Global Warming: The effects on Polar Bears

February 23, 2009  
Filed under Random

Global warming is a big topic for discussion in today’s world.  If you don’t know what global warming is, it is “[…] the gradual increase in the temperature of earth” (Morris 4).  There are many things that have caused the dramatic changes in climate, “[…]experts think that the rise in temperature in recent times has been influenced or even caused by human activities, especially in the late 20^th and early 21st century” (Morris 5).  

       There are many things affected by global warming, including the arctic region.  With all of the ice in the Arctic, “[…]as the earth warms up, the ice melts becoming thinner in some places and disappearing altogether in others” (Morris 8).  Many animals will be affected by global warming, but the polar bears will especially affected.  Polar bears only live in the arctic, and global warming is almost destroying this region.  “Polar bears feed mainly on seals[…]They hunt seals by looking for holes in the ice where seals come up for air.  When the packed ice breaks up, polar bears swim to floating islands of ice and pounce on seals resting there” (Morris 11).  Polar bears will be greatly affected if global warming continues to melt the ice that the polar bears need to live.  “If the ice continues to melt at the current rates, polar bears may have to change their ways to survive.  If the world warmed up so much that the arctic ice completely melts, polar bears could become extinct within one hundred years” (Morris 11).  If global warming continues, and we do not do anything about it, the polar bears will be the next animal extinct due to global warming.

 Information gathered from: Morris, Neil. What if we do Nothing? Global Warming.
            Milwaukee: World Almanac Library, 2007.

-Amber Ray