The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Topic started by: rangerrebew on March 24, 2023, 11:15:05 am
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15 years after ESA listing as ‘threatened’ due to sea ice loss polar bears are abundant & thriving
Posted on March 20, 2023 | Comments Offon 15 years after ESA listing as ‘threatened’ due to sea ice loss polar bears are abundant & thriving
Experts who used the American Endangered Species Act (ESA) to list polar bears as ‘threatened’ 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 unabated.
By 2007, there was even less summer sea ice than computer models of the day had predicted (Stroeve et al. 2007, see red line on graph below) and in 2012, it dropped to just above 3 mkm2.
Simplified Arctic sea ice predictions vs. observations up to 2007 by Stroeve et al. 2007 (courtesy Wikimedia). Sea ice hit an even lower extent in 2012 and all years since then have been below these predicted levels.
https://polarbearscience.com/2023/03/20/15-years-after-esa-listing-as-threatened-due-to-sea-ice-loss-polar-bears-are-abundant-thriving/