Remember the difference between weather and climate? We know what happens when the weather changes—it’s obvious. Climate is another story. Read on. When it rains, you put on a raincoat or take your umbrella when you go out. It snows: time for high boots, a heavier coat, scarf, and warm gloves. And sunny days, well,
The Toronto Zoo has a baby polar bear! And possibly even more exciting news is that you can help to name it! Isn’t that cool? There’s a simple form to submit your idea for a name on a Toronto Zoo page for the polar bear cub. Here are more details on the name submission
A new doctoral thesis has shown that industrial chemicals are making their way north to the Arctic from the industrialised world via air and sea currents, where they are then absorbed by the sea’s food chains, of which the polar bear is at the top.
In a very sad story, a teenage boy, 17-year-old Horatio Chapple, was mauled to death and 4 others were injured by a polar bear at Von Postbreen glacier on Spitsbergen Island – a Norwegian island in the Arctic circle — this week. The polar bear came into the boys’ tent, apparently, and was eventually shot dead by an expedition leader.
A study tracked a female polar bear that swam for nine days straight covering over 426 miles. This long journey is the longest ever recorded for a polar bear.
A group of biologists that have been studying polar bears off the coast of Alaska have determined that polar bear cubs are drowning, due to loss of sea ice. They are being forced to make longer swims than normal just to find land or stable ice sheets.
Researchers from the University of Alberta have shown a linkage between declining polar bear litter sizes and the declining sea ice. Using data collected since the 1990s, University of Alberta researchers Péter Molnár, from the Department of Biological Sciences and colleagues Andrew Derocher and Mark Lewis analysed how long the Hudson Bay is frozen over
Here we go again, our weekly link drop of global weirding stories we didn’t cover. For the numerous stories we did cover, check out: The year of living dangerously. Masters: “The stunning extremes we witnessed gives me concern that our climate is showing the early signs of instability” A year of deadly record-smashing weather extremes
Much has been made about the possibility of tipping points in Earth’s environment; points of change which will not allow for any turning back no matter the effort put in. One of the most hyped of these was the Arctic and the possibility of a total loss of ice during summer. A new study led
The Arctic may be the dirtiest clean place on Earth, and it’s affecting the animals that live there. With only a few locations that directly pollute the area, it would seem from the outset that there could be no problem. But pollutants are finding their way into the food chain and causing untold harm to
Department of Interior sets “critical habitat” area for polar bear along Alaska’s north coast. The Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency of the Department of Interior, announced today that it plans to set aside more than 187,000 square miles — about 120 million acres — of onshore barrier islands, denning areas and offshore sea ice
A 16 foot high sculpture of an iceberg featuring a stranded polar bear and its cub was launched on the River Thames in London today to mark the launch of a new natural history TV channel. A team of 15 artists spent two months constructing the 20′ x 20′, three thousand pound, 100% recyclable structure
It has only been a fortnight or so since the polar bear was finally listed as an endangered species under the US Endangered Species Act, and already conservationists have supplied some more names for the ESA; ringed, bearded and spotted seals. The Center for Biological Conservation was the group who filed a petition on February
For a long time now we’ve spoken about the continuing effort by US and other environmental and animal rights groups to get the polar bear listed on the United States Endangered Species Act. Polar bear populations have been declining over the past few years, attributable, some claim, to man-made global warming. Al Gore helped the
It has been awhile since I’ve touched on the Arctic sea-ice dilemma plaguing us at the moment, and this recent story seemed worthy of bringing it back to the surface. Though we are only coming up on the Northern Hemisphere’s Fall/Autumn, experts do not like what they have seen so far. Speaking at the Alaska
