Polar Bears – on Thin Ice
Polar bears are strong swimmers, but swimming long distances in open water is draining and can be fatal. In 2008 a radio-collared bear with a yearling cub swam an astounding 427 miles to reach the ice off the northern Alaska coast. The cub didn’t make it.
A grim future for polar bears is one of the most tangible and poignant outcomes of global warming. In 2006, federal researchers reported that two-thirds of the world’s polar bear habitat could vanish by mid-century. Saving the Polar Bears all hinges on reducing greenhouse gas emissions – carbon dioxide and other pollution from the burning of fossil fuels. Time is running out.
Humankind needs to make a choice.
Species: U. maritimu
As of May 2008, the U.S listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. In Canada, polar bears are listed as a Species of Special Concern. Russia also considers the polar bear a species of concern.
Polar bears range from Russia to Alaska, from Canada to Greenland, and onto Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. Biologists estimate there are 20,000 to 25,000 bears. About 60% of those live in Canada. The IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group has been working to research the effects of climate change on Polar Bears and the Arctic inhabitants, and has been seeking urgent global governmental action to counteract global warming through human activities. Their report can be read at the page below.
Please also read the information at the websites below, and print off some information. Share and talk about this situation with everyone you meet.
The polar bear is already on thin ice. Protecting the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act is a major step forward, but proper, urgent and comprehensive action needs to be taken to avert climate change through human-made activity – before it is too late – not only for Polar Bears – but for all of Life on Earth. Please do what you can to help, by supporting the following, and raising awareness. Research and support the “zero carbon strategy” in your country.