From: "Kevin Jardine"
To:
Subject: Re: Climate change and Peary caribou
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 17:00:15 -0500
To: Mike Ferguson
Thank you for your comments on the Reuters story on Peary Caribou. The Reuters story does, indeed, badly mangle our news release and background information. Fortunately, other agencies, notably AFP, much more accurately represented this information.
We agree with your criticisms of the Reuters article and, indeed, our release presents the correct information with appropriate cavaets in accord with your comments.
The release can be found at: http://www.greenpeace.org/pressreleases/arctic/1998oct19.html
The background report on caribou and climate change can be found at http://www.greenpeace.org/~climate/arctic/reports/carib2.html
We would be very interested in any comments you or any of the members of ECOLOG-L list might have on this information. In particular, the background report can easily be changed to take into account new research or to remove misinterpretations of existing research.
We agree with your central point that there is insufficient data to conclude whether all populations on the islands have been "steadily falling since 1961". Indeed, there is much evidence that a "steady" decline has NOT been occuring. This phrasing is a Reuters invention. Our release quotes Anne Gunn that populations of Peary caribou reached close to 3000 animals on Bathurst Island as late as 1990 and have only declined recently.
The basic point that we make in both the release and the backgrounder is that a deeper High Arctic winter snow pack is more likely to occur in a warmer world and that this would make it more difficult for caribou to find food. The recent bad winters on the western Arctic Islands and the mass starvation of the Peary caribou are certainly consistent with this projection. However, as with all climatological phenomena, we would expect a deeper snow pack to only be statistically more likely. It would occur on some years and not others, and certainly not increase in a "steady" pattern. Given the ability of caribou to respond quickly to favourable conditions, we would expect caribou populations to continue their typically strong fluctuations, but with a negative trend in the medium to long term. There certainly has been a strongly negative trend from 1961 - a 95 percent decline in the western Arctic Islands according to Dr. Gunn's population studies.
Along with the printed materials, Greenpeace released a video "B-Roll" with a number of interview segments from Dr. Gunn. In one such segment, she noted that that the calves that we videotaped on Bathurst Island were a good sign and that the population might be starting to recover.
We would like more information on a couple of your points. You say "The documented decline occurred on Bathurst and nearby islands and, the best of my knowledge, did not most other populations on the QEI." and you refer to possible increases in the eastern Arctic. We would be very interested in any research available on population trends on the eastern Arctic islands. Moreover, if you are aware of other studies contradicting the published studies concluding that there has been a sharp decline in the central and western Arctic, we would like to know of them. There is an unusual cooling region in the eastern Arctic (especially around western Greenland and eastern Baffin Island) that may be due to natural variation but may also be related to changes in thermohaline circulation in the north Atlantic. Any evidence on how this cooling trend may be affecting wildlife would be of great interest to us.
Thank you for your comments. Unfortunately, most news agencies (including Reuters) do not check their stories with us before sending them out, and they are written by generalist reporters that often do not have science backgrounds. This one was mangled worse than most, and I appreciate your balanced corrective comments.
Finally, the home page for the Greenpeace Arctic Project is at http://www.greenpeace.org/~climate/arctic/index2.html
I would appreciate any comments that you or any of the other readers of ECOLOG-L might have on the materials we have put up there. Please send me any suggestions or additional information that you might have.
Yours,
Kevin Jardine
Arctic Project,
Greenpeace Climate Campaign
 ...back to the Institute home page |
More about the Institute:| Program Description | Current Course Offerings || Meet the Directors | William Gould | James Dunn | Student Comments | | Topics Covered | Northwest Territories Rivers | Application | | Online Reservation | Other Links | Web Search Engines | |Institute web page index| Arctic newsbytes | |