Polar Bears’ Path to Decline Runs Through Alaskan Village

Goode, Erica. "Polar Bears’ Path to Decline Runs Through Alaskan Village." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Dec. 2016. Web. 22 Dec. 2016.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/18/science/polar-bears-global-warming.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront

The article I chose to review was about how as the ice is thinning and melting in different places in the world, polar bears are suffering. The article looked especially at Kaktovik, Alaska, where polar bears are starting to appear in the cities. Few scientists dispute that in the long run polar bears are in major trouble because of global warming and experts have even predicted that the number of polar bears will decrease with continued sea ice loss. A 2015 assessment for the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List projected a reduction of over 30 percent in the number of polar bears by 2050, however, polar bears continue to remain listed as only “vulnerable,” rather than be moved up to a more endangered category. The main indicator that the loss of sea ice is hurting the polar bear is that instead of staying on the the ice year-round they are coming onto land longer, for example, this year they arrived in August and stayed into November, which is an average of 56 days compared with an average of 20 days two decades ago. A man from Kaktovik stated, “They never used to come into town, or maybe occasionally, like once a year or so,” Mr. Thompson said. “Now they’re in town every night.” Other subtle indicators that scientists have found that shows the species is at an increasing risk are the changes in the bears’ physical condition, body size, reproduction and survival rates. The reason for this increasing risk is that before, the sea ice gave the polar bears ready access to seals, the staple of their high-fat diet. But as the climate has warmed, the spring thaw comes earlier and the fall freezes later. The edge of the pack ice is now over deep water, where seals are few and far between and the distance to land is a long swim, even for a polar bear. James Wilder, an expert who recently completed a study of polar bear attacks on humans stated, “When polar bears are fat and happy and in good condition, they’re not that big of a threat. But when they get skinny and nutritionally stressed, you’ve got to watch out.” Some researchers think that finding a different food source other than seals might resolve this problem of polar bears coming into town. Some scientists have suggested that the bears might learn to survive on other types of food ,snow geese, or that they might learn to catch seals in the water, without relying on the ice as a platform. However, most researchers think this is unlikely. Such changes usually evolve over thousands of year, but the loss of sea ice is taking place over a very rapid time frame so there may not be a lot of time in polar bear generations to evolve in some behaviors that could give them some advantage.

This information about how global warming has become very dangerous for polar bears is very important as it shows and educates the world of the terrible consequences of our actions. I knew that global warming was making the ice melt and thus hurting polar bears, however, I had no idea that it was also hurting humans. This article opened my eyes to this increasing problem. Polar bears have no food, thus they come to where they smell food, towns. This has caused some problems to the people living in these towns as polar bears are hungry. On the whole, this article demonstrates how careful we have to be in our actions so that they don’t come back to hurt us.

Overall this article was well written and interesting. The author had a thorough explanation and details of the consequences of the loss of ice. In addition, a great asset to her article were the numerous quotes and reference to various scientists and researchers she put in. These gave the readers more detailed and informative opinions and showed how this problem concerns many. However, one weakness of the article is that it failed to take this problem out of the small town of Alaska. Since she failed to do this I find it is easier for readers to think of the problem as less important than others. To make this article better I would added a paragraph that talks about other towns, possibly all over the world. On the whole, this article taught me about something I had no idea about and helped me gain a new perspective on the consequences of our actions.