How Many Polar Bears Are There?

     Somebody out there must know how many polar bears there are, right?  After all, the United States Department of the Interior has declared them a threatened species.  Apparently nobody really knows.  Really, as in nobody has ever actually counted them.

     In an editorial called “The Great Polar Bear Population Puzzle,” Terrence Jeffrey reveals how inexact the science of polar bear counting is.  So, we don’t really know how many polar bears there are, or whether their population has increased or decreased.

     I ask you. . .

Is this science?

If we don’t know how many polar bears there are, and if we don’t know if there are more or fewer polar bears than there used to be, then how do we know that they are a threatened species?