Polar Bear Numbers Still On The Rise, Despite ‘Global Warming’

Via: http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=c920274f2a364603849bbb505&id=cbe762183c&e=f4e33fdd1e
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Polar bear populations are still growing despite global warming, according to new research. The new population estimates from the 2016 Scientific Working Group are somewhere between 22,633 to 32,257 bears, which is a net increase from the 2015 number of 22,000 to 31,000. The current population numbers are a sharp increase from 2005’s, which stated only 20,000 to 25,000 bears remained — those numbers were a major increase from estimates that only 8,000 to 10,000 bears remained in the late 1960s. Scientists are increasingly realizing that polar bears are much more resilient to changing levels of sea ice than environmentalists previously believed, and numerous healthy populations are thriving. –Andrew Follett, The Daily Caller, 16 February 2017

1) Polar Bear Numbers Still On The Rise, Despite Global Warming
The Daily Caller, 16 February 2017

2) It’s Official: Polar Bear Numbers Continue To Rise
Polar Bear Science, 15 February 2017

3) Bates, Burgers & The Scientific Integrity Of NOAA
Toad Liquor, 14 February 2017

4) Kimberley Strassel: Don’t Wimp Out On Climate
The Wall Street Journal, 17 February 2017

5) Francis Menton: Are Climate Alarmists Glassy-Eyed Cultists?
Manhattan Contrarian, 17 February 2017

The new BB and KB subpopulation estimates should increase the 2015 global population size estimate issued in 2015 by the IUCN Red List from 22,000-31,000 to 22,633-32,257 which would likely be rounded off to 22,500-32,000. But wait! That estimate does not include a reported 42% increase in the Svalbard portion of the Barents Sea subpopulation in late 2015 that was not included in the Red List assessment of 2644 based on 2004 data. Therefore, when the Svalbard increase and the Baffin Bay/Kane Basin increases are all added to the 2015 Red List estimate, it might give a revised 2015 global estimate of something like 23,000-33,000 depending on how all the results are interpreted. –Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Science, 15 February 2017

Rose is not the story. Bates is not the story. The story is the circumvention of procedures put in place to protect the integrity of the data, and hence the reputation of the NOAA. No, the issues are as Bates outlined: “Ethical standards must be maintained”. There can be no confidence in data without confidence in the procedures surrounding collection and storage of data. And persons or organizations that place no value in these procedures further erode confidence. —Toad Liquor, 14 February 2017

President Trump will

NBC News: How Eating Crickets Could Help Save the Planet By Fighting Global Warming

A patron trys a roasted cricket during a “Pestaurant” event in Washington, D.C. in 2014. Karen Bleier / AFP-Getty Images

The world’s population is creeping up on 7.5 billion, but estimates suggest we’ll have a whopping 9 billion mouths to feed by 2050.

Unless we all stick to salads, the global production of meat will need to double in that time to feed our growing population, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (FAO). Feed and crop production will also have to increase in kind to support livestock and our own appetites, inevitably taking up more land space and water — precious and dwindling commodities required for cattle.

But resources aren’t the only issue. This increase in agricultural production will exacerbate the effects of climate change by releasing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere (agricultural activities currently contribute nearly one-tenth of the country’s greenhouse emissions). What’s more, animal waste releases ammonia, a pollutant that can affect soil and water quality.

Image: Crickets
A bin full of frozen insects from Armstrong Cricket Farm in Glennville, Georgia. Aaron Dossey

Yet this seemingly large food security problem may have a bite-sized solution: insects.

In a 2013 report, the FAO suggested our current farming and food production practices are unsustainable — but that edible insects are a viable, untapped resource that could help meet the food and water demands of the world’s ever-expanding population. And it’s really no wonder: Insects are highly nutritious, and also far more environmentally friendly to raise than conventional livestock. Compared with cows, pigs, or chickens, crickets require a fraction of the land, water, and food, and produce less greenhouse gases and ammonia.

