The silence from protectionist groups and climate change doomsday alarmists has been somewhat deafening concerning Canadian zoologist Susan J. Crockford's 2018 State of the Polar Bear Report.
Still, pro climate-change scientists and bloggers have been busy trying to debunk Crockford's credentials in the field.
Based on projections on the rate of shrinking sea ice and its effect on the world's polar bear population in 2007, predictions of a 67 per cent decline in its global population made nanuq SA国际影视传媒� meaning "polar bear" in Inuktitut SA国际影视传媒� the symbol for the calamity of climate change.
Since that time, however, the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group in 2015 estimated the population at 26,000 and additional surveys published over the following two years brought that number to near 28,500.
Data published in 2018, including Crockford's, brought the number to almost 29,500, which represents the highest global estimate since the bears were protected by international treaty in 1973.
Critics of her work point out that none of Crockford's claims regarding the effects of climate change on polar bears has undergone peer review.
They further claim that she has published almost no peer-reviewed articles whose main focus is on polar bears.
Polar bear scientist Ian Stirling went so far in a 2017 article in the environmental magazine, The Narwhal, to state Crockford had zero credibility on polar bears.
Critics further claim the Canadian University of Victoria zoologist has never conducted any field studies.
Crockford received her Bachelor of Science in zoology at the University of British Columbia in 1976 and her doctorate in interdisciplinary studies (the combining of two or more academic disciplines into one activity such as a research project) from the University of Victoria in 2004.
Data suggests the global polar bear population has continued to increase since 2005, despite summer sea ice in 2018 being at a low level not expected until mid-century.
In short, the predicted 67 per cent decline in polar bear numbers simply has not happened. Not even close!
And National Geographic received such critical backlash from its starving polar bear video (This is What Climate Change Looks Like) released in late 2017, that it made a formal public apology for spreading misinformation the following year.
Crockford is on record as saying, "The people of Nunavut are not seeing starving, desperate bears SA国际影视传媒� quite the opposite.
"Yet polar bear specialists are saying these bears are causing problems because they don't have enough sea ice to feed properly.
"The facts on the ground make their claims look silly, including the abundance of fat bears.
"Residents are pushing their government for a management policy that makes protection of human life the priority."
The majority of Inuit firmly support Crockford's depiction of the state of the world's polar bear population, a full two-thirds of which reside in Canada.
The outcry reached almost deafening proportions, especially from Arviatmiut, following the recent polar bear attacks that took a life on the land near Arviat and Naujaat and another close call in Rankin Inlet.
Inuit hunters in the Kivalliq claim there are more polar bears evident now than anytime in recent memory and they're getting more aggressive.
Rather than hunger, that's possibly due to the effects of tourist attractions such as the Tundra Buggy in Churchill, Man., that have the bears increasingly used to contact with humans. Also is the possible lessening of their fear of man due to restrictions that have them roaming more and more freely with no fear of being hunted.
Whichever side of the argument one falls on, the growing volume of point, counter point should increase debate and further research on the topic and that's always a positive development.
Unfortunately, only time will tell which side is correct in the debate, although, for now, nanuq is proving itself once again to be one of the most highly-adaptable predators on the planet.
