Among the problems caused by climate change, we’ve been told, is its grave threat to polar bears. Earthjustice, for one, says the animals “are facing unprecedented threats” from global warming. Well, not exactly.
Eight years ago, Environment Canada estimated that by 2011, the polar bear population on the western shore of the Hudson Bay region would fall to about 610.
Last year, the World Wildlife Fund screamed in a headline in its climate blog: “Polar Bear Population In Canada’s Western Hudson Bay Unlikely To Survive Climate Disruption.”
And in the summer of 2010, the U.K. Independent reported on fear “that the bears could die out in 25 to 30 years, or perhaps in as few as 10.”
Really, the rumors of their extinction have been greatly exaggerated. A new survey by the Nunavut Territory government has found that the polar bear population along the western shore of the Hudson Bay is increasing. The study found 1,013 of them in the region, far more than the 610 the alarmists projected.
Why should the climate hysterics get that right? They got everything else wrong.