Blog Post 9

The debate of whether or not Polar bears are going extinct continues in the US and all over the world. This debate goes much deeper than what meets the eye. Although many people believe it simply from hearing it in early 2,000’s political arguments, others do and don’t have different beliefs on the fate of the bears from a stand point of climate change. Depending on the person’s viewpoint on climate change, it is likely that if they do not believe in it, they will most likely not believe the bears are going to go extinct. There is also the idea that if they are indeed going extinct, it is because of natural weather changes that the earth goes through, survival of the fittest if you will. It seems as though every different belief is backed up by completely different ideologies and types of people (for the most part). As I’ve continued to dig into this topic my view on the matter has stayed the same, that the bears are going extinct due to human caused climate change. I can clearly see that if we do not act on climate change issues in the very near future, the bears as we know them have no chance of survival. There is always the possibility of sub-species forming from the bears procreating with other bears species, such as grizzly bears, but a pure polar bear species continues to seem very unlikely. Either the bears are becoming extinct or they aren’t, so we have the options of finding the problem and fixing it, or allowing nature to run its course.

I’ll start off with those who believe the bears are going extinct based off of no merit. Many people I know will openly say that they do not keep up with the news or politics. When asked if they know anything about how the Polar bears are doing they say something along the lines of, “I know they’re endangered” and when asked if they know why, you get something like “They’re starving to death”. Of course, this is a slight generalization but most people are not educated on this extremely important topic. For people like this, the best solution is to get educated on the topic and then choose which side of the debate they agree with most. I can see how this topic could be easily overlooked since most of us don’t live near Polar bear habitats, but the planet is all unified and if one species goes, it will affect many others. The people that live in these areas will be affected in a multitude of different ways as well, such as bear sightings/attacks and instances of bears coming very close to people and their daily lives. Once more people begin to have an understanding of the situation and its seriousness, it is much more likely that actions will be taken at both the grassroots and government levels.

The next viewpoint on the Polar bear crisis is that there is simply no crisis at all. Not all species of bears have been monitored, so it is easy for people to say that we do not have enough information. The fact of the matter is that we have indeed studied enough species to know that there is a decline in the amount of bears in recent years than from years past. In certain areas there have been increases in the number of bears present but that is only mainly in one area, being Churchill. I believe those with this view see situations like this one as “out of sight, out of mind”. If it can’t be seen immediately, it must not be true. It doesn’t take much digging to see that science has shown that the bears are declining. This opens up the door to the idea that science only shares what they want us to think or know. Many who are skeptical of the government and scientists take on this idea. Some people think that they want to force us into believing certain things to gain control. As this may be true in some aspects, it doesn’t seem likely that the government would use the extinction of the Polar bear as a way to gain power.

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