Polar Bears as an example of Environmental issues

By Georgia Murray and Erin Tomlin

Nawwww!!

Hey Guys!

We like to play

But we don’t like playing hunt the ice-cap..

At the March 2012 range states meeting of the five polar bear nations, scientists agreed that climate change is the single biggest threat facing polar bears.

The Arctic is experiencing the warmest air temperatures in four centuries. The Arctic has experienced warm periods before, but the present, rapid shrinking of sea ice is unprecedented. Scientists predict a mostly ice-free Arctic summer by 2040 if present trends continue.

Most scientists now believe that the Arctic will continue to grow warmer as a result of human activity—namely, the introduction of increasing quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

DOHH!

Effect on polar bears. Today's polar bears are facing rapid loss of the sea ice where they hunt, breed, and, in some cases, den. Changes in their distribution or numbers affect the entire arctic ecosystem.

Polar bears are finding too much open water. In 2004, four polar bears drowned off the coast of Alaska when trying to swim to the pack ice.

Say what?!

Although the effect on polar bears does not directly affect us, the causation of these events does in fact have an impact on ourselves. Not only is there a whole species being wiped out, there will be a missing link in the food chain and the risk of flooding of inhabited lands from the melting ice caps. And they’re cute..

To deny there is not an environmental issue is to say that what is happening to these polar bears is irrelevant and natural. Somehow this seems highly improbable.

Is this worth your drive to school?