Polar Bear Swims 426 Miles

[cowboyangel]

This broke my heart today:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookou ... for-refuge

Derick Jensen is right I'm afraid. Google him, get the story yourselves.

Corporate Lap Dog Uncle Tom Bama won't list the polar as endangered because global shipping wants the new global warming melted northwest passage. Where is fucking Captain Nemo when you need him? Torpedo all fucking shipping that attempts to negotiate the new passage. Goddamn Motherfuckers.

Any doubts that capitalism is the problem? We are letting the capitalist beast kill the earth and we believe that we must conduct government affairs along the lines of diminished expectations and screwy compromises with evil forces. Fuck them. May they rot in hell.

[ygmir]

dang, that is a bummer for the bears.

So, do you have a better system than capitalism?

I might submit, "humans" are the problem, more specifically their greedy and lack of concern for others.
Capitalism, IMHO, is the best economic system so far, not perfect, but the best. It just needs some caring people at the helm.

[lucky420]

fuckin disgraceful...makes me want to cry

[Elderberry]

The only reason people are raising a stink about the polar bears is that they are so damn cute.

99% plus of the species that have ever lived on this planet are extinct.

Humans can't let emotions stand in the way of progress and profit.

JK

(not really my position, I just posted this to piss off cowboyabgel. I think they're cute too.)

[ygmir]

The only reason people are raising a stink about the polar bears is that they are so damn cute.

99% plus of the species that have ever lived on this planet are extinct.

Humans can't let emotions stand in the way of progress and profit.

JK

(not really my position, I just posted this to piss off cowboyabgel. I think they're cute too.)

[LorenRose]

This is truly heartbreaking. I love the polar bear. It just pisses me off that there are so many alternatives to oil and gas that people could use, but the oil companies will probably not let the change happen. You know Nikola Tesla had one of the best alternatives to energy, and a different type of physics. I don't want to get started on this... just makes me sad

[Isotopia]

Humans can't let emotions stand in the way of progress and profit.

I'm assuming that this is a shot at some very dry humor - no?

[Ugly Dougly]

They're evolving.
Polar bears, I mean, not humans.

[Elderberry]

Humans can't let emotions stand in the way of progress and profit.

I'm assuming that this is a shot at some very dry humor - no?

I'm assuming you didn't read the fine print.

JK

[cowboyangel]

The only reason people are raising a stink about the polar bears is that they are so damn cute.

99% plus of the species that have ever lived on this planet are extinct.

Humans can't let emotions stand in the way of progress and profit.

JK

(not really my position, I just posted this to piss off cowboyabgel. I think they're cute too.)

for the first time in 4 months...you made me smile!

[cowboyangel]

...now who are the nimrod 40% that's what I'd like to know.....

[Trishntek]

The only reason people are raising a stink about the polar bears is that they are so damn cute.

99% plus of the species that have ever lived on this planet are extinct.

Humans can't let emotions stand in the way of progress and profit.

JK

(not really my position, I just posted this to piss off cowboyabgel. I think they're cute too.)

Please name one animal which has gone extinct in your lifetime?
Whether harm is being done to polar bear populations is fact or not is a wee bit sketchy.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26627

[cowboyangel]

Trish, that dick-wad Kisha was just fucking with me, that's all...read his muthf'in small muthf'in print....

[Elderberry]

The only reason people are raising a stink about the polar bears is that they are so damn cute.

99% plus of the species that have ever lived on this planet are extinct.

Humans can't let emotions stand in the way of progress and profit.

JK

(not really my position, I just posted this to piss off cowboyabgel. I think they're cute too.)

Please name one animal which has gone extinct in your lifetime?
Whether harm is being done to polar bear populations is fact or not is a wee bit sketchy.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26627

http://dodosgone.blogspot.com/

JK

[Elderberry]

The only reason people are raising a stink about the polar bears is that they are so damn cute.

99% plus of the species that have ever lived on this planet are extinct.

Humans can't let emotions stand in the way of progress and profit.

JK

(not really my position, I just posted this to piss off cowboyabgel. I think they're cute too.)

for the first time in 4 months...you made me smile!

That makes me smile. I guess I'll have to work harder, considering it took four months for one smile.

JK

[Trishntek]

The only reason people are raising a stink about the polar bears is that they are so damn cute.

99% plus of the species that have ever lived on this planet are extinct.

Humans can't let emotions stand in the way of progress and profit.

JK

(not really my position, I just posted this to piss off cowboyabgel. I think they're cute too.)

Please name one animal which has gone extinct in your lifetime?
Whether harm is being done to polar bear populations is fact or not is a wee bit sketchy.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26627

http://dodosgone.blogspot.com/

JK

I remember in the '70's when the Black Footed Ferret was used as a contemporary example of modern extinction. Then, just 45 minutes from where I lived, http://www.blackfootedferret.org/history-decline.htm
a colony was discovered in Wyoming in 1981.

It's always kind of a conundrum to me when challenged with the task of proving something once known to exist does not.

[skibear]

The only reason people are raising a stink about the polar bears is that they are so damn cute.

They are cute untill they try to eat you for lunch.

[Thecatman]

I remember in the 70s and 80s when the folks trying to help the California Condor thought they caught every last wild one....all of a sudden, a few years later, a wild one is spotted in Sequoia National Park.
The work those people did and are still doing is great...as long as it helped the birds

[Isotopia]

Please name one animal which has gone extinct in your lifetime?