Knowing this, multiple farms dedicated to rearing crickets for human consumption have sprung up in recent years. Insects from these farms are served up whole at local farmer’s markets or sold to companies that turn them into fine powders, which can be added to recipes for an easy protein and nutrition boost. Numerous startups have taken those powders and put them into everything from nutrition bars to chips and cookies, pastas and sauces.

Surprise: Ocean acidification quite good for some shells

Also see: We’re finding new coral reefs everywhere…

Wait, wait – someone made an assumption that carbon life forms would not like more carbon, and that they might not be able to adjust to a change even after surviving for 100 million years of other changes. But now researchers are surprised that some shells are not only as good in an “acidic environment” but might be even better. Indeed formanifera turned out to micromanage pH levels so that in the right spot, where they need a higher pH, they can create that. The researchers say “such an active biochemical regulation mechanism has never been found before” and wonder “what if” the majority of organisms can do this?

More carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air also acidifies the oceans. It seemed to be the logical conclusion that shellfish and corals will suffer, because chalk formation becomes more difficult in more acidic seawater. But now a group of Dutch and Japanese scientists discovered to their own surprise that some tiny unicellular shellfish make better shells in an acidic environment. This is a completely new insight.

Researchers from the NIOZ (Royal Dutch Institute for Sea Research) and JAMSTEC (Japanese Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology) found in their experiments that so-called foraminifera might even make their shells better in more acidic water. These single-celled foraminifera shellfish occur in huge numbers in the oceans. The results of the study are published in the leading scientific journal Nature Communications.

Since 1750 the acidity of the ocean has increased by 30%.

Well… at least in theory. (Number of pH meters in 1750 = 0.) Models predict the oceans have become less alkaline.

According to the prevailing theory and related experiments with calcareous algae and shellfish, limestone (calcium carbonate) dissolves more easily in acidic water. The formation of lime by shellfish and corals is more difficult because less carbonate is available under acidic conditions. The carbonate-ion relates directly to dissolved carbon dioxide via two chemical equilibrium reactions.

Self-regulating biochemical magic trick

The classical theory is based on purely chemical processes by which the rate at which lime is created is determined entirely by the acidity of the water. NIOZ researcher and shared first author Lennart de Nooijer: “In our experiments the foraminifera were regulating the acidity at the micro level. In the places where shell formation occurs, the acidity was substantially lower than …

Analysis: US biologist’s defense of flawed polar bear predictions is an embarrassment to science

US biologist’s defense of flawed polar bear predictions is an embarrassment to science

http://polarbearscience.com/2017/01/30/us-biologists-defense-of-flawed-polar-bear-predictions-is-an-embarrassment-to-science

A few days ago in a radio interview, a senior US Fish & Wildlife biologist repeated the tall tale that Southern Beaufort Sea polar bear numbers declined in recent years due to loss of summer sea ice. But restating this egregious misinformation does not make it true. The Southern Beaufort population did decline between 2001 and 2006 but it was due to natural causes (thick ice in spring from 2004 to 2006) – it had nothing to do with recent summer sea ice loss and Eric Regehr knows it. There is no evidence that the population decline continued after 2006, so it cannot be said to be still declining. Moreover, the situation in the Southern Beaufort does not support the predictions made by Regehr and his colleagues that polar bear populations will decline precipitously if summer sea ice declines further. My recently published paper demolishes the message of doom for polar bears and the misinformation it’s based upon: it’s free and written in straight-forward scientific language. Crockford, S.J. 2017. Testing the hypothesis that routine sea ice coverage of 3-5 mkm2 results in a greater than 30% decline in population size of polar bears (Ursus maritimus). PeerJ Preprints 19 January 2017. Doi: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.2737v1 Open access. https://peerj.com/preprints/2737/ (pdf here). Here’s an excerpt of the nonsense broadcasted on KNOM Radio Alaska by Regehr and transcribed for their website (29 January 2017) [my bold]: “If there’s a poster child for Arctic animals affected by climate change, it’s the polar bear. … “Putting together all available data, and making some informed projections on the basis of those data, do suggest that there is a high probability that the global population of polar bears could face reductions of up to one-third or greater in the next 35 to 40 years,” said Regehr. One group that’s thriving is the Chukchi Sea subpopulation, which includes Western Alaska and the Russian coast across the water. “The waters are shallow, they’re nutrient rich; there are a lot of seals, ringed seals and bearded seals, out there for the polar bears to eat,” said Regehr. “And so, other studies suggest that, despite the fact that the Chukchi Sea region has exhibited a loss of Arctic sea ice the bears in that region appear to be faring quite well, currently.” But their neighbors to the East, the South …

