" GLOBAL WARNING "
Robert Bateman
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"It is said that the polar bear is the new "canary in the coal mine." The signals of
climate change are numerous and seem to be piling up day by day – disrupted weather
patterns, more bad storms and deterioration of coral reefs, to name a few. Numbers
of examples of global warming are making the news, such as retreating of glaciers.
It is the Polar Regions that are the most vulnerable to the warming, and so are early
warning signs as to what is to come. Perma frost is no longer “perma.” More southern
plants and insects and birds are appearing in the Arctic for the first time. But the
most powerful symbol of what is happening to the climate of the planet is the plight
of the polar bear. In a real sense, polar bears are marine mammals. They live by the
sea, their primary food source is the sea, and they are great swimmers. Seals are their
staff of life, but bears are not aquatic mammals like seals. They could not dream of
chasing down a seal in the water. They must approach from a solid footing, almost
always sea ice. Seals obviously come up through holes in the ice to breathe or
climb out to sleep or “sunbathe.” The bear often approaches from a long distance
with great care and stealth, blending in with the whitish sea ice. However, this sea
ice is now disappearing and with it the hunting ground for the bears. Scattered,
fragmented pans of ice are still all right for seals to rest on, but very difficult for
the polar bear’s stalking strategy. As a result, the bears are becoming thinner
and breeding success is falling. They are now being seen further and further away
from their old hunting grounds. The impending doom for polar bear populations
is
a warning that we must face the inconvenient truth and move away from
dependence on fossil fuels."
Robert Bateman
- Global Warning - Polar Bear -
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