As care takers of our planet we must do better! We are just passing, but we sure leave behind a foot print that we cannot be proud of… As I look at our magnificent planet, I feel a kinship to the beauty that surrounds us.
Yet, we often overlook this majestic place we have in our care for the betterment of our own selfish goals. It is certain that the idea of having it all is a concept that does not really exist. Yet, we strive to achieve it. Practically, we cannot have it all and most everyday compromises are made that tell us this. We do it with the people we love, we do it in the workplace, we do it on the playing fields of life, so we know it is also possible to do it for the greater good. It is a choice. Our choice. The truth is, if we don’t start doing it on all the things that really matter, the beautiful place we walk on will not stand a chance in the future. Every indication of that fact is there for us to see and we deny it. The climate is changing around us and we all know it. Our planet needs help.
Between now and 2050 polar bears numbers will have dropped by 70 percent, due to shrinking ice sheets caused by global warming. They face extinction. They are not the only species and while groups are attempting to correct this problem, they cannot do so alone. By 2080, it is anticipated that polar bears will have disappeared from Greenland entirely– and from the northern Canadian coast – leaving only dwindling numbers in the interior Arctic archipelago.*. The hard reality is that for those few who are surviving now under detrimental conditions, ice breaking up earlier in the year forces them ashore sooner and before they can build enough and sufficient fat stores to survive. Others are forced to swim huge distances, which exhaust them, leading to drowning. The effects of global warming are all there for us to witness… and have already led to thinner, stressed bears, decreased reproduction, and lower juvenile survival rates today. Imagine the results we will face on that particular issue alone by 2098 if we continue on this path.
I know there are no easy solution to this problem or we will have assuredly taken the journey toward it by now. However, there are steps we need to take each day to keep our one and only planet beautiful and alive. The question for all of us is it important for polar bears to survive or for that matter for other species to become extinct?
