Arctic expedition to highlight global warming brings guns to fight off polar bears

In an effort to highlight the effects of global warming, an Irish-Canadian team plans to cross the arctic’s Northwest Passage in a rowboat while armed with rubber bullets to ward off polar bears. The team will also carry shotguns to kill the animals if necessary. “They are the only animal out there that will actively hunt down a human being,” said seasoned adventurer Kevin Vallely, who is part of the rowing expedition which will take about 80 days and traverse the distance between Inuvik in Canada’s Northwest Territories and Pond Inlet, Nunavut. Despite being the poster child for species affected by global warming, the polar bear is the king of the arctic and has no natural predator. The bears can range in weight from 900 pounds to 1,600 pounds and can reach sizes of up to 8 feet in length...more

Whatever it takes to "highlight the effects" of global warming.  Even if we have to take a shotgun and blow the head off a polar bear, why surely its worth it.

Of course the polar bear is listed as "threatened" supposedly as a result of global warming.  Thank you George W. Bush. 

Polar bears were added to the Endangered Species List because of global warming and were classified as “threatened” in May 2008. However, today there are as many as 25,000 polar bears worldwide, far more than there were four decades ago. “There are far more polar bears alive today than there were 40 years ago,” author Zac Unger told NPR in an interview about his new book, “Never Look a Polar Bear in The Eye.” “There are about 25,000 polar bears alive today worldwide. In 1973, there was a global hunting ban. So once hunting was dramatically reduced, the population exploded.”

Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act in 1973 and 35 years later Bush Jr. listed the Polar Bear, even though the population "exploded" after the hunting ban.  

And here we are 40 years later and the critters do need protection...from the enviros.