Slipping Away: The Polar Bear

The polar bear has received habitat protection from America, but that won't matter if global warming melts that habitat away

The Arctic, said David Schneider of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), "perhaps more than any other region on Earth, is facing dramatic impacts from climate change."

He said that in a press release issued in September about a recent National Science Foundation-affiliated study he co-authored that found that "arctic temperatures in the 1990s reached their warmest level of any decade in at least 2,000 years."

And one of the Arctic's standard-bearers is getting hit particularly hard: the polar bear.

On November 10, the Olympic torch, on its journey through Canada, passed through Churchill, Manitoba, known as "the polar bear capital of the world."

Scientists took advantage of the moment to make a presentation about the plight of Ursus maritimus to visiting international government and corporate leaders, according to a Canadian Press story.

Robert Buchanan, president of Polar Bears International, said that while almost three-quarters of the world's polar bears reside in Canada, Canadians seem generally unmoved by the grave situation facing them.

"I don't think they realize how they're on the verge of losing their icon," said Buchanan, noting the quick measures taken by American lawmakers when they found out the eagle was endangered.

America is moving on the issue. Slowly.

On October 22, after a partial settlement in a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and Greenpeace, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposed to designate more than 128 million acres (200,541 square miles) of land and water along Alaska's northern coast as "critical habitat" for the polar bear.

It's a welcome move, but designating an area doesn't address the main issue: Anthropogenic global warming is melting the Arctic.

Legally protected or not, a ravaged ecosystem won't help the polar bear or other species struggling with habitat loss.

"Designating polar bear critical habitat is a good first step toward protecting this species," said Melanie Duchin, a Greenpeace campaigner in Anchorage, Alaska, according to a CBD press release. "However, as long as the secretary of the interior [Ken Salazar] maintains that he can do nothing about greenhouse emissions and global warming, protections for the polar bear will ultimately be ineffective."

The period for public comment ends on December 28. The Sierra Club is collecting comments and will deliver them to the FWS.

Buchanan said that we are "killing polar bears from the comfort of our armchairs" and could be taking more measures to save them.

GET INVOLVED

• Sign the Sierra Club public comment petition that they will deliver to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)
• Adopt a polar bear from the Defenders of Wildlife
  
• Sign the Polar Bear Central petition to curb global warming
  
• Analyze and reduce your impact on the environment with the National Grid Floe

RELATED POSTS

• Closing Off the Arctic (July 23, 2009)
• Gone in 75 Years: Polar Bears (June 29, 2009)
• Salazar to Decide Polar Bear Fate Today (May 8, 2009)
• Fate of Polar Bears in Salazar's Hands (April 22, 2009)
• Farewell to the Polar Bears (January 14, 2009)
• Using Art to Tell the Sad Tale of Polar Bears (September 29, 2008)
• Polar Bears Swimming Miles from Coast Cause Concern (August 23, 2008)
• Congress Tackles Climate Change (June 24, 2009)
• Ashley Judd to Congress: Commit Some Cap and Trade Revenue to Help Wildlife (April 25, 2009)
• Note to Obama: Protect Endangered Seals (June 15, 2009)
• EDITORIAL: Polar Transcendentalism (May 11, 2009)
• Selling the Arctic's Future to the Oil Industry (March 6, 2009)
• North Pole May Be Ice-Free in Five Years (August 12, 2008)

credit: Polar Bear mother and cub, Liefdefjord, Svalbard, by Michael Haferkamp, July 2002