by Jason William

Created on: February 16, 2010

The polar bear has become the poster child of global warming, the symbol of the threat of a changing world. But it’s important not to forget the dangers facing the polar bears, because they truly are threatened by climate change.

The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is the largest land carnivore on Earth. Its range extends over all the northern Arctic seas. It spends most of the year on the frozen seas and is therefore regarded as more of a marine mammal than a land mammal.  All of the reasons global warming is dangerous to polar bears stems from the fact that global warming would melt much of this ice. This will affect polar bears in three main ways: shrinking feeding range, widening gaps between the ice and the scarcity of food.

1) SHRINKING RANGE

During the summer, the sea ice melts. This leaves polar bears stranded on landmasses like Canada or Greenland. Polar bears don’t eat much during this time because they were supposed to have gorged themselves on fatty seals and the summers aren’t supposed to last very long. However, as global warming warms the Arctic region the spring will come earlier and the ice won’t form until later and later. This means polar bears will begin to lose weight or die because their seal season is cut short during a critical point when the bear needs to fatten up.

2) WIDENING ICE GAPS

The polar bear is an adept swimmer, and can brave even rough seas as long as the distance it must travel isn’t too great. But as global warming will begin to melt the frozen seas the ice will be weaker and the distance that the bears must travel between ice floes will increase. This means bears will have to spend a lot more time swimming and a lot less time on solid ice, hunting for seals. According to the Times, in 2004 four drowned polar bears were found in the Beaufort Sea, a phenomenon never before observed. Some polar bears are now being forced to endure journeys of up to 60 miles.

3) SCARCITY OF FOOD

Seals rely on the polar ice just as much as polar bears do. It creates locations for the fish that the seals eat to reproduce. Without the fish, seal numbers will decline, and as seal numbers decline so will polar bear numbers. Because of the loss of ice floes and the shortening of the frozen season, polar bears are starting to go hungry for longer periods of time. This has led to some of the first documented cases of cannibalism among polar bear populations.

It’s clear that already polar bears are suffering from the effects of a warming Earth. Because of the loss of ice they are facing pressure on all fronts. We are going to have to ease some of this pressure if we want our children to be able to see one of these amazing and long-loved animals.

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