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Animals affected by shrinking polar ice
#1
We all think of polar bears when we think of the sea ice shrinking. They are strongly affected by the loss. They are not the only animals that are suffering because of the changes. We now know that the caribou are affected.

http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...t=2&at=dt0

We don't know what the long term effects of shrinking ice will be. We don't know which species will end up being affected. It is like we are living inside  a giant school science project. We don't really know how it will turn out for all of us. I hope it goes better than some school projects. There are no do overs and we can't fake the results. Climate change is here and it is happening. We just don't know what the outcome will be. Certainly for the polar bears and the caribou it doesn't look too good.
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Catherine

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#2
Yes, good find, Catherine. It is a very worrying trend, for all creatures on this planet.

Another factor in the equation is that the poles are shifting because of global warming. See http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/nasa...te-change/

This will also affect animals near the poles very seriously.
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#3
Good find. It fits with the shrinking ice article. There are some serious changes going on. We probably are the cause this time.
We have no idea what the final outcome will be.

I don't think we have been collecting data long enough to know what will happen if the poles move significantly. There is speculation and I am sure life in this planet will survive, but there may be changes that we do not find so easy to cope with.  I think the most obvious problem is the climate change. We are seeing a pattern of droughts and floods and extremes of hot and cold. This could be the end of many animal species. They will not be able to adapt. Some will migrate and change how they live and they will survive. We might find that life for humans is not so easy. There will have to be human migrations and adaptions as well.

We don't handle change well. We need to try and reverse climate change as fast as we can. We caused it and we better hope we can fix it.
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Catherine

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#4
That's a very moving article Catherine. I. for one had not considered the full effect of shrinking ice on many species. It is a very worrying situation. It will also affect many other species, who hunt the Caribou -such as Wolves. And after the Yellowstone project, we have seen what far-reaching changes are caused by a healthy Wolf population. Strangely enough their predation is a life-giving thing encouraging healthy growth and re-population of other life-forms.

The loss of the ice will have a 'cascade effect' on many other species and cause changes we may not have envisioned yet.
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#5
This is the big problem of the changes we have made in any ecosystem. There is a cascade effect. What happens when the cascade effect happens on a global level? We have no idea. I just hope we can make enough good changes to keep things steady.
So many arctic animals will be in trouble because of the shrinking ice. They will also be in trouble when southern species move further north. There is so little food in the arctic so more competition  is the last thing the animals need.
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Catherine

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