Polar bears endangered species?

Collarspace Discussion Forums

Home Login Search

Polar bears endangered species?

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

All Forums >> [Casual Banter] >> Off the Grid >> Polar bears endangered species?

Page: [1]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

Polar bears endangered species? - 5/14/2008 7:34:57 PM

Alumbrado

Posts: 5560
Status: offline

I'm not up on the details of global warming well enough to make a claim that it is or isn't a carved in stone certainty...

But if you heard some government official saying that it would be 'wholly inappropriate' to link the deaths of parakeets in the mines with levels of safe air, would you stay in the mine?

quote:

The Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species Wednesday because of the loss of Arctic sea ice but also cautioned the decision should not be viewed as a path to address global warming.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne cited dramatic declines in sea ice over the last three decades and projections of continued losses, meaning, he said, that the polar bear is a species likely to be in danger of extinction in the near future.
But Kempthorne said it would be "wholly inappropriate" to use the protection of the bear to reduce greenhouse gases, or to broadly address climate change.

The Endangered Species Act "is not the right tool to set U.S. climate policy," said Kempthorne, reflecting a view recently expressed by President Bush.

http://green.yahoo.com/news/ap/20080514/ap_on_sc/polar_bear.html

Profile

Post #: 1

RE: Polar bears endangered species? - 5/14/2008 7:46:49 PM

kittinSol

Posts: 16926
Status: offline

The icecaps are melting, but it's got nothing to do with global warming, it's actually an Al Gore invention, didn't you read the memo? *sigh*

I bet the government wishes the WWF would just shut the fuck up... oh well, too late. This time.

_____________________________

(in reply to Alumbrado)

Profile

Post #: 2

RE: Polar bears endangered species? - 5/14/2008 7:48:49 PM

Leatherist

Posts: 5149
Joined: 12/11/2007
Status: offline

We should vote to move the bears to DC, and let then eat deadwood politicians and civil servants. Kill two birds with one stone.........

_____________________________

My shop is currently segueing into production mode.

I'm not taking custom orders.

(in reply to Alumbrado)

Profile

Post #: 3

RE: Polar bears endangered species? - 5/14/2008 7:51:02 PM

Alumbrado

Posts: 5560
Status: offline

Now that is brilliant... since the bears are endangered, no one could shoot them, even to protect the politicians, who are not endangered.

(in reply to Leatherist)

Profile

Post #: 4

RE: Polar bears endangered species? - 5/14/2008 8:32:56 PM

TheHeretic

Posts: 19100
Joined: 3/25/2007
From: California, USA
Status: offline

       Not a fair analogy. Alum, We don't have the elevators off the planet working yet. It matters WHY the canaries are dying.

       If, as you say, the reasons are not set in stone, why would we give a legal battering ram to one, radical side of the argument?

       This planet is a lot older than we are. It has been carved by ice growing and retreating many times. I don't know that human activity is the cause of this particular round. If we did inadvertently start something with our technological evolution, I suspect our species is just going to have to adapt. We sure don't know enough to put it back.

        Frankly, I don't want a movement completely co-opted by the political left empowered to try and fix anything.

_____________________________

If you lose one sense, your other senses are enhanced.
That's why people with no sense of humor have such an inflated sense of self-importance.

(in reply to Alumbrado)

Profile

Post #: 5

RE: Polar bears endangered species? - 5/14/2008 8:42:07 PM

Alumbrado

Posts: 5560
Status: offline

You've completely missed the point.

(in reply to TheHeretic)

Profile

Post #: 6

RE: Polar bears endangered species? - 5/14/2008 8:57:14 PM

TheHeretic

Posts: 19100
Joined: 3/25/2007
From: California, USA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alumbrado

You've completely missed the point.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne cited dramatic declines in sea ice over the last three decades and projections of continued losses, meaning, he said, that the polar bear is a species likely to be in danger of extinction in the near future.
But Kempthorne said it would be "wholly inappropriate" to use the protection of the bear to reduce greenhouse gases, or to broadly address climate change.

