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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 12/08/2006 : 04:00:35
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Polar bears relocated as global warming melts icecap
N'Ukpiagvik, December 8, 2006 (PN) -- A final shipment of relocated polar bears was offloaded from a transport aircraft today on the outskirts of this booming Inuit town.
Until their relocation, scientists had expected polar bears to go extinct within the century, due to the effects of global warming in reducing the species' hunting range on the north polar ice pack. Now, thanks to the generosity of a consortium of oil companies, a healthy breeding population of polar bears has been established in a completely new habitat.
Nanuq Sampson, a Council member of the new town of N'Ukpiagvik, said, "Polar Bears were dying like flies. Treehuggers from the Lower 48 were filming the dead and dying bears, and making a big stink. The oil companies didn't like the bad publicity. They wanted to catch all the polar bears on the North Slope, and put them somewhere they wouldn't starve. We Inuit agreed that might be the only way to save them. The bears were dying."
Sampson looked out across a snowy plain. "Polar bears are very meaningful to the Inuit people. My village, and most of the other Inuit villages, decided that we belonged wherever the bears went. Heck, my given name, Nanuq, means "Polar Bear" in Inupiatun. So, anyway, we demanded the oil companies move us, too. Well, what do you know? They were happy to get us Eskimos off the North Slope, along with our bears, and they even built this little city for us."
Mr. Sampson smiled. "So here we are, starting a new life, so far from Alaska. It's early December, but it's summer here. Weird. But there's good food for the bears, and there's fine sea and ice hunting for us."
Polar feast: After tough years trying to find food on disappearing
northern ice floes, a Polar Bear fattens up on tame Emperor Penguins
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 12/08/2006 06:02:12
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Paulos23
Skeptic Friend
USA
446 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2006 : 05:57:14 [Permalink]
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| Well that is one way to shut up those singing penguins.... |
You can go wrong by being too skeptical as readily as by being too trusting. -- Robert A. Heinlein
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. -- Aldous Huxley |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2006 : 06:06:58 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Paulos23
Well that is one way to shut up those singing penguins....
It's those dancing ones that I want to see stilled.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2006 : 06:28:43 [Permalink]
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This is off the top of my head so someone correct me if I am wrong, But as I recall, the emperors are at sea during the summer and come on the ice pack to nest in the howling, utter misery of the Antarctic winter. They incubate the eggs (one egg per pair), on their feet, covered by a fold of warm belly skin -- one of evolution's more half-assed arrangements, as the egg will freeze in minutes if something untoward happens. Interesting, no?
Sad that the polar bears went from starvation to wiping out penguins two generations at a time.
But in any event, I wish the residents of N'Ukpiagvik luck. They're liable need it when the bears start having lean winters again. 
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2006 : 10:42:23 [Permalink]
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Some penguins have even been seen incubating a rock on their feet after having lost an egg. And it's the male emperor penguins that do most of the incubating, the females go off to spend weeks at a time eating.
Great penguin photo, reminds me of Woodstock. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2006 : 16:49:01 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by filthy
This is off the top of my head so someone correct me if I am wrong, But as I recall, the emperors are at sea during the summer and come on the ice pack to nest in the howling, utter misery of the Antarctic winter. They incubate the eggs (one egg per pair), on their feet, covered by a fold of warm belly skin -- one of evolution's more half-assed arrangements, as the egg will freeze in minutes if something untoward happens. Interesting, no?
Sad that the polar bears went from starvation to wiping out penguins two generations at a time.
But in any event, I wish the residents of N'Ukpiagvik luck. They're liable need it when the bears start having lean winters again.
I'm going to have something inspired by that thought of yours soon. But a bit different. No Inuit will be harmed. Sometimes, I just have to come back to these silly things.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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