For The Sake Of The Polar Bears
“Hey there. I’m Annie and I’m a
polar bear. Did you know it’s a hard knock life out there for us polar bears?”
Global Warming and its Effects on Polar Bears
For years, the
polar bear has been the face of global warming and a symbol for animal
misfortune. Polar bears live in a severe
arctic environment, but have been finding themselves forced into foreign
territories as the earth becomes warmer. Due to greenhouse emissions,
deforestation, methane emissions from various sources and overuse of chemical
fertilizers on farmlands, temperatures are rising globally and melting the very
environment in which they thrive in. “Arctic sea ice has decreased by 14% in 30
years.” says WWF Global website, panda.org. “As snow and ice melt, the ability
of the arctic to reflect heat back to space is reduced, accelerating the overall
rate of global warming.” This is mostly a human fault. “When we extract and
burn fossil fuels such as coal or petroleum, we cause the release of carbon
dioxide (CO2) and other heat-trapping ‘greenhouse gases’ into the atmosphere”
says edf.org.
Deforestation
This has become
a major problem due to an increasing dependency on modern technology that runs
primarily on the burning of coal and oil, which releases carbon dioxide into
the atmosphere. While technology is providing us with wonders in social
connection and convenience it is otherwise playing a role in destroying the
earth. This technology, such as new cars and homes, creates the need for
deforestation, which is another major contribution to global warming.
Deforestation creates more carbon dioxide emissions in itself. “By most
accounts, deforestation in tropical rainforests adds more carbon dioxide to the
atmosphere than the sum total of cars and trucks on the world’s roads,” says Mitchell
Vale, a leading journalist on the issue. Deforestation includes cutting down
and burning whole forests to make more land available for human use and to use
the wood from the trees as many different things including furniture and other
instruments. Another factor of global warming comes from chemical fertilizers
on farmlands, which are used to feed humans and animals alike, and a technology
that we have become dependent on. It is nearly impossible trying to grow an
abundance of food without the use of chemically enhanced fertilizers or
pesticide. To add to the distress, methane emissions heat up the Earth as well,
and come from many different sources. Methane emissions not only come from the
many millions of animals on land, but also from the melting sea ice. Because of
all of these factors, permafrost is melting, glaciers are receding and sea ice
is disappearing. The unintended consequences of human influence have caused a
spike in global temperature, thus destroying the polar bear’s environment.
Polar Bear Lifestyle
“Polar
bears are only found in the Arctic. The most important habitats for [them] are
the edges of pack ice where currents and wind interact, forming a continually
melting and refreezing matrix of ice patches and leads to (open spaces in the
ocean between sea ice),” says defenders.org. The majority of a polar bear’s
daily life is spent on the sea ice and includes denning, mating and hunting. Because
the sea ice is melting, polar bears are forced to expend more energy finding
places to den and hunt. This creates the unfortunate paradox in which the bears
must swim farther to find food, but need more energy for travel. Their circumstance
is contradictory. “For polar bears, sea ice losses mean: reduced access to
food, drop in body condition, lower cub survival rates, increase in drowning,
increase in cannibalism, loss of access to denning areas [and] decline in
population size.”
Sociological Explanation?
The
problems the polar bears are faced with are due to humans taking advantage of
positive liberty or “freedom-to” (Bell 82).
This theory states that humans have “the freedom to take agency over the
conditions of [their] life” (Bell 82). Freedom-to supports your choice of being
able to do whatever you want, no matter what the consequences are. Polar bears
suffer from “freedom-from,” or negative liberty. When humans decide to do
whatever they want, polar bears and their habitats are not considered, which
ultimately entails the destruction of their environment. Polar bears are also
affected by the Growth Machine, in which there is no regard for the environment
with continuing growth in human society. This is most obvious with deforestation,
which seems to only hurt the environment and help humans. Our fierce dependence
on technology causes global warming, but also a domination of the natural environment.
Humans are morally separate from the environment, and societies function to
dominate and colonize nature. We should consider moral holism as a way of life,
in which we see ourselves as a part of the environment and what we do to the
environment affects us as well.
What can YOU do?
There
are many things that the average person can do to lessen their impact on the
environment, and the polar bears. By switching to an alternative technology
that is less harmful for the environment, or to a technology that is energy
efficient, one can find themselves helping the polar bears. More ideas include
reusing products and recycling them, eating less meat, and turning products off
to conserve energy. With a large effort from everyone, it is possible to make a
positive impact on the environment and help save the polar bears.
Resources:
Bell, M. (2012). An invitation to environmental sociology (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Forge Press.
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