I get upset when I see a video of a polar bear struggling to get on an ice floe. The inference is that global warming, caused mainly by man-made CO2 emissions, is causing the polar bears to suffer and die. But is this really true? Recent data suggest otherwise. Polarbears2018-A.

The author of the report, Susan Crockford, Ph.D., has been attacked by her critics as a tool of conservative interests who are more interested in propagandizing than good science. They argue that her funding sources de facto render anything she says suspect. There is rich irony here. The biggest source of funding by far for climate change research is the U.S. government. Agencies concerned with climate change seem to attract people who tolerate no questioning of the prevailing orthodoxy. A researcher who wants to get grant money from our government knows that it is not likely to be forthcoming if her proposal is a challenge to the narrative that anthropogenic global warming is a menace to humanity.

What matters, however, is not the source of the funding but the quality of the data and logic presented. I have not seen current data with its source disclosed that disconfirms what Dr. Crockford is asserting. I am not qualified to judge who is “right” but until I see a civil, fact and evidence-based debate, I will keep an open mind.