The polar bear is thought to have been heading north in a desperate search for sea ice that would allow it to hunt for seals. Scientists believe the Arctic could be essentially free of sea ice in September by 2054.
"Ian Stirling, who has studied polar bears for nearly 40 years, told The Guardian newspaper that he found the animal on Svalbard in July.
“From his lying position in death the bear appears to simply have starved and died where he dropped,” Stirling said. “He had no external suggestion of any remaining fat, having been reduced to little more than skin and bone.”'
...
"Ashley Cooper, the photographer who took the picture, said the sight of the dead polar bear was “desperately sad.”
“There was just no fat on it. It was just completely shrunken and shriveled, a very, very skinny specimen of a polar bear,” he said in a telephone interview. “It looked basically like a rug because there was just no weight on it at all.”'
Global Warming deniers -- the Koch Brothers, with Koch PAC are the fourth largest lobbyist in the oil and gas industry, funding $67,042,064 to groups denying climate change science since 1997. And emits over 300 million tons of greenhouse gases a year. -- better strap on their tin-foil hats extra tight to come up with some feeble attempt to counter the experts on the cause of the death of this once magnificent animal.
Hat-tip to Brad Johnson @climatebrad
[Editor's note: This post was updated to include links to Koch PAC information, and the informative video. -DS]
