Is Global Warming Growing Super Polar Bears?

 Leslie Eastman at LI wonders Why Aren’t Polar Bears Going Extinct Like the “Experts” Said They Would? "Climate cultists are blaming accelerated evolution, which is possibly the most laughable explanation they could have offered."

Back in 2019. I covered a book entitled “The Polar Bear Catastrophe that Never Happened” by Dr. Susan Crockford. The University of Victoria professor analyzed the latest data and reviewed the questionable values in official estimates, concluding that polar bears are thriving.

Subsequently, she was fired from her position at the university.

However, it didn’t stop what she wrote from being true, as I demonstrated again in 2024.

 

Climate cultists are scrambling for explanations to explain the increasing numbers. Hilariously, they have alighted upon accelerated evolution to explain
what there are so many fat and happy polar bears in 2025…with the demise of the entire species slated for 2050.

A new study from the University of East Anglia suggests that polar bears are undergoing rapid genetic changes, and scientists believe it’s due to the impacts of climate change.

“It’s kind of the first time that we believe we’ve seen a mammal system such as the polar bear, where temperature has been the lead cause, and environmental stress at increased temperature, is impacting their DNA, their genome in real time,” Alice Godden, the lead author of the study, told ABC News.

Researchers say the discovery of these genetic changes offers a glimmer of hope for the bears’ survival, as two-thirds of the world’s population could perish by 2050.

 

The University of East Anglia (UEA) is one of the core global hubs for climate nonsense and is perhaps best known for its Climatic Research Unit (CRU). According to their report, the researchers compared blood samples from polar bears in northeastern and southeastern Greenland and examined gene activity using RNA sequencing, focusing on “jumping genes” (transposons) that can alter how other genes function.

Lead researcher Dr Alice Godden, from UEA’s School of Biological Sciences, asserts that her team’s findings offer some “hope” for the polar bears but efforts to limit global temperature increases must continue.

“DNA is the instruction book inside every cell, guiding how an organism grows and develops,” she said. “By comparing these bears’ active genes to local climate data, we found that rising temperatures appear to be driving a dramatic increase in the activity of jumping genes within the southeastern Greenland bears’ DNA.

“Essentially this means that different groups of bears are having different sections of their DNA changed at different rates, and this activity seems linked to their specific environment and climate.

“This finding is important because it shows, for the first time, that a unique group of polar bears in the warmest part of Greenland are using ‘jumping genes’ to rapidly rewrite their own DNA, which might be a desperate survival mechanism against melting sea ice.”

You know what else is accelerating? The level of skepticism at climate cult research.

Jumping jelly genes! Polar Bears are a relatively recently evolved species, apparently splitting off from ancestral Brown/Grizzly bears about half a million years or so ago, and the two species still occasionally interbreed to produce hybrid "Pizzly Bears." This makes them only a little older than modern Homo sapiens, which seems to have emerged about 300,000 years ago. They could certainly still be evolving.

They're Always in the Last Place You look (Polar Bears, that is)

From Dr. Susan Crockford at WUWT, Newly-discovered SE Greenland Polar Bear Subpopulation: Another Assumption Proven False

Researchers have discovered that the 300 or so polar bears living in SE Greenland (below 64 degrees N) are so genetically distinct and geographically isolated that they qualify as a unique subpopulation, adding one more to the 19 subpopulations currently described by the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group.

Previously, polar bear researchers simply assumed all of the bears in East Greenland were part of the same subpopulation but no field work had been conducted in the extreme southern area until 2015-2017. When they included this region, they got they got a big surprise: now they are spinning it as significant for polar bear conservation (Laidre et al. 2022).

