Imagine for a moment that warmer-than-normal winter temperatures in Alaska were making it difficult for the endangered sea otter to find food, and making it easier for natural predators and illegal hunters to kill them.

Would the global warming alarmists in the media be all over this story as another example of how man-made “climate change” is destroying the planet and endangering species that are its inhabitants?

Well, as NewsBusters reported on April 5, it’s been pretty darned cold in Alaska this winter, so much so that the Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday that it’s wreaking havoc with the local sea otter population (emphasis added):

An extra-cold winter on the Alaska Peninsula has frozen sea otters out of the bay and pushed them onto the tundra near Port Heiden where they're easy prey for wolves, humans and hunger.

Some of the starving animals -- with ribs showing -- have waddled or belly-slid several miles inland, residents said. Others have been attacked by dogs near houses, killed by villagers for their hides, or died on sea ice where eagles and foxes pick at their remains.

[…]

Partially enclosed by spits of land, the bay hardened into a solid surface of ice this winter after a cold spell -- beginning in January and lasting through March -- dropped temperatures to zero and below, [village fire chief Mark Kosbruk] said.

Average winter temperatures usually hover in the 20s, producing only ice floes, he said. Spring temperatures have recently melted snow off tundra and opened cracks in the frozen bay miles from shore, but the sea otters are still coming on land.

Despite wire services such as UPI and AP covering this story, few media outlets have bothered to pick it up. As such, for argument’s sake, let’s reverse this report, and imagine how much attention it would have been given:

An extra-warm winter on the Alaska Peninsula has forced ice-loving sea otters out of the bay and pushed them onto the tundra near Port Heiden where they're easy prey for wolves, humans and hunger.

Some of the starving animals -- with ribs showing -- have waddled or belly-slid several miles inland, residents said. Others have been attacked by dogs near houses, killed by villagers for their hides, or died on sea ice where eagles and foxes pick at their remains.

[…]

Partially enclosed by spits of land, the bay thawed this winter after a hot spell -- beginning in January and lasting through March -- raising temperatures to 40 and above, [village fire chief Mark Kosbruk] said.

Average winter temperatures usually hover in the 20s, producing desirable ice floes, he said.

Think this would have drawn more attention from a media that disgracefully only report weather-related events which further anthropogenic global warming theories? Can't you see Meredith and Matt this morning going all gooey over these poor, unfortunate otters being destroyed by man's lust for SUV's and oil-profits? And, given the cold over the Eastern part of the nation, might this have been part of the lead story presented by Charles, Brian, and, of course, Katie this evening, complete with interviews from the locals?

Alas, to these folks, only species that are dying because of heat are relevant now.

What a disgrace.

—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters.