The Plight of the Polar Bear and the Environment

The Fate of Ursus maritimus Highlights Global Environmental Problems

Dec 23, 2008

The Polar Bear, NOAA Climate Program Office, NABOS 2006 Expedition

The hazardous environmental state of the polar bear, an iconic symbol of Arctic biodiversity, could be an omen of global environmental peril.

The Polar bear has become the symbol of the Arctic but is now likely to become the “canary in the coal mine” in regard to mankind’s environmental future. Although the Polar bear is at the top of the arctic food chain it looks like being the first major casualty of global environmental changes which are largely due to human influence.

Global warming is not the only danger to the polar bear environment. Lance Craighead, author of Bears of the World, published by Voyager Press in 2003 says “Human developments displace polar bears from important habitat, create conflicts that result in bear deaths, create disturbance and stress that affects their behavior and survival, and can introduce toxic substances that impact polar bears in direct and indirect ways”.

Threats to the Polar Bear

There is no doubt that the major threat to polar bears is global warming and climate change. The report “Impacts of a Warming Arctic”, published as part of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) by the Arctic Council in November 2004 states “If the Arctic Ocean becomes seasonally ice free for several years in a row, it is possible that polar bears would become extinct.”

A report titled “Effects of Climate Warming on Polar Bears” and published in volume 59 of Arctic by the Arctic Institute of North America in September 2006 confirms this view when it states that, “Furthermore, in Western Hudson Bay at least, recent studies have confirmed that the ice is melting earlier, apparently in response to climate warming, and that both the condition of bears and their population size are declining.”

Of course global warming is not the only threat to polar bears. A report entitled “The Plight of Canada’s Polar Bear”, published by the Canadian Marine Environment Protection Society in August 2005 found that, “Levels of mercury, other heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) generated by industrial processes in southern latitudes are turning up in tissue samples of most arctic species, including polar bears.”

This report goes on to list two other major threats to polar bears. Persistent hunting, both legal and illegal, and the rising level of industrial exploitation, especially for fossil fuel sources, are having a devastating effect on the polar bear habitat.

Polar Bear Fate and the Global Environment

The polar bear has thrived in the most inhospitable environment in the planet and has become top of the food chain in the Arctic region, yet human induced environmental changes have brought this magnificent creature to the brink of extinction. Could the fate of the polar bear be a harbinger of what may occur to mankind, top of the entire planetary food chain?

In a press release accompanying the “State of the Arctic 2008”, issued by The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on October 17, 2008, Richard Spinrad, NOAA assistant administrator said, “what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic.”

Professor Eystein Jansen of the Bjerknes Center for Climate Research, speaking at the “State of the Planet 08” conference, held at Columbia University on March 27 and 28, 2008, said, "The Arctic is the key to what will happen for the next several hundred years to humanity".

The fate of the polar bear and changes in the Arctic environment are a pointer to the future of the global environment. Rising levels of carbon dioxide combined with over exploitation of the world’s natural resources have brought an iconic symbol of Arctic biodiversity to the edge of extinction. There is no doubt that if global ecological disaster is to be avoided in the future, then the polar bear and the Arctic must be saved in the present.

The copyright of the article The Plight of the Polar Bear and the Environment in Environmentalism is owned by Laurence O'Sullivan. Permission to republish The Plight of the Polar Bear and the Environment in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.