Arctic Nations Say Warming Is Greatest Threat to Polar Bears

The five countries with polar bear populations declared global warming is “the most important long-term threat” to the species, surpassing dangers from hunting or resource development. Meeting in Norway, scientists from the U.S., Canada, Russia, Norway, and Denmark (representing Greenland), said that while reducing the impact of oil drilling, tourism, and hunting is important, the gravest threat to the bears is warming and the continued loss of Arctic sea ice, which the bears use as a platform to hunt their favored prey, ringed seals. “Polar bears are facing a pretty rough road,” said Rosa Meehan of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “The thing we need to do is to look to the global community to seriously address and mitigate climate change.” The five nations formed a treaty in 1973 to protect polar bears, whose populations number an estimated 22,000 to 25,000. About 700 bears are shot each year in Alaska, Greenland, and Canada by indigenous people and trophy hunters.