Polar bears are being threatened by thick ice

What goes around weatherwise (and otherwise), comes around. It's all about recurring cycles that return like 'clockwork,' frequent climate changes.

For example, a new article from www.iceagenow.info and www.CNSNews.com, points out how polar bears are being threatened by too much ice, not the lack of ice. Here's the article:

"Five meters of ice, about 16 feet thick, is threatening the survival of polar bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea region along Alaska's Arctic coast," says this article on CNSNews.com.

The thick ice could prevent ringed seals, the bears' major prey, from creating breathing holes they need to survive in the frigid waters, according to Dr. Susan J. Crockford, an evolutionary biologist in British Columbia who has studied polar bears for most of her 35-year career.

This is the same time that female polar bears are just emerging with their newborn cubs from maternity dens either on or near the shore.

"Prompted by reports of the heaviest sea ice conditions on the East Coast "in decades" and news that ice on the Great Lakes is, for mid-April, the worst it's been since records began, I took a close look at the ice thickness charts for the Arctic," Crockford noted in her Polar Bear Science blog on April 18.

"Spring and early summer are really a critical time for polar bears," Crockford said. "That's when they need to eat as many seals as they can because that's when they put on fat for the rest of the year. If they have trouble doing that in the spring, they're in big trouble."

The article, written by Barbara Hollingsworth, then points out that high levels of spring ice in the Beaufort Sea in 2004 and 2006 caused a decline in bear counts, which was mistakenly attributed to melting summer ice caused by global warming.

Also, the bear count did not take into account the fact that polar bears "can just move" to other areas if their food supply is limited, Crockford told CNSNews.com. "If some of those bears were part of that count, it would look like they died."

The article trashes the idea that global warming hurt the Alaska polar bear populations in 2004 and 2006, when bear counts were "one of the pieces of evidence used to have the bears listed as "threatened" in the U.S."

While we're on the subject of climate changes, look at what was published nearly 92 years ago in 1922 in the Washington Post, sent to me by Jerry K. Boyd in March.

"The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places, the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consulaff, at Bergen, Norway.

Reports from fishermen, seal hunters, and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone. Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees, 29 minutes.

Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters shows the gulf stream still very warm. Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.

Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds. Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt the sea will rise and make most coastal cities uninhabitable."

Remember, folks, this was written almost 92 years ago!

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

April was rather wet and cool across North Idaho and much of the rest of the Inland Empire. Total rainfall during the 30-day period was nearly double the 119-year norm since 1895 at 3.14 inches compared to the average precipitation of 1.77 inches. There was just .1 inches of snow during April of 2014, .6 inches below normal.

The last three days of April into the first couple of days of May were warm and sunny despite some scattered morning light frosts, mostly in the outlying areas away from the warming bodies of water. Afternoon highs in the pleasant 70s late in the week gave us a welcome preview of what we're likely to see on-and-off through the rest of May and at least the first half of June, 'sun and showers.'

May and June still should be a bit cooler than usual overall thanks to the rainy periods and occasional thunderstorms accompanied by strong winds, hail and briefly heavy rains.

But, remember folks, we're still looking for a long, warm to hot and very dry summer of 2014 under high pressure.

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com