[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/EW-02-01-12-Polar-Bears.mp3|titles=EW 02-01-12 Polar Bears]
Polar bears are the largest terrestrial predators on Earth, outweighing lions, tigers, and all other bears. They have to be big to catch their preferred prey — seals and small whales. To do this, the bears prowl the edges of holes in the sea ice, waiting for seals and whales to surface. They pull their meal from the water and eat it on the sea ice.
These magnificent carnivores are being leveled by global warming. Melting sea ice has made hunting difficult, if not impossible, with bears in the southern Arctic being hit the hardest. In the absence of ice platforms, bears are starving and their populations are rapidly declining.
In 2008, under the Bush Administration, polar bears were listed as a Threatened Species under the Endangered Species Act. Melting sea ice from global warming was cited as their key threat. Unfortunately, they were listed with a special rule that said only threats emanating from within their current geographic range would be considered.
Since greenhouse gases affecting climate come from sources around the globe, they fell outside of regulatory purview.
The Endangered Species Act is very clear that decisions about listing and managing species recovery are scientific, not political, enterprises. Without help, the U.S. Geological Survey predicts that two-thirds of the world’s polar bears — including all the polar bears in Alaska — could be gone by 2050.
Scientists expect that global warming will be the largest single threat to biological diversity in the coming decades. Until the tools we use to protect species take this into consideration, we are dealing with faulty instruments.
Photo, taken on January 1, 2011 in Randolph County, North Carolina, US, using a Canon EOS REBEL T1i. courtesy of Michael Maher via Flickr.
This script was adapted from a column by Rick Ostfeld that originally ran in the Poughkeepsie Journal. You can access the original article here – http://www.caryinstitute.org/ecofocus_2008-12-21.html.