I'm not sure what the point is other than providing a list for you to attempt to refute - given the obvious conservative nature of your political leanings.

Still, here are a few that immediately come to mind.

Baiji (aka Yangtze River Dolphin)
Caribbean Monk Seal
Japanese Sea Lion
Golden toad (Bufo periglenes)
Colombian Grebe

[cowboyangel]

Polar Bears are cute. So are grizzlies and I have to make a terrible decision as to whether or not to shoot one if attacked when I make a solo trip to The Gates of the Arctic this year or next year. The thought of sacrificing myself crossed my mind, I'm sure that would be dandy for some of my enemies (even here) but it would piss off my wife and I'd hate to face her in the after life over this one.

[Isotopia]

I think the issue of polar bears is being framed wrong. Sure the melting arctic ice is likely to contribute substantially to the animal's demise. It may in fact be the ultimate reason for its extinction. But...

seeing a polar bear swimming many, many miles off the coast of arctic shores really isn't that unusual. Ursus maritimus is the animal's Latin name.

Roughly, it translates into "the sea going bear" which suggests documented observations of the animal's swimming prowess.

[Trishntek]

Well,,,, by the logic of modern science, I hereby declare Osama Bin Laden EXTINCT!

[Here and there]

Please name one animal which has gone extinct in your lifetime?

The California Condor. Sorry about that, but my cousins had some tourists drop by, they had meant to go hunting for bald eagle, but they had trouble telling the two birds apart. Yeah, I don't get how they could confuse the two, either, but shit happens.

On the bright side, simmered with a little soy and sesame and a good dollop of chili and garlic, the meat tasted much better than one would expect. A little gamy, but that's to be expected out of a carrion bird, and with a surprisingly sweet and spicy aftertaste, the flesh more than compensated the diner for his patience with that minor flaw. I'd try it again, were it available.

The work those people did and are still doing is great...as long as it helped the birds

To say nothing of our buffet.

[Lassen Forge]

How about the African (was it west african?) Black Rhino. Hunted to extinction for it's horn, which is an asian aphrodesiac. Isn't it wonderful that humans will kill an entire species in search of a hard on??

Yeesh...

[Isotopia]

There are still black rhinos. There's an animal park just outside of San Diego that has two.

[Bob]

[AntiM]

I find the extinct vs. extinct in the wild distinction to be both fascinating and quite sad. As if we can ever restore a species to a habitat which has vanished. Then again, preserving a species isn't all futile is it? Is it? Am I foolish?

Hell, we may have a wooly mammoth soon. But why? Why not? I find this rather mind boggling.

http://tinyurl.com/493w6dt

[theCryptofishist]

I think the whole "preserving the genome so we can reintroduce" to be a little odd. There's the animal, and (depending on the animal, but certainly for a polar bear) there's the behavior learned from its mother and other ways that allow it to survive. (Edited to add: we can't just dump a genetic replica someplace and have it take the place of a missing species.) Yeah, we can make a woolley mammoth and a woolley rhinocerous, and a giant sloth, but they'd be as approximate as absinthe.

[sktELEMENT]

[quote="AntiM"]I find the extinct vs. extinct in the wild distinction to be both fascinating and quite sad. As if we can ever restore a species to a habitat which has vanished. Then again, preserving a species isn't all futile is it? Is it? Am I foolish?

Hell, we may have a wooly mammoth soon. But why? Why not? I find this rather mind boggling.

[url]http://tinyurl.com/493w6dt[/url][/quote]



Hey ANTIM I read about 5 years ago, that U.S. was cloning a Mammoth, as in, it was happening now. Then the story disappeared and never heard of it again... weird. But I have a feeling there is a few mammoths somewhere already... and humans for that matter (clones).[/b]

[Trishntek]

I find the extinct vs. extinct in the wild distinction to be both fascinating and quite sad. As if we can ever restore a species to a habitat which has vanished. Then again, preserving a species isn't all futile is it? Is it? Am I foolish?

Hell, we may have a wooly mammoth soon. But why? Why not? I find this rather mind boggling.

http://tinyurl.com/493w6dt

Hey ANTIM I read about 5 years ago, that U.S. was cloning a Mammoth, as in, it was happening now. Then the story disappeared and never heard of it again... weird. But I have a feeling there is a few mammoths somewhere already... and humans for that matter (clones).[/b]

Remember when wolves were "reintroduced" into the Yellowstone ecosystem by the Clinton Administration? In the early days of the National Parks, 1890's until 1914, government biologists did not sight a single wolf. According to NP records, the first wolf was seen in Yellowstone in 1914 when ranchers were actively eradicating them from range land and pushed them into the wilderness.

In 1979, a brother of a friend living in Cody, Wyoming shot and killed a wolf thinking it was a coyote near the East Entrance of Yellowstone. When he took it to the State Game and Fish Dept., he was promptly charged and fined $10,000. I personally saw a wolf in the Hoback Canyon near Jackson Hole in 1981. Yet in the 1990's the gov't was compelled to "reintroduce" wolves there. Tagged animals of said action have been discovered as far away as Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

They are so very cute while eating birthing Bambies out of their mother's wombs are they not?

edit: My reasoning comes from being raised in rural environments where hunting and fishing was a daily way of life. I realize my comments are anecdotal, but hope they might help some of the "city" folks understand there are people who have to put up with these critters in their daily lives.