From a new paper by Kristin Laidre and colleagues today in the journal Science, the map below shows this newly-defined population in red in SE Greenland (south of 64 degrees N), which is known as the King Frederick VI Coast:

This newly-discovered population of SE Greenland bears apparently uses marine-terminating glacier fronts (including calved pieces of freshwater glaciers) that exist in deep coastal fjords as platforms to hunt ringed seals when the land-locked fast ice disappears. As they also do in Svalbard, some ringed seals use glacier-front habitat year round, likely because the presence of ice generates upwelling of nutrients and thus, fish to eat (Hamilton et al. 2016, 2017). In other words, ringed seals and polar bears throughout the Arctic are almost certainly capable of utilizing glacier-front habitats where ever they occur, as they have been doing in SE Greenland.

 

According to the authors:

Southeast Greenland bears appear to have adapted their movements to the region’s specific physical geography. The high-velocity East Greenland Coastal Current (12) seasonally brings a narrow band of low-concentration pack ice south of 64°N and around the southern tip of Greenland (figs. S8 to S10) (13). All tracked Southeast Greenland bears that moved out of the fjords (n = 11) became caught in this
current’s drift ice and were transported southward toward Cape Farewell, drifting an average of 189 km in <2 weeks (fig. S4). Notably, all swam ashore and walked via land to their home fjord within 1 to 2 months, demonstrating high site fidelity. Bears in Southeast Greenland must remain inside fjords or risk export to human inhabited areas of South Greenland or into the North Atlantic.Lairdre et al. 2022:1333.

The map above from the Laidre paper shows the genetic distinctiveness of this subpopulation (‘SEG’). Evidence of some immigration from the north indicates the group is not totally isolated and the authors mention that new immigrants soon learn to live in this glacier-front environment (Laidre et al. 2022:1337).

 

However, the genetic data also indicate the subpopulation has been separate for only about 200 years (189-264). This suggests to me the possibility that the thick ice at around 65 degrees N that stopped the northward travel of Graah in 1829 mentioned above may have been a decades-long phenomenon that also trapped polar bears on the SE coast and kept them entirely separate from NE Greenland bears until very recently. The authors did not mention this as a possibility: in fact, they didn’t provide any explanation at all for why the populations became separated about 200 years ago or comment why such distinctive genetic signatures would be evident after such a short period of evolutionary time.

Of course, the authors suggest this new subpopulation–although unnoticed by them for decades while easily surviving an ice-free period similar to conditions predicted for the High Arctic in the late 2100s–must be conserved to protect the genetic diversity of the species (Peacock 2022). In other words, they see it primarily as welcome additional pressure to protect polar bears from global warming.

A Tough Choice

Polar Bears or WuFlu? Polar bears prowling Newfoundland come on top of coronavirus fears

On Tuesday 17 March 2020, several polar bears were reported in and around the community of St. Anthony on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, adding another threat on top of coronavirus concerns in the province. . . .

There have been no reports of trouble but locals will have to stay vigilant to remain safe, which since 2008 has been a common concern from late winter to early spring. In 2012 in this area, a bear was shot after it destroyed homes and attacked livestock; another bear was shot the next week in the same area. And in 2016 and 2017, a bear had to be shot to protect residents. Bears at this time of year are in hunting mode, which is why my polar bear attack thriller novel, EATEN, is set in March. . . .

I think I'll take my chances with WuFlu, like I have a choice.

A Big Week in Liberal Fascism

It's been a big week. Two contributions from Stacy McCain. First, another episode of Crazy People Are Dangerous

Left-wing insanity? Let’s kill people because animals have rights:

An Ohio animal rights activist allegedly stabbed a woman in a church on Wednesday because she was wearing fur.
Police believe that Meredith Lowell, 35, stabbed the woman wearing fur boots based on a prior arrest in 2012, in which Lowell was charged with attempting to hire a hitman to kill a person wearing fur.
Around 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, a babysitter was dropping children off at Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights for choir practice. Witnesses told police they heard a woman screaming before the babysitter fell to the ground due to a stab wound.
When police arrived at the church, they found the young woman lying on the ground surrounded by blood, clutching her left side. A man was pinning Lowell down to the floor nearby, waiting for police, according to the report.
. . .
In 2012, Lowell allegedly posted several times on social media looking for someone willing to kill a person wearing fur.
“I would like to create an online community on Facebook which would allow me to find someone who is willing to kill someone who is wearing fur toward the end of October 2011 or early November 2011 or possibly January 2012 or February 2012 at the latest,” Lowell wrote, according to the indictment.
After multiple evaluations, psychologists determined Lowell was not competent to stand trial because of mental disease or defect.
An evaluation was completed to determine if Lowell posed a danger to herself or others. Prosecutors said she had passed a handwritten note to jail guards shortly after her 2012 arrest. The note stated that if Lowell were to be released, she would contract another hit man to kill a person wearing fur or even do the deed herself, according to prosecutors.
However, a forensic evaluation later determined that though she was not competent to stand trial, did not pose a risk to herself, the general public or to property.

