Main image via polarbearsinternational.org + Business Insider
While most of our thoughts and efforts are currently on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our planet is still fighting its own battle, climate change.
Due to climate change and human activities, many animals are facing extinction and now, according to a new study, polar bears could be extinct in 80 years.
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Researchers have warned that if we do not take urgent action on climate change, polar bears could be wiped out by the end of the century.
Since the late 1970s, the Artic’s sea ice has been shrinking decade after decade at a rate of around 13%. Thanks to global warming, these areas that provide a natural and essential habitat to polar bears, seals, walruses and more, keep on melting.
As polar bears rely on the ice to hunt for seals, the carnivores are forced to travel longer distances or even onto shore to feed their young as the ice caps break up.
Since then, polar bears have been listed as vulnerable for extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)x
Dr Peter Molnar of the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, has dubbed them the ‘poster child for climate change… polar bears are already sitting at the top of the world; if the ice goes, they have no place to go,’ BBC News reports.
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Now, a new study published in Nature Climate Change has given an estimated the timeline of the polar bear’s endurance in the coming decades, looking at the impact of declining sea ice versus their capability to survive.
“What we’ve shown is that, first, we’ll lose the survival of cubs, so cubs will be born but the females won’t have enough body fat to produce milk to bring them along through the ice-free season,” explained Dr Steven Amstrup, a chief scientist of Polar Bears International who was involved in the study.
“Any of us know that we can only go without food for so long… that’s a biological reality for all species,” he added.
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The study shows that barely any polar bear populations will be left by 2100.
Some groups may have already reached their limits in various areas of the Arctic. The study notes that it it likely that several populations will vanish, and even moderate progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions will not help.
“Showing how imminent the threat is for different polar bear populations is another reminder that we must act now to head off the worst of future problems faced by us all,” Dr Steven continued.
“The trajectory we’re on now is not a good one, but if society gets its act together, we have time to save polar bears,” he said.
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All efforts to fight climate change won’t just help the polar bears, Dr Steven added. It “will benefit the rest of life on Earth, including ourselves.”
We must do all we can to fight climate change while we can!
Let’s work together to save the polar bears!
Info via UNILAD