Polar bears are now critically endangered, due to climate change melting the ice. Help polar bears by doing all the big stuff (drive less, fly less, use your vote to elect councillors and MPs to create walkable communities and switch to green energy.
These majestic animals are now suffering from habitat loss due to climate change, and the need to act is urgent, to stop them going extinct. The fact that Trump has now promised to ‘drill, drill, drill’ means we have an even more difficult job on our hands. But the polar bears are worth the effort.
Without sea ice, polar bears can’t hunt for seals, their main food source. So instead of waiting on the ice for seals to surface, the bears are forced to swim longer distances or wander onto land, where food is scarce. This struggle to find food lowers reproduction rates, and survival chances for cubs.
Loss of Sea Ice
Listen to the climate scientists, not politicians. Sea ice is the foundation of the polar bears’ existence. It acts as a hunting ground, a platform for rest and base for travel. Yet each summer, more sea ice disappears, shrinking in size and thinning in density.
The ice caps were going to melt, they were going to be gone by now. But they’re setting records, OK? They’re at a record level. Donald Trump
Climate scientists say that if current planet trends continue, we could see ice-free summers in the Arctic (where polar bears live, on the ‘top of the globe’). And this will be a death sentence for polar bears, as they can’t adapt to life on land.
Other threats to polar bears are pollution, shipping and oil-drilling (which Trump is now going to ramp up, now elected). Toxic pesticides and industrial waste also end up in our water and are absorbed by the food chain, reaching polar bears and other creatures.
Oil exploration can devastate polar bear habitats from pollution to machinery noise. And conflicts arise when humans encroach onto polar bear habitats.
Did you know that in most parts of Canada, hunting polar bears is still illegal? For ‘sustenance’ and ‘culture’. In other words, for fun? Nobody needs to eat or hunt a polar bear, for any reason. Ever.
Please don’t visit zoos, as they are more for entertainment than conservation, which is done in natural environments by wildlife ecologists. In the wild, polar bears have around one million times more space (and it’s far too warm in temperature for them here).
Books to Learn More on Polar Bears
Where Can We Go? tells the story of how climate change has impacted one bear family, as together they search for a forever home. The charming whimsical illustrations make for a lovely story but at the same time educate on climate change and migration.
As Papa Bear announces the move as there are no more seals to catch and too few fish in their Arctic home, they set off next morning, in search of promising places. Art by Igor Oleynikov (one of the world’s greatest illustrators and winner of the Hans Christian Anderson award).
Polar Bears: Life Under Threat is a book of photographs by an explorer depicting playful cubs, hunting mothers and solitary adults on their yearly migration. Alongside a series of essays and poems from Michel Rawicki and contributors.
