Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 9 June 2017

Faster-moving sea ice forces polar bears to use more energy

DAN JOLING from the Paris agreement
Associated Press frightening but said private,
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) state and local efforts to
— Rapid global warming reduce carbon emissions
has sped up the move- and turn to renewable en-
ment of sea ice off Alas- ergy are a positive sign.
ka’s coasts, and already “There’s still a lot of hope,”
at-risk polar bears are she said.
paying a price, a new U.S. The political moves come
study says. as the Geological Survey
Most sea ice moves and University of Wyoming
throughout the year and study documented how
the iconic white bears are polar bears use more ener-
on a perpetual walk to gy to stay within their home
stay within their preferred range.
habitat, said U.S. Geologi- Researchers made a con-
cal Survey research ecolo- servative estimate that
gist George Durner, lead bears will have to kill one
author of the study. to three more seals a year
He compares it to living on to compensate for faster-
a treadmill that has picked moving ice, a challenge
up speed because ice is for bears already facing
thinner, more brittle and fewer hunting opportuni-
moving faster because of ties. Durner compared their
wind and ocean currents. plight to people living in a
“Increased sea ice drift town hit by both inflation
rates likely exacerbate the In this April 8, 2011, photo provided by the U.S. Geological Survey, a polar bear walks across and rising unemployment.
physiological stress due to rubble ice in the Alaska portion of the southern Beaufort Sea. “For the polar bear, the
reduced foraging oppor- Associated Press Arctic is becoming more
tunity already experienced threatened under the En- However, the government disadvantaged the U.S. expensive to live in,” he
by many polar bears in the dangered Species Act in said the act would not be “to the exclusive benefit of said.
warming Arctic, adding 2008 amid the alarming used to regulate green- other countries,” leaving Polar bears can go for ex-
yet another ‘straw to the loss of summer sea ice in house gas emissions. American businesses and tended periods without
camel’s back,’” Durner recent decades and cli- The U.S. polar bear recov- taxpayers to absorb the eating but then gorge on
said. mate models indicating ery plan says that without cost. ringed and bearded seals.
Polar bears were listed as the trend would persist. action to address climate Trump also has called for Ringed seals give birth on
change — the primary expanded petroleum de- sea ice in spring and early
cause of diminishing sea velopment in polar bear summer, and polar bears
ice — it is unlikely that polar habitat, including offshore sniff out their lairs.
bears could be saved. The Alaska waters and parts of Diminished sea ice has re-
plan released in January areas the National Petro- duced access to prey in
noted positive signs such as leum Reserve-Alaska and the southern Beaufort Sea
emission goals in the Paris the Arctic National Wildlife off Alaska’s north coast.
climate agreement. Refuge. Researchers have docu-
Lipstixaruba@outlook.com President Donald Trump, Margaret Williams, Arctic mented the polar bear’s
however, withdrew from program managing direc- declining body condition,
the international pact last tor for the World Wildlife reproduction, survival and
week, arguing that it had Fund, called withdrawal abundance.q