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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (3100)	1/30/2004 8:08:28 PM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36917

Yes, it's too bad that "The Nature of Things" isn't available in the U.S. What I particularly like is that they address issues which most other shows would back off from. Production quality is excellent and the research is usually well done. BTW, there are a lot of good shows produced by the CBC. Too bad that some of it isn't available down there.

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (3100)	2/5/2004 12:51:33 PM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 36917

Part 2 in "The Nature of Things" series on the impact of global warming in the Canadian Arctic was really good. They looked at the ways in which the warming of the ocean and the retreat of the pack ice, thawing of the permafrost, and changes in the fish populations, are impacting on birds and mammals. Really interesting stuff -- as in noticeable impacts rather than theoretical stuff. They interviewed researchers who have been studying Arctic bird and mammal populations for around 25 to 30 years. These are just a few of the changes these people have seen. * Increase in lungworm parasites in the Musk Ox herds due to longer, warmer Arctic summers -- which have led to advancement of the intermediate parasite hosts (slugs and snails) which are proliferating at much higher latitudes than before. Some of the species of slugs used to take a couple of years to reproduce, and are doing so in one season now, so there are many more, and they, in turn, act as hosts for the lungworms which infect the Musk ox in a much wider range on the tundra than in the past. * Female polar bears are thinner than in the past. They weigh less when they give birth and while raising their young as they have to expend more energy searching for food as the pack ice disappears. They have to spend more time swimming in the freezing waters getting from flow to flow than they have ever had to in the past. Basically, the pursuit of food is hard on the females and also on the young cubs which have a difficult time keeping up because they have to do so much swimming (and lose energy in the cold water). Scarcity of food also makes male Polar bears more dangerous to the females and young as they will kill them for food. * Caribou herds are having a difficult time moving from area to area on the tundra. With the ice not freezing across or not freezing solidly enough, the caribou are forced to swim where they used to walk. They showed aerial footage of a sort of worm-like network in the ice where caribou swam in search of the "next" section of land. Often, these "trails" ended with a dead caribou -- died of hypothermia and exhaustion -- frozen into the ice. The females are in poorer condition at calving time, and they loose weight during lactation due to less food and the need to move more often in search of food. Their loss of weight results in 20% less fertility in breeding season. Mosquito and other biting fly populations are greater than in the past as they emerge sooner and take a toll on the condition of the caribou. * Murres that nest on high ledges along the Arctic seas are having to hunt for fish over much larger areas than before. They used to catch mainly Arctic cod, but they're pretty much gone, so they are mainly catching smaller fish -- smelt I think... These aren't as nutritious as the cod, so the young murre aren't growing nearly as well or quickly, making them less able to survive and reach maturity in time to migrate south. In summer, the heat is too high up on the ledges and one of the scientists who has been studying these colonies for 30+ years says that the adults are often dying from heat prostration because they try to shelter their young from the sun and its just too hot for these Arctic birds. There was more...but basically, it was pretty depressing stuff. What was interesting, and something that I think a lot of people don't think about -- The effects of global warming are much more pronounced in the Arctic... and have been for awhile. It's sort of the "leading edge" of radical change, and we should be studying it very closely. Unfortunately, researchers don't spend a lot of time up in the Arctic because it's difficult work and expensive, etc.. and because people don't think it is relative to what's taking place elsewhere in the world (Wrong!!!). Anyhow it was an excellent show. Next week is about the impact of global warming, etc... on the Inuit peoples. Should be interesting. croc