Biology Blog

Global Warming’s Effect on the Polar Bears


Polar bears have been around for thousands of years and one of the main reasons for the sharp decline in their population has been due to hunters. But now there is a new problem brewing for these Arctic mammals and its name is global warming. The warming or melting of the sea ice affects a polar bears habitat and reduces its ability for sufficient food. Scientists believe that we have until 2015 before we reach a tipping point with global climate change. If we do not change, it may be the end of polar bears and with the rapid rate of melting this could also put our lives in danger. With an increase in sea level, we could soon find ourselves with floods and tsunamis. Enough about humans, let’s talk more about the polar bears. Most polar bears, 60% to be exact, live in Canada. Now although the polar bear habitat seems to melting away as we speak, some native communities in Canada are seeing an increase in the amount of polar bears on land. This is quite obvious being that their original habitat is starting to disappear.

Polar bears on land but if global warming is not stopped then there will be no land

Now the PBSG (Polar Bear Specialist Group) is doing their part in the conservation of polar bears by taking the information about global warming and trying to come up with ways to try and preserve the polar bears life span. They have come up with different ways to try and keep polar bears alive. One is minimizing the human-polar bear interactions. This is to try and keep the polar bears mating, just in case their habitat does melt away. At least there will be a good number of polar bears to continue to mate and in turn help rebuild the polar bear population. Aside from the human-polar bear interactions being cut down, we as humans are the root cause of the polar bear habitats beginning to melt. We must do our part to keep polar bears alive. This means reducing greenhouse gases and pollution. If we do our part, then we can keep the polar bear species alive for a longer period of time.

Mother polar bear and her young cubs

Polar Bears International is an organization that tries to conserve the life of the polar bears. They do this through research and education. As they study more about polar bears, they can then begin to educate us humans on what we must do to keep polar bears alive. Whenever you hear about polar bears, it usually is followed up with global warming. The two go hand and hand because if we do not do something about global warming, then not only will we lose many polar bears but we are also putting ourselves in danger. Think about it. If each and every person does there part then we can save the polar bear species. We can save their habitats and there young cubs. We are not only paving a future for the polar bears and their cubs but also for our kids and the next generation of young people, who will want to follow in our footsteps.


References:


http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears


http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/finder/polarbear/polarbear.html


http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/polar-bear/


Photos:


Google Images (polar bears)


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