Rohrabacher on polar bears

Dana Rohrabacher gave a keynote address last week at the International Conference on Climate Change, which is a gathering for global warming skeptics. Rohrabacher has emerged as perhaps the leading climate change skeptic in Congress, and is well known for colorful jokes on the topic.

He did not disappoint his audience at last week's conference, arguing at one point that global warming could be good for polar bears:

Most of the polar bears are OK. I understand there's actually a huge increase in the population of polar bears... A significant number of the polar bears are basically procreating because they don't have to stay in their hole asleep most of the year.

This is actually a version of an argument that scientists have felt the need to debunk. The more rigorous version is that polar bears, which depend on sea ice to hunt for seals, will be able to adapt to life on land as the ice melts away. Bear scientists counter that polar bears cannot subsist on berries, and that their population will in fact decline as sea ice declines. As far as Rohrabacher's particular argument goes: polar bears don't hibernate.

Rohrabacher also commented on his recent appearance on "Hardball," during which Chris Matthews asked him if he was a troglodyte. Rohrabacher's response:

What the hell is a tragulyte, anyway, or whatever. What did he call me? Trogulite? That's not the thing hanging from the wall in a cavern, I don't think.

Audio of Rohrabacher's full speech is available here. It's worth a click for his impression of Jacques Cousteau alone.