Barely any arctic ice for polar bears

Bare facts: Arctic ice shrinks by 25 % in 25 years due to global warming, takes the polar bear closer to endangered species status.

SAMIDHA SATAPATHY

13 February 2006
MUMBAI, INDIA

Two official US departments and an international organization on the environmental watch have come forward with reports that may force the Bush government to reconsider its stand on the global warming issue. Despite severe pressure from environmental activists as well as other governments and international bodies, President Bush has thus far refused to take any significant action to curb pollution, despite criticism from his strongest allies, the Evangelical Christian leaders who are protesting against global warming, as well as from UK Prime Minister Tony Blair who has publicly stated that the world has less than seven years to address the problem of climate changes.

Now, however, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has come out with a statement saying that "substantial scientific and commercial information indicating that listing the polar bear [as an endangered species] may be warranted." In addition, the United Nations Environment Programme has submitted a report that says that the summer ice in the Arctic has shrunk by more than a quarter in the past half century. This finding is echoed in the US government's official National Snow and Ice Data Center, which reported a significant reduction in the extent of sea ice.

Currently only 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears remain on the planet, and some scientists are predicting their extinction within the next century. Over the next 12 months, the status of the bears will be reviewed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to determine the effects of climate changes, trends and habits among the species, and the effects of potential threats on the species, such as oil and gas development and contaminants. While officially, the polar bear's status is yet to be determined, Rosa Meehan, the head of its marine mammal programme in Anchorage, Alaska, has already said that "It's pretty easy to make a connection between what's happening to sea ice and what might happen to polar bears." If the bears make the list, then the government and other regulatory agencies will be forced to strictly enforce measures to control pollution that aids global warming. In addition, stricter fuel-economy standards for vehicles will have to be implemented, if the government is to abide by the US Endangered Species Act. 

The melting of sea ice is directly related to global warming effects, and has already made a severe and adverse impact on the lives of polar bears, especially their food habits, according to evidence submitted by environmental groups. The polar bears' primary prey are seals. Seals are fast swimmers, but are caught by polar bears when the water is frozen and the seals surface for air through holes and cracks. During winter, polar bears stock up on food for the summer. Thus, polar bears keep the balance of nature by preventing an overpopulation of seals. However, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, not only does the ice recede far out to sea each summer, but also, the rate of retreat is accelerating and the ice is also melting earlier each year. Thus it has become difficult for them to hunt in the winter as well as stock up for the summer.

The starving bears are now increasingly trying to swim to land and cases of bears marauding through towns and villages have been reported. Some evidence also indicates that in north-east Russia they have taken to eating their own species. A 15-yr old girl has been killed in the far western Russian Arctic, and children going to school in Churchill, Canada, are being escorted under guard. Also, although polar bears are good long distance swimmers, covering up to 100 km without stopping, because of the increased distance between the ice sheets, cases of drowning among the polar bears have occurred, mostly out of sheer exhaustion.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's aerial surveys over the past five years have also indicated that the bears are changing their habits to adapt to the adversity of their condition. Normally, bears don't eat the carcass, leaving them for the arctic foxes, ravens and other scavengers. Now however, the bears are spending more time on land, scavenging whale carcasses.

Also, according to research conducted by Prof. Margaret James, Ph.D., an environmental toxicologist at the University of Florida, polar bears are managing to completely eliminate (through digestion and excretion) only one of the five environmental toxins in their food. This is serious news for humans and other species, according to James, "The polar bear has quite an efficient system for metabolizing these pollutants….If they can't do it, then it's unlikely that other animals or persons can."