The worldwide population of polar bears has doubled in the past thirty years.
But don’t take my word for it. Here’s the gist of a report
by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released on
January 30, 2008:

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimates that the polar bear population
is currently at 20,000 to 25,000 bears, up from as low as 5,000-10,000 bears in
the 1950s and 1960s.  A 2002 U.S. Geological Survey of wildlife in the Arctic
Refuge Coastal Plain noted that the polar bear populations “may now be near
historic highs.”

Better yet, let’s listen to a scientist who has been studying polar bears for
the past thirty years, both as an academic and as the Canadian government’s director of wildlife
research in its most important polar bear habitat, and who is widely
regarded as the world’s top authority on the creatures. Here’s Canadian
scientist Dr.
Mitchell Taylor’s take on the matter:

It is just silly to predict the demise of polar bears in 25 years based on
media-assisted hysteria…There aren’t just a few more
bears. There are a hell of a lot more bears. Scientific knowledge has
demonstrated that Inuit knowledge was right.

Inuits,
by the way, are what most of us call “Eskimos,” which is to say: the people
who actually live among polar bears (rather than those who concoct
computer models about them from high-rise corner offices). Inuits have been
scoffing at the global-warming wizards and their polar bear hogwash for
years.

And yet, despite all of the above, on May 14th 2008 U.S. Interior Secretary
Dirk Kempthorne, invoking the U.S. Endangered Species
Act, proclaimed polar bears as a “threatened species,” in effect threatening
more of them with death by decreasing their value (stick with me
here.)

In 1972 polar bears had already lost value in the U.S. when the Marine Mammal Protection Act
prohibited their hunting in Alaska. (And no, it’s not the hunting ban that has
caused their increased numbers; they proliferated equally in Canada which
continued the polar bear season.)

So after 1972 U.S. hunters started hunting polar bears in Canada. But
Kempthorne’s proclamation (upheld by Interior Sec. Salazar in the current
administration) means that U.S. hunters will be barred by law from bringing
their trophy bear skins into the U.S. So, again, polar bears have lost
value.

Lately hunters (primarily from the U.S.) had been paying $30,000 for the
chance of whacking a polar bear during a grueling hunt in the Canadian arctic on
dog-sleds and in sub-zero weather. If successful, then the hunter’s taxidermist
landed another $5,000 or so for converting the beast’s epidermis into an
infuriatingly politically-incorrect rug for the hunter to display to his
politically-correct guests at dinner parties. Generally speaking, the most
spirited reactions from guests came after uncorking the eighth bottle of
wine.

---------

“They’re actually increasing every year.” he says. But what does he know? He
only lives among them. Whereas, from his Washington D.C. office, former U.S.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne relied on computer weather model to predict
that in fifty years, due to “global warming’s” effect on the arctic ice fields,
polar bears will decrease in numbers. My own weatherman’s computer models rarely
get it right for the next four days. Kempthorne’s nailed it for the next fifty
years!

The worldwide population of polar bears has doubled in the past thirty years. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s the gist of a report by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released on January 30, 2008:

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimates that the polar bear population is currently at 20,000 to 25,000 bears, up from as low as 5,000-10,000 bears in the 1950s and 1960s.  A 2002 U.S. Geological Survey of wildlife in the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain noted that the polar bear populations “may now be near historic highs.”

Better yet, let’s listen to a scientist who has been studying polar bears for the past thirty years, both as an academic and as the Canadian government’s director of wildlife research in its most important polar bear habitat, and who is widely regarded as the world’s top authority on the creatures. Here’s Canadian scientist Dr. Mitchell Taylor’s take on the matter:

It is just silly to predict the demise of polar bears in 25 years based on media-assisted hysteria…There aren’t just a few more bears. There are a hell of a lot more bears. Scientific knowledge has demonstrated that Inuit knowledge was right.

Inuits, by the way, are what most of us call “Eskimos,” which is to say: the people who actually live among polar bears (rather than those who concoct computer models about them from high-rise corner offices). Inuits have been scoffing at the global-warming wizards and their polar bear hogwash for years.

And yet, despite all of the above, on May 14th 2008 U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, invoking the U.S. Endangered Species Act, proclaimed polar bears as a “threatened species,” in effect threatening more of them with death by decreasing their value (stick with me here.)

In 1972 polar bears had already lost value in the U.S. when the Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibited their hunting in Alaska. (And no, it’s not the hunting ban that has caused their increased numbers; they proliferated equally in Canada which continued the polar bear season.)

So after 1972 U.S. hunters started hunting polar bears in Canada. But Kempthorne’s proclamation (upheld by Interior Sec. Salazar in the current administration) means that U.S. hunters will be barred by law from bringing their trophy bear skins into the U.S. So, again, polar bears have lost value.

Lately hunters (primarily from the U.S.) had been paying $30,000 for the chance of whacking a polar bear during a grueling hunt in the Canadian arctic on dog-sleds and in sub-zero weather. If successful, then the hunter’s taxidermist landed another $5,000 or so for converting the beast’s epidermis into an infuriatingly politically-incorrect rug for the hunter to display to his politically-correct guests at dinner parties. Generally speaking, the most spirited reactions from guests came after uncorking the eighth bottle of wine.

---------

“They’re actually increasing every year.” he says. But what does he know? He only lives among them. Whereas, from his Washington D.C. office, former U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne relied on computer weather model to predict that in fifty years, due to “global warming’s” effect on the arctic ice fields, polar bears will decrease in numbers. My own weatherman’s computer models rarely get it right for the next four days. Kempthorne’s nailed it for the next fifty years!