Monday, December 29, 2008

Fudging the Numbers

While watching the hilarious South Park episode where Cartman and Kyle get AIDS, I saw this commercial starring Noah Wyle telling me about the danger polar bears are facing from the climate change that is warming the planet.

Is this the same global warming that is producing record amounts of snow and cold temperatures in the midwest? As it turns out, polar bears as a whole are not in danger of extinction, as their overall numbers our up. Some individual populations may be decreasing, but others remain the same and others still are increasing.

Scientists cite decreasing sea ice as the top reason polar bear populations are decreasing. It seems the entire polar bear population skipped class the day the teacher was talking about evolution.

And now it turns out the report done for the Department of Interior to decide whether polar bears should be placed on the endangered list might not even be entirely accurate, according to this article from ScienceDaily.com.

Just goes to show that it's hard to take information at face value, and even more so with the prominence of the internet.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I for one vote to protect the polar bears... even if it means fudging the numbers.

There are a lot of people that fudge the numbers to the other side of the pendulum...

I'd rather be safe than sorry ;)