Illustrated by Julianne Park. All rights reserved.
Imagine opening up the all-time classic Polar bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? book and pointing to the animal drawn on the cover (a polar bear) and exclaiming, “Wow, I wish those were still alive.”
Most people by now have, hopefully, seen the disheartening photographs of polar bears clinging dear life onto what’s left of an ice cap. Or the photographs of scrawny, bony polar bears stumbling across a gray, melted landscape.
The polar bear, or the Ursus Maritimus, is now, unfortunately, a vulnerable and threatened species. Only around 26,000 polar bears remain in the entire world (IUCN, 2015). And at this rate, catastrophe may be coming faster than we think. Studies say that polar bears might disappear by 2100 (Briggs & Gill, 2020). So in approximately 79 years, one of our most beloved animals may die of extinction because of climate change.
Henry Fountain, a reporter for The New York Times, explains how the detrimental effects of the melting ice caps from global warming on polar bears. “Prolonged fasting, and reduced nursing of cubs by mothers, would lead to rapid declines in reproduction and survival” (Fountain, 2020, para. 2). The loss of sea ice due to global temperature increases is driving polar bears out of their natural habitat, searching for food and shelter elsewhere. Polar bears also face threats such as oil and gas drilling, hunting, fires, and commercial/industrial use of habitats. Human intervention and activity have been extremely hazardous to the polar bear’s survival and will continue to be if nothing is done about it.
Now, here’s the question. How can we help polar bears?
You can learn more on this issue by going to websites such as Polar Bears International and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). You can also help reduce carbon emissions to reduce global warming. Visit this link to see steps you can take to help polar bears.
References
Briggs, H., & Gill, V. (2020, July 20). Climate change: Polar bears could be lost by 2100. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53474445
Fountain, H. (2020, July 20). Global Warming Is Driving Polar Bears Toward Extinction, Researchers Say. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/climate/polar-bear-extinction.html
IUCN. (2015, August 27). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN Red List; International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. https://www.iucnredlist.org/
Polar Bears International. (2019). How to Help Polar Bears – Polar Bears International. Polarbearsinternational.org. https://polarbearsinternational.org/get-involved/actions-with-impact
