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Global Warming Very Real to Baby Seals, Baby

Posted: 02/ 1/2012 7:25 pm

2012-01-31-WOE12_05BabySeals.gif
Climate change spares no one. Not even the adorable. Baby harp seals, for instance, can't catch a break. After centuries of looking over their shoulders to spot folks who plan to eat them or wear them, the cute little critters now have to worry about Mother Nature. As climate change warms the Arctic, it is reducing sea ice to historically low levels. Since stretches of thicker ice are getting harder to come by, baby seals are now more frequently drowning or getting crushed by broken-up chunks of ice. Though harp seal numbers remain strong, the pace of sea ice melt has hindered the survival of pups. Canada saw a 25 percent survival rate in 2007, and virtually no pups survived there in 2010.

One can only hope that a recent case of baby seal breaking and entering (BSB & E) will not prove to be the start of a trend: Rogue bands of thug baby seals, driven to lawlessness by the cruel dictates of global warming. Believe it or not, that premise is not as satirical as it sounds. Polar bears, like our cartoon friend Bebbo, find that global warming has decimated their opportunities to hunt, so starvation increasingly forces them into town garbage dumps for survival.

Not only are baby seals and polar bears feeling the brunt of climate change but Kito, the third character in today's comic strip, is in the line of fire as well -- puffins' numbers are going down as the temperature goes up.

But, to Kito's relief, there is currently no evidence that climate change has subjected puppies, kittens or baby chicks to great peril. But I'll keep you posted.

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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Richard2
11:00 AM on 02/02/2012
Meanwhile, back in the world of reality:


Officials reported 20 more deaths from the cold in Ukraine and nine more in Poland, bringing the overall toll from a week of frigid weather in Eastern Europe to 112.

Emergency crews were working overtime across the region as temperatures sank to minus 26.5 F.

Polish government spokeswoman Malgorzata Wozniak says the victims are primarily homeless people under the influence of alcohol who seek shelter in unheated buildings. Officials on Thursday appealed for the public to quickly help anyone in need.- Associated Press
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HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Neil Wagner
11:27 PM on 02/02/2012
"...back in the world of reality." By that I assume you are implying that the measurements of sea ice — decades of measurements from numerous disciplines — are wrong. As are the statistics of seals drowning and getting crushed by increasingly thin, broken ice. Is my assumption correct?
07:00 PM on 02/03/2012
His implication is that
If you had the same interest in humans
We wouldnt have so many starving in the world
Oh well
Back to the real world
You have to make abuck
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Publicola
Facts are stubborn things
11:46 PM on 02/02/2012
Heartland Institute "Skeptic" Hides The Global Warming Incline

Dear Richard2,

Isn't prominent global warming "skeptic" Bob Carter committing de facto fraud by misrepresenting increasing global temperature data as flat? *

Isn't that like a global warming scam, a climate science hoax, an indefensible lie? 

If you disagree again please provide a valid scientific rational to support Bob Carter's deeply misleading misrepresentation of global warming temperature data over recent decades - thank you.

Please answer the question, Richard2, instead of continuing to run away from it - thank you.

-------------------
* http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2011/07/bob_carters_trend_lines.php
07:03 PM on 02/03/2012
World Institute
Enviromaniacs hide the geological historyof the earth
Their history is only 30 to 180 years old.

That is true revisionism
Who is the fringe??????
11:45 AM on 02/27/2012
We need honest and open scientific debate on climate change, not attacks and rhetoric from both (or all) sides of the debate. The scientific debate on the principal cause of global warming is far from over - by definition.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/why-climate-skeptics-are-winning_631915.html
http://theglobalwarmingtruth.com/