Polar bears are dependent on something that is melting away on our warming planet which is ice sea. They are majestic but are at a risk of disappearing from our planet.
Frigid cold is not just a way of life in the Arctic but it is a necessity for polar bears to survive. But in the crucial summertime their home is melting away.
Scientists have marked polar bears as a “threatened” species on their list.
How is sea ice?
During the summer, when it gets warmer, Arctic Sea ice shrinks in the ocean. In winter it forms again. But how much the ice is shrinking is where the role of global warming is vital. Scientists say, how much the ice is shrinking in the summer implies how thinner the overall ice is.
Netizens has also asked questions such as when the Arctic will “look like a blue ocean”? Scientists has answered that it will most likely happen in the 2030s or maybe in 2040s and definitely by 2050s.
What is “Arctic amplification”?
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as any other part in the world. In some seasons, it has warmed three times faster than any other parts of the Earth. Scientists has emphasized on something known as “Arctic amplification.”
The white ice of the Arctic reflects heat and when the ice melts, the dark sea absorbs much more heat. This absorbed heat is the reason behind the ocean gets warm too quickly.
Connection with polar bear
There are 19 different subpopulations of polar bear is present in the Arctic who are different than one another. But the southernmost polar bears are really in trouble.
Scientists have commented that shrinking sea ice literally manes shrinking polar bears.
Polar bears go out to hunt and eat and put on weight, in the summertime, to sustain them through winter. Polar bears prefer those places that are more than half covered with ice because there it is easier for them move around and they can hunt more food.
30 to 40 years ago, the bears used to feast on a buffet of seals and walrus. But with ice loss the bears are not doing so great. The situation is so bad that half of the cubs are dying before their first birthdays.
Polar bears are land mammals that have acquainted themselves with the sea and they eat seals and walruses which are aquatic. Bears can hunt best in shallow water which is close to the land.
But now, the sea has retreated far offshore in summers. This condition has forced bears to move in the ice to enter a mile deep water.
What is the future?
The scientists have said it clearly that the melting of the ice has already set in motion. But there is a chance which depends on our world leaders. It is up to them to take the right step to turn everything on the right side for the world to again see an Arctic with significant sea ice in the 22nd century.
