Community Organizing

[Chaerophon]

Re: polar bears.

Population numbers prior to 1950 are unclear. What scientists (and residents of the NW territories/Nunavut) know: overhunting led to precipitous decline in the '60's. Regulation led to bounceback, population growth in the '70's. Now scientists have found that many populations are declining once again, in spite of hunting regulation. In fact, hunters can't actually hunt for the full season because the ice is melting earlier than ever.

At the most recent meeting of the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group (Copenhagen, 2009), scientists reported that of the 19 subpopulations of polar bears, eight are declining, three are stable, one is increasing, and seven have insufficient data on which to base a decision. (The number of declining populations has increased from five at the group's 2005 meeting.)

These are real scientists reporting real results. The results are disturbing.