply haven't experienced warming like this," he says.
It makes it ridiculous for some people to say they have survived warm periods in the past so they'll survive warm periods now
Taylor argues that polar bears could survive warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius although he seems unable to articulate exactly how they would do that on an ice-less tundra. "I am not one of those that think that polar bears can just adapt to a terrestrial environment and eat goose eggs and vegetation and other carrion that they might find," Taylor says, "but I do think they would survive."
But how could they survive temperatures even warmer still? Such as 2 degrees Celsius? Taylor argues polar bears wouldn't see them. "I think that the climate models have exaggerated the warming that we are going to see from fossil fuels," he says.
Could polar bears do well ashore? (credit: Emma / CC by 2.0)
Could polar bears do well ashore? (credit: Emma / CC by 2.0)
And consequently, although some polar bear populations would suffer, there wouldn't be dramatic declines in numbers across all the populations, Taylor says. "Declines would be slow and incremental and we'd have to do adaptive management in these populations," he says. "Then when fossil fuels stopped being burned the planet would get cooler again."
But it is not just the extent of warming, it is the speed at which warming would take place that poses a problem, Amstrup says. It took nearly 10,000 years to raise temperatures by 1 degree Celsius in the last interglacial period, he says. But the warming now is taking place over decades, leaving polar bears little time to adapt to the changing conditions.
"It makes it ridiculous for some people to say they have survived warm periods in the past so they'll survive warm periods now," Amstrup says. "It is a totally different ball game now."
Bears as the fuzzy face of climate change
In reality, any argument about polar bear extinction reveals itself as being more about climate change than the extinction of the bears themselves.
"The polar bear is the fuzzy face of climate change," Amstrup says. "So a lot of people who don't believe that global warming is occurring, or deny that it is going to be a problem, like to cherry pick different things about polar bears, because if they can make it look like polar bears will be OK then by proxy they are kind of saying 'we don't have to worry about global warming'."
It is really quite simple and I come back to it time and time again: It's just the habitat loss issue
Taylor professed that he believed that climate warming and sea ice loss are reality. But closer inspection reveals that, in 2008, he signed the Manhattan Declaration on climate change, which argued that there was no conclusive evidence that emissions from industrial activity were causing climate change. However, Taylor's feelings for the bears he worked with for more than 30 years are evident.
There's consensus that sea ice is disappearing (credit: Susanne Nilsson / CC by 2.0)
There's consensus that sea ice is disappearing (credit: Susanne Nilsson / CC by 2.0)
"I don't think anyone has ever worked on polar bears who wouldn't rather cut off their arm than say something to harm polar bears, or let his personal feelings or his career interfere with getting what he thought was the best information out there for polar bears," Taylor says.
"I think that we all want to believe that things aren't so bad," Amstrup says.
That could be why, although the science doesn't appear to back up bear extinction denialist theories, so much media space and public attention is given them.
But, if we move the distraction of climate wrestling aside: What about the bears? Will the bears be around in 50 or 100 years' time?
Other areas in the Arctic and sub-Arctic that have sea ice in winter, but don't have polar bears, tell the story, Derocher says. In such regions the ice doesn't persist for long enough each year to sustain polar bears, he says. He points to areas in the southern parts of Norway and Sweden where the fossil records show that bears existed about 11,000 years ago. But now these regions are both ice free and bear free.
"It is really quite simple and I come back to it time and time again: It's just the habitat loss issue," Derocher says. "If there's not enough ice, we won't have bears. I think it's very clear that we're going to lose the vast majority of them, not within my lifetime, but certainly within the lifetime of children of mine.
The current scientific consensus places the worldwide polar bear population between 20,000 and 25,000 animals, more polar bears than existed prior to the 1973 International Agreement worldwide restriction on polar bear hunting.
"This is the time the Inuit call 'The one with most bears'," Taylor says.
Harvesting of polar bears reduced their number (credit: Mike Beauregard / CC by 2.0)
Harvesting of polar bears reduced their number (credit: Mike Beauregard / CC by 2.0)
Derocher doesn't dispute the numbers but argues they don't tell the whole story.
Back in the early 1800s there was commercial harvesting of polar bears, which led to a steady decline in their numbers, he says. The numbers may have increased since the hunting restrictions but they are still greatly depleted from pre-hunting levels.
A population can't be healthy for long if its cubs aren't surviving
In the Hudson Bay, when Derocher first started doing research in the region there were 1200 bears. Now there are barely 800. "The current status is the numbers have dropped by about a third," Derocher says. "It certainly doesn't seem like it's on a continuous precipitous climb."
Overall, the number of bears that scientists can adequately monitor appears to be on a downward trajectory, Derocher says.
And what about the health of the bears? Research shows that the bears are becoming leaner and that fewer cubs are being born and surviving in the western Hudson Bay. "A population can't be healthy for long if its cubs aren't surviving," Amstrup says.
Bears in higher latitudes are thriving (credit: NOAA / CC by 2.0)
Bears in higher latitudes are thriving (credit: NOAA / CC by 2.0)
Not all the bear populations are suffering though, Amstrup says. Bears in the higher latitudes, such as those in the Davis Strait, are thriving. With warming, annual ice cover replaces the thick multilayer ice, making it more suitable for seals, the polar bears' main food supply. "We think that maybe many of the populations are still doing OK and we aren't seeing those effects yet," Amstrup says. "But you could liken it to the passengers on the Titanic. They were fat and happy until the Titanic slipped under the waves."
