Next 50 years may be last for polar bears
Published: Sept. 8, 2007 at 5:18 PM
WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Shrinking sea ice will eliminate nearly all of the world’s polar bear population in the next 50 years, U.S. government scientists predict.
The U.S. Geological Survey said Friday the two-thirds of all polar bears living in Alaska and Russia will likely die due to loss of summer sea-ice habitat, and only a tiny surviving population will remain on islands in the Canadian Arctic, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Furthermore, there is nothing humans can do to save the bears, the scientists estimate, because efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions and limit hunting and gas development cannot outweigh the effects of habitat loss.
The prediction was prepared as Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne is deciding whether to designate polar bears as a threatened species, the newspaper said.
Some conservationists criticized the defeatist language in the survey, saying it is not too late for difference-making efforts to save the bruins.
The U.S. Geological Survey said Friday the two-thirds of all polar bears living in Alaska and Russia will likely die due to loss of summer sea-ice habitat, and only a tiny surviving population will remain on islands in the Canadian Arctic, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Furthermore, there is nothing humans can do to save the bears, the scientists estimate, because efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions and limit hunting and gas development cannot outweigh the effects of habitat loss.
The prediction was prepared as Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne is deciding whether to designate polar bears as a threatened species, the newspaper said.
Some conservationists criticized the defeatist language in the survey, saying it is not too late for difference-making efforts to save the bruins.
© 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
In this image from NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft, Cyclone Nargis is pictured when it was a Category one hurricane located 370 miles west of Yangon, Myanmar on May 1, 2008. Tropical Cyclone Nargis flooded the region on May 4, 2008. The death toll from the cyclone and its aftermath is feared to hit or exceed 100,000 lives. (UPI Photo/NASA/MODIS Rapid Response Team)
NASA satellite images show Tropical Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar
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