Watch this Slideshow On Polar Bears

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?articleId=USRTXRLWU#a=1
Remeber how I posted that the permanent sea ice in the Arctic  has vanished?   Permanent sea ice supports polar bears and enables them to hunt seals....... now that it is gone, they are eating their own young. Watch the slide show at the above link if you have a strong stomach.

But climate change isn't a problem.....

Hole in Ozone Layer Has Protected Ice Thus Far

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/01/ozone-antarctica

The hole in the Earth's ozone layer has shielded Antarctica from the worst effects of global warming until now, according to the most comprehensive review to date of the state of the Antarctic climate.   But scientists warned that as the hole closes up in the next few decades, temperatures on the continent could rise by around 3C on average, with melting ice contributing to a global sea-level increases of up to 1.4m.

The original report is at http://www.scar.org/  .

Various governments have been studying the issue of sea level rise  - including the province of British Columbia.  http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/climate/pdfs/sea-level-changes-08.pdf
The low to high estimates of sea level rise for Vancouver (on page 8) are .04 metres to 1.03 metres   Of course, these estimates by the provincial government are based upon IPCC predictions - so they may be far too low as they were set before the above SCAR reprot was released. 

  How many major cities in the world are located in a low lying coastal area?  How much money is sea level rise going to cost?  Before you answer, consider the destruction wrought by storm surges in Cockermouth and the Cowichwan valley..... Perhaps we should do something about greenhouse gas emissions while we still can....

It Is The Worst of Times: It Is the Best of Times

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/arctic-sea-ice-has-nearly-vanished-expert-fears/article1381174/

One of Canada's top northern researchers says the permanent Arctic sea ice that is home to the world's polar bears and usually survives the summer has all but disappeared. Experts around the world believed the ice was recovering because satellite images showed it expanding.  But David Barber says the thick, multiyear frozen sheets crucial to the northern ecosystem have been replaced by thin “rotten” ice which can't support the weight of the bears. “It caught us all by surprise because we were expecting there to be multiyear sea ice – the whole world thought it was multiyear sea ice,” said Dr. Barber, who just returned from an expedition to the Beaufort Sea.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/indias-shift-to-cut-back-emissions-raises-hope-for-climate-agreement/article1381167/

Word that India will soon roll out emission reduction targets signals an emerging consensus toward a climate-change agreement next month at Copenhagen, despite the Canadian government's much-noticed ambivalence.  India, one of the last holdouts in the fight against global warming, will announce the move within the next few days, French President Nicolas Sarkozy revealed yesterday.  United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon placed added pressure on Canada yesterday, chiding Ottawa for its inaction on climate change at a Commonwealth meeting of heads of government, in which climate issues are dominating the agenda.

The push for action in Trinidad reinforces recent progress toward a climate-change agreement ahead of the summit in Copenhagen.

The permanent sea ice is gone - faster than the IPCC models predicted -but, perhaps, the world is finally taking this issue seriously.   Now, if we can get Canadian politicians to commit to action on climate change.....I live in Hope.