In the Silence of the Beaufort Sea, a Polar Bear Cub Drowns Beside Its Mother

Last night I couldn't sleep.  I kept replaying in my mind the nine day endurance swim a polar bear and her cub attempted, due at least in part to climate change.  I kept imagining the mother swimming on and on, through water as deep as 3400m for 232 hours straight.  She never stopped, and was not carried by currents; rather she was continuously pushed away from her path and had to fight the current.  No one knows when her cub died, but the scientists who reported the findings concur that the most reasonable explanation was that the cub likely died from exhaustion before the 687km swim was completed.  Imagine the scenario.  A lone polar bear swimming through an endless dark blue sea with her young cub following her, valiantly trying to keep up.  Somewhere out there in that deep sea, where the ice used to be she must turn her head and watch her cub succumb to the depths and there is nothing she can do.  To survive she must keep on swimming, hoping that the ice will appear on the horizon soon.  Imagine her grief.  Her baby is gone, her constant companion, lost to her.  Don't believe it didn't hurt her.  It did. 

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SRES. Something You Might Want To Know About

As I journey up the steep learning curve of Climate Change, using the tools of rationality, logic and scientific fact to guide me, I become more and more uncomfortable with my findings.  Yesterday was a long day of research, hence the lack of posts online.  I managed to get a few Tweets posted but mainly I was learning, sorting my thoughts and contemplating where I was going to go next with my upcoming blogs. 

 

Before we start, allow me to review the modus operandi of Paradigm's Bend.  As I research I wish to share what I learn with others, so long as it falls under the header of being useful, relevant and enlightening information, whether I do so by posting other people's articles or by writing my own posts which I have researched and tested with critical questioning.  My constant view is that while the Internet and Media are both wonderful resources in and of themselves, they tend to come at a price. They grant vast knowledge and awareness, while at the same time with one or two misclicks, the promising path followed can rapidly confuse the seeker with poorly researched information that should be labelled as deceptive, misleading or even downright nonsense.  This blog focusses on distilling balanced, straight forward information and posting the best and clearest information gleaned from the Internet, science journals and government papers. 

 

Today's blog is a little like taking a step back.  I want to have a post on PB that benchmarks Climate Change in a realistic and measurable way.  In a way that impacts on humans personally.  Something that can be referred back to in future posts.  That is where SRES comes in.  Until recently I hadn't heard about SRES, it's not discussed much in the media but it should be.  In my humble opinion, this shouldn't be the fodder of only the policy makers, little kids should be taught this in school.  It should be ingrained into our lives and made part of our cultural consciousness.  Soon you will see why.

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