For International Polar Bear Day, we took a stroll down memory lane to revisit some of the incredible moments where polar bears have helped us create change across the globe.
Increased temperatures due to global warming have combined to create news of three separate climate disasters in different parts of North America. But while news of these disasters emerged in the past week, several states and Google announced major new investments in the clean energy technology necessary to solve the climate crisis and prevent even worse global warming. Meanwhile, President Bush and Congress were touting false solutions, like offshore oil drilling, that will only accelerate the climate crisis.
As world leaders meet in Scotland to discuss issues such as global warming, Greenpeace, Center for Biological Diversity and National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a petition today with the Department of Interior calling for further protection of the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. At the same time, Greenpeace sent a message directly to world leaders from Greenland, where its ship the Arctic Sunrise is documenting global warming evidence with a charcoal drawing of a U.S. flag, a polar bear and the words "Save Me" on an ice floe. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment has projected the polar bear could be extinct by the end of the century due to global warming.
A United States Geological Service (USGS) report released today concluding that two-thirds of the world's polar bears will disappear by the middle of this century underscores the urgent need for a reduction in greenhouse gas pollution said the Center for Biological Diversity and Greenpeace. The report also found that polar bears will also disappear entirely from Alaska during this same time period. The study is based on “middle of the road” climate projections, which do not account for the more rapid rate of warming actually observed and, therefore, the projected polar bear losses may be conservative.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that it is opening the formal process to list polar bears as officially ‘threatened’ due to the unprecedented meltdown of their sea-ice habitat caused by global warming. The finding comes in response to a December lawsuit filed under the federal Endangered Species Act by three conservation groups.
With Arctic sea ice at near record lows, Greenpeace today unveiled a collaborative art project with well-known street artist Mark Jenkins to highlight the shared plight of polar bears and humanity in the face of global warming.
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