bears have stopped hibernating

Tell your family - and freinds - OMG!!!

--------------------------------------------
What about malaria mosquitos?
And other bugs - Will they come to northern europe?!
I would hate that..

Dangerous stuff - If dangerous bugs spread..
insects i mean.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Did you know that bears don't hibernate?
At leaast not true hibernation
They sleep longer and more often, but can awaken at the drop of a hat.

A true hibernator lowers many body functions, temperature, heart rate.
many to near freezing.

so all my teachers when i was a youngling lied their faces off to me about bears hibernating? all the books that say bears hibernate, lie?

ANYWAY how does this affect the bears, any body know? after all those years of hibernating... to suddenly just stop hibernating?

does it have any effect on bears at all?

Originally posted by conspiracymaster

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Did you know that bears don't hibernate?
At leaast not true hibernation
They sleep longer and more often, but can awaken at the drop of a hat.

A true hibernator lowers many body functions, temperature, heart rate.
many to near freezing.

so all my teachers when i was a youngling lied their faces off to me about bears hibernating? all the books that say bears hibernate, lie?

no, no they weren't lying.
Maybe a little misinformed about bears.
But it's not all black and white, like you wish it to be.


People still call it hibernation, but it's not the same.
You can read alittle about it here.
bears

Bears tend to give birth during the winter too. A truly hibernating bear would not be able to feed its cubs. Due to metabolism restrictions.
They just switch into a slightly lower speed that only resembles hibernation on the surface. They are easily awakened.

I only brought it up so people would know the difference.
And make a more educated guess as to how alarmed they should be about bears walking around in the winter.

[edit on 28-12-2006 by spacedoubt]

Originally posted by djohnsto77
The problem lies in the Polar Bears that are dependent on ever-shrinking arctic seas ice to alllow them to hunt. Reports of drowned bears and very thin bears are becoming more and more prevalent.

Maybe the appearance of Great White sharks in the arctic? I don't know much about Great Whites, but I do know they eat seals.

If a large population of Seals appear in a shrinking area, might prove easy for a quick lunch for the sharks? Can the Great whites survive in the fresh, cold waters of the arctic? Or do they need salt water?

Although it is bad for a species such as the polar bear to go extinct, I believe that speaking of the ecosystem, another predator would take the place of the Polar Bear, unless no other predator could survive the environment.

Shattered OUT...

That's horrible news. Even the smallest change in the ecological cycle spells unheard of and unimagined consequences. We know only a fraction of the whole balance and this means disaster.

It's been a slow burn for a while, but once the oceans heat up - watch out. Changing seasons means not only animals not migrating and hibernating, it also means famine. As crops are dependent on seasonal growth.

So far the oceans have slowed the warming. Whether it's man-made, solar, a phenomena we haven't isolated or a combination of all those things - it's unarguable that the earth temperature is going up.

In the last ice age the earth temperature went down by 3 or 4 degrees. They're expecting a rise of at least that much. All the polar bears are starving because the ice floes are melting and they can't hunt like they used to. Now they're eating people more often. I guess we can expect all the animals to become more aggressive as the environment makes survival more difficult.

It may not be just the Bears that are in trouble. It appears as though the world is drastically changing.

Exploding toads puzzle German scientists
May 2005
U.S. Water News Online

www.uswaternews.com...

Bee shortage is a bitter problem

Numbers of honeybees, wild bumble bees and other pollinators have declined, raising the risk of plant extinction and threatening the nation's food crops, says a report from the National Research Council. In Utah, the Beehive State, officials made a belated change in pesticide regulations this summer but more needs to be done to protect honeybees, beekeepers say. The nationwide shortage is significant enough that honeybees had to be brought in from Canada and Mexico last year for the first time since 1922, when the Honeybee Act banned imports for fear they would introduce non-native pests, according to the report.

argyleist.newsvine.com...

Earth's Wobble Wipes Out Species
AFP

Oct. 12, 2006 — Climate change, naturally induced by tiny shifts in Earth's rotational axis and orbit, periodically wipes out species of mammals, a study published on Thursday says.

Paleontologists have long puzzled over fossil records that, remarkably, suggest mammal species tend to last around two and a half million years before becoming extinct.

Climate experts and biologists led by Jan van Dam at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, overlaid a picture of species emergence and extinction with changes that occur in Earth's orbit and axis.

Link

The Chandler wobble is a factor considered by satellite navigation systems (especially military systems). It is also claimed to be the cause of major tectonic activity, including earthquakes, volcanism, El Niño, and global warming phenomenon, however there is no actual data which supports such a claim.

www.answers.com...




Mod edit: shortened link

[edit on 2006/12/28 by Hellmutt]

Well..

I can't believe in global warming per say, since as it is right now over the past 100 years the average global temperature has only risen what, a degree if that?

Climate shift however, could cause many of these problems. It wouldn't be the first time, over time our planets climate moves.. where I live was once an ocean, the Sahara was once a rainforest and so was the Out Back. So, I agree the climate is changing.. but I can't see it being connected to Human activity, though if it is our planet will destroy us before we destroy her. Plauges, wars, famine, water shortage. Those are mother natures ways of keeping us in check, yet we do all we can to avoid it, in the end it will all catch up to us.

It's obviously clear to me - that it is man-made problem.
And it is obviously clear to me that we are doing nothing to prevent it.

