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Chill the Drills! Protect America's Arctic

The great polar bear: Powerful, fearsome...but helpless in the face of global warming

Government scientists say polar bears are imperiled because of a warming arctic climate. Studies have documented plunging survival rates for cubs, falling body weights for adults, strandings on land for bears that are used to hunting for prey on vast expanses of ice, and even drowning cases. A recent U.S. Geological Survey report indicates that both of America's polar bear populations could disappear by 2050.

In fact, global warming now poses such a threat to the polar bear's survival that the bear was recently listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. This listing is the first Endangered Species Act initiative taken by the U.S. government on behalf of an animal because of global warming.

The scientific evidence of the threats to the polar bear are overwhelming and a vast majority of scientists and the American public agree that the polar bear needs to be protected.

Photo: Polar bear walking along the coast of the Beaufort Sea. Photo courtesy USFWS.