And Speaking of Global Warming...

Those of you that have seen An Inconvenient Truth will probably remember a short animated clip of an exhausted polar bear swimming in a vast ocean, struggling to climb up onto a crumbling bit of ice. It's rather heartbreaking. Polar bears are in particular danger when it comes to global warming; with the bear's habitat vanishing, not only won't they have anywhere to stand, they're also unable to find food.

Which is why they're beginning to eat each other.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea may be turning to cannibalism because longer seasons without ice keep them from getting to their natural food, a new study by American and Canadian scientists has found.

The study reviewed three examples of polar bears preying on each other from January to April 2004 north of Alaska and western Canada, including the first-ever reported killing of a female in a den shortly after it gave birth.

[...]

"During 24 years of research on polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea region of northern Alaska and 34 years in northwestern Canada, we have not seen other incidents of polar bears stalking, killing, and eating other polar bears," the scientists said.

Environmentalists contend shrinking polar ice due to global warming may lead to the disappearance of polar bears before the end of the century.

You can almost hear the sneer when the word "environmentalists" is used.

There's more at the link... warning, it gets kinda gruesome.

I'm sure this will be ignored, scoffed at, all the usual reactions to warnings of global warming. Until the polar bears start finding and eating people. We're a lot easier to stalk and kill than other polar bears, see. Then you'll start hearing screeching about how we have to take out those rogue polar bears.

(Then I'll have to cross-post about the new "bear patrols"...)