by Margaret Wente
The polar bears of Hudson Bay are among the most endearing creatures on the planet. On Sunday, a remarkable documentary broadcast on the CBC showed them at their most compelling. Narrated by David Suzuki, the film Polar Bears: A Summer Odyssey features stunning images and a story line that will have your kids in tears. It follows an adolescent bear, a teenager, as he struggles for survival and navigates the frigid ocean for the first time alone, without his mother. We learn that the polar bears, who feed almost entirely during the winter, are in danger of starving to death because of global warming.
“Each year, the ice melts earlier,” Mr. Suzuki tells us. “Today’s bears have less time on the ice than their parents and grandparents … When the ice finally vanishes, the long, hot summer begins.” This population, we are told, has dwindled by 22 per cent in less than two decades.
Or has it? Last week, the government of Nunavut released a population survey of those very same bears. It was considerably more optimistic. It estimates the bear population on the western shore of Hudson Bay at 1,013, which is a lot higher than some thought. “The bear population is not in crisis as people believed,” said Drikus Gissing, Nunavut’s director of wildlife management.
This is awful news for the David Suzuki Foundation and other environmental groups that depend on the plight of the polar bear to raise money. After all, polar bears are even more photogenic than baby seals. The stakes are so high that polar-bear statistics are bitterly disputed. Whenever someone says the bears are okay, a dozen researchers rise up to protest that they’re not – as in this case, where researchers who object to the government’s finding say their methodology is more accurate. The scientists simply don’t believe the local Inuit, who say they’re seeing as many bears as ever. They believe the Inuit are biased because the bear hunt, which is tightly regulated, brings in lots of money.
Posts
