Polar Bears are Starving for a Solution to Global Warming

As the planet heats up, polar bears have found themselves in hot water. That’s because the sea ice the bears depend on to hunt is melting, and the polar bear is now threatened with extinction. Polar bears have survived for centuries in one the harshest climates on Earth, but they may not survive to the end of this century if current global warming trends continue.

Polar bears spend the warmer months hunting for seals on sea ice, preparing for eight months of hibernation. But with sea ice melting, the polar bear’s chances of survival are slipping away.

In some Arctic regions, the sea ice season has shortened by as much as three weeks, and polar bears are already suffering from the effects. Fewer cubs are surviving, and the total bear population declined almost 14 percent from 1995 to 2004. According to experts, global warming could cause polar bear populations worldwide to decline by more than 30 percent in just 35 years.

Scientists have discovered that the polar ice caps are melting at an alarming rate – 20 percent since 1979 – more than a million square miles. It is widely believed that Arctic winter temperatures could rise as much as 18 degrees, melting the bears’ feeding grounds completely by the end of the century.

Greenpeace has joined forces with the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Biological Diversity, to petition the government to declare polar bears a  threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. If we are successful, the polar bear would be the first mammal to be officially declared at risk due to global warming.

The Endangered Species Act would provide broad protection to polar bears, including a requirement that all federal agencies make sure that any action carried out, authorized, or funded by the government will not “jeopardize the continued existence” of polar bears, or adversely modify their critical habitat.

The Bush administration can’t continue to ignore the existence of global warming. The polar bear will be one of the first species to go extinct if it does.