Why hasn’t this person been locked up permanently? Why does someone with a documented history of violence keep getting turned loose?

and Climate Change Cult Update

Our educational institutions, the major media, and every candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination are in unanimous agreement: Climate change is a “crisis” that requires drastic measures. We must do something — something very expensive, involving untold trillions of dollars of taxpayer money — and do it immediately, or else global warming will make Earth uninhabitable, a lifeless desert planet.

I have never believed this crap, but there are plenty of allegedly intelligent people who believe it with the certainty that a 17th-century Puritan believed in Original Sin, and so these zealots engage in all kinds of bizarre behavior, like giving money to the Pete Buttigieg campaign, or engaging in ridiculous protest stunts:
Spectators rushed the field to stage a climate change protest at halftime of Saturday’s Harvard-Yale game, delaying the start of the second half by nearly an hour and causing the game to finish in near-darkness.
The 136th edition of The Game between the Ivy League rivals went to halftime around 1:40 p.m. ET, and students from both schools occupied midfield after the Yale band finished performing.
Most protesters left after about an hour when they were escorted off by police, who then told about two dozen who remained they were under arrest. The field was ultimately cleared, and the game resumed at 2:48 p.m. ET.
However, the delay led to an issue for the game’s finish because the Yale Bowl lacks stadium lights, and sunset in New Haven, Connecticut, was set for 4:26 p.m. on Saturday.
The darkness problem was compounded as the game went to double overtime, but Yale ultimately got a stop to win 50-43 — and secure a share of the Ivy League title — at 4:38 p.m., before it became too dark to play.
In a statement, the Ivy League referred to the protest as “regrettable.” Yale said that while it “stands firmly for the right to free expression,” it had issues with how the protesters went about their demonstration.
“The exercise of free expression on campus is subject to general conditions, and we do not allow disruption of university events,” Yale said in its own statement.

File this under the category of “Things That Never Happen in Tuscaloosa.” You have to be rich to attend an Ivy League school — it’s $72,100 a year at Yale, $69,607 at Harvard — and only rich kids can afford the luxury of devoting their lives to idiot causes like “climate change.” And I will say, furthermore, that “climate change” is an obsession only for white people. The autistic Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg is the perfect poster child for this movement, which is whiter than a meeting of the Stephen Colbert Fan Club.

From Watts Up With That,  Climate Scientists Reduced to Hiding from Climate Thuggery in Germany

More than 200 people, including dozens of scientists, are in hiding right now in Germany. I am one of them. I can tell you that I am in Munich, but I can’t tell you my hotel. I can tell you that the scientists will meet on Friday and Saturday to share scientific knowledge, but I can’t tell you where. The meeting, in which scientists will present evidence contradicting an asserted climate crisis, was scheduled to be open to the public, but fascist climate thugs have forced us into hiding. The German government, rather than protecting scientists and free speech, has explicitly refused to protect scientists from the threat of violence.

