Sorry Buzzfeed--The Mass Swarm of Walruses In Alaska Has Nothing To Do With Global Warming

This Buzzfeed headline was meant to frighten:

And the picture under the headline was even worse, a mass swarming of Walruses reminiscent of the mindless lines of progressives waiting outside bookstores just to get Hillary Clinton's autograph who couldn't even name one accomplishment she had as Secretary of State.

But this was worse, by implication Buzzfeed was suggesting this was the start of the end of the world. But the implication is wrong.  If Buzzfeed had done its homework they would have known that walruses have done this before, Arctic ice is growing, and temperatures haven't risen in 18 years.

As reported by the Associated Press, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) , a group who advocates for the Global Warming hypothesis:

The World Wildlife Fund said walrus have also been gathering in large groups on the Russian side of the Chukchi Sea.

"It's another remarkable sign of the dramatic environmental conditions changing as the result of sea ice loss," said Margaret Williams, managing director of the group's Arctic program, by phone from Washington, D.C. "The walruses are telling us what the polar bears have told us and what many indigenous people have told us in the high Arctic, and that is that the Arctic environment is changing extremely rapidly and it is time for the rest of the world to take notice and also to take action to address the root causes of climate change."

 That's when it stopped being scary. You see the WWF is an organization whose three biggest accomplishments are embarrassing the IPCC by providing bogus information which was included in the UN group's previous climate change report, distributing tote bags with drawings of cute panda bears, and forcing the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to change it's name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) because it trademarked those letters of the alphabet.

Personally I believe that Hulk Hogan has done more for the word than tote bags with cute panda bears but I decided to research the WWF's (the panda bear one) claim anyway.

The blog Polar Bear Science had the answer. You see it's like a walrus convention, they get together like that every few years.

At least two documented incidents like this have occurred in the recent past: one in 1978, on St. Lawrence Island and the associated Punuk Islands and the other in 1972, on Wrangell Island (Fay and Kelly 1980)

 If a global warming created ice melt was indeed happening the total population of walruses would shrink because their little flippers would get tired and they would drown. But Polar Bear Science adds:

Walrus numbers are up considerably from the 1960s, although they are notoriously difficult to count (Garlich-Miller et al. 2011) [I suppose the reason it's difficult because they wont behave--stand still and count off--wiseguys!]

Population sizes may fluctuate for a number of reasons that have little to do with the low ice levels: note these very recent incidents of large walrus herds and associated mortality events (2009, 2011 and 2014) have not coincided with the lowest levels of summer sea ice in the area, which occurred in 2007 and 2012.

Then there is the case of the melting Arctic ice---it isn't. Well that's not true, it is melting that is part of the natural cycle of the ice cap--grows during the winter, melts in the summer.  But in the past two years the Arctic ice cap has grown 43%. Which means those walruses are able to take their winter vacations on the ice.

The final point relates to today's date.  October 1, 2014 marks 18 full years since the Earth last warmed.

The Earth’s temperature has “plateaued” and there has been no global warming for at least the last 18 years, says Dr. John Christy, professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center (ESSC) at the University of Alabama/Huntsville.

“That’s basically a fact. There’s not much to comment on,” Christy said when CNSNews.com asked him to remark on the lack of global warming for nearly two decades as of October 1st.

The "plateau" is evident in the climate record Christy and former NASA scientist Roy Spencer compiled using actual raw temperature data collected from 14 instruments aboard various weather satellites.

If Buzzfeed had done its homework, instead of believing everything spewed out by the Associated Press they would have known that walruses have done this before, Arctic ice is growing, and temperatures haven't risen in 18 years.

Now that gives me an idea for the perfect Buzzfeed post..they are famous for list posts, how about, "Ten Things We Swallowed Without Doing Any Research Because it Fit Our Progressive Ideology."

.