Polar bears skating on thin ice
In May, the polar bear was designated as threatened by the U.S. Department of the Interior. This decision to place it under the protection of the Endangered Species Act was both applauded and protested by many.
The reason for the disagreement arises from the difficulties that this new status implies.
The main reason for the bear population's decline has been the reduction of Arctic sea ice; because of this, the polar bear has gotten stuck in the middle of the climate change versus the oil and gas drilling issue.
Since the Endangered Species Act requires that action be taken to minimize or reduce the harmful factors to a declining species, it certainly throws a monkey wrench into the plans of increasing domestic oil production by Alaskan continental shelf drilling.
Polar bears are found only in the north, despite the misconception that Coca-Cola ads create with cuddly bears swilling soda in the company of South Pole penguins.
Polar bears are the largest land carnivore, dwarfing lions and tigers and other bears, oh my. A polar bear is larger than a grizzly by hundreds of pounds and twice the size of a Siberian tiger.
Like other bears, polar bears can eat many types of food, primarily dining on seals and small whales, but can adapt to carrion, fish, bird eggs, berries, nuts - even humans and other polar bears when times get lean. Because of its caloric need to keep up its fat reserves, however, the bear depends heavily on blubber-rich marine mammals in order to survive.
The polar bear has long been held up as a symbol of power, strength, ferocity and untamed wilderness in the world. It has been revered as a powerful spirit by Arctic people for thousands of years, in addition to widespread admiration in the more mundane drugstore calendars, cubicle coffee mugs and toy store aisles.
Part of the bear's mystique lies in its fearlessness of man, part in its ability to thrive in conditions so inhospitable to man that NASA uses northern bases to train for Mars missions, and part in its title as the largest land carnivore on Earth. (Not to mention that the cubs are just so gosh-darned adorably sweet that they could give you cavities.)
Scientist types call animals like this "charismatic megafauna," which includes warm and fuzzy animals like koalas and pandas and lemurs that hold our interest and affection.
It's why there's a successful Save the Whales Foundation and not a Save the Leeches campaign.
Science, politics and incredible beauty
The bear's reign as king of the mountain has been threatened in recent years, as the ice upon which it has adapted for survival has thinned, drawn back and dwindled far beyond predictions of the most trusted atmospheric models, to the astonishment of many in the scientific community.
The Great White Bear that has championed the Arctic Circle for millennia has suddenly evolved into the poster child for the potentially negative effects of climate change.
The question of scientific interest is now whether or not the polar bear can evolve quickly enough to survive the increasing temperatures we are seeing in the polar regions.
The question of political interest is: How do the political platforms factor into the sea bear's fate come Nov. 5? Is it already too late to save them?
To understand how the political landscape could affect the polar bear, we must first examine the ecological one. It is inaccurate to describe the Arctic as merely a "moonscape."
True, NASA has its experiments located there, and it is certainly a place of cruel winters. But it is also a place of Crayola-colored lichens and poppies, summer butterflies and bumblebees, fields of ivory cotton grass waving in summer winds like winter snowdrifts, thousands of acres of low bush blueberries, and teeming seas of wildlife drawn from all over the globe to partake in the cold-ocean cornucopia of clams, shrimp-like amphipods, fish and plankton.
It is a difficult place, but it is also a marvelous place - just one with a more subtle beauty than the spectacular Smoky Mountains that we are so privileged to have at our back door. Just because you have to look a little harder than usual to see the treasures doesn't mean that they aren't there.
The Arctic crosses the borders of seven countries - the United States, Canada, Russia, Greenland, Iceland, Finland and Norway. Polar bears range across this entire area, as do whales, muskoxen, reindeer, caribou and many others. Polar bears commonly hunt seals (any of the six Arctic species will do), as well as beached whale carcasses, and when times are tough, seabirds and their eggs, berries, grasses, sedges and even seaweed will tide them over.
But they simply cannot eat enough calories without a diet of primarily fat to maintain their insulation and body mass to last throughout the year.
They hunt by lying in wait at seal breathing holes in the ice, blending in with white fur against white ice, until their meal pops up in the drive-through window.
An adult bear needs about one seal per week (which can weigh up to 200 pounds) in order to survive. By waiting in ambush, the hunter also conserves precious calories.
Seals need ice to birth their pups on. They burrow under the snow and ice rubble to form dens in which to nest. The less ice there is, the fewer dens can be built, and the fewer seals can survive.
