Evidence of climate change: the walrus mess.

The Walrus is a massive and unattractive mammal that hangs out in the Arctic. It is a much weaker swimmer than seals, and needs access to floating sea ice during the summer when it dives several hundred feet to feast on clams on the muddy sea floor. There are around 250,000 Walrus in the Pacific region, in the icy waters along the coast of Siberia and Alaska.

There was a bit of a problem this year, however: no ice in the water. Because of warming conditions, the customary big hunks of ice that the walrus rely upon for resting and sleeping were nowhere to be found within their range. Yes, there was some ice way up towards the north pole, but the water there is over 1000 feet deep, and walrus can't dive that deep, so there is no food for them up there. Oh yes, I should mention- this situation of no summer ice has never happened before in that area. At least, not in recorded history.

As a result of these conditions, the entire walrus population spent the summer of 2007 huddled along the beaches of Siberia and Alaska. They swam out to sea a few miles and were able to find some clams, but most of the clamming grounds were too far for them to reach. On the shores, when occasional polar bears showed up the walrus would stampede for the water- which resulted in some of them crushing each other. Most of the baby walrus born this year probably died, and Russian scientists noted that the adults in Siberia lost weight. Will they then regain the weight this winter? Or will many of them not make it through to spring? It would probably be a good idea to count them in July 2008. Note to Bush- cut that category of the Fish and Wildlife Service budget so that you can claim you did not know about this until you leave office.

Earlier, the fate of the polar bear was a ripe subject for ranting vis a vis climate change. When environmentalists (Including Gore in "An Inconvenient Truth") discussed the danger that polar bears may ecome extinct as a result of disappering summer ice in the arctic, it generated a good bit of counter-mockery. For God's sake, polar bears can swim! Well yes they swim pretty well, but not nearly as well as a seal. They depend on sea ice for sneaking up on those seals, which are their main prey. No ice, no seal hunting, no polar bear. Now it looks like the walrus will probably join them in the endangered list of major arctic mammals staring down the barrel of a warm world.