Polar bear habitat update: Eastern Canada ice well above normal, lots of sea ice worldwide
Polar bear habitat update: Eastern Canada well above normal, lots of sea ice worldwide
Sea ice in at least three Eastern Canadian polar bear subpopulations is well above normal for this time of year, which means many bears are likely not ashore yet. The same is true in the Beaufort and Barents Seas – ice is melting but there is still a fair amount of sea ice close to popular shores. Cause for cheering, not raising alarms. Southern Hudson Bay, Foxe Basin, and Davis Strait, all have above average sea ice coverage, according to the Canadian Ice Service (see charts below). Sea ice concentration in Canadian waters at 23 July 2015. Canadian Ice Service. Click to enlarge. Hudson Bay ice levels are particularly striking: the anomaly map below (“departure from normal”) is almost entirely blue (positive), showing how far it is above average. No wonder supply ships needed icebreaker help yesterday to get into Inukjuak on the eastern shore. Most of the ice is technically in the Southern Hudson Bay polar bear subpopulation region, which has a stable population. Departure from normal sea ice concentration on Hudson Bay for 20 July 2015. Click to enlarge. Southern Hudson Bay polar bear subpopulation region defined (IUCN PBSG) – compare to sea ice map above. Many Western Hudson Bay bears will likely leave the ice further southeast than usual and will have to walk north to the Churchill area in the fall to find their preferred denning areas or take advantage of the early-forming ice that will allow them to resume hunting: IUCN PGSG SHB boundary Graphs for Hudson Bay (SH and WH), Davis Strait, Foxe Basin and the Beaufort Sea below, click to enlarge – all regions where polar bears have been doing well (stable or increasing). Most of the popular denning areas on the east side of Svalbard, and around Franz Josef Land in Russia, still have sea ice (courtesy the Norwegian Ice Service): Overall, sea ice worldwide (courtesy NSIDC MASIE):
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Patrick J. Michaels testifies before the Committee of Natural Resources
Patrick J. Michaels testifies before the Committee of Natural Resources at the hearing “An Analysis of the Obama Administration’s Social Cost of Carbon”
Climatologist Dr. Pat Michaels writes: In his introductory remarks, Congressman Lowenthal (D-NY) went on the usual these-witnesses-are-climate-deniers rant. As I was the next speaker, I re-wrote my oral testimony to point out, in three spots, that people who did not recognize the low-sensitivity papers, or the huge disparity between the midtropospheric observed and modeled data, […]
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Study shows Pacific island reefs can match rising sea levels
…With Pope Francis at the Helm, World’s Mayors Pledge to Fight Climate Change
…Report: Recession, Not Fracking, Drove a Drop in U.S. CO2 Emissions
In effect, more than half the carbon decline was due to a drastic drop in the volume of goods consumed by the U.S. population. Almost a third of the drop could be attributed to changes in production structure, including offshoring American industries to China and other countries. Only 17 percent could be attributed to changes in the mix of fuels used to generate energy, and that wasn’t due to the rise in fracking. The shale gas boom didn’t start until 2009, the researchers note. Before that, coal had already been on the decline.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/recession-not-fracking-drove-drop-us-carbon-emissions-180955972/#pi8yjtwZSO5OvPcz.99
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