Polar bears 'will not survive without urgent action'
By Daily Telegraph Reporter WWF, the conservation charity, said that the five countries which are home to the polar bear must commit to action on global warming to save the animal, which is reliant on the sea ice. Recent analysis by the US Geological Survey and World Conservation Union found that two-thirds of the 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears in the world could be lost in the next 50 years as warming temperatures melt the ice. But WWF said an agreement signed in 1973 by the five Arctic states – Canada, Russia, the US, Greenland/Denmark and Norway – commits them to saving protecting the bear and its habitat. While the original deal focused on threats from hunting that had decimated populations, WWF’s polar bear co-ordinator Geoff York said polar bears could not now be protected without addressing climate change. "The most important action we can take to help preserve polar bears is to slow the rate of climate change, and ultimately to stop it so that their habitat does not entirely disappear," he said. "Without the sea ice habitat, the polar bear will not survive in the long term. There are other threats, such as oil and gas drilling, shipping and toxins, but they pale in comparison to climate change and the loss of the sea ice." …
