Please tell me why you believe or don't believe in global warming?

Polar bears are found in the Arctic circle and surrounding land masses. There are 19 recognised subpopulations, and estimates place their numbers at about 20,000 to 25,000. Polar bears are classed as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and listed as a threatened species under the US Endangered Species Act.

Yet some claim that polar bear numbers have increased since the 1950s and are now stable. So what is the situation for this species? First of all, a few points need to be made about polar bear numbers: Nobody really knows how many bears there were in the 1950s and 1960s.

Estimates then were based on anecdotal evidence provided by hunters or explorers and not by scientific surveys. Polar bears are affected by several factors, including hunting, pollution and oil extraction. Most notably, hunting, particularly following the introduction of snowmobiles, airplanes and ice breakers, led to a huge decline in certain subpopulations.

The introduction of the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears in 1973, which restricted or even banned hunting in some circumstances, consequently resulted in an increase in polar bear numbers. Not all sub populations are affected to the same degree by climate change, and while some sub populations are well studied, for others there is insufficient data to make broad statements about current and past numbers. With this caveat in mind, what do the figures actually say?

According to a 2009 report by the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group, of the 19 recognized sub populations of polar bears, 8 are in decline, 1 is increasing, 3 are stable and 7 don’t have enough data to draw any conclusions. Figure 1 below compares the data for 2005 and 2009. :) :).

The projections on Polar Bears are based on the loss of their habitat (sea ice) the problem they will face as the sea shrinks is lack of food, the Arctic will still be a cold and difficult place to live and PB's are adapted to hunting seals on the sea ice, they do this by ambush as while they are very good swimmers they are no match for a seal in the water, the seal is much faster and can hold it breath for 4-5 times longer than a PB. PB's hunt seal by waiting near breathing hole in the sea ice that the seals create or catching the seal pups in their (ice) dens before they can swim. Now on this site you will get many deniers pushing the old denier line (or is that lie) that PB numbers are increasing this is simply not true, the PB's where hunted to near extinction up to the late 60's and into the 70's with numbers dropping to ~5000 they had significant protection and that is the increase denier fraudulently refer to as them 'thriving' but they only recovered to around 20-25,000 still not a very large population, as an example Lion where also hunted to very low levels and they have recovered to several time the number of PB's yet nobody questions that they are threatened.

Such animal recover because they are the apex predator, in fact in the respective habitats the PB has fewer predators than the Lion many animals will kill lion cubs if they get the chance, The PB has no predators except others PB's and man. So beyond this increase in population after wholesale hunting was stopped what do deniers base the claim of PB's numbers increasing, hard to say as deniers won't give straight answers, but the most recent study done by actual scientists showed this. "the PBSG concluded that 1 of 19 subpopulations is currently increasing, 3 are stable and 8 are declining.

For the remaining 7 subpopulations available data were insufficient to provide an assessment of current trend." How deniers extract a growing population from this is known only to their odd view of the world http://pbsg.npolar.no/en/meetings/press-... So 1 is growing 3 are stable and 8 are shrinking and 7 are unknown and based on this deniers claim they are growing, welcome to denier fantasy world. As far as Arctic Sea Ice goes (where the PB's live) It has steadily shrunk, and continues to shrink a simple comparison of the September maximum melt in 1980 compared to 2012 shows that pretty clearly.

http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test... Andrew: The point of all this is deniers use the recovery of PB from desperately low numbers to try and pretend numbers are growing when in fact they were (note: were) simply recovering (which is of course why they leave out the reference to why numbers grew) just as they try to ignore the recent research that shows in the bulk of PB groups (we have research for) most are shrinking (8), three are static and just one is growing, the others are unknown only a denier could interpolate from this, that PB numbers are growing.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.