Compassion Tune-Up - A Devastating Sight

When I hear my husband sobbing in his office, I know he's stumbled upon something searingly sad. Yesterday, it was a photo of something we could never have imagined. 

Turns out it was one in a series of July 2011 photos by Jenny E. Ross, taken in Ostrova Oranskie in northern Novaya Zemlya, in the Russian High Arctic. 

An online friend of Peter's, Veli Albert Kallio, shared on Facebook the following:

POLAR BEAR APOCALYPSE HAS STARTED
Desperate and hungry polar bears are seen attempting to climb mountains to reach for food as their natural habitat has been destroyed. Bears have an excellenct nose and they sense the bird eggs but as they are not adapted to mountaineering on the steep slopes, they fall off the mountains easily to their deaths. Their claws are not strong enough to grab them firmly onto mountainsides as the nails brake under the weight of bears on the rocks. Arctic foxes and other animals then eat unfortunate polar bear carcasses. The numbers of bears are considerably down already for next cruising season and it may take some nerves to see the polar bears suffering like this.

Polar bears in our Arctic must now climb rocky mountains to attempt to feed on the eggs of seabirds (Brünnich's Guillemots)? According to the photographer, "This bear was marooned on land, unable to feed on seals – his normal prey – because the sea ice had melted throughout the region and receded far to the north as the result of climate change." 

What hell on Earth have we wrought? 

Note the subadult male polar bear near the top 

Not built for climbing

An unsuccessful attempt to eat

Help Protect the Polar Bear! Urgent Action Needed

Canada's polar bears are at risk - but you can help!

I just sent a letter to Canada's Environment Minister Jim Prentice asking for the polar bear to be added to Canada's official Species at Risk list.

Public consultations on whether to add the polar bear to the Species at Risk list end on March 19th. This is our last chance to speak up on behalf of the polar bear before Minister Prentice makes his decision. No matter where you live in the world, if you understand that protecting the polar bear will help safeguard our children's future, please take less than a minute to write your letter.

Read more below from Nature Canada, and here's the website from which you can send your letter: http://supporter.naturecanada.ca/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=107

Thanks!

***** ***** *****

On March 19, 2010 — just days away — the "extended consultation" period on whether to add the polar bear to Canada's official Species at Risk list ends. This is your last chance to speak up on behalf of the polar bear before Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice makes his decision.

Tell Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice to add the polar bear to Canada's official Species at Risk List! Send a Letter Now!

The polar bear is not yet listed under Canada's Species At Risk Act (SARA), despite the fact that more than half of the world's polar bears are found in Canada. The government's own scientific advisors on the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) have repeatedly recommended adding the polar bear to Canada's legal Species at Risk list — but Environment Minister Jim Prentice has yet to act.

Urge Canada's government to stop delaying. The polar bear needs strong legal protection!

Global warming is melting the polar ice caps, robbing the bears of the ice floes they need to hunt prey. As the annual sea ice melts, polar bears are forced ashore to spend their summers fasting. If the Arctic ice cap continues to melt sooner and form later, polar bears will become too thin to reproduce and many scientists predict they will become extinct by the end of this century.

Canada must not only list the polar bear, but address the greenhouse gas emissions that are directly contributing to the decline of the polar bear.

Tell Canada's Government the best way we can ensure polar bears are protected from global warming is to pass strong global warming legislation!

Send a Letter Now!

***** ***** *****

Here's the letter I just sent:

When a country is privileged to be home to an iconic animal such as the polar bear, does it not behoove that country to protect the animal's habitat? Especially when protecting the animal will also serve to protect that country's citizens from the same threat?

Disappearance of Arctic summer sea ice is a catastrophe in the making. The entire northern hemisphere will lose its summer "air conditioning" -- and once that's gone, our agriculture will be at risk of further droughts and increased heat waves, leading to crop failures and famine. Yes, famine in our rich countries of the north.

I call on the Government of Canada to swiftly acknowledge the fragile state of polar bear populations and to add the polar bear to Canada's Species at Risk List.

I call on the Government of Canada to protect the polar bear's habitat and slow the effects of global warming in Canada's treasured Far North.

Protect the polar bear to protect the future for my grandchildren!