Climate Change Pushes Polar Bears Towards Extinction, Study Finds

The majority of polar bears will likely disappear by the end of the century if greenhouse gas emissions are not curbed, according to a new study published Monday.
While scientists have long known polar bears are threatened by global heating, this latest study published in Nature Climate Change is the first to identify when and where the bears will disappear.
Polar bears rely on sea ice to hunt for seals. But as temperatures rise and sea ice disappears, so do hunting opportunities for polar bears.
“The dire predictions in our study result from polar bear’s dependence on sea ice and the projected rapid loss of that ice due to human-driven climate change,” says Marika Holland, co-author of the paper.

The study found that declining sea ice has already pushed some polar bear populations to their survival limit. If greenhouse gas emissions stay on their current track, only polar bears living in the Queen Elizabeth Islands in Canada’s Arctic Archipelago will remain by the end of the century. But even if emissions are curbed, sea ice will continue to melt in the coming years as a result of the current levels of carbon in the atmosphere, leading to a decline of polar bears, particularly in southern Arctic regions.

Sylvain Cordier
The study—which looked at 13 of the world’s 19 polar bear subpopulations that account for 80% of the total population—modelled the energy use of polar bears. The study estimated the number of days the bears can fast...

Source: TIME: Science - July 21, 2020 Category: Science Authors: Mélissa Godin Tags: Uncategorized Londontime photography Source Type: news