Rough Draft - Polar Bears

Who is going to drink all the Coca-Cola?

I remember when I was younger, during Christmas I would always look forward to watching all of the different holiday commercials. My favorite commercial in particular was for Coca-Cola. The commercial had a mother polar pear and the two cubs playing in the snow and drinking Coca-Cola. The little cubs would be goofing off by sliding down a hill, for example, and the mother would always be at the end of that hill ready and waiting for her cubs with a bottle of Coca-Cola. That was such a magical scene. Too bad that was over 10 years ago, before anyone would become concerned about the extinction of the polar bears. There was a commercial that was aired in 2005 showing a polar bear and its cub gripping tightly to a cracking ice floe. The broadcast ends with spin-off of an old Coca-Cola commercial saying, “Global Warming: It’s the Real Thing”. (Carlton 1) Truth is, the commercial was right.

As the earth began to get hotter and hotter, things that were cold and frozen started to melt. Too many things melting can lead to terrible consequences. Not only could the water creep up onto land and flood cities and states, but what about the creatures that use these frozen objects as a home? What about the polar bears? “The chief threat to the polar bear is the loss of its sea ice habitat due to global warming. “ (National Wildlife Federation 1) The polar bears inhabit arctic sea and continental coastlines. These places keep them close to fresh water, a place to raise their cubs, and also give them an ideal place to hunt. Since 2007, as their icy homes have been melting away the polar bears have been running out of places to live. I believe that on one is taking the polar bears serious, which in turn makes oil and gas companies feel no need to cut back on production since it is their greenhouse gas emissions cause global warning as well as humans need to cut back on their energy use. “To save the polar bear from extinction, the U.S. must enact strong legislation that reduces the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.” (National Wildlife Federation 1)

The worst part about how the polar bears are dying is that it is not quick and painless. These poor animals are drowning to death. Since the Arctic ice shelf is melting way, the ice floes that the polar bears depend on, are becoming so few and so spread out. The polar bears are unable to swim far enough to get to the next chunk of floating ice. Scientists believe that polar bears have only adapted to swimming the distance between ice floes and not much farther. Researchers from the U.S. Minerals Management Service said they typically spotted a lone polar bear swimming in the ocean far away from ice about once every two years. Polar-bear downing’s were so rare that they have never been documented in the surveys. (Carlton 1) Along with drowning, the polar bears will face starvation. “Polar bears will have a difficult time finding food. (Effects of Global Warming 1) Global warming is the cause of this Arctic meltdown, but what or who is to blame for the global warming?

The blame for the current meltdown has been put on the oil and gas development activities that are taking place near or on their habitat. “Proposed offshore extraction poses the greatest threat to polar bears and their prey because it increases the risk of direct exposure to oil in the event of an oil spill.” (WWF – Threats to Polar Bears) Not only that, but us as humans are too blame. The use of so much energy, as well as the stress on the polar bears from all the new inhabitants has to come to a stop. The polar bears need the space that has been taken up for denning and hunting, so they can survive. But the constant occupation of the oil and gas development is stressing the polar bears greatly.

With this comes another threat, grizzly bears. As the temperature rises, the grizzly bear has started to expand its turf into the Arctic. Since the polar bears are used to dealing with less aggressive prey, they do not stand a chance against the aggressiveness of a grizzly. Though both bears have been known to eat cubs, this could be fatal to the polar bear population if the young are killed and unable to reproduce.

With all these different components that have been proven to deem harm on the polar bears why has it been such a struggle to get them on the endangered species list? On May 15th, 2008 the polar bears were still only listed as threatened. “This decision is a watershed event because it has forced the Bush administration to acknowledge global warm’s brutal impacts, said Kassie Siegel, climate program director at the center for Biological Diversity and lead author of the 2005 petition.” (Science Daily 1) The road to being protected under the Endangered Species act has been a long one and is not even near over yet. It took longer than the one-year deadline to decide if the polar bears were only threatened or actually endangered. Canada has even tried to step up and make some changes in order to maybe help sway the ideas of the United States. Canada has publically said that they have special concern for the Arctic, in hopes to get the United States to see that there is a very apparent problem. Different organizations are still fighting for the protection of the polar bears.

I believe that the Bush administration just did not want to believe in such a thing called global warming. They did not want to give anyone else a reason to start believing it either. Also, they did not want any reason to stop the building and spreading of oil and gas companies. Sure they were taking up space, but it was more important for Bush to create these companies than to save the polar bears and their habitat. Just by listing the polar bears as a threatened species, Bush thought that would get people off his back and still leave room for him to use the loop holes to keep spreading the oil and gas companies all around what is left of the polar bear habitat.

Different solutions that have been thought of include the obvious reducing the amount of energy used, cut back on oil and gas companies, and giving donations. Others have moved to more drastic measures by holding rallies and protests. Some protests have even landed some advocates in jails. (I need to add more to this paragraph. Any ideas?)

In the end, global warming is a very real situation. It is the fatal future that our world has the pleasure of looking forward to unless something is done. Though it is going to take a enormous amount of time and a large amount of cutting back on harmful emissions from businesses that are very important to our everyday lives. Even us, as individuals, will have to cut back on the amount of energy we consume in a full day. If we want to see anything get better, if we want to see the polar bears get better, we will have to sacrifice. The polar bears are close to extinction. If they go, what else will soon die out? These creatures should be cherished. Richard Steiner, a marine-biology professor at the University of Alaska says it best, “For anyone who has wondered how global warming and reduced sea ice will affect polar bears, the answer is simple – they die.” (Carlton 1)

I have all the print out of the websites I have used for information; I just need to add the proper stations to the paper.