WASHINGTON – Tens of thousands of walruses have come ashore in northwest Alaska because the sea ice they normally rest on has melted. Federal scientists say this massive move to shore by walruses is unusual in the United States. But it has happened at least twice before, in 2007 and 2009. In those years Arctic sea ice also was at or near record low levels. The population of walruses stretches "for one mile or more. This is just packed shoulder-to-shoulder," U.S. Geological Survey biologist Anthony Fischbach said in a telephone interview from Alaska. He estimated their number at tens of thousands.
Walruses have shoulders? If your name is Fishback, does destiny require you become a marine biologist? Anyway, check your local park, because walruses might be moving in soon. It's beyond me how anyone can contest the concept of global warming. All you have to do is check the polar regions.
During normal summers, the males go off to play in the Bering Sea, while the females raise their young in the Chukchi. The females rest on sea ice and dive from it to the sea floor for clams and worms.
"When they no longer have a place to rest, they need to go some place and it's a long commute," Fischbach said. "This is directly related to the lack of sea ice."
Loss of sea ice in the Chukchi this summer has surprised scientists because last winter lots of old established sea ice floated into the region, said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. But that has disappeared. Although last year was a slight improvement over previous years, Serreze says there's been a long-term decline that he blames on global warming.
"We'll likely see more summers like this," he said. "There is no sign of Arctic recovery."
Hey, what's a few displaced walruses as long as we can have industrial development, carbon monoxide and our wasteful lifestyle? Go ahead and dispute global warming if you want, but it's hard to dispute melting ice and displaced animals. Why is it that some people can't understand that?
3 comments:
co-co-ca-chooo
Yep…were all going to die, boil from the inside, and I rather not think about it since I have been sending information to the global warmers for years...and all they ask for are donations.
So…what do you think of that Mexican sports reporter complaining about the players whistling at her in the locker room? She says she was dressed appropriately but did you see those jeans she was wearing…I’d have liked to be the guy who painted them on her...(loud whistle)
Are male reporters allowed to enter a girls volleyball teams locker room or is there a double standard?
Why are reporters in the locker room anyway, can’t they wait till the players leave?
Later…
I get those requests too. I think they already have enough money.
As for the reporters, I think the locker room interview goes back to the old days of typing on paper and "filing stories" when guys had deadlines to meet and had to get the story in as quickly as possible. Not so anymore, so why do they continue to do it? Let them dress and leave.
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