Issues

1. Environmental Threats

1989, Exxon Valdez conclude around 
11 million gallons of crude oil causing 
deaths to many marine animals

a. Oil spills from drilling platforms or tankers potentially threaten polar bears.

• A polar bear's fur loses its insulating properties when covered with oil.
• Oil spills could diminish or contaminate polar bear food sources.

b. The presence of toxic chemicals in polar bears may have long-term effects on their health and longevity.

• Toxic chemicals from worldwide industrial activities are carried to the Arctic by air, rivers, and oceans.
• Arctic animals in higher food chain levels concentrate greater amounts of toxic chemicals in their tissues than those below them. Polar bears, at the top of the food chain, develop the highest concentrations of all.
• Human-made toxic chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), and chlordanes are present in the Arctic. These chemicals have been found in significantly high levels in the tissues of polar bears.
• Scientists continue to monitor the levels of toxic chemicals in polar bears to determine their long-term effects.

c. Radionuclide, from nuclear waste dumping in the Russian Arctic, may have detrimental effects on polar bears, and the Arctic ecosystem as a whole.

Human Interactions (hunting polar bear)

2006, Svalbard- A polar bear recently been 
shots by human when it's hunting for food 

a. Polar bears have been hunted for thousands of years.

• Evidence of human polar bear hunts have been found in 2,500- to 3,000-year-old ruins. Arctic peoples have traditionally hunted polar bears for food, clothing, bedding, and religious purposes.
• Commercial hunting of polar bears for hides began as early as the 1500s and flourished by the 1700s.
• Kills increased substantially in the 1950s and 1960s when hunters began using snowmobiles, boats, and airplanes to hunt polar bears. Public concern about these hunting methods led to an international agreement in 1973 banning the use of aircraft or large motorized boats for polar bear hunts. 

b. Hunting is the greatest single cause of polar bear mortality.

• Today, polar bears are hunted by native Arctic populations primarily for food, clothing, handicrafts, and sale of skins. Polar bears are also killed in defense of people or property.
• Hunting is government-regulated in Canada, Greenland, and the United States. Hunting is currently banned in Norway and Russia.

Polar bear and global warming (climate change)

a sad fate due to Global Warming

• Global Warming is the phenomenon wherein the temperature of the Earth is increasing because of various factors and the result is diverse climactic changes all across the world and that is affecting the life of flora and fauna of all parts of the world. 
• The pollution is increasing everyday and the ways to cope with it are limited. As a result of which the effects and counter effects have started showing drastically.
• It is actually considered that the rise in temperature would lead to the acidification of ocean waters and also ozone layer depletion. 
• Being native to the Arctic, these animals are used to live on the ice and the sea and the melting of ice is taking away their habitat in a way. 
• Not only are they losing their habitat but also are also being exposed to starvation since these carnivorous animals mostly feed on seals, walruses and whales which are also disappearing with the change in climate. 
• As the ice floes are melting, most of the Polar bears are drowning and most of the time these bears drown because the ice caps retreat before their seasonal time to which the animals are not habituated. The drowning is not due to the fact that these polar bears cannot swim, they can actually swim for miles together but they are used to swimming between ice sheets and the absence of ice sheets make them susceptible. 
• The death rate of Polar Bears has increased manifold with rate of ice retreat being on a constant increase. The distance between survival and extinction is ever increasing for these Polar bears and that has also started showing statistically as the number of polar bears are decreasing. (Poushali Ganguly)