- Location
- The Conservative part of Ontario
Polar bears will be extinct within 25 years, scientist warns
Dennis Bueckert, Canadian Press
Published: Friday, April 21, 2006
OTTAWA -- Polar bears will be extinct within 25 years as global warming shrinks the ice cover they depend on for feeding and giving birth, says a renowned Australian scientist.
The Arctic ice cap is shrinking by eight per cent a year and polar bears are already showing signs of severe stress, says Tim Flannery, one of Australia's best-known scientists and author of the current best-seller The Weather Makers.
In the past, polar bears typically gave birth to triplets, but now they usually have just one cub, he said. And the weaning time has risen to 18 months from 12, while the average weight has declined 15 per cent.
"Polar bears are going to go with the ice cap. They're not going to actually last that long,'' Flannery told a news conference Friday.
Citing other warning signs, he said British Columbia's Fraser River has been fatally warm to salmon for five of the last 13 years, while West Coast forests are being decimated by an infestation of pine beetles able to survive milder winters.
"These are unheralded signs of change. They simply haven't been seen in the past. They persuade me and the vast majority of my colleagues that the debate on climate change is well and truly over. The science is solid and the effects are there for everyone to see.''
Flannery's visit to Ottawa came the day after former prime minister Brian Mulroney told an audience that included much of the country's political elite that Canada must recognize the urgency of global warming.
The current government has been sending mixed signals on the issue, saying it will stay in the Kyoto Protocol but promising a made-in-Canada solution that remains undefined.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said Canada can't meet its targets under the climate treaty. Yet Canada will preside over negotiations this year aimed at seeking even larger emissions reductions.
"It (Canada) chairs the negotiating process, and yet it is the only signatory of the Kyoto Protocol that's cutting its climate programs,'' said Flannery. "It looks as if it's going to abandon its commitments without ever having really tried to meet them.''
"As an Australian, I'm used to seeing better things from Canada. I think it would be an enormous tragedy if Canada cut and run from its international obligations.''
He said it is feasible to cut greenhouse emissions by applying the "polluter pays'' principle, cutting subsidies to the petroleum industry, and introducing a revenue-neutral carbon tax.
Under such a plan, the carbon tax would be offset by tax cuts in other areas. But the concept is anathema in Alberta, whose tar sands projects have become the country's biggest source of greenhouse emissions.
"It's only the tar sands that prevent the country from making its targets under Kyoto,'' said Flannery.
© Canadian Press 2006
Dennis Bueckert, Canadian Press
Published: Friday, April 21, 2006
OTTAWA -- Polar bears will be extinct within 25 years as global warming shrinks the ice cover they depend on for feeding and giving birth, says a renowned Australian scientist.
The Arctic ice cap is shrinking by eight per cent a year and polar bears are already showing signs of severe stress, says Tim Flannery, one of Australia's best-known scientists and author of the current best-seller The Weather Makers.
In the past, polar bears typically gave birth to triplets, but now they usually have just one cub, he said. And the weaning time has risen to 18 months from 12, while the average weight has declined 15 per cent.
"Polar bears are going to go with the ice cap. They're not going to actually last that long,'' Flannery told a news conference Friday.
Citing other warning signs, he said British Columbia's Fraser River has been fatally warm to salmon for five of the last 13 years, while West Coast forests are being decimated by an infestation of pine beetles able to survive milder winters.
"These are unheralded signs of change. They simply haven't been seen in the past. They persuade me and the vast majority of my colleagues that the debate on climate change is well and truly over. The science is solid and the effects are there for everyone to see.''
Flannery's visit to Ottawa came the day after former prime minister Brian Mulroney told an audience that included much of the country's political elite that Canada must recognize the urgency of global warming.
The current government has been sending mixed signals on the issue, saying it will stay in the Kyoto Protocol but promising a made-in-Canada solution that remains undefined.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said Canada can't meet its targets under the climate treaty. Yet Canada will preside over negotiations this year aimed at seeking even larger emissions reductions.
"It (Canada) chairs the negotiating process, and yet it is the only signatory of the Kyoto Protocol that's cutting its climate programs,'' said Flannery. "It looks as if it's going to abandon its commitments without ever having really tried to meet them.''
"As an Australian, I'm used to seeing better things from Canada. I think it would be an enormous tragedy if Canada cut and run from its international obligations.''
He said it is feasible to cut greenhouse emissions by applying the "polluter pays'' principle, cutting subsidies to the petroleum industry, and introducing a revenue-neutral carbon tax.
Under such a plan, the carbon tax would be offset by tax cuts in other areas. But the concept is anathema in Alberta, whose tar sands projects have become the country's biggest source of greenhouse emissions.
"It's only the tar sands that prevent the country from making its targets under Kyoto,'' said Flannery.
© Canadian Press 2006
