Act for Our Future

At first glance, the majestic polar bear seems to have little in common with the diminutive canary. The polar bear is at the apex of the Arctic food chain and an iconic symbol of life’s amazing ability to adapt to even the harshest of conditions. Yet large carnivores are also sensitive indicators of ecosystem health and, in the polar bear’s case, dependence on sea ice makes it extremely vulnerable to climate change. The polar bear, in a key sense, is the Arctic equivalent of the proverbial canary in the coal mine: What happens to it is a warning of what could happen to much of the Arctic marine system if we let climate change continue unchecked.

Dramatic climate change impacts already are evident in the Arctic and more are predicted as sea ice melts at an unprecedented rate.  Over the past 30 years, the extent of the area covered by late summer sea ice has been shrinking at the rate of 11.2 percent  per decade, while its thickness has been thinning at  an even faster rate. This spells real trouble for polar bears who need sea ice to access their food and to move from their hunting grounds to their summer denning and resting areas.

Worse, climate change is causing Arctic sea ice to melt earlier and reform later, shortening the time the bears have on the ice to hunt and store the fat reserves they will need for the summer and autumn. The effects of this already are becoming apparent in Canada’s Hudson Bay and James Bay, where polar bear populations have declined by 25 percent over the last 25 years.

The loss of sea ice habitat in the Arctic due to climate change is by far the most important factor potentially affecting the future survival of polar bears.

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