Effects of Global Warming

Some are left in the ocean trying to find ice and subsequently end up drowning. Another study found Polar Bears International reported that in the summer of 2012 loss of sea ice was at the lowest and broke all previous records. As a result of ice loss, female polar bears are pushed to their limits and have no other choice than to den on land rather than their natural habitat on ice. This leads to different food for polar bears to prey on. Climate change is already a big factor for diminishing polar bears, but another huge cause is gas and oil activities in their own habitat.

Polar bears are strong swimmers but these long swims can be fatal. A tracker on a mother polar bear showed that she and her cub had to swim 427 miles to reach the ice. The cub died during the swim (McGrath). The ice melting is also causing the polar bears to become skinnier. Polar bears losing weight is caused because of the long swims they have to make to reach the ice.

The melting ice reduces the number of seals and food intake of polar bears. In addition, polar bears are used to living in ice caves. The rising temperature causes the collapse of ice caves, which can kill baby bears. The climate change is negatively affecting the biodiversity in the region and will definitely harm the ecosystem

With the gap increasing, the conditions of the water have become hazardous for the Polar bears, making it harder for them to journey across. “A female polar bear reportedly swam for nine days - nonstop-across the Beaufort Sea before reaching an ice floe, costing her 22 percent of her weight and her cub” (PolarBearsInternational, n.d.). Nine days –nonstop is too much swimming for a Polar Bear, and in no way good for her health. In the process of swimming for those nine days she lost almost 1/4th of her body weight, which won’t be easy for her to gain back, and her cub. According to

Scientists have discovered that animals the live at the North Pole have recently became in grave danger. Mostly the polar bear because of the ice caps are melting giving it less land to live on (NRDC, 2008). If we do not do to slow down global warming, this marvelous bear will only be found in zoos by 2050 (NRDC, 2008). The hot dry weather will lead to other disasters like wild fires (Dye, 2013). The record was broke in 2006 with the total close to 100,000 wild fires destroying almost ten million acres (Dye, 2013).

Conclusion Global warming, pollution and humans’ indirect but huge impact to these effects destroy animal population: especially the polar bears. Polar bears may become extinct in the future, but if we make an effort now, then we can prevent that. Why destroy the environment and destroy a whole animal race for our regular human habitats. We are no different than criminals in jail and we are murders as well. Humans should make global warming a priority and execute ideas and plans to solve the destruction waiting to happen on the polar bears.

With rapid global warming and climate change, one-fourth of the earth’s species could be headed for extinction by 2050 (Nature Conservancy, 2010). Riebeek (2010) explains that global warming is the rapid increase in the earth’s average surface temperature over the past century and is primarily due to the increase in greenhouse gases within the earth’s atmosphere. This current cycle of global warming is changing the rhythms of the climate that all living things have come to rely upon. Currently, these changes are having the most visible and significant impacts to the Polar Regions. Marine and terrestrial fauna at the earth’s polar regions are negatively impacted by global climate change due to the increase in temperatures most of which are now listed as endangered species due to the destruction of their habitat and alteration of their food web.

However, in the same year a wolf disease was introduced to the island accidentally by humans, canine parvovirus, causing the population to drop and reach 14 wolves in 1982. Then in Case Study #3 another disturbance took an effect on the wolf population. In 1998, a new wolf that wandered from an ice bridge to Isle Royale was introduced to the local wolves. The new wolf, no.93, made itself at home and started breeding with other wolves resulting in many births and increased the population to 29 wolves. Unfortunately, the lack of food caused the population to drop down again to 17 in 2003.

Many animals in the wild cannot adapt to the quick change in temperature resulting in the decrease of wild life. For example in Antartica the ice is melting dramatically which leads to the penguins to die out because they cannot live without the cold ice “(Global Warming Interactive)”. This being the ice is also the habitat for the living penguins so when there is no place to live the penguins have no chance to reproduce to keep the population alive. With all the ice melting natural disasters are more likely to occur. For example floods are going to increase due to the sea level rising from the melted ice.

Humans will not be able to survive the results of human activities due to land degradation, lack of water management skills, pollution, and increasing carbon footprints. In 1750, a revolution started globally. This revolution was called the Industrial Revolution; it changed agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation & technology forever. It has even changed lives economically and culturally, but most importantly, the great effects it has on the environment. “A glacier in the high Andes 5,200 meters above capital, Lima, where one of the main water supplying glaciers has shrunk by more than a kilometer over the last decade...Eskimo villagers are going hungry because global warming has changed the migration patterns of seals and walruses, an important part of the Eskimo diet,” (Humanity’s Future.