Saving the Polar Bears

[netmouse]

I just got a letter from the NRDC telling me what is by now an all-too-familiar story: Polar Bears are drowning for lack of ice to rest on, starving for lack of ice to hunt on. Cubs die in dens that collapse from unusual rain and insufficient cold to keep the tundra sturdy.

The answer, we are assured by Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, and the NRDC, is to make sure the government extends to polar bears every legal protection they can, and prevent Evil Oil People in Alaska from further eliminating the polar bear habitat, and furthermore we need to try to stop global warming.

But wait, I say, if the problem is that they need floating ice (and some people say this is increasingly our problem too, since ice melt speeds global warming by reducing the reflectivity of the planet), why are we aiming tons of effort at the human legal system? That's not going to save the drowning, starving bears, or protect their poor cubs.

Protecting Polar Bears as an endangered species will keep trophy hunters from shooting them, yes, and may help preserve their habitat.

But what we really need to do is figure out how to manufacture floating ice. Or some usable simile of floating ice that has similar temperature, reflectivity, and usability for both Polar bears and their prey, and that we can maintain in their habitat for the period they need over the course of the year. Probably we could do something clever tapping into underwater temperature differentials to cool the "ice" without having to burn fuel or anything stupid like that. And human-manufactured ice could be designed never to freeze in over the heads of drowning polar bears and dolphins.

While we're at it, we could also manufacture some reusable dens along the shore that won't collapse on those poor cubs.

Call on your government, scientists, and science fiction writers to work on that idea, I say, and we might have a chance of saving the polar bears sometime in this century.

Comments

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

From the link you gave me, "What we’re seeing this year is an aberration compared to the long-term trend," stresses Polar Bears International President, Robert Buchanan, who has been working with polar bears for nearly 20 years, "but essentially the late break-up of ice this year on Hudson Bay means the polar bears, which rely on sea ice to live, have been given more time during spring and summer to hunt and eat seals, and this has allowed them to gain important weight to live off of until freeze-up."

Of course, Polar Bear International is one of the sites I referenced before. I wonder if the "plenty of ice" and "late break-up" situation was in place around the glob and not just local to that population.

[cathshaffer.livejournal.com]

I think it's pretty natural that PBI would interpret this in the context of their viewpoint and long term goals--and they may be right. But it's arguable which years are the abberation and which are the norm.

My understanding of the polar bear yearly cycle is that they spend the winter hunting on the sea ice, catching seals through their breathing holes. Then when the ice breaks up, they retire to land and fast for 5-6 months. So the extent of the summer sea ice or the presence of sea ice in the summer is not as crucial as the length of that fasting period. If it becomes too long, due to early break up or late freeze up, the polar bears will suffer.

You have a good point that much of the discussion about polar bears focuses on the politics of climate change, and that practical solutions seem to be uncommon. Since they need not just floating chunks of sea ice to hunt, but a solidly frozen expanse of ice, I think it would be hard to manufacture ice. What may be possible is to identify areas of the arctic that continue to freeze and thaw on schedule and to relocate vulnerable populations there. I have also seen it suggested that polar bear preserves could be created in antarctica. That sounds like a BAD idea to me--take a huge, deadly predator and plop it down next door to, say, penguins...hmmm...

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

You mean penguins *aren't* all special forces Ninjas like in Madagascar? ;)

[cathshaffer.livejournal.com]

Penguins is practically chickens!