Do you want to hear some good news? The Arctic Ice has returned!
If you were worrying about polar bears, which get their main source of food from hunting seals on the frozen Arctic ice cap, you can relax this winter. The polar sea ice has grown 60% in just one year!
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Polar bears’ main sources of food are the seals lurking below the Arctic sea ice. This will be a good hunting year. Source: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Credit: Scott Schliebe
Scientists were astonished. After last year’s huge melt, many expected the Arctic sea ice to practically disappear. However, summer in the North Pole was unusually cold. Normally an Arctic summer has 90 days with temperatures above freezing. This means that there are normally 90 days for the ice to melt. This year, the coldest since records began, there were less than 50 days above freezing. The amount of sea ice for the polar bears hunting is huge.
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Top − August 2012, Bottom − August 2013 The Arctic sea ice is 60% bigger than last year with 920,000 extra square miles after the end of the summer melting season. Source NASA
Last year, between extremely warm water in the North Atlantic and a record-breaking, ice-breaking August storm off Russia, the amount of sea ice plummeted. This year, the ice has grown back and there is more ice than we have seen in August over the last five years.
As concerned citizens point out, there is still much less ice than there used to be in the 1980s and 1990s. Scientists are still monitoring Arctic ice and long-term melting trends and it still is worrisome, particularly for Canada’s Hudson Bay populations.
For this year – it’s good to be a polar bear. The sea ice will come early and the bears will be able to hunt for their main source of food – seals. In particular, the Russian polar populations, which had a lean, stormy year in 2012, will have early access to their hunting grounds.
Some weather services warn that with that much cold Arctic air in the North, it is shaping up to be a very cold winter here in the US. It may end up being a very hard winter for US travelers. But if you are a polar bear—Bon Appetit!
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Don't feel sad for the polar bears. The population of Ursus maritimus is at the highest point ever recorded...despite record low amounts of ice. The dire predictions didn't pan out...someone forgot to tell the bears....but it did bring in a lot of money to the coffers of those who play people's heart strings and forget the inconvenient facts.
One of the problems is that taking an accurate census of all 19 polar bear populations is very difficult, especially for the Russian/Asian and Eastern Greenland polar bears. There is a huge variation in the estimates. We do know some population groups have declined. Other groups, particularly the bears in the northern Canadian islands, are doing well.
Polar Bears are suffering a lot due to the Glottalization. I hope we can do something for them. It is good to hear this great news.
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I'm glad you enjoy it. I was pleased to find some good news.
If its going to be a cold winter I wonder why I'm not seeing any acorns this year. Every year I check for natures signs of winter. The leaves are changing here in North Carolina and I have seen many birds practice their flying so they can head south for winter. I also feel autumn in the air, but as far as my oak trees dropping acorns- zero, nada. I like to decorate with acorns but this is strange!! With all of that cold air in the arctic I couldnt expect another warm winter but if this year does end up like 2012 I guess we'll NEVER get it to snow this year. Maybe they're just growing late this year but this is still baffling me. Maybe there is a connection to all of this rain we've seen over the summer
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