{"id":448887,"date":"2026-06-06T11:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T18:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=448887"},"modified":"2026-06-06T11:06:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T18:06:20","slug":"quit-lying-wpln-evidence-proves-black-bears-are-thriving-not-threatened-by-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=448887","title":{"rendered":"Quit Lying WPLN, Evidence Proves Black Bears Are Thriving, Not Threatened by Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

By H. Sterling Burnett<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A story broadcast and posted by WPLN, Louisville Public Media, claims Tennessee\u2019s black bear population is being threatened by climate change. Data show this is false. Bear populations are growing along with improved conditions for black bears to flourish. The biggest threat to black bears is conflict with humans, which is being driven by population growth, both bears and humans, urban expansion into bear habitat, and poor garbage storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WPLN reporter Caroline Eggers begins the story headlined, \u201cBlack bears are threatened by climate change. How can we help?<\/a>,\u201d by writing, \u201cBlack bear encounters are on the rise in Tennessee, and climate change is often a hidden culprit[.]\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem with Eggers story is that its headline and lead sentence are woefully misleading. Most of the story\u2019s details are pretty accurate. She notes that before large-scale European occupation and widespread forest clearing, black bears were common across Tennessee. After a sharp decline, bears populations have made a big comeback with an estimated 6,000 bears across the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bear populations are doing so well, they are increasingly being seen in edge communities being developed in formerly wild areas and even in urban areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black bear encounters with people are on the rise in Tennessee, and they are not always [\u2026] idyllic [\u2026]\u201d writes Eggers. \u201cBears scrounge through trash, cars and sometimes even homes for an easy source of calories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe furry creatures arguably have the best noses in the animal kingdom, 300 times better than people,\u201d Eggers continued. \u201cThe trend is, in part, driven by convenience for the bears. They are opportunistic feeders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, so good, but then the story begins to go off the rails. Eggers notes that rainfall from Hurricane Helene in 2024 caused flooding, knocking down a lot of trees, and then leapt to discuss a current drought in the Great Smoky Mountain national park. Yet neither of these events are historically unique or historically unusual. Flooding and drought, while never the norm, have been common throughout Tennessee\u2019s history, and there is no evidence in the data that hurricanes, droughts, and floods have become more common or severe over time in Tennessee, or in general elsewhere in the United States, as detailed in various Climate at a Glance<\/em> posts, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Tennessee specifically, while rainfall amounts vary regionally across the state, data show no increasing trend in drought numbers or severity since 1895, but rather a modest increase in precipitation<\/a>. (see the figure, below)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Source: Tennessee Weather Stem; https:\/\/learn.weatherstem.com\/modules\/learn\/lessons\/168\/14.html<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Temperatures in Tennessee have increased very modestly, about 0.5\u2109 over the past century. This is significantly below the national average rise in temperature and is likely due in large part to the Urban Heat Island effect from the growth of Tennessee\u2019s large and midsized cities. In fact, Tennessee\u2019s maximum high temperature was set and matched on two dates in 1930, more than 90 years of climate change ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerning forests, the data are clear that urban development and agriculture has replaced forests in some areas. But overall, the amount of forested lands has increased from lows set after initial European settlement, when many forests were cleared for small scale farming and grazing. In fact, forests cover approximately 52 percent of Tennessee<\/a>, with rebounding coverage over the past 100 years. Natural forest coverage has doubled over the last century from 25 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s more, connected forest cover and better precipitation has produced improved ecosystem conditions for bears, including increased animal and plant foods sources, which largely explain Tennessee\u2019s growing bear population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since modest warming over the past hasn\u2019t made habitat and ecological conditions worse for bears in Tennessee, but rather has improved such conditions, contributing to a growing population, climate change can\u2019t be \u201cthreatening\u201d bear survival, as Eggers claims in her WPLN story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had Eggers not tried to drag climate change into her WPLN story about problems some Tennesseans are having with bears, she might have written a valuable and interesting story. She could have explained the dangers bears face due to urban expansion, some people\u2019s propensity to think of bears as cute and feeding them, and poor garbage storage \u2013 all of which have led to problem bears and human\/bear conflicts. Instead, she opened with a misleading, but perhaps attention-grabbing headline, and then wandered off the trail in an effort to feed the narrative popular with the media that \u201cclimate change causes everything bad.\u201d In this case, that climate change is harming bears\u2014despite clear evidence the black bear population is flourishing amid climate change. There is no trend or evidence, none at all, suggesting this will change in the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A story broadcast and posted by WPLN, Louisville Public Media, claims Tennessee\u2019s black bear population is being threatened by climate change. Data show this is false. Bear populations are growing along with improved conditions for black bears to flourish. The biggest threat to black bears is conflict with humans, which is being driven by population growth, both bears and humans, urban expansion into bear habitat, and poor garbage storage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":448889,"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":[691843527,691843523,691843526,691818056,691843529,691843524,691843528,691825305,691843525],"class_list":["post-448887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bear-populations","tag-black-bears","tag-caroline-eggers","tag-climate-change","tag-human-bear-conflicts","tag-louisville-public-media","tag-poor-garbage-storage","tag-tennessee","tag-wpln","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0-Copilot-Quit-Lying-WPLN-Evidence-Proves-Black-Bears-Are-Thriving-Not-Threatened-by-Climate-Change.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1SM7","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":291140,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=291140","url_meta":{"origin":448887,"position":0},"title":"Wrong, CNN, Climate Change Isn\u2019t the Cause of Rising Bear Attacks in Japan","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/13\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"CNN recently posted an article claiming that climate change is causing an uptick in bear attacks in Japan. 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