N.W.T. minister wants polar bear hunt ban reversed

[Gunco]

Bob McLeod is all in favour of protecting Arctic polar bears. But he thinks the Bush administration is being "hypocritical" by trying to do it at the expense of American big game hunters, who spend millions each year seeking polar bear trophies in Canada`s North.

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[upgrayedd]

They are on the endangered species list now, though. I mean, c'mon?They'll all be gone soon enough...
I just can't get mad about this...

[nkluksda]

Originally Posted by upgrayedd

They are on the endangered species list now, though. I mean, c'mon?They'll all be gone soon enough...
I just can't get mad about this...

Endangered, my ass!! They are thriving. They are a threat to any humans near them. And they won't be "gone soon enough". Look up the polar bear population figures for the last 3 or 4 decades to see for yourself.

[upgrayedd]

I thought that, just two months ago they were moved onto the US endangered species list?
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No jokes about the fact that I used the "latimes" as a reference.

[upgrayedd]

Believe it or not, I hunt quite a bit, but I cannot see your logic. there are only a FEW places on the planet which these beasts live and that is now a rapidly changing scene.

[nkluksda]

Originally Posted by upgrayedd

Believe it or not, I hunt quite a bit, but I cannot see your logic. there are only a FEW places on the planet which these beasts live and that is now a rapidly changing scene.

Polar bears thrived back when Greenland was actually green. When the Vikings settled there because they could raise crops and livestock. For Greenland to be green, it had to be much warmer. Back when England was part of the Roman Empire, wine was a product of England. Now it's too cold for good wine grapes, but it wasn't around 100 AD.

The point is that the earth's climate has varied widely before there was industry or even lots of people. Polar bears and other animals survived and thrived.

Tell you what - I'll worry about polar bear territory being threatened when someone settles on Greenland again and raises livestock and crops. Even then, though, my money is on the polar bears adapting just fine. Nature is not the fragile thing everyone claims it to be. Ever heard of feedback systems? If nature were so delicate, feedback would be marginal or even positive. Such systems are unstable - any tip causes them to to wildly out of control. If our climate is so delicate, how come the Little Ice Age didn't cause a major ice age? How come the warming preceding the Little Ice Age (when Greenland was green) didn't cause runaway warming?

Unstable systems cannot last. And our climate has varied - always tending toward a stable medium until the next (often natural) upset, at which point it works back to stability. It is, IMHO, the height of human arrogance to think that we can upset something that has to have been extraordinarily stable to have gotten us to this point in the first place!

[jimmy t]

It's my belief the polar bear will learn how to hunt on land. He is going to be around for quite a while. As i do not like trophies hunts myself, and they are not very tasty, yes let's protect them.

[upgrayedd]

well, i usually hunt smaller game for sport(squirrels and rabbits) i hunt big game for sport and for food.(whitetail mostly)
venison tenderloin is the greatest meat ever!
I have a kick-ass recipe for several venison chilis and marinated tenderloin.I've turned several venison 'haters" to this meat.(I'm very proud)lol

[upgrayedd]

I agree with your views on shifting climates being a natural occurrence, but the fact is..the polar bears are endangered. I cannot justify hunting any species for trophy reasons off the face of the earth.

The polar bear lives EXCLUSIVELY IN THAT FROZEN ECOSYSTEM. There is no other place for them to flourish, unless by adapting, you mean putting them in a zoo?
And these changes that you speak so fondly of took place over hundreds of thousands of years.
These are not whitetail deer, or a "nuisance species" and not be handled as such.
While their numbers did double between now and 1960, hunting a species to and beyond extinction is not logical.

[1biggun]

those bears seem to thrive in the town dumps in the reagion.

This is a case were the US goverment is trying to controll another countries laws and limit hunting and also firearms in a round about way. What gives the US the right to make policy that affects Canadian laws. Would we like it if they said NO more US cars in Canada because they cause acid rain. what if they banned hunting in the US for its Canadian citizens.
no one is trying to hunt those bears to extinction!!. The US telling me What I can and cant do in other countries is wrong IMOA. to many laws are made by a bunch of wacked out politicaly think there correct nut jobs in this country that skew weather patterns and and climate changes and impact studys to make laws that feel good. the ban on lead ammo in condor areas is another example. not one case of a condor dying from eating lead but we have a law stoping the hunting of small came with lead. the only thing worse than shooting a polar bear is shooting it and leaving it to rot because the US wont let that hunter bring it back to the US. make no mistake about it the bears will still be hunted just not by as many US hunters.