ABOUT those vanishing polar bears:

The worldwide population of polar bears has doubled in the past thirty years. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s the gist of a reportby the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released on January 30, 2008:

    The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimates that the polar bear population is currently at 20,000 to 25,000 bears, up from as low as 5,000-10,000 bears in the 1950s and 1960s.  A 2002 U.S. Geological Survey of wildlife in the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain noted that the polar bear populations “may now be near historic highs.”

The picture is very à propos.