Concerning the Medieval Warm Period:

During the MWP wine grapes were grown in Europe as far north as southern Britain[4][5][6] although less extensively than they are today[7] (however, factors other than climate strongly influence the commercial success of vineyards, for example wine is made in Alaska today; and the time of greatest extent of medieval vineyards falls outside the MWP). The Vikings took advantage of ice-free seas to colonize Greenland and other outlying lands of the far north. The MWP was followed by the Little Ice Age, a period of cooling that lasted until the 19th century when the current period of global warming began.
In Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, researchers found large temperature excursions during the Medieval Warm Period (about 800–1300) and the Little Ice Age (about 1400–1850), possibly related to changes in the strength of North Atlantic thermohaline circulation.[8] Sediments in Piermont Marsh of the lower Hudson Valley show a dry Medieval Warm period from AD 800–1300.[9]
Prolonged droughts affected many parts of the western United States and especially eastern California and the western Great Basin.[3] Alaska experienced three time intervals of comparable warmth: 1–300, 850–1200, and post-1800 AD. [10]
A radiocarbon-dated box core in the Sargasso Sea shows that sea surface temperature was approximately 1°C cooler than today approximately 400 years ago (the Little Ice Age) and 1700 years ago, and approximately 1°C warmer than today 1000 years ago (the Medieval Warm Period).[11]
Source

That was nature working on its own cycle without the impact that we humans have on it today. One of the contributing factors to the Little Ice Age was desalinization caused by the large amounts of fresh water introduced to the ocean through the melting of the North Atlantic icepack.

The thermohaline circulation (THC) is a term for the global density-driven circulation of the oceans. Derivation is from thermo- for heat and -haline for salt, which together determine the density of sea water. Wind driven surface currents (such as the Gulf Stream) head polewards from the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, cooling all the while and eventually sinking at high latitudes (forming North Atlantic Deep Water). This dense water then flows into the ocean basins. While the bulk of it upwells in the Southern Ocean, the oldest waters (with a transit time of around 1600 years) upwell in the North Pacific (Primeau, 2005). Extensive mixing therefore takes place between the ocean basins, reducing differences between them and making the Earth's ocean a global system. On their journey, the water masses transport both energy (in the form of heat) and matter (solids, dissolved substances and gases) around the globe. As such, the state of the circulation has a large impact on the climate of our planet.
Source

Even though the earth appears to be going through a natural climatic temperature cycle, I do believe that we humans are speeding up the process. The data suggest that warming and cooling trends should take hundreds of years. Yet, we’ve appeared to have cut that time in half and have sped up the process. Now it appears that China is getting into the global warming process as they endeavor to bring their country up to 21st century standards.

Not to worry, nature has a way of reducing global population to repair its eco systems. Expect more cataclysmic natural events as nature’s way of fixing herself.

Originally posted by Rockpuck
Well..

I can't believe in global warming per say, since as it is right now over the past 100 years the average global temperature has only risen what, a degree if that?

Climate shift however, could cause many of these problems. It wouldn't be the first time, over time our planets climate moves.. where I live was once an ocean, the Sahara was once a rainforest and so was the Out Back. So, I agree the climate is changing.. but I can't see it being connected to Human activity, though if it is our planet will destroy us before we destroy her. Plauges, wars, famine, water shortage. Those are mother natures ways of keeping us in check, yet we do all we can to avoid it, in the end it will all catch up to us.

even a few degrees rise in average temperatures is disastrous... bad for crops, plants, and animals. the reason winters are milder now is because of the man made temperature rises...

We should get used to global warming, whether it is our fault or just mother nature. My cats have started malting again and mid winter hasnt even arrived yet, there was a wasp trying to get in my bedroom a fw days ago.. they should all be dead by now, I have crocuses sprouting through the grass in my Garden. none of this should be happening for another 3 or 4 months!

I'm in the northeastern US and we haven't seen one snowflake here yet. It's January, and 50 something degrees and pouring rain today. Normal temp is about 35, and yet my son just walked to a friend's house in a t-shirt. AND I killed two flies in my kitchen yesterday. I've never seen flies alive in January....

I can't believe in global warming per say, since as it is right now over the past 100 years the average global temperature has only risen what, a degree if that?

Perhaps after viewing the information contained on the following website you may see things differently...

Excerpt from:

Message of the Executive Secretary to the Citizens of the World

Meanwhile the findings of a landmark 2005 study into the health of the planet’s ecosystems, called the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, undertaken by over 1,300 experts from 95 countries, has added its voice to those of the politicians. Two thirds of the services provided by nature to humankind are in decline, worldwide. Humans have made unprecedented changes to ecosystems in recent decades to meet growing demands for food and other ecosystems services.

These changes have weakened nature’s ability to deliver its vital services. Human activity is putting such strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.

This landmark study concludes that to attain the 2010 biodiversity target will require not only fine words, but an unprecedented effort by all sections of society.

www.biodiv.org...


[edit on 7-1-2007 by Siren]

I don't think Elementist is trying to derail too much. I can kinda see why he said what he said.....with the bears not hibernating, insects living further into winter, birds not flying south, the weird freaky weather patterns. I live in Baltimore, and we haven't seen one snowflake yet this year. We always get at least a tad bit of flurries by this point. It's been so warm. People were walking around in shorts and tank tops yesterday at the mall and grocery store......and it's January 7th in Baltimore. Something doesn't feel right. I have a feeling winter will go by without being "winter" at all. Now wouldn't that be weird if the season shifts stopped? There is a line in the bible I once remember reading that describes how in the end times that the seasons will become a blur. I forget how it was worded, but it implied that one day it'd be like winter, the next day summer, and the next day winter, the next day summer, etc. It's almost starting to get like this.........it's creepy.