1,000 WORDS
“ Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter ”
Martin Luther King , Jr .
POLAR BEARS HAVE become the poster child for the harrowing impacts of climate change . Polar bears ’ primary habitat is sea ice ; they need it to hunt , breed , travel , and make their dens .
According to IUCN ’ s Red List of Endangered Species , polar bears are vulnerable . It is estimated that there are only around 26,000 , though accurate information on their populations is hard to gather – they live in some of the most remote , inaccessible , and fragile areas of our planet .
Polar bears feed on seals that live at the edges of the sea ice , and should get at least two-thirds of the energy they need for the whole year , in late spring and early summer .
Less sea ice means less of an opportunity to find prey . With the ice forming later and retreating earlier , this window is getting ever smaller , leaving the bears with less time to hunt .
As sea ice in the Arctic retreats year after year , the future for polar bears looks bleak .
Ole Jorgen Liodden / Nature Picture Library