Scientists Debate Moving Polar Bears to Antarctica as Arctic Melts

DogPoundPup

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Fri Jul-25-08 06:38 PM
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Scientists Debate Moving Polar Bears to Antarctica as Arctic Melts

Scientists are obviously reaching a point of true desperation. While the world still debates whether climate change is even real (eye roll), the scientific community is coming back to an idea that was once considered wrongheaded and dangerous: moving species to new areas of the world as their natural habitats become inhabitable. First up: moving the polar bears to the other side of the globe.
http://earthfirst.com/scientists-debate-moving-polar-bears-to-antarctica-as-arctic-melts/

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opihimoimoi

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Fri Jul-25-08 06:41 PM
Response to Original message

1. Are they NUTS...NO MO PENGUINS is whot gonna happen. Dumb answer to a hard question.

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slackmaster

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Fri Jul-25-08 06:45 PM
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2. That is fucking retarded

:argh:

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TomInTib

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Fri Jul-25-08 06:49 PM
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3. No way. Polarity.

I have watched compass repeaters react weirdly close to both of the poles.

And I think the bears would attempt to swim back. The Celestial effect would drive them crazy.

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stuntcat

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Fri Jul-25-08 10:32 PM
Response to Reply #3

6. yah

that does seem likely.

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GreenPartyVoter

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Fri Jul-25-08 11:41 PM
Response to Reply #3

8. I hadn't thought of that

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XemaSab

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Fri Jul-25-08 09:20 PM
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4. Yeah, that's a fuckin' dumbass move

Let's drive all the Antarctic bird species to extinction. :eyes:

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kgrandia

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Fri Jul-25-08 11:45 PM
Response to Reply #4

10. Couldn't

Put it in more eloquent terms!

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stuntcat

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Fri Jul-25-08 10:30 PM
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5. actually..

Edited on Fri Jul-25-08 10:30 PM by stuntcat

This very thought crossed my mind a while back :blush:
But then I figured it would throw everything off balance and they'd have to move more animals there for them to eat and stuff. But maybe if they made enclosed habitats or something.. maybe then..

Soon it might be the only way to give them the kind of home they need, that fact's the one no one should argue over.

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NickB79

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Fri Jul-25-08 10:35 PM
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7. Like penguin populations aren't already crashing

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/05/0509_penguindecline.html

Basically, emperor penguin numbers have fallen 50% in the past 50 years. A breeding population of polar bears should finish off the other 50% in a decade or two at best.

This is something I've been afraid would happen. As environmental problems begin to overwhelm us, desperate, ultimately un-workable ideas are being thrown out because there are no good ideas left. The same goes for ideas such as geo-engineering and CO2 sequestration. A drowning man will grasp at anything in front of him, which is exactly what this plan is like.

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XemaSab

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Sat Jul-26-08 02:32 PM
Response to Reply #7

11. A decade or two?

Try an hour or two.

Fat, flightless birds that can move at about the pace of a person walking, versus a massive animal evolved to kill everything in its path?

Yeah, that's an even fight right there.

The first time a bear finds a new penguin colony will be the last time a bear finds a penguin colony.

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kgrandia

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Fri Jul-25-08 11:44 PM
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9. WIERD, WEIRD, WEIRD

I am going to look further into this on the weekend. But my impression has always been that the Antarctic is very different than the Arctic. The Antarctic is a vast void of desert-like conditions with very little in the way of percipitation due to its altitude and extremely low temperatures. Not much to eat in a desert.

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YankeyMCC

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Sat Jul-26-08 03:04 PM
Response to Original message

12. Are these the same people who

were (are still?) proposing moving some endangered large predators to North America? I remember reading about that last year maybe the year before, Lions were one of the species (are they endangered, maybe it was just to spread the species around as a protection against extinction).

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