Anyone who has been following the environmental changes in the Arctic, particularly the melting of the arctic ice shelf, will know that a lot of the public and media attention has been focused on the arctic polar bear and what the melting ice means to their survival. As the ice melts, the bears are losing their habitat and there is concern that the eventual lose of the arctic ice cap will mean extinction for these animals.

Jim Prentice, Canada’s Environmental Minister has announced that he will be convening a round table on January 16^th to discuss the plight of the arctic polar bear and what can be done to protect them. Representatives from all Canadian territories and provinces have been invited to the Polar Bear Round table, along with scientist, members of the Inuit community, and wildlife management boards.

While there are currently several protection programs in place, Prentice feels that in order to protect the 15,000 Canadian polar bears, the effort needs to be more co-ordinated between all groups involved.

But Canada is not the only country currently tackling the issue of the survival of the arctic polar bear. A scientist at the San Diego Zoo is studying the polar bears in an effort to figure out what can be done to save them.

Joanne Simerson, a Senior Animal Keeper at the San Diego Zoo, spoke to KFMB-TV from Hudson Bay, Churchill Manitoba:

“The greatest threat right now to polar bears is global warming. Polar bears rely on sea ice and as the sea ice declines, that means that the polar bears will also decline. Scientists say if current warming trends continue in the arctic, two-thirds of the world’s polar bears could disappear by 2050. .. The polar bear relies entirely on it’s main food source of the ring seal. The ring seal uses the sea ice to birth to rest, to live on. So as that ice reduces, so does the amount of food the polar bear can get. Most importantly, the access that the bear has – they do not swim in the water for seals, it’s leaning on the ice and using it as their hunting platform.”

This past May the U.S. Department of the Interior placed the polar bear on its threatened list. The USGS (United States Geological Survey) is predicting that due to global warming most of the polar bears will be gone within the next 50 years.