Today I officially put the finishing touches on the primary text for the "Where the Bear Walks" book. Now I'll have to go back and tweak some things in the early chapters so that they read more like the latter chapters. I will also be sending individual chapters to the people profiled in the book for content review. Doug Peacock is among these and he will be out of commission for three weeks after hip replacement surgery on March 8th and cannot review the material until April. You can expect the book to be released sometime that month.
In some recent bear news, President Obama has finalized a special ruling that denies polar bears direct protection from greenhouse gases under the Endangered Species Act, in what the media is dubbing a "Polar Bear Extinction Plan." Despite the Administration's vocal concerns about the impact of global warming on polar bear populations, this new regulation is modeled after a previous Bush Administration ruling that also failed to take measures to prevent polar bear extinction. You can find more info here: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2013/polar-bear-02-19-2013.html
With the loss of sea ice becoming more extreme every year, more and more emaciated polar bears are turning up and some are starving to death. This has prompted a number of polar bear scientists to convene in Churchill to discuss possible options. One of those is using supplemental feeding to help stabilize the bear population should a critical point be reached. Obviously that's raised the ire of the Ministry of the Environment who are still spouting out the "fed bear is a dead bear" line but I'm pleased to hear these scientists admit that feeding wild animals during times of food shortage is not unheard of and is perfectly acceptable in these types of extreme cases. Sounds like a good step in the right direction. More info: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/is-it-time-to-feed-the-polar-bears/article8550910/?cmpid=rss1
Stay tuned for more updates as the book comes together. When it's finished, I'll have a link to it posted here.
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