And by we, I mean the polar bears.

Polar bears and other rare species are in danger of dying out, scientists fear, as latest figures show the Artic sea ice is at record lows.

Scientists from the World Wildlife Fund, who are recording the ice cover over the North Pole, said less ice is predicted in the Arctic this year than in any other.

Experts say this not only means a loss of habitat to species like polar bears and loss of livelihood for indigenous peoples but could speed up global warming as water absorbs heat rather than reflecting the sun’s rays back into space.

Dr Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate change advisor at WWF International’s Arctic Programme, said: “We are expecting confirmation of 2008 being either the lowest or the second-lowest year in terms of summer ice coverage.

“This means two years in a row of record lows since we started recording Arctic sea ice coverage.“

I bolded the key point there, in case you missed it.  Sometimes I wonder how smart people can be so dumb.  I don’t know exactly how long we’ve been recording sea ice coverage, but it can’t be very long, at most around 50 years.  Polar bears, to make an understatement, have been around a bit longer than that.  They’ve survived with less ice, with more ice, with warm temperatures, with cold temperatures.  They’re not so delicate as to whither and die from fluctuations within, in the perspective of earth’s climactic history, a normal temperature range.

I’m sure you’ve all been wondering, “When, exactly, are we all going to die?”  Well now you know.  Let the seven year countdown begin!

The head of the UN’s Nobel-winning panel of climate scientists on Friday said only seven years remained for stabilising emissions of global-warming gases at a level widely considered safe.

…He issued a stark warning that time was running out for dealing with the threat.

In the 20th century, the temperature had already risen on average by 0.74 degrees Celsius (1.32 degrees Fahrenheit), he said.

The EU wants to limit the overall warming since pre-industrial times to 2 C (3.6 F), a goal that is shared by many scientists.

To do this, said Pachauri, “we would have to stabilise the greenhouse-gas concentration at more or less the level at which we are today.

“(…)But in order to do that, we have a window of opportunity of only seven years because emissions will have to peak by 2015 and reduce after that. We cannot permit a longer delay.”

Well at least it’s not tomorrow.

It’s a double whammy:

The facts are unequivocal, and point to a troubling future ahead. Over 850 fires, scorching some 200,000 acres, have set a new 2008 record for early-season wildfires in California. And from March to May precipitation has been the lowest since the inception of record keeping in 1894. In California as well as throughout the West, mountain snowmelts are occurring earlier, and winter storms are arriving later, extending the fire season by at least several weeks.

…Meanwhile, global warming is known to fuel mega-wildfires, particularly in the northern Rocky Mountains. In addition, over the past two decades mountain ecosystems across the West ranging from 5,300 to more than 8,000 feet above sea level have had the largest increase in big fires. It is these mountain ecosystems that are important for retaining snowfall and releasing it slowly into reservoirs. There are at least 350,000 homes in California that are on the urban/wildland interface and they remain at high risk to ever-increasing threat of wildfires.

Global warming is also significantly impacting our security by impinging upon our water supply. Even though average snowfalls in California from December to February of 2008 were recorded, by May state-wide water reservoirs that feed, drive and grow the state’s economy — the eighth mightiest on the planet — were only slightly above 53 percent of their respective capacities.

Seeing as how global temperatures have not risen in over a decade, how exactly is global warming responsible for there being more fires in 2008 than, say, 2004? Oh, nevermind…we’re all gonna die!

In part 5 of our series on the perpetual doom and gloom of the global warming cult we get not only hysterical fear-mongering, but an administration turned Judas.

The chances for extreme weather in the U.S. such as the record rainfall and flooding in Iowa this month are increasing as worldwide temperatures rise, a government agency that researches climate change said.

North America may get more abnormally hot days and nights, heavier downpours and deadlier storms from global warming, today’s report from the Bush administration’s U.S. Climate Change Science Program said. Elevated temperatures in recent decades already have led to more intense rainstorms in the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, said Thomas Karl, co-chairman of the report.

“The probability of heavy downpours is increasing, which leads to events like what we’re seeing in the Midwest,” said Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in an interview.

We’re all going to drown! Nevermind that temperatures haven’t increased in a decade, or that so many of these computer models serving as the foundation of climate alarmism use bogus methodology. The important thing to remember is that we’re all going to die…unless we stop being evil capitalists who refuse to hand over our property to the state.