Another ‘no more Santa’ climate study to frighten children

The reindeer population in Svalbard is almost twice its size since the 1990s, but scientists say food shortage is making them smaller.
A Svalbard reindeer - Photo by Per Harald Olsen, Wikimedia

A Svalbard reindeer – Photo by Per Harald Olsen, Wikimedia

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With #Christmas only a few weeks away, a new study says the Svalbard reindeer are getting weaker and asks if Santa will need more muscle to pull his sleigh. So if your child hears about this so-called calamity from #News reports, remind them it doesn’t matter: Santa Claus uses the species ‘saintnicolas magicalus’, or flying reindeer.

With ostensibly warmer winters, the study notes rain is falling on snow and freezing into ice. That makes it difficult for the animals to get at plant food, leading some to go hungry and some females birthing undersized calves. The adults they tracked in the survey have lost 12 percent of their weight when compared to those born in 1994.

The ecologists behind the survey are from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, and the James Hutton Institute. And their pointing the finger at #Climate Change.

Resource competition

The burden to get at food during the winter hasn’t stopped the reindeer population from growing from 800 to 1,400 in only two decades. The scientists believe the wealth of food in the late spring and summertime from a 1.5-degree Celsius rise in temperatures is allowing the reindeer to thrive and for females to conceive more calves in the fall. It’s also making competition for snow-covered plants more difficult, especially in the winter when plant life is limited.

The study’s authors have been measuring, weighing and marking the Svalbard calves since 1994. Every winter they return, recapture them and measure their size and weight as adults. That’s how they determined the discrepancy in their sizes. But the theory of rain freezing out the herbivores’ food doesn’t match rainfall statistics for the Svalbard island chain.

Arctic desert

The Nordic visitor’s guide describes the Svalbard islands as an “Arctic desert” with annual rain and snowfall totaling a meager 200 to 300 millimeters. They also note that during much of the winter

Reindeer are shrinking – ‘Global warming’ threatens Christmas icon

AFP 
By the time they reached adulthood, reindeer born in 2010 weighed just over 48 kilogrammes (106 pounds), compared to 55 kg for those born in 1994
By the time they reached adulthood, reindeer born in 2010 weighed just over 48 kilogrammes (106 pounds), compared to 55 kg for those born in 1994 (AFP Photo/MARTIN BUREAU)

Paris (AFP) – If Santa is recruiting helpers to haul Christmas presents around the world this year he had better take a few extra, said researchers Monday who warned that reindeer are shrinking.

Over the past 16 years, the weight of adult reindeer in Svalbard in the Norwegian Arctic has dropped by 12 percent, likely due to global warming, said study findings presented to a meeting at the British Ecological Society (BES) in Liverpool.

By the time they reached adulthood, reindeer born in 2010 weighed just over 48 kilogrammes (106 pounds), compared to 55 kg for those born in 1994.

“Twelve percent may not sound very much, but given how important body weight is to reproduction and survival, it’s potentially huge,” study leader Steve Albon of the James Hutton Institute in Scotland, told AFP.

Previous research had shown that when the average adult weight in April is less than 50kg, the population as a whole declines, he added.