        That's from your link. My post was... dare I say it??? In agreement with an official of the Bush Administration.

      I saw what happened to the economy of southern Oregon when the spotted owl became the most important thing in the woods. The owls have been spotted living in the sign of an abandoned tire dealership, and all the fucking jobs are gone. And we have precisely zero reason to believe that putting the world (or at least the western capitalist parts, since communist pollution seems to be just fine) into economic chaos would save a single bear.

< Message edited by TheHeretic -- 5/14/2008 8:58:20 PM >

_____________________________

If you lose one sense, your other senses are enhanced.
That's why people with no sense of humor have such an inflated sense of self-importance.

(in reply to Alumbrado)

Profile

Post #: 7

RE: Polar bears endangered species? - 5/14/2008 9:01:42 PM

Alumbrado

Posts: 5560
Status: offline

quote:

My post was... dare I say it??? In agreement with an official

That was the point.

(in reply to TheHeretic)

Profile

Post #: 8

RE: Polar bears endangered species? - 5/14/2008 10:45:59 PM

TheHeretic

Posts: 19100
Joined: 3/25/2007
From: California, USA
Status: offline

So are you saying that I missed the point, or hit it squarely on the head??? Yes, I can appreciate the seeming irony of the remarks, but it's only there if you accept the presumptions that we can do we can do a damn thing about climate change.

_____________________________

If you lose one sense, your other senses are enhanced.
That's why people with no sense of humor have such an inflated sense of self-importance.

(in reply to Alumbrado)

Profile

Post #: 9

RE: Polar bears endangered species? - 5/14/2008 10:59:39 PM

slaveboyforyou

Posts: 3607
Joined: 1/6/2005
From: Arkansas, U.S.A.
Status: offline

A polar bear's perspective on the issue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6rPcHqtSnU&feature=related

(in reply to TheHeretic)

Profile

Post #: 10

RE: Polar bears endangered species? - 5/15/2008 1:47:03 AM

LadyEllen

Posts: 10931
Joined: 6/30/2006
From: Stourport-England
Status: offline

Heretic there's no need to "put the western world into economic chaos". There's a need (well, quite a few needs - security being top of my list, followed by environment) to get away from fossil fuels - which means an opportunity to develop new technology and thereby put the western world into strong economic growth.
E

_____________________________

In a test against the leading brand, 9 out of 10 participants couldnt tell the difference. Dumbasses.

(in reply to slaveboyforyou)

Profile

Post #: 11

RE: Polar bears endangered species? - 5/15/2008 2:49:40 AM

Rule

Posts: 10479
Joined: 12/5/2005
Status: offline

Seems to me them bears have some rapid evolving to do. If they cannot, well that will be just too bad.

(in reply to Alumbrado)

Profile

Post #: 12

RE: Polar bears endangered species? - 5/15/2008 6:16:38 AM

DomKen

Posts: 19457
Joined: 7/4/2004
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic
I saw what happened to the economy of southern Oregon when the spotted owl became the most important thing in the woods. The owls have been spotted living in the sign of an abandoned tire dealership, and all the fucking jobs are gone. And we have precisely zero reason to believe that putting the world (or at least the western capitalist parts, since communist pollution seems to be just fine) into economic chaos would save a single bear.

The spotted owls only live in a particular environment of old growth forest so if the lumber companies had been sustainably harvesting, as they claimed to be and the law requires, then no spotted owl habitat would have needed to go under the saw to keep the lumber business going in the northwest. But since it cut into profits and required paying people to plant trees so they could be cut in a few decades the lumber companies didn't do it. But every so often someone trots out this BS about the spotted owl killing the lumber industry in the Pacific Northwest when it is quite completely clear that the lumber companies did it to themselves. All the listing of the owl did was mean the industry died a few years early.

(in reply to TheHeretic)

Profile

Post #: 13