Simple Equation Predicts Doom for Polar Bears (VIDEO)

The future does not look very bright for polar bears and climate change is to blame. Already these magnificent predators are suffering and declining in the southern portion of their range.

It all really boils down to a simple equation: sea ice + seals on the sea ice = healthy polar bear populations. Take away the ice and polar bears can't hunt seals and their populations decline.

And that is exactly what is happening. This video from National Wildlife Federation and Polar Bears International explains it.

The decline in sea ice due to climate change is happening without a doubt. Consider this bad news for polar bears from just this past year alone:

• Arctic sea ice extent for January 2011 was the lowest in the satellite record for that month.
• In February, the LA Times reported that a female polar bear swam for nine days -- nonstop -- across the Beaufort Sea, before reaching an ice floe. The swim cost the bear 22 percent of her weight and her 1 year old cub.
• In April, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) reported that this winter's maximum Arctic sea ice extent tied for the lowest on record.
• Summer analysis of sea ice in Hudson Bay showed that the Hudson Bay area had about 18 percent ice cover, compared with an average of 43 percent for that time of year.
• In July, a new study showed that melting sea ice in the Arctic is forcing polar bears to swim longer distances, causing many to lose their cubs.
• Last month, NSIDC announced that 2011 saw the second lowest Arctic ice levels since 1979 when satellite observations began.
• An online series from Nature this month points out that the Arctic is "warming roughly twice as fast as the rest of the globe" and facing a whole set of challenges from industrial development that it has never before experienced.

We need to take action now to stop this from happening. The clock is already ticking for polar bears.

Learn more about polar bears and help save them with the National Wildlife Federation:

• Species Facts: Polar Bear Profile
• Article: On Thin Ice
• Support: Symbolically Adopt a Polar Bear
• Take Action: Protect Polar Bears

 

 

 

Follow David Mizejewski on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dmizejewski

Comments

[bleedingheartlibertarian]

12:36 AM on 10/21/2011

a mere ten thousand years ago , the south shore of Lake Michigan had an ice sheet over a mile thick. Global warming has caused the ice sheet to disappear completely and polar bears are extinct in that region. Do you need any more proof than that?

[Jim Milks]

03:14 PM on 10/20/2011

There is 25 to 50 years of lag in the climate system between an increase in CO2 levels and a corresponding rise in global temperatures (Hansen et al. 2005: http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/2005/2005_Hansen_etal_1.pdf). Sea ice will likely melt before temperatures flatten out just due to the warming that is already in the pipeline, as some scientists are projecting Arctic summers without sea-ice within 9 years (http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/09/11/316326/new-arctic-abnormal-record-low-sea-ice-volume-area-and-extent/). And the long-term prospects aren't looking very good, even if we stabilized CO2 levels at today's values and the melt rate slowed. The last time CO2 levels were as high as todays was during the Miocene, a time when temperatures were 3 - 6ºC warmer than today (Tripati et al. 2009: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/326/5958/1394.short) – and the Arctic was largely ice-free during the summer (Polyak et al. 2010: http://bprc.osu.edu/geo/publications/polyak_etal_seaice_QSR_10.pdf).

As much as I hate to say it, unless things change very soon, we'll need to devise a plan B for those magnificent creatures that inhabit the far North.

[realpolitic]

10:27 PM on 10/21/2011

Excellent post!!