Tens Of Thousands Of Walruses Crowd Ashore In Alaska Due To Melting Sea Ice (VIDEO)

The AP recently reported on tens of thousands of walruses that have been forced ashore in northwest Alaska because their usual habitat, sea ice, has melted.

This footage from the USGS, via National Geographic, shows an astonishing aerial perspective of the walruses, crowded together on the beach. The situation is especially dangerous because walruses are easily spooked, and the younger ones can be trampled to death in a resulting stampede. Because of this, the area has been declared as a no-fly zone.

According to National Geographic, this is the first time this many walruses have taken to the beach in this particular area, though similar incidents have occurred in other parts of Alaska and Russia in years past.

WATCH:

Comments

[Gilliam G]

02:59 PM on 10/12/2010

Brand New Song:

All God’s creatures have their place
It’s not just about the human race
Everything’s connected
And what gives us the right
To kill and destroy
all that beautiful life

Global warming is upon us now
Took us a while to figure it out
And now that we know
We need to turn it around

And now we talk of being green
Promoting clean energy
While we burn fossil fuel
And build our war machines
And worry about the world economy

Will we ever learn to live in harmony
Will we ever learn to live responsibly
Will there ever be a time when we can live in peace

The above is the middle verse to hear the full song (free):

http://gilsmusic.bandcamp.com/track/since-the-beginning-of-time

Thanks for listening to Independent Music

[vetxcl]

08:06 PM on 10/06/2010

same phenomena is seen with penguins and seals.

[vetxcl]

07:43 PM on 10/06/2010

it seems odd that a newscorp (also owns faux noise) media outlet seems to be noticing something out of the ordinary.

[maxwells]

05:18 PM on 10/07/2010

Maybe the following has something to do with it:

News Corporation, the parent company for Rupert Murdoch's Fox News outlet, as well as the Wall St. Journal, is part-owned by Saudi Oil princes.

"The second-largest holder of voting stock in News Corp. is Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, a nephew of the Saudi king. And through his philanthropies, Waleed has given generously to initiatives pursued by the imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf. (to establish a mosque near NYC ground zero). But that connection has not been spelled out by Fox to viewers."
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129584557

So, Is Murdoch in bed with a Saudi who also funds radical madrassas?

"News Corporation (NYSE: NWS) today confirmed that it has reached an agreement to buy a 9.09 percent stake in Rotana Group, the pan-Middle East media group. News Corporation is acquiring newly-issued shares in Rotana for $70 million and has an option to increase its stake to 18.18 percent in the 18 months following completion.
This would not be the first connection between News Corp and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the multi-billionaire Saudi owner of Rotana Media. The prince is already a seven percent shareholder of News Corp’s class B stock. As the London Financial Times points out, this makes him the largest single shareholder outside of Murdoch family members."

paidcontent.org/article/419-news-corp-taking-stake-in-mid-easts-rotana-group/

[guinganbresil]

08:49 AM on 10/05/2010

Data:

http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/en/home/seaice_extent.htm

[Publicola]

02:53 PM on 10/06/2010

Data showing that Arctic sea ice is decreasing:

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/seaice.anomaly.arctic.png

[maxwells]

03:14 PM on 10/06/2010

Ahh...the anti-Conan. Looking at this data shows that

a) arctic sea ice wanes during summer, accumulates in winter - WOW... BRILLIANT! But not too shocking a finding, is it?

b) there's some year to year variability - AMAZING, but sort of like what anyone might expect, isn't it?

c) during this decade, more recent years display, on average, LESS sea ice...probably not what the above "quite-familiar-to-many-of-us denier" wants us to conclude, but tough beans. There it is.

[vetxcl]

07:43 PM on 10/06/2010

not really. it's still decreasing overall. and besides that, your sez so, just like mine, means nothing.

[Publicola]

08:11 PM on 10/06/2010

I think you may have misunderstood Maxwells, Vetxcl.

Maxwells agrees with you (and the empirical scientific evidence) that Arctic sea ice is decreasing overall and has been for decades.

[2million5Q]

10:46 PM on 10/03/2010

Change for the better of mankind and marine life and nature. Dense-dull minded useless politicians ..... self absorbed and puppets for the rich and corp..... this is shameful!!!!

[GoodandBadnews]

08:39 PM on 10/03/2010

Thomas Edison's Electric Car Back On The Road.

http://www.goodandbadnews.com/thomas-edison-electric-rides-again/

[vetxcl]

07:45 PM on 10/06/2010

lots of other one's too. i'm waiting for the leaf , because i can't afford a tesla.

