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Take Action to Save Polar Bears
Help Save Polar Bears - Deadline is April 9th
Global warming poses a serious threat to polar bears. Polar bears are completely dependent on Arctic sea ice to survive, but 80 percent of that ice could be gone in 20 years and all of it by 2040. Polar bears are already suffering the effects: birth rates are falling, fewer cubs are surviving, and more bears are drowning. You can make a difference! The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has proposed listing the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The public comment period ends April 9.
Fill out the form below to urge officials in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act before it's too late.
Dear [ Decision Maker ] , The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requested public comment regarding its proposal to protect the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. As a member of the public deeply concerned about the growing impacts of global warming on our environment, I am writing to express my strong support for that proposal. Global warming poses a serious threat to these and other arctic animals. The alarming loss of ice due to global warming in the Arctic Ocean harms bears by forcing them to swim long distances to hunt. Increasingly polar bears are found drowned, starving, or underweight. Scientists make the dire prediction that we could lose this stately and unique animal as soon as the end of this century unless we put the brakes on global warming pollution and stabilize sea ice decline. As a nation, we must decrease our reliance on the dirty energy sources that cause global warming. Otherwise, the polar ice caps will continue to melt away. Some analysts believe the arctic icecap could totally disappear by the year 2050, which will be a catastrophe for polar bears and many other animals, including humans. To prevent the polar bear from becoming extinct, immediate action is needed to stop the global warming that is destroying its only habitat. For this reason, I urge the Fish and Wildlife Service to immediately list the polar bear as threatened or endangered and take every possible action to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that put this species, and many others, at imminent risk of extinction.
Sincerely, |
Campaign Launched: |
| Background Information |
Polar bears live only in the Arctic and are totally dependent on the sea ice. A growing body of evidence shows that the Arctic ice is vanishing much faster than previously expected. The thick multi-year ice has been shrinking 8 to 10 percent per decade, with some climate models predicting that the Arctic could be ice-free in summer as early as 2050.
Polar bears in western Hudson Bay are already showing signs of decline as a result of sea ice breaking up three weeks earlier than in past decades. As a result, polar bears spend an extra month onshore fasting before they can return to the ice in the fall in search of prey. The Hudson Bay population of polar bears has already dropped approximately 14 percent in 10 years, from 1,100 in 1995 to fewer than 950 in 2004.
Polar bears in the United States are also showing the effects of global warming. A recent report by the U.S. Minerals Management service revealed that polar bear drownings, once a rare event in Alaska, are now taking place with greater frequency due to the bears being forced to swim longer distances. Indeed, a new record was established in September of 2005 for the lowest Arctic sea ice extent since satellite monitoring began in the late 1970s.
Global warming is caused by heat-trapping pollution such as carbon dioxide emissions from cars and trucks, power plants, and other sources that accumulate in the atmosphere and prevent the sun’s heat from escaping. The United States is the world’s largest contributor of those emissions.
