A lot more polar bears

More evidence that the polar bear population is not endangered by global warming.



In fact it is thriving.

Toronto - Polar bears are the poster animals of global warming. The image of a polar bear floating on an ice floe is one of the most dramatic visual statements in the fight against rising temperatures in the Arctic.

But global warming is not killing the polar bears of Canada's eastern Arctic, according to one ongoing study. Scheduled for release next year, it says the number of polar bears in the Davis Strait area of Canada's eastern Arctic – one of 19 polar bear populations worldwide – has grown to 2,100, up from 850 in the mid-1980s.

"There aren't just a few more bears. There are a ... lot more bears," biologist Mitchell Taylor told the Nunatsiaq News of Iqaluit in the Arctic territory of Nunavut. Earlier, in a long telephone conversation, Dr. Taylor explained his conviction that threats to polar bears from global warming are exaggerated and that their numbers are increasing. He has studied the animals for the Nunavut government for two decades.

Update: But then, you'll never convince this Australian reporter who emitted tonnes of carbon (I'm sure she purchased offsets) to jet to the Canadian arctic, only to be attacked by a one of those cuddly polar bears. To her, the bear attacked because of the effects of global warming, and had nothing to do with the fact that the bear is carnivorous predator.