[StephenBP]

07:56 PM on 10/03/2010

The ice extent for this year is about 30% below the mean for the 1979 to 2000 period. It is also close to the record low year of 2007.
So I was just wondering, could one of the denialists out there explain to me how that fits in with the global cooling idea that they were all talking about earlier in the year? Also, if you do a simple linear regression analysis of the ice extent data for the last 31 years the trend is steeply and solidly down. Since I am a global warming believer, and therefore am not supposed to be capable of understanding science and logic, maybe one of you much brighter denialists can explain to me why, if the earth is cooling, the Arctic ice is melting so fast?

Thanks.

[vetxcl]

07:05 PM on 10/03/2010

oh that tricky al gore must have secretly shipped them all there!!! you know he's as billionaire? he could afford to do it, so he must have.

[Siebenstein]

05:37 PM on 10/03/2010

Is this the "I love to be ignorant" thread?

Every other post shows complete and utter disregard for science, empathy, or the slightest environmental understanding.

Congrats on so much 1d10cy !

[John Cotton]

04:39 PM on 10/03/2010

That's f*cked up.

[Richard2]

03:20 PM on 10/03/2010

As is the case every year, the Arctic Sea Ice extent is now growing, which will soon provide new ice for these walruses to visit. The walfus are forced to live on bare land for a short while every year, but the ice does return in a short time.

http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icecover.uk.php

[Logicnotfaith]

06:11 PM on 10/03/2010

Richard2 you will soon learn that confronting the zealots with science and logic is futile, they consider it abusive

[StephenBP]

07:37 PM on 10/03/2010

What logic? Look in the mirror if you want to see a zealot. How many years have you studied the science?

[Publicola]

01:17 AM on 10/04/2010

R2: "As is the case every year, the Arctic Sea Ice extent is now growing"

Ya, that's called seasonal change.

In other pointless obfuscation news: as is the case every day, the earth changes from dark to light and back again.

[tresluv]

01:44 AM on 10/02/2010

"Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal", Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

[ddpalmerr]

11:45 AM on 10/02/2010

That is thrilling.

Where is the unequivocal evidence that the warming is caused by Humans or even by CO2? Especially when science shows that the temperature has been greater than it is today at many points over the past 10,000 years. That would be before CO2 levels rose.

[fmz]

02:10 PM on 10/02/2010

Are you saying that human activity has no consequence on the environment?

[realpolitic]

07:39 PM on 10/02/2010

"The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is very likely human-induced and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented in the past 1,300 years." 1

1 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Summary for Policymakers, p. 9

[Richard2]

02:42 PM on 10/03/2010

The new Royal Society document says: "The size of future temperature increases and other aspects of climate change, especially at the regional scale, are still subject to uncertainty."

The Royal Society even appears to criticise scientists who have made predictions about heatwaves and rising sea levels. It now says: "There is little confidence in specific projections of future regional climate change, except at continental scales."

It adds: "It is not possible to determine exactly how much the Earth will warm or exactly how the climate will change in the future.

"There remains the possibility that hitherto unknown aspects of the climate and climate change could emerge and lead to significant modifications in our understanding."

The Royal Society's new positions are more credible than those of the IPCC, which predicted that all the glaciers in the Himalayas would melt by 2035.



Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/09/30/britains-leading-scientific-institution-softens-position-global-warming#ixzz11K2oOZ5T

[DocSkull]

04:08 PM on 10/03/2010

Glad you like the Royal Society's position:

"It is certain that increased greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and from land use change lead to a warming of climate, and it is very likely that these green house gases are the dominant cause of the global warming that has been taking place over the last 50 years."

http://royalsociety.org/climate-change/

[vetxcl]

07:07 PM on 10/03/2010

to sum up: we still can't predict the future. shocking! doesn't disprove global warming in any event.

[Amarnath Amarasingam]

05:27 PM on 10/01/2010

That is a crazy scene! Poor things. We are circling the drain as a species folks!

[ddpalmerr]

11:46 AM on 10/02/2010

You mean the same scene that has occurred every year for decades if not centuries?

[tresluv]

08:56 PM on 10/02/2010

That is not true. Walruses traditionally gather and cling to ICE, not dry land.

[Crushedknee]

04:42 PM on 10/01/2010

Changes are afoot..Its going to be a slaughter when the bears and Orcas find and adapt to these pull out. Huge pinch point..Think Brown bears and salmon jumping and swimming in a shallow stream..

[GBO]

11:09 AM on 10/01/2010

Maybe they were there for a Climate change conference?