by Ranjit J Perera

Created on: November 28, 2007   Last Updated: November 29, 2007

The Polar Bear surveys the landscape from the top of the ridge and sees the small floating islands of ice in the sea. Even as he watches, a section of the cliff crumbles and slides down with a great splash.

Never having felt as confused or threatened as he is now,he ponders about the future of his species. At the rate the ice is melting, only two-thirds of the Polar Bears will be alive in another fifty years. Food is also becoming scarce. There seem to be fewer seals, young walruses and whales. Of course there is some variety in the menu. Birds, rodents, shellfish, crabs, beluga whales and occasionally muskox or reindeer can all be eaten. But how long will it be before they are gone too?

Another crash tells him that more ice has melted. Where could the Polar Bears go? His relations have sent messages from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Greenland, Denmark, Svalbard, Norway, Central Siberia and Franz-Josef Land, Russia and Alaska. They all say the same thing, 'More and more ice is melting, food is becoming scarce and our species is dwindling.' More and more Polar Bear cubs are dying.

He knows that their bodies are accumulating more and more pollutants. But he has little control over that strange animal called man who pollutes the environment. Why does he do it? Animals don't eat all the food or go about scattering materials that are poisonous.

Generations of Polar Bears have lived for a hundred thousand years, but would any of them be alive in another hundred years? Tears run down his cheeks as he hears another chunk of ice crash into the sea.

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