Student Article High School Science Journal Author: Amy Luu

Saving Polar Bears from Extinction

July 19, 2007

The first thing that comes to mind when we hear the words polar bear is entertainment. In society today, we have used polar bears in various ways for our enjoyment. Commercials, ads, logos, and attractions are just a few ways we use polar bears. Such entertainment has taken our minds off their real matters. We are not aware that global warming has an enormous effect on the lives of polar bears and their surroundings.

Global Warming is steadily raising the temperature on Earth, causing the polar bear’s habitat to melt, according to conservationists. Many people today are unaware that activities they do each day may be a part of global warming: for example, driving cars and burning coal. These activities dispense heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, which cause global warming.

Polar bears are bulky, white fur mammals that grow to about eight feet long, and are dependent on sea ice for their survival. The bears primarily live their life on the ice, where they hunt for their prey, mate, travel, and some even give birth on the ice.  However, the ice is melting quickly. “In northern Alaska the U.S. Minerals Management Service has concluded that some polar bears are drowning as they try to swim increasingly long distances between the ice and land.” This tragic event occurred on September 2004 and a documented four polar bears were drowned trying to swim a record 160 mile gap. Imagine if no one were to take action, the ice where the polar bears live will continue to melt, and more disheartening drownings would occur.   However, drownings were not the only devastating events that occurred. Since polar bears depend on winter hunting for survival, longer ice-free periods during the artic summers leave polar bears abandoned onshore for extended periods. This causes polar bears to lose critical fat reserved for the reproduction and the ability of pregnant females to produce adequate milk for their cubs, condensing the reproductions of polar bears for future generations. Due to this, the birth rates of polar bears have dropped by 15 percent.

Today the worldwide polar bear population estimates are between only 20,000 and 25,000. The shortage of polar bears can end in a devastating loss. Regardless of the statistics, Terry Root, an ecologist at Stanford University has said, "We are not going to lose the polar bears, we will always have individuals around in zoos and places like that, but we are going to lose the natural behavior of polar bears." Terry Root also advised that polar bears would become scavengers like raccoons, which depend on humans for their survival. As a result polar bears would be saved and more production of polar bears would occur.

Along with saving the polar bears from extinction, global warming also affects the polar ice ecosystem, which includes the habitat of walrus, seals, penguins, and many other creatures that depend on ice. Saving the polar bears from global warming would only be the first step in benefiting and saving our ecosystem and the world around us.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                                         Sources

#1. Endangered Species: Polar Bears http://www.un.org/works/environment/animalplanet/polarbear.html 

#2. Polar Bearing Being Considered for U.S. Endangered List

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0210_060210_polar_bears.html  

#3. Artic Ice Melting, Polar Bear Endangered. Govt. Says

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200612/NAT20061228a.html

 
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