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Starving Polar Bears and Global Warming
from:What legacy are we leaving for our children? What kind of wildlife will they know in their lifetime? What is happening with Polar Bears and global warming is not just shame but is a tragedy. One day the only legacy we will have for future generations of children is show them books and say, remember the polar bears?”
Thanks to documentaries shown on the National Geographic Channel, news of the polar bears and global warming is common knowledge and we must act now before it is too late.
No discussion about the far north and melting ice caps is complete without and investigation of the conditions facing polar bears and global warming. Greenhouse gas emission is the culprit of global warming and is the result of polar bears losing their natural habitats. Polar bears live on the ice above the water. They prosper in the very cold artic temperatures.
Since the temperatures have warmed up, the polar bear population has diminished by a quarter of what they once were; in other words they are down by about 25,000 just in the last twenty years. Furthermore, polar bears are recorded as weighing as much as 1,700 pounds to support their stature of up to 10 feet tall. Scientists are seeing their weight rapidly decline. The females are particularly thinning down. This weight loss is affecting their ability to produce offspring. Instead of producing their usual three cubs per litter, they are now only producing one. Future generations of polar bears are clearly at risk of extinction.
A cruel death from starvation is facing polar bears and global warming once again is the reason for it. Polar bears are unable to find the foods that they normally eat. Polar bears are known to travel more than 20,000 miles looking for food in order to survive. Seals are their main food source. However ribbon seals, bearded, spotted, and ringed seals, all inhabiting the ice and waters off of Alaska’s shores are also diminishing in numbers. U.S. reviews are going on to determine their status as an endangered species.
Polar bears are used to swimming more than a 100 miles to look for food but, because of their weakened physique and the fact that ice is melting much of the land surface, they cannot swim the extended distance from one ice surface to another. Polar bears are becoming more and more isolated on small ice surfaces surrounded entirely by water. They are slowing starving to death; too weak to swim to safety and to find food.
The evidence regarding polar bears and global warming is so persuasive that the U.S. Department of The Interior has added them to the endangered species list with the mention of “threatened species,” This status refers to a species whose existence will likely die out in the future if their habitat continues to fail to sustain their needs. What makes this event incredible is that this is the first animal to be added to the endangered species list because of global warming.
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