Dead Polar Bears Floating in the Ocean

Of all the stories I've read about the effects of global warming, Jane Kay's article for the San Francisco Chronicle on polar bears near Barter Island in the Beaufort Sea is the most moving and devastating (see "Polar Warning a World Warming: The Difference a Degree Makes"). I was literally brought to tears as I read this piece. I hope you will be too.

There are 22,000 of these amazing, noble beasts worldwide and 1900 reside in the southern Beaufort Sea. They live almost their entire lives on the ice. But that ice is breaking up more and more during the summer due to "Arctic melt," and forming later and later in the season. Polar bears live 95% of their lives on floating ice bergs. But with the ice breaking up, bears are forced sometimes to swim to the mainland where they effectively fast or wait for handouts of whale blubber until the ice builds up again.

At one point in her article, Ms. Kay writes: "In aerial surveys to count bowhead whales, the federal Minerals Management Service reported seeing four drowned polar bears floating in open water in 2004, apparently fatigued while trying to swim in high winds. They were seen in areas where the ice was between 125 miles and 185 miles from land. Many more bears may have drowned than they happened to spot."

Ms. Kay's article and all of the supplemental material at the San Francisco Chronicle's web page are well worth the time. The amazing photographs by Kat Wade are astounding as well. And Ms. Kay's online commentary can be listened to with QuickTime. Life is so heart-breakingly beautiful...

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