Global Warming Hurts Finnish Polar Bears

[whispering]

Warming Hurts Finnish Animals

Shorter winters and shrinking ice caps are threatening the Scandinavian country's birds and mammals, including polar bears.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071228-finwarming-video-ap.html

There are no polar bears in Finland and Finland is not part of Scandinavia :frypan: I thought National Geographic had some standards?

[Sublime]

The video is unavailable and there`s a huge "(Corrected)" under the headline. About your question, I wouldn't expect the credibility the paper magazine has to transcend completely to the web-site or even to the TV channel.

I myself have a hefty stack of NGC magazines lined up against the wall and I'm perfectly happy with that much. On the other hand relying on a web-site to bring me credible and high quality information isn't something I personally would do, NGC or not.

[Everdarke]

Noes! Not our polar bears! I've had so much fun playing with them all my life. Oh the pain and suffering! :'(

[Trump]

Scandinavia is a historical and geographical region centred on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe which includes the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.[1][2] The other Nordic countries, Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, are also often included because of their close historic and cultural relations to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark

A little research?

[RandomPasserby]

Trump, Finland isn't a part of Scandinavia really (Swedes, Norwegians and great Danes don't count us in). Calling Finland Scandinavian is geographically kinda like calling Hawaii American.

[MNJetter]

Well, Hawai'i has got to belong to one continent or another, even if it's only based on tectonic plate location. :P

[phenyl]

Well according to this (http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/PlateTectonics/Maps/map_plate_tectonics_world.html), Hawaii doesn't belong to America but to the Pacific.;-)

[MNJetter]

I know, I'm just being facetious :P

[Vic_Rattlehead]

I've always identified Finland as a baltic country as it's from the finno-urgic language family, similar to Estonia, which is a baltic nation. I suppose the political past for Finland's independence from Russia and its independence from a former Swedish suzerainty (I think?) has identified is as being on par with countries like Sweden. Or maybe it's due to the many Swedish speakers in Finland I guess?

I suppose the main reason why Finland is persistently identified as a scandinavian nation is due to the recent rise in heavy-metal-pseudo-viking-pop culture (See Turisas, Kiuas, Nightwish, Finntroll etc).

I don't know why people refer to Wikipedia for a some-what document of fact. The authors of the articles are normal people like you and me, so in effect; wikipedia is a secondary source rather than some 'light of fact'.

BTW: This wee rant isn't directed at anybody in particular, I just often feel that my opinion is in threat when someone uses wikipedia as a source of fact to quell any debate (on any forum), rather than adhering to the fact that its nothing more than a 3rd opinion, with the odd article with primary sources. Damn their eyes!

[whispering]

I've always identified Finland as a baltic country as it's from the finno-urgic language family, similar to Estonia, which is a baltic nation. I suppose the political past for Finland's independence from Russia and its independence from a former Swedish suzerainty (I think?) has identified is as being on par with countries like Sweden. Or maybe it's due to the many Swedish speakers in Finland I guess?
Id say calling Finland Scandinavia would be a lot like calling Ireland Great Britain. There are pretty much the same amount of Britons in Ireland then there are Finlands Swedish (roughly 5%) here so :P ...or maby we should start calling Sweden also a Baltic country, since 5% of Swedens population are Swedens Finnish :D

Btw, finnish metal bands usual take influence to their lyrics from Finnish mythology rather then vikings, which is similar to Estonias mythology (E.g. we have Kalevala, estonia has Kalevipoeg).

Though I think people started adding Finland to Scandinavia, cause they never heard of nordic countries.

[Vic_Rattlehead]

There are pretty much the same amount of Britons in Ireland then there are Finlands Swedish (roughly 5%) here so :P ...or maby we should start calling Sweden also a Baltic country, since 5% of Swedens population are Swedens Finnish :D


There are probably quite a bit more Britons in Ireland than 5%, but it depends on what you would call Ireland. Personally, I refer to Ireland as the entire Island (NI and ROE)...and with that in mind, there has been a great modern historical lineage between the British Isle and Ireland.

Loads of Ulster scots (protestant) went to Ireland (after Cromwell) with the assistance of William of Orange to spread a more anglo-centric rule. Many of them still exist today in Ireland, (albeit, mostly in places like Bangor and other unionist cities in Northern Ireland)...but there are sure as hell some in the south too as many integrated into Irish society; as well as serving the queen by taking the ownership of farms which housed the infamous 'potato' :P.

Also, where I live (Liverpool), I once was told a very interesting statistic from a friend that by the turn of the century (1900) one in three people in Liverpool were Irish born! :D

The name is; Séamas Cristior O'Conchobhair. :D or James (Christopher) Connor, take your pic. :P

Whoa, sorry, I think I just spammed with this inane post! :P Sorry!

[RandomPasserby]

Unless you count all countries by the Baltic Sea as baltic, don't go counting Finland as baltic because the histories (WW2) and thus cultures and languages (2/3 of baltic languages are closer to english than finnish) are different. Calling Finland scandinavian is considered better as sometimes even finns use the word scandinavian to describe us.

[Roxie]

wasn't this about Knut (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZLKb_5S21E)?

[Vic_Rattlehead]

CORRECTION (January 4, 2008): An earlier version of this page implied that Finland is home to wild polar bears. However, the only polar bears in this northern European country are in captivity.

Haha, did it actually need clarifying? :D

@Roxie- Isn't Knut a Kraut? (sorry if that pisses any Germans off, I just love saying it! :D)

[SlickWilly440]

Save the polar bears, don't let these cute polar cubs go into extinction!

http://www.wildlifearchives.com/images/polar-bear-cubs.jpg

[Trump]

I was not commenting on the validity of the wikipedia or national geographic statements, but I was just showing that it is sometimes acceptable to consider Finland part of Scandanavia. I actually know very little about Finland and find this thread fascinating.

[Citizen]

CORRECTION (January 4, 2008): An earlier version of this page implied that Finland is home to wild polar bears. However, the only polar bears in this northern European country are in captivity.

Haha, did it actually need clarifying? :D

No, as we are all experts on both Finland and polar bears.

[Vic_Rattlehead]

No, as we are all experts on both Finland and polar bears.

One word, POLAR. Polar bears are from the polar (arctic) region, hence their name. ;) Finland, despite being the northernmost european nation (I'm excluding Russia as her northernmost land is actually in Asia), is nowhere near the north pole.