Every phenomenon or historical event has a symbol or visual representation.
The most symbolic and recognizable face for global climate change are the polar bears, especially images of them starving and struggling for their survival.
A new study that was published on the Nature Climate Change warns that should the status quo of greenhouse gas emission does not change, polar bears will essentially go extinct by the end of this century.
The researchers say that they believe the critical window for survival has already closed for the populations in certain areas where the polar ice simply does not freeze enough for the bears to hunt. With no firm ice, the bears can’t hunt down the seals that provide them vital energy.
At the same time, the same study suggests that even small but meaningful reductions in gas emissions might be sufficient to ensure that polar bears in some parts of the Arctic do not go extinct.
For the largest predators on land, long stretches of famine is a natural one. Most polar bears accumulate nearly all the nutrients that they need for survival during winter when they hunt down the seals on polar ice caps.
However, rapid climate change meant that the ice caps either formed too late and melted earlier or even failed to form in some cases. This means that the window for the bears to hunt down their seals have drastically reduced – meaning that they are forced to starve longer periods.
While the specific effect of these long starves have on reproduction varies from the different populations, researchers observed that the cubs are uniformly the first and greatest victims of these fasts.
Thus, to ensure the future for the bears, the study urges that humans reduce gas emissions so that the polar ice caps can form like they used to. If no changes are made, researchers believe that most bears except those in the remotest area will likely not survive until 2100.
The researchers emphasized that the main finding of the study was to tell everyone that the fate of these creatures are in our hands. Peter K. Molnar, one of the authors, said that there is still some hope as long as people begin to act out.
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Replaced!