Environmental Ethics Artifact

In the article “Polar Bears Still on Thin Ice, but Cutting Greenhouse Gases Now Can Avert Extinction, Experts Say,” the possibility for the extinction of polar bears is discussed.  Polar bears can be saved however if the people of earth decide to be more responsible with how they treat the environment.  Scientists have found, “if humans reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly in the next decade or two, enough artic ice is likely to remain intact during late summer and early autumn for polar bears to survive.”  These steps should be taken so the environment is not harmed even more.  

Polar bears were listed as a threatened species in 2008 due to the fact if artic ice keeps decreasing at the rate it is going now, the polar bears will no longer be able to survive.  A new nature study has been made which indicates “if greenhouse gas emissions were reduced substantially in the near future, rapid ice losses would be followed by substantial retention of the remaining ice through this century, as well as partial recovery of the ice that disappeared during the rapid ice loss.”  Polar bears need the ice because that is where they find their source of food, seals.  If polar bears are unable to be on the ice and find seals, they will lose about two pounds a day, causing them to eventually die.