Bi!ANCAA: How Global Warming is Affecting Polar Bears

Many scientists consider humans as the most invasive species, as humans can greatly change an environment and impact living things that reside there. Are we being stewards of the world? Take a look at an issue in which human intervention has positively or negatively affected the biodiversity of our ecosystems.

Which leads to my blog...

Us humans are NOT being good stewards of the world. As a result of our actions and the way we use the earth’s resources biodiversity is dramatically decreasing, and many species are still in danger, even us humans. Human beings are currently causing the greatest mass extinction of species since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. If we continue on this path, life on earth will be extinct because of the amount of pollution we create, habitats we destroy, and

natural resources we seem to quickly consume all without thinking about the future and the consequences of our actions as a people, as a population, as a nation, as a world.

Over the past 100 years, earth has been heating up, the ozone layer has been getting thinner, and do people care? No! With global warming increasing, and species and their habitats decreasing, chances for ecosystems to adapt and evolve are failing because the changes are happening far too rapidly.

A species that is greatly affected by global warming is the Coca Cola drinking Ursus maritimus, also known as the polar bear. According to Polar Bears International (2010), of these cute snugly white giants, about 60 percent of the 20,000 to 25,000 living today are located in Canada. However, this doesn’t mean that you see them strolling around Dundas Square, they live up in the Arctic! Being the largest carnivores on land, their habitat is greatly at risk. Although they are immune to the cold of the Arctic, and have adapted to live in water, they can’t survive without food and adequate hunting grounds. Polar bears depend on the ice for hunting, breeding, and to den. Also, the summer’s ice loss in the Arctic is now equal to an area the size of Alaska, Texas, and Washington combined. They need the ice of the Arctic to survive. Unfortunately, the northern Arctic Ocean has little food for the polar bears, from the cause of global warming, therefore, there are polar bears living up to 82 degrees north latitude (WWF Polar Bear status) in the North Pole. The ice is MELTING, which is resulting in annual polar bear decrease and at this rate becoming an endangered species is very likely and close approaching.

“Because polar bears are vulnerable to this loss of habitat, they are, in my judgment, likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. In this case, [in] 45 years,” Kempthorne said. (CBC News)

This quote seems to unfortunate to be true, but sadly, it is believable. Six out of eight members of the bear family are now considered endangered (David Suzuki). As I mentioned before, it has to do with the Arctic sea level rising which already has been a significant problem in our world today.

“This is something like decadal variability. Sea level goes up and down, up and down - but in general, it rises.” the principal investigator from WHOI's Investigation of Sea Level Rise in the Arctic project explained. (BBC News)

The temperature of the Arctic is rapidly increasing since 1978. This is over 30 years ago. The Arctic ice layer has thinned out 9% per DECADE (David Suzuki), and 0.2 to 0.4 mm per year averaged over the 20th century. According to the Climate Change Synthesis Report, it is estimated that Antarctica, if fully melted, would contribute more than 60 metres of sea level rise, and Greenland would contribute more than 7 metres. This will lead to massive flooding and extinction of polar bears, and many species living on earth today; including humans.

It is OUR time to change this catastrophe. It is either NOW or never. We can do simple things such as, carpooling, recycling, turning off the lights, turning off the tap when brushing our teeth. Even though these are small things that might not seem like it will affect the whole WORLD, but it will. If everyone does at least one of these easy tasks a day, it will dramatically change the horrible path we’re heading to, and hopefully change the near future of lives.