Polar Bears on Death Row

Take a good look at this pic, we think polar bears are so cute and cuddly we use them in ads, but think again because polar bears might march off into history to become fiction and fantasy after the end of this century. New generations will come to think of polar bears in the same context as dinosaurs.

Thats right. And global warming is to blame. Global warming, as we all learnt in our youths, melts the polar ice caps, natural habitats of these polar bears. (not artifical refrigerated zoos) While I am concerned about the continual and relentless destruction of the polar ice caps, that alone did not make me blog this article.

End of this century might be 94 years away, but its a very short time compared to how short a time humans have since embarked on Industrialization. If we talk about sustainability, our human lifestyle on Earth is highly unsustainable if we keep hearing about fellow animal and plant species getting endangered or dying off all the time. Soon, it might be us.

Here's a pic below of polar bears in happier days in the past. Not anymore.

One word: CANNIBALISM

CNN reports that the latest threat to polar bears might just be themselves. Global warming's greatest impact is not limited to just the physical landscape but also the ecological food chain. With the decimation of the preys of polar bears and the increasing difficulty of access to their food sources, polar bears' new source of food can only be themselves.

"Researchers discovered the first kill in January 2004. A male bear had pounced on a den, killed a female and dragged it 245 feet (75 meters) away, where it ate part of the carcass. Females are about half the size of males."In the face of the den's outer wall were deep impressions of where the predatory bear had pounded its forepaws to collapse the den roof, just as polar bears collapse the snow over ringed seal lairs," the paper said.

"From the tracks, it appeared that the predatory bear broke through the roof of the den, held the female in place while inflicting multiple bites to the head and neck. When the den collapsed, two cubs were buried, and suffocated, in the snow rubble."

Not so cute anymore, eh? Polar bears have become killers and they do not stop at killing females.

In April 2004, while following bear footprints on sea ice near Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, scientists discovered the partially eaten carcass of an adult female. Footprints indicated it had been with a cub. The male did not follow the cub, indicating it had killed for food instead of breeding.

A few days later, Canadian researchers found the remains of a yearling that had been stalked and killed by a predatory bear, the scientists said.

Yes, some friends of mine might not know me as an environmentalist, but I am. Because I believe that our damage to our environment is a direct impact of mankind's irresponsible actions. And such irresponsibility will bite us back eventually and threaten our existence on Earth.

My Message: Humanitarianism

The disruption of mankind on the natural order of our world is a dangerous omen. Cannibalism is as unnatural as it gets. Do your part to lessen global warming. And as we march off college campuses to become captains of industry, academia or society, let us cultivate a sense of environmentalism, or more fundamentally, a sense of humanitarianism.

Because the environment sustains us humans.