Albon and his fellow researchers blame climate change for the shrinking reindeer.

Scientists say land surface temperatures in the Arctic were about 2.8 degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit) higher last year than when records began a century earlier.

Warmer winters mean more rain, which falls on snow and freezes, the BES explained in a statement.

– ‘Catastrophic die-offs’ –

The ice prevents reindeer from getting to the lichen which comprises the bulk of their winter diet and for which they usually forage in the snow.

Lichen are complex organisms comprised of a fungus living in symbiosis with an alga or bacterium.

“The reindeer starve, aborting their calves or giving birth to much lighter young,” said the BES.

Reindeer numbers have increased over the past two decades, said the research team, so greater competition for food likely also contributed to their smaller size.

This meant there could be more, but smaller reindeer in the Arctic in the decades to come, “possibly at risk of catastrophic die-offs because of increased ice on the ground.”

The team has tracked Arctic reindeer since 1994, catching, marking and measuring 10-month-old calves every winter and returning the following year to recapture and note the animals’ size and weight.

A study earlier this year pointed

Crazy California Is Drawing Up Regulations Enact Anti-Cow Fart Law

If anything proves that the global warming/climate change nonsense has gone too far, this is it. During his first stint as governor of California in the late 1970s Jerry Brown was known by the nickname of “Governor Moonbeam.” Perhaps this go round he should be called “Governor Methane,” as his obsession with the climate change hypothesis is now leading California to regulate cow “emissions.”

In September Brown became the first governor ever to sign a bill that  regulates supposed greenhouse gases from livestock operations and landfills. But no one asked the bovine methane moo-ers whether or not they agree. Cattle and other farm animals are major a major source of methane, a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping gas as well as being more potent as an aroma. The methane is released when they belch, fart,  and release the raw material for cow chips.…

Humans Face ‘Near Term Extinction’ – Warmist prof. predicts mass human extinction from ‘climate change’ in 10 year

A top biologist says the human race will soon become extinct and we should accept the inevitability of our demise
A top biologist says the Earth will end soon and false hope is foolish. Photo-Pixabay

A top biologist says the Earth will end soon and false hope is foolish. Photo-Pixabay

Most human-caused greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide (CO2), are created when fossil fuels combust. Despite CO2 constituting only 0.04 percent of all atmospheric gases, it has been demonized as an evil trace gas that causes droughts, floods, more storms, fewer storms, illnesses, and death. In reality, CO2 is a harmless, odorless, colorless gas essential to all life on Earth.

Why the Media’s Portrayal of Carbon Dioxide Is Often Wrong http://dailysign.al/2cmiPvO  via @NiconomistLoris @DailySignal

Photo published for Why the Media’s Portrayal of Carbon Dioxide Is Often Wrong

Why the Media’s Portrayal of Carbon Dioxide Is Often Wrong

The media and the Obama administration alike should stop misleading the public about what carbon dioxide really is.

dailysignal.com

Farmed fish doing alright at CO2 levels twenty, fifty, seventy times higher than today

The World Wildlife Fund tells us that global CO2 is bad for global fish stocks, but ponder that professional fish farms can reach levels of CO2 twenty or even seventy five times higher, and the fish appear to be doing OK. Current guidelines for fish farms even suggest that “safe limits of CO2 range from >5000 to >30 000 µatm*” which are “12.5 to 75 times higher than current atmospheric levels”.

So in another few thousand years we might really get into trouble with fish farms and climate change then? (Or maybe we won’t. James Hansen estimates if we burn every last barrel of fossil fuel on Earth we’ll get to 1,400ppm. The experience of fish farms all over the world is that fish can apparently adapt to levels ten times higher even than this worst case scenario.)

We have a situation where there are scores of reports fish suffering from ocean acidification and high CO2 levels, but they don’t mesh with the reality that fish farms have been dealing with for decades.  A new paper tries to figure out why this is so.