The lineup of speakers at the European Institute for Climate and Energy‘s (German acronym EIKE) annual climate conference is impressive. Among the speakers are scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, University of Bern, Danish National Space Center, Institute for Solid-State Nuclear Physics, Università di Napoli Federico II, and Universität Rostock. Their crime? Delivering talks titled, “The Real Condition of the Great Barrier Reef,” “The Influence of Greenhouse Gases on Climate Research,” “What Role Did the Sun Play in Climate Change,” etc. Seeking to shut down any scientific research and discussion that may endanger a purported justification for its anti-freedom political agenda, a climate activist group calling itself Offenes Antikapitalistisches Klimatreffen München, which is reportedly affiliated with the terror group Antifa, threatened the EIKE meeting, calling on thugs in Germany to mobilize against the conference.

 and Fabulous lectures in Holland done: Munich conference forced to relocate

Yesterday, I gave a polar bear lecture to more than one hundred 15-16 year olds at a high school The Hague who gave me their undivided attention. The teachers who invited me were very please with the content I presented: I talked about reading science papers and reports critically, hypothesis testing, and the consequences of being over-confident of one’s assumptions. Two days before that, I saw the polar bears at the Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam and spoke in front of the shark tank to a large audience that included several journalists.

My satisfaction over these successful lectures was short-lived. I found out late yesterday that the organizers of the Munich conference had had their venue cancelled at the last minute due to intimidation by activists from a group called the ‘Anti-Capitalist Climate Society.‘ Apparently, a crowd of about 20 thugs staged a flash mob at the hotel booked to host the EIKE meeting and threatened further havoc and disruption to guests if the conference was allowed to go ahead.

Shamefully, it appears that either the hotel did not bother to call police or the police did nothing about the activists’ threats. Why not? The hotel now claims the safety of their guests are their first priority. However, the increased risk to the safety of these guests was coming from the protestors, not from EIKE members and speakers. Why blame the mild-mannered scientists for being ‘controversial’ rather than the radical activists threatening hotel guests with violence?

But my personal nomination for the best example of liberal fascism (and how to deal with it)?

 Brave Antifa Blocks Car Angry Man Knocks Him Out via Ace:

Bear Scientist Loses Job Over Unpopular Views

Dr. Susan Crockford: UVic bows to outside pressure and rescinds my adjunct professor status

Reposted from Polar Bear Science

Posted on October 16, 2019 | Comments Off on UVic bows to outside pressure and rescinds my adjunct professor status

As you may have heard, this summer I lost my status as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada (UVic), a position I had held for 15 years. This action followed my expulsion from the roster of the university’s volunteer Speakers Bureau in May 2017. However, until April 2017 the university and the Anthropology department proudly promoted my work, including my critical polar bear commentary, which suggests someone with influence (and perhaps political clout) intervened to silence my scientific criticism. . . 

Read the whole thing.

Basically, she was convicted of having the radical idea that Polar Bears are doing just fine, thank you, and railroaded out of her unpaid job as a researcher and lecturer. And this is how you get the appearance of a 97% consensus.

Is academic science this political? Sadly, yes.

I am sure there will be some people clapping their hands in glee at this development, like sly children do when they think they have gotten their own way through manipulation. However, the loss of adjunct status will primarily prevent me from continuing scientific research on speciation and domestication mechanisms in evolution: without an academic affiliation I will be unable to secure research funds or academic collaborations.

My scientific credentials are not diminished: they stand on my career accomplishments.

What a lack of academic affiliation has not done – and cannot do – is stop me from investigating and commenting on the failures and inconsistencies of science that I see in published polar bear research papers and reflected in public statements made by polar bear specialists.
I am still a former adjunct professor and I will not be silenced.

At the moment, I am en-route to Oslo to talk about the polar bear catastrophe that never happened – and then it’s on to London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Munich for more of the same. If you’d like to help defray incidental but unavoidable travel costs not covered by the organizers over my five weeks in Europe, that would be very much appreciated: there is a button on the upper right on the sidebar of my blog (“Support Polar Bear Science”) that will accept your donation via credit card or PayPal.

Got a Backyard Squirrel Problem?

It could be worse. Be happy you don't live on Novaya Zemlya: Russian Arctic Islands Sound Emergency Over "Invasion" By Polar Bears

A Russian Arctic archipelago on Saturday declared an emergency situation over an "invasion" of dozens of aggressive polar bears that have entered homes and public buildings.

