Police have shot and killed a polar bear that came ashore in northwestern Iceland, the first sighting of a polar bear there since 2016. It might have hitched a ride from Greenland on a floating iceberg.

  • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    I wouldn’t say it’s sufficient justification, to be honest. I guess it depends on the population to some degree. But since we caused this problem, I would say moving even a whole village out of polar bear habitat is worth the cost of shooting even one, and we can suppose there will be more to come. I think we have a responsibility to get the hell out of their space, even at a huge cost to us.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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      2 months ago

      Sorry… you think an entire village needs to be moved when a polar bear is seen in Iceland? How would that even work?

      • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        What do you mean how would that work? Polar bear habitat is declared national park, inhabitants get assistance moving elsewhere. Extremely expensive? Yes. Complicated? Not really.

        I get that people aren’t gonna go for this, but I stand by the position that it would be the ethically correct thing, and we should be honest with ourselves that we are compromising on that.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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          2 months ago

          Did you even read the headline of this article? This is the first polar bear seen in Iceland since 2016. They swim.

          Where exactly is this habitat supposed to be? The entire coast?

          • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            If humans had any respect at all for the natural world, they’d feed themselves to the bear.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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              2 months ago

              Okay, we’ll put you down as part of the “children should be eaten by bears if they had any respect for the natural world” faction.

        • Dasus@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          There are still literally tens of thousands of polar bears.

          As a global population for a species, that’s low.

          But as something that would mean relocating entire towns full of people — when towns are usually doing something important production wise and can’t just be moved willy nilly — that’s a whole lot.

          “Move an entire town”

          Then half a year later when the bear moves to another town, do it again. And again. And again.

          Seriously? Do you know the size of the town compared to the national population in Iceland?

          That’s just a logistical nightmare which wouldn’t even accomplish any of the virtues you’re signaling so hard.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            The polar bears aren’t following the people. It can absolutely hunt (and would prefer) a coastline.

              • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                And? You think it’s just going to keep going to the next town like some kind of horror movie monster?

                • Dasus@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  Would it be possible or perhaps even likely for the bear to roam a few dozen kilometers to the next town?

                  https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/wildlife/polar-bears

                  Polar bears range across the Arctic Ocean, in parts of Canada, Alaska, Russia, Greenland and Norway (Svalbard). They can walk on ice or swim long distances to find food or breed – sometimes roaming across vast areas up to 600,000 sq km.

                  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland

                  The main island covers 101,826 km2 (39,315 sq mi), but the entire country is 103,000 km2

                  What do you think?

                  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                    2 months ago

                    Sure but you were talking like they were going to follow the humans around the island eating them one by one.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Villages live in polar bear territory in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Scandinavia, and Russia just fine. So Iceland has to learn some new rules. It’s no reason to contribute to the extinction of a species.