A new study published in
Nature, has concluded that unless humans alter the current rate of global warming, polar bears could become extinct in the wild by 2100. The Arctic regions of the globe have experienced unprecedented warm and sea ice melting in the last few decades. Sea ice covering the Arctic ocean
has shrunk to historic lows.
Siberian temperatures have hit 100℉ recently, an unprecedented record. Polar bears are directly affected by this pervasive climate change since they use sea ice to hunt for their primary food source, seals, during the winter. In summer, they retreat to land and mostly fast living off stored fat, but prolonged periods of fasting leads to deterioration of the their body and the inability to breed. Twenty-six thousand polar bears
(Ursus maritimus) currently survive in 19 subpopulations spread across four polar regions. Bears living in the southern most ranges will be affected first. Under the worst case scenario with little mitigation of present emissions, only bears living in the northernmost Queen Elizabeth islands of Canada may survive
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| credit: K. Miller, Polar Bears Int'l. |
“It’s been clear for some time that polar bears are going to suffer under climate change,” said Péter Molnár, lead author. Their research shows that as early as 2040 bears could experience reproductive failure. By 2080 bears in Russia and Alaska will also be in serious trouble, In Alaska's Northern Beaufort Sea, researchers have already observed a decline of 25-50% during low ice periods, and in western Hudson Bay the population has declined by 30% since 1987. The only way these magnificent creatures can be saved is by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Even if humans reduce their emissions tomorrow, it will take 25 to 30 years for sea ice coverage to stabilize due to accumulated carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
So what can be done until man perhaps gets his act together and stops destroying the planet?
US Person makes a suggestion that is bound to be considered
radical. So be it--the situation is
extreme and calls for bold action. The problem reduces to this unescapable fact: polar bears cannot find enough food in the man-altered Arctic environment. Man has a moral obligation in these dire straits to help the bear survive by providing food. Feeding the largest and strongest land carnivore on Earth seems nonsensical when starving bears pose a potential threat to human settlement.
However, local people have been successfully living with the bear for millennium, and are well able to provide excess food for starving bears to scavenge as a last resort. Wildlife officials in the range states should enlist the aid of indigenous peoples, perhaps by allowing special hunts for whale or walrus, to provide carcasses that can be located at distance from settlements. This method of conservation, called supplemental feeding, has been used before to conserve species such as elk. Allowing whole polar bear populations to simply starve to death seems unnecessarily cruel, even for humans. Without our help, they, "will just disappear."