Russia's northeastern Novaya Zemlya archipelago, which has a population of around 3,000 people, has appealed for help to tackle "a mass invasion of polar bears into inhabited areas," regional authorities said in a statement.

Russian authorities have so far refused permission to shoot the bears but are sending a commission to investigate the situation and have not ruled out a cull.

Polar bears are affected by global warming with melting Arctic ice forcing them to spend more time on land where they compete for food.

They are recognised as an endangered species in Russia and hunting them is banned.

Russia has air force and air defence troops based on Novaya Zemlya.

Since December, 52 polar bears have regularly visited the archipelago's main settlement, Belushya Guba, with some displaying "aggressive behaviour," local official Alexander Minayev said in a report to regional authorities.

This included "attacks on people and entering residential homes and public buildings," said Minayev, the deputy chief of the local administration.

"There are constantly 6 to 10 bears inside the settlement," he said.

"People are scared, they are afraid to leave their homes... parents are frightened to let their children go to schools and kindergartens."

The head of the local administration Zhigansha Musin said that the numbers of polar bears were unprecedented.
"I've been on Novaya Zemlya since 1983 and there's never been such a mass invasion of polar bears," he told regional officials. 

Bears are constantly inside a military garrison and "literally chase people" he said as well as going into the entrances of blocks of flats.

Local officials complained that measures to scare off polar bears such as vehicle and dog patrols have not been effective as polar bears feel secure and no longer react.

The federal environmental resources agency has refused to issue licences to shoot the most aggressive bears.

A working group of regional and federal officials is set to visit the archipelago to assess the situation and the measures taken so far.

The Arkhangelsk regional authorities, which oversee Novaya Zemlya, said that if all else failed "shooting the animals could be the only possible forced measure."

In January, a defence ministry official said that hundreds of disused military buildings had been demolished on Novaya Zemlya because polar bears were settling inside them.

We have wildlife problems in Slower Maryland, but, thankfully, Polar Bears ain't one of them.

Linked by EBl in Gilly Is Coming, The Game of Thrones Reunion We Want To See,  National Cheddar Day and Hot Lincoln Babes.

Polar Bears Continue to Thrive

Chukchi Sea polar bears number almost 3000 according to new survey results

The Chukchi Sea finally has a polar bear population estimate! According to survey results from 2016 only recently made public, about 2937 bears (1522-5944) currently inhabit the region, making this the largest subpopulation in the Arctic. This is exciting news — and a huge accomplishment — but the US Fish and Wildlife Service responsible for the work has been oddly mum on the topic.

Not only that, but an extrapolation of that estimate calculated by USFWS researchers for Chukchi plus Alaska (the US portion of the Southern Beaufort Sea subpopulation) was estimated at 4437 (2283-9527), although with “significant uncertainty.” Nevertheless, it means the 2016 estimate for Alaska could be roughly three times what it was in 2010: a whopping 1500 or so, up from about 450 (or about 225-650) for the same area estimated during the last survey (Bromaghin et al. 2015: Fig. 5a).

Even if the real number for Alaska is only twice as large (~1000), that’s still a huge improvement. It would eliminate the Southern Beaufort as the only polar bear subpopulation in the Arctic to have shown a significant decline blamed on human-caused global warming (Crockford 2018). If the recovery is real, it means the 2004-2006 decline was a temporary fluctuation after all, just like previous declines in the region. I expect, however, that it will take a dedicated SB population survey for officials to concede that point.

Are you going to take it away?

There is now a detailed report to cite (Regehr et al. 2018 in prep, see update below), but the numbers were announced at the 10th meeting of the Russian-American Commission on Polar Bears held at the end of July this year (AC SWG 2018) by Eric Regehr (formerly of the US Fish & Wildlife Service, as of 2017 at the University of Washington). [h/t to G.H.] This was the same report that raised the quota for subsistence hunting in the Chukchi from 58 to 85, based on these new figures, as I discussed last week.

Another climate prediction that fails the test of data.