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Polar bears, the world’s largest land predators and the largest of the 8 bear species, are under pressure due to the impact of global warming on their Arctic habitat and also oil exploration. It is estimated that there are about 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears in the wild today, about 60% in Canada.

Since it has been projected that by the middle of this century we will no longer have year-round Arctic sea ice, the polar bear may disappear from the wild. Climate change and thinning has already reduced, by a couple weeks, the time mother polar bears have to feed and build the fat that sustains them and feeds their young.

Many scientists believe that the rapid rate of climate change (global warming) underway in the Arctic will produce reverberating effects. In addition to possible changes in ocean and atmospheric circulation patterns, impact on the polar bear is likely to be more immediate and can already be seen in a thinning of the weight of polar bears and also in the birth and survival rate of the cubs.

Highly vulnerable to disturbances, oil exploration impacts denning bears in a number of ways. For instance, when oil exploration equipment drives too close to the dens, it sends shock waves through the ground as it searches for oil and gas reserves, making the polar bear mother abandon her den and her cubs. Since the cubs can’t leave the den until they’re three months old, if abandoned, they’ll die.

At least 1 bear has died from ingesting a toxic substance, due to the chronic release of contaminants from petroleum exploration, production and support activities in existing oil fields on Alaska’s North Slope. That’s 1 bear too many!

Although most Americans agree that there is not enough oil in the Arctic Refuge to be worth the loss of this place, its people and its wildlife, unfortunately the battle to protect the Arctic continues.

As more people move to the area, they inevitably create garbage and, of course, some polar bears will move in too closely when looking for food, and be killed.

The combination of pollution swirling to the Far North from sources thousands of miles away, along with oil development and global warming, could impact not only the polar bear community but also the entire ecosystem.