Student Thoughts: Sea ice loss could mean the death of polar bears

Ana Barrios / Contributing Writer

opinion@fiusm.com

As global warming causes temperatures to increase, bringing about unbearable heat here in Miami, polar bears in cold climate areas are struggling to survive.

Recent studies show that polar bears do not have the metabolism to adapt to a warming world. Polar bears depend on ever-melting sea ice for denning; female polar bears create dens during the fall in order to give birth, then emerge in spring once their newborn cubs are strong enough to trek upon the sea ice.

Polar bears also depend on the sea ice for hunting, as it gives access to their main food source: seals. However, because sea ice is melting, many bears enter a state called “walking hibernation.”

Walking hibernation is a state polar bears undertake during the summer and fall when they can’t access food without lowering their body temperature. As a result, this causes their metabolism to slow. Without the proper diet, polar bears lose their strength if they do not receive the daily calorie intake they need to survive the Arctic cold during the winter.

Low metabolism risks a polar bear’s ability to resist the cold. As temperatures decrease during the winter, the bears don’t have the strength to survive due to starvation and not being able to store up enough fat reserves to keep warm.

With sea ice melting and cutting off entry in being able to hunt, some polar bears have no choice but to take dire yet grotesque measures: eat each other.

Having no way of hunting prey and suffering from starvation while waiting to see if any food would come to them, some polar bears have turned toward cannibalism: one of them will live while the other ends up being dinner.

If the ice loss isn’t resolved, the bears may perhaps be lead in eating their own young and directing their own population toward extinction where future generations of humans might not see a single polar bear. This is one of the reasons why the polar bear population is decreasing which has caused it to be under a vulnerable state for polar bears are a threatened species.

Sea ice loss also affects polar bears by forcing them to swim longer distances as they struggle to find land; they would be burning too much energy and thus get tired easily in which they could drown. The average distance a polar bear can swim is 155 kilometers, according to researchers who performed a study on polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea off Alaska.

It is hard for bears to find land – crumbling ice does not provide enough stability under a bear’s weight. No ice means polar bears have no choice but to keep swimming until they can find land, increasing the risk of drowning.

For the purpose of helping polar bears from sea ice losses, a solution suggested by a number of people is the implementation of floating platforms.

Floating platforms can keep polar bears from drowning by providing stability and a place to rest. Unfortunately, rafts are not a viable solution, since it won’t solve their hunting dilemma. The rafts would not provide polar bears a chance to catch prey, but simply block them from gathering food.

Polar bears also rely on the ice for breeding and denning.  Sea ice is important not only to provide a way for polar bears to obtain food but also is an integral part of the Arctic ecosystem. Within the ice, salt generates bubbles which allow microorganisms to grow – they play a significant role in the arctic food chain. So, floating platforms are not a good idea to use in saving the bears for they would block them from retrieving the necessary nutrients they need to live.

Each day that passes by, a polar bear suffers because of the burning of fossil fuel. With the melting of sea ice comes the risk of sea levels rising and polar bears dying from hunger and drowning. If carbon emissions aren’t reduced, the polar bears will cease to exist by the end of the century.

To give polar bears a future, we should be a part of saving our planet and find ways in becoming green so they can be protected. The life of a polar bear depends on us changing our ways.