Let’s move the polar bears to Antarctica …

WSJ.com - Is Global Warming Killing the Polar Bears?:

Is Global Warming Killing the Polar Bears?
By JIM CARLTON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 14, 2005; Page B1

It may be the latest evidence of global warming: Polar bears are drowning.

Scientists for the first time have documented multiple deaths of polar bears off Alaska, where they likely drowned after swimming long distances in the ocean amid the melting of the Arctic ice shelf. The bears spend most of their time hunting and raising their young on ice floes.

… Inaddition to documenting polar-bear deaths, the Minerals Management Service researchers, Chuck Monnett, Jeffrey Gleason and Lisa Rotterman, also found a striking shift in the bears’ habits. From 1979 to 1991, 87% of the bears spotted were found mostly on sea ice. From 1992 to 2004, the percentage dropped to 33%. Most of the remaining bears have been found either in the ocean or on beaches, congregating around carcasses of whales butchered by hunters. In the past, polar bears were rarely seen at such kill sites, because they spent their time hunting their favorite meal — seals — on sea ice.

AmericaBlog has a zero-insight perspective: blame Bush.

Surprisingly, the WSJ author doesn’t mention the option of moving some polar bears to Antarctica. The idea of re-wilding North America with African megafauna got some serious play in Nature this year.

With the Earth becoming ever more populated and international communication continuing at a rapid clip, we’re all going to have to let go of some of our preconceived notions about what constitutes an invasive species.

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