Climate Change Concerns: Alaska is in the news again

Because I wrote about Alaska to a certain extent in the last week or so (a four-part series re oil, the need for conservation and climate change concerns) and mentioned it again in my weekly column, a photo of Alaskan polar bears and accompanying article in Tuesday’s London Free Press (Ice Forcing Habitat Change) caught my eye and interest, respectively.

I’m not one for piles of heavy information and statistics (my ears bleed easily), but because sea ice in the Arctic is rapidly melting and ‘Alaskan polar bears are now spending more time either on land or in the open ocean, rather than on ice they normally use as a hunting platform,’ I found the following information and stats interesting:

Humans and bears have been running into each other more often.

Bear sightings on land more than tripled between 1979 and 2005. Open water sightings increased as well.

Between 1979 and 1985, only 12 per cent of bear sightings were not associated with ice.

By 2005, that figure had risen to 90 per cent.


["So, what's on TV?": photo link]

In other words, costly bear management programs will be another item listed by northern communities and governments under the heading ‘climate change concerns.’

I think climate change will be very costly for everyone.

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