Bears also birth their pups in snow dens but can burrow into the earth when suitable snow and ice cannot be found.
Climate change is expected to increase precipitation in the north. Increased snow would probably increase the population of seals because of the increased opportunity for hiding places, but if the snow turns into rain, it could melt the dens before both seals and bears have successfully birthed and nursed their offspring adequately.
Exploration for natural gas and oil could affect the ability of many Arctic animals to survive at their current population sizes. Seismic measurements are used by the industry to pinpoint the most likely successful areas for drilling - marine mammals often try to avoid such noise disturbance in the water and ice pack, and seismic ground waves can disrupt denning behaviors.
Although the footprints of the drilling operations are quite small in comparison to the expanse of land available on the northern Alaskan shore, support operations can spiderweb out many times larger - roads, airstrips, processing stations, lodging, storage, landfills - the list goes on.
Aerial photographs still show truck tracks in the tundra plants from the 1940s. Many of the Arctic plant species that grazing animals like caribou depend on are extraordinarily slow growing - some lichens grow only 0.01 to 1 mm per year - meaning that some plants could be 4,000 to 5,000 years old.
Climate change: What about the polar bears?
It has been officially accepted by both the Democratic and Republican parties, as evidenced in their official platforms, that human activity has contributed to global climate change.
Most scientists agree with this viewpoint, and it appears that humans' impact on the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere supplements a natural cycle of global warming and cooling.
The human Industrial Revolution and subsequent technology have occurred during an apparent upswing in temperature.
It has been said that if everyone just turned off one light bulb, we could stop global warming. Unfortunately, it is not that simple.
There is a time lapse between the short-term actions of humans and the reflection of those actions in the long-term ecological effects. The warming that we are experiencing now is from the Industrial Revolution, the burning of millions of acres of forests across the globe, methane from landfills and agriculture, and the release of carbon dioxide from a warming ocean and melting permafrost.
What if we stopped using all fossil fuels today? There would actually be a slight rise in temperature for the first few decades, because a by-product of burning fossil fuels, sulfur dioxide, actually cools the atmosphere to some extent.
In about 20 to 30 years, we would start seeing a decline in temperature.
In about 200 years, the temperatures would have cooled down substantially to pre-industry levels.
It is difficult for many people to sacrifice convenience if the reward is not immediate. We have to learn to think beyond our own lifespan to our great-great-grandchildren's. The time lag is not reason to give up our plans to conserve energy, but it does complicate matters substantially.
Which brings the discussion back to polar bears.
Many factors affect the polar bear's likelihood of survival. The rising temperature means a likely decrease of ice and seals. This increases polar bear mortality from drowning in storms or exhaustion when swimming vast distances to try to reach the ice edge, or from injuries sustained when trying to catch more dangerous prey such as walruses armed with tusks and humans armed with guns.
Grizzlies are moving northward with the warming climate, which could lead to competition with polar bears for food.
Increased offshore drilling in Alaska will substantially increase the human population, increasing interactions and dangerous confrontations between man and bear.
Beluga whales, sometimes hunted by bears in times of need, are already so poisonous with heavy metals and PCBs that the population from the St. Lawrence Seaway is treated as toxic waste when the carcasses wash ashore.
Increased industry could likely increase pollution, which would further endanger both the bears' and the Inupiat people's food source safety.
Both political parties state ambitious environmental goals, emphasizing alternative fuel development and electric hybrid cars on the roads: John McCain's strategies include the development of nuclear plants and tax incentives, and Barack Obama's strategies include an emphasis on the Alaskan Natural Gas Pipeline, increasing fuel efficiencies and participating in more international climate change committees for collaborative efforts.
Both have stated an aversion to drilling within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is extremely good news for the U.S. polar bear population if that decision holds.
Any additional development on the Alaskan coast, however, will require intensive analysis and mitigation to ensure the continued survival of the Great White Bear in the wild during this time of global financial and climate upheaval.
Arianne Balsom graduated from the University of Tennessee with a master's degree in ecology and evolutionary biology, studying biodiversity in the Northwest Passage. Last summer, the Knoxville biologist completed her 17th oceanographic research expedition - her first trip to Antarctica. She blogged from an icebreaker - "Breaking the Ice: Science from Antarctica" - on knoxnews.com.