None of us in the polar bear community are standing up and saying it is a catastrophe right now, what we are talking about is the threat for the future
Current bear population numbers aren't really the problem. It is what is going to happen to bears in the future, Derocher says. He cites the international standard to consider conservation of a species, that of using the "three generation rule" looking forward in time. For polar bears, three generations is somewhere in the 36- to 45-year timeframe. In this timeframe, scientists predict rapid declines in sea ice.
Amstrup agrees. "There are none of us in the polar bear community that are standing up and saying it is a catastrophe right now, what we are talking about is the threat for the future," Amstrup says. "In the places where the ice has dramatically changed, we are seeing effects and, if we allow those changes to continue on to the higher latitudes, then it will affect all polar bears."
Does the past predict the future?
An additional argument against polar bear extinction lies in the theory that, as a species, polar bears have already survived warming periods. Using molecular genetics, Matthew Cronin, a genetics professor at the University of Alaska, in Fairbanks, US determined that polar bears split from brown bears, and became an independent species, about 1.2 million years ago.
Brown and polar bears were once close (credit: NPS Photo / Ken Conger / CC by 2.0)
Brown and polar bears were once close (credit: NPS Photo / Ken Conger / CC by 2.0)
"These results, combined with the fossil record, indicate that polar bears have been around as polar bears for at least 125,000 and maybe as long as several million years," Cronin says. "That means they've survived their loss of habitat previously so they could very well survive loss of their habitat in the future."
It is a theory that Taylor also embraces, and one that Amstrup is quick to counteract. "We don't have any evidence that polar bears have experienced anything more than about a degree and a half temperature rise during their whole evolutionary history," Amstrup says.
And, according to most of the predictive models we will be close to 2 degrees Celsius warmer for a global mean temperature within 50 years, and certainly within 100 years, Amstrup says. "Polar bears just simply haven't experienced warming like this," he says.
It makes it ridiculous for some people to say they have survived warm periods in the past so they'll survive warm periods now
Taylor argues that polar bears could survive warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius although he seems unable to articulate exactly how they would do that on an ice-less tundra. "I am not one of those that think that polar bears can just adapt to a terrestrial environment and eat goose eggs and vegetation and other carrion that they might find," Taylor says, "but I do think they would survive."
But how could they survive temperatures even warmer still? Such as 2 degrees Celsius? Taylor argues polar bears wouldn't see them. "I think that the climate models have exaggerated the warming that we are going to see from fossil fuels," he says.
Could polar bears do well ashore? (credit: Emma / CC by 2.0)
Could polar bears do well ashore? (credit: Emma / CC by 2.0)
And consequently, although some polar bear populations would suffer, there wouldn't be dramatic declines in numbers across all the populations, Taylor says. "Declines would be slow and incremental and we'd have to do adaptive management in these populations," he says. "Then when fossil fuels stopped being burned the planet would get cooler again."
But it is not just the extent of warming, it is the speed at which warming would take place that poses a problem, Amstrup says. It took nearly 10,000 years to raise temperatures by 1 degree Celsius in the last interglacial period, he says. But the warming now is taking place over decades, leaving polar bears little time to adapt to the changing conditions.
"It makes it ridiculous for some people to say they have survived warm periods in the past so they'll survive warm periods now," Amstrup says. "It is a totally different ball game now."
Bears as the fuzzy face of climate change
In reality, any argument about polar bear extinction reveals itself as being more about climate change than the extinction of the bears themselves.
"The polar bear is the fuzzy face of climate change," Amstrup says. "So a lot of people who don't believe that global warming is occurring, or deny that it is going to be a problem, like to cherry pick different things about polar bears, because if they can make it look like polar bears will be OK then by proxy they are kind of saying 'we don't have to worry about global warming'."
It is really quite simple and I come back to it time and time again: It's just the habitat loss issue
Taylor professed that he believed that climate warming and sea ice loss are reality. But closer inspection reveals that, in 2008, he signed the Manhattan Declaration on climate change, which argued that there was no conclusive evidence that emissions from industrial activity were causing climate change. However, Taylor's feelings for the bears he worked with for more than 30 years are evident.
There's consensus that sea ice is disappearing (credit: Susanne Nilsson / CC by 2.0)
There's consensus that sea ice is disappearing (credit: Susanne Nilsson / CC by 2.0)
"I don't think anyone has ever worked on polar bears who wouldn't rather cut off their arm than say something to harm polar bears, or let his personal feelings or his career interfere with getting what he thought was the best information out there for polar bears," Taylor says.
"I think that we all want to believe that things aren't so bad," Amstrup says.
That could be why, although the science doesn't appear to back up bear extinction denialist theories, so much media space and public attention is given them.
But, if we move the distraction of climate wrestling aside: What about the bears? Will the bears be around in 50 or 100 years' time?
Other areas in the Arctic and sub-Arctic that have sea ice in winter, but don't have polar bears, tell the story, Derocher says. In such regions the ice doesn't persist for long enough each year to sustain polar bears, he says. He points to areas in the southern parts of Norway and Sweden where the fossil records show that bears existed about 11,000 years ago. But now these regions are both ice free and bear free.
"It is really quite simple and I come back to it time and time again: It's just the habitat loss issue," Derocher says. "If there's not enough ice, we won't have bears. I think it's very clear that we're going to lose the vast majority of them, not within my lifetime, but certainly within the lifetime of children of mine.
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