The fate of polar bears in a warmer world is unclear. They are in a grey area.
The answer is to teach them to live on the arctic mainland, in addition to reducing the causes and exacerbation of changes in habitat.
We can't float synthetic icebergs because we're going to need those water passages for shipping routes; not just for commerce but for disaster recovery. Natural disasters are increasing in frequency and if we want to provide aide, we need increased avenues for global supply.
Luckily, bears are naturally becoming more terrestrial in the summer. Now some are swimming to shore in the summer when areas of ice have disappeared.
Do polar bears really need ice to survive? Or can they emulate brown bears and hunt on land?
Polar bears are known to eat a varied diet including: walrus, white whales, narwhals, and harp seals, small mammals, bird eggs, sea weed, grass, and other vegetation, although these food sources are less common.
Just today the news said bears in the Southeast, mostly Sitka, woke up out of hibernation due to warm weather. They had a snack, and are expected to go back to sleep. Bears are changeable; probably why they made it to top predator status.
How could we live together if we “invited” them to land? Polar bears are curious animals and will investigate human settlements and gar-bage. They have been known to eat crazy things like: plastic bags, styrofoam, car batteries, ethylene glycol, and hydraulic fluid.
Would they kill our pets, livestock, and first born children? Maybe.
Different Arctic nations treat Polar bears differently. They are protected in Canada and the United States. In Canada, polar bears are legally hunted. Seasons, protected categories, and quotas apply. In Alaska, polar bear hunting is not legal, but native people may kill animals for subsistence. In Russia and Svalbard, polar bears are completely protected. In Greenland, polar bears are legally harvested by Inuk hunters.
What do you think?
The ides is grandiose, with a possibly workable taste to it. Has something like this (on any scale) been accomplished with measurable and testable results?
ReplyDeleteWould need to pull a "team" together to determine the wisdom of such an endeavor, and the logistics of its manifestation as practical protective reality.