{"id":258109,"date":"2023-05-19T17:11:45","date_gmt":"2023-05-19T15:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=258109"},"modified":"2023-05-19T17:11:48","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T15:11:48","slug":"how-is-widespread-use-of-helicopters-to-study-polar-bears-defensible-in-a-warming-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=258109","title":{"rendered":"How is widespread use of helicopters to study polar bears defensible in a warming world?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From polarbearscience<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If all of us should be doing \u201ceverything possible\u201d<\/a> to stop climate change, why is it still OK\u201315 years after polar bears were declared threatened with extinction<\/a> because of predicted climate change effects\u2013for researchers across the Arctic to use helicopters to study polar bears? Aircraft that consume massive amounts of aviation fuel and engine oils, otherwise known as \u2018fossil fuels.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Money quote:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201c\u2026the lifeblood of most polar bear research is jet fuel needed by helicopters.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(Derocher 2012:107).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From\u00a0Hudson Bay<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0High Arctic<\/a>\u00a0in Canada, the Beaufort Sea off Alaska, to\u00a0Svalbard in Norway<\/a>\u00a0(above, from 2015), polar bear research is impossible without helicopters powered by fossil fuels. This has been true since the 1980s (e.g. Ramsy and Stirling 1988). And this doesn\u2019t even take into account the fossil fuel-powered\u00a0fixed wing aircraft<\/a>\u00a0needed in\u00a0some locations<\/a>, commercial airline flights that transport personnel and equipment to distant locations, or the\u00a0Tundra buggies<\/a>\u00a0used in Churchill (Western Hudson Bay) to\u00a0get up close to bears<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0educate<\/s>\u00a0indoctrinate the tourists<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

USFWS in the Beaufort Sea 2001, Amstrup photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there is such an indisputable correlation between human-caused CO2 and sea ice decline that the\u00a0total collapse of polar bear populations<\/a>\u00a0can be predicted with certainty (Moln\u00e1r et al. 2020), why bother with these energy-intensive studies? If researchers are so sure what will befall polar bears under a\u00a0\u201cbusiness as usual\u201d<\/a>\u00a0approach to CO2,\u00a0how can they possibly justify<\/a>\u00a0the \u2018greenhouse gas\u2019 emissions their own work adds to the problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Western Hudson Bay research 2023, Derocher photo<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why not leave the polar bears to their inevitable fate and engage in some other form of research that doesn\u2019t contribute so dramatically to the damage they insist is being done?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it possible polar bear biologists know in their hearts, because of their own data<\/a>, that the damage being done is not as bad<\/a> as they claim?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or is it that they consider their work<\/a> to be so much more important<\/a> than anyone else\u2019s job that their contribution to the climate change problem should be discounted?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funny how journalists never ask these kinds of questions. Governments\u00a0around the world<\/a>\u00a0are planning to\u00a0ban gasoline powered cars,<\/a>\u00a0which millions of people depend upon to get to their jobs but no one, it seems, talks about the hypocrisy in Arctic research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

USFWS Beaufort\/Chukchi Sea 2009, Rode photo<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Derocher, A.E. 2012.<\/strong> Polar Bears: A Complete Guide to their Biology and Behavior. <\/em>Photographs by Wayne Lynch, in association with Polar Bears International. Johns Hopkins University Press. [see my review here<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moln\u00e1r, P.K., Bitz, C.M., Holland, M.M., et al. 2020.<\/strong> Fasting season length sets temporal limits for global polar bear persistence. Nature Climate Change<\/em>.  https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41558-020-0818-9<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If all of us should be doing\u00a0\u201ceverything possible\u201d\u00a0to stop climate change, why is it still OK\u201315 years after polar bears were declared\u00a0threatened with extinction\u00a0because of predicted climate change effects\u2013for researchers across the Arctic to use helicopters to study polar bears? Aircraft that consume massive amounts of aviation fuel and engine oils, otherwise known as \u2018fossil fuels.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":258118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818162,691818076,691818745],"class_list":["post-258109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arctic-warming","tag-co2","tag-polar-bear","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0GettyImages-627066956-e1580484729791.jpg?fit=4594%2C3067&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1593","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":248982,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=248982","url_meta":{"origin":258109,"position":0},"title":"15 years after ESA listing as \u2018threatened\u2019 due to sea ice loss polar bears are abundant & thriving","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/22\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Experts who used the American Endangered Species Act (ESA) to list polar bears as \u2018threatened\u2019 in May 2008 were mistaken: sea ice authorities got their predictions wrong about future ice extent and polar bear specialists erroneously declared that two-thirds of polar bears would disappear if summer sea ice declines continued\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-888.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-888.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-888.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-888.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-888.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":272323,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=272323","url_meta":{"origin":258109,"position":1},"title":"Climate activists are silent on polar bears because their doom-mongering blew up in their faces","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"While there is an admission that the\u00a0over-hyped lies about starving bears\u00a0promoted by National Geographic\u00a0in 2017 and 2018 were a factor, there is no mention in the article of the\u00a0well-known, documented evidence\u00a0of scientists\u2019 own\u00a0failed assumptions\u00a0that polar bears require summer sea ice for survival have had any impact on public opinion","rel":"","context":"In \"Chukchi sea\"","block_context":{"text":"Chukchi sea","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=chukchi-sea"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Arctic.jpeg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Arctic.jpeg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Arctic.jpeg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Arctic.jpeg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Arctic.jpeg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 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And yet polar bears survived these periods.","rel":"","context":"In \"Arctic\"","block_context":{"text":"Arctic","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=arctic"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-50.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-50.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-50.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-50.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":424041,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=424041","url_meta":{"origin":258109,"position":3},"title":"Polar bears on Norwegian islands fatter and healthier despite ice loss","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/31\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The Norwegian Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard have become fatter and healthier despite significant sea ice loss due to climate change. A study published in Scientific Reports on January 29, 2026, analyzed body condition data from 770 adult polar bears between 1992 and 2019.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/OIG-2023-10-23T132101.951.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/OIG-2023-10-23T132101.951.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/OIG-2023-10-23T132101.951.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/OIG-2023-10-23T132101.951.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 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