“Gina McCarthy has already been approved once by the Senate and since then has only strengthened her record as a non-partisan voice for sensible reductions in pollution to protect America’s wildlife, clean air and water, and public health,”  says Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. ”The full Senate should give her a clean vote as soon as possible. We’ve already wasted enough time watching polluter allies play political games with her confirmation process.”

The protest by polluter allies on the committee didn’t win them any friends. Christine Todd Whitman, EPA administrator under President George W. Bush, told Amy Harder of National Journal, “They looked like sore losers when they walked out the way they did.”

Learn more about Gina McCarthy and her work to protect wildlife and connect children with nature at StandWithGina.com.

Tell your senators you support Gina McCarthy to serve as America’s next Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

Ringed seal. Credit: Sven Roeder

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar acknowledged that “Shell screwed up” and announced they would not be allowed back into the Arctic without major changes. It was the right call, because a major oil spill in the Arctic ocean poses unacceptable risks to fragile Arctic marine ecosystems and the coastline, and would harm people who live in the Arctic and depend on the ocean for subsistence. Any major spill would also occur hundreds of miles from the nearest Coast Guard station, and recovery would be hampered by the constant threat of sea ice, low temperatures, high winds, fog and long stretches of darkness.  There is simply no proven technology to clean up a spill in Arctic conditions.

America’s Arctic Ocean is home to many of our nation’s most beloved wildlife species: polar bears, walrus, ice seals, beluga whales and more. While Shell will not be drilling in America’s Arctic in 2013, the Arctic Ocean could still be at risk next year when we are remembering the 25th anniversary of Exxon Valdez.  

It’s up to the American people to let President Obama know that drilling in America’s Arctic Ocean is risky and dangerous. Call President Obama at 202-456-1414, or
tweet the White House (@whitehouse) and tell the President to say no to drilling in the Arctic Ocean.  Here is an example:

Polar bears love their Arctic home– @whitehouse #SaveTheArctic and say no to risky and dangerous drilling

— Bentley Johnson (@rutherfordbhaze) March 26, 2013

Retweet to help save Arctic wildlife from drilling and tell @whitehouse to #SaveTheArctic!

To learn more about National Wildlife Federation’s work to protect the Arctic and Arctic wildlife, visit www.nwf.org/Arctic.

Photo by Christine Haines

See more of Christine Haines’ photos on Flickr >>

10 Things You May Not Know About Polar Bears

Miss out on International Polar Bear Day on Feb. 27th? Belatedly celebrate or just satisfy your curiosity about the Arctic’s Great White Bear with some cool facts >>

National Wildlife Photo Contest entry by Lois Settlemeyer.

With climate change bearing down on polar bears and their Arctic home, and without a plan in place for cutting carbon pollution by 50 percent by 2030, scientists have started preparing rescue plans for the imperiled animals.  These “crisis management plans,” laid out in the journal Conservation Letters, include some desperate strategies such as feeding the bears during increasingly long ice-free periods — a measure that goes against rule No. 1 for bear biologists.

However, as NWF bear biologist Sterling Miller explains, these proposed crisis plans are most appropriately viewed as pleas for action on climate change as they do not provide any real answers to the problem of starving bears:

“The reality is that unless something is done soon to curb global warming, there is no hope for polar bears. Measures like providing food for the bears are simply not sustainable in the long run.  At best, they will only work as a stopgap solution to buy the bears a little more time until climate change impacts can be reversed.  They are not long-term solutions.”

Change happening faster than expected

With sea ice melting faster than originally projected, scientists are starting to prepare for the worst. Just one exceptionally bad year of ice melt could send polar bear populations plummeting, requiring governments around the world to react quickly. In addition to providing food directly to polar bears, scientists are floating other non-conventional ideas, such as moving bears from southern areas to northern ones. To ensure the safety of people, some polar bears may need to be killed or confined in short-term holding pens.

As highlighted in NWF’s recent report, Wildlife in a Warming World, polar bears are not the only animals struggling to survive climate change.  Without meaningful action to address the cause of climate change—carbon pollution—treasured species from around the planet will begin to continue to suffer losses.

Still time to act

Fortunately, renewed hope is on the horizon. From the emphasis put on climate change in President Obama’s inaugural address to the recent creation of the Bicameral Climate Change Task Force in Congress, our elected leaders are signaling a new commitment to cutting carbon pollution.

It is not too late for polar bears. We can still avoid the worst impacts of climate change and give arctic wildlife a fighting chance with your help. Take action/Donate

Speak up for hungry polar bears and their cubs—urge President Obama to set strong limits on carbon pollution.

Polar Bears’ Hunting Season is Getting Shorter

Polar bear mother with yearling cubs. Photo credit: Susanne Miller, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Last year, after ice hit a record low, the fall freeze up was delayed. The lack of near-shore ice over the shallow waters where most seals live left the polar bears with a much foreshortened period to hunt for seals in areas where the seals are abundant.

Right now in the dead of winter, the polar bears are struggling to make up for the calories they were unable to gain in the fall.

Struggle Increasing to Feed Cubs

Finding food to eat is not just about meeting adult polar bears’ hunger—it’s also about making sure that the cubs at their side will survive. Adult female polar bears must find enough food to build up the reserves they need to become pregnant and successfully give birth and nurse tiny cubs in their secure winter den.

Pregnant polar bears are the only ones who enter dens in the fall; other polar bears, including females that have cubs, will hunt all winter.  Pregnant females will give birth to a litter of usually two tiny cubs in their highly insulated den. After 5-6 months in their den, the family will emerge from their dens and begin their hunt for the food they need to assure her cubs will survive.

After they leave their dens, the polar bear moms must find enough seals to replenish her depleted reserves and give her cubs a shot at surviving for the next 2 years, until the cubs are able to fend for themselves.

Climate Change Harming Cubs’ Survival

Climate change is dramatically reducing the amount of time available for mother polar bears to hunt enough seals to give her cubs a chance of surviving.

The ice is increasingly far off shore and over deeper waters which are less productive for their prey of seals.  And climate change is causing arctic ice over the shallow near-shore waters where seals are most abundant to both break up earlier in the spring and to form up later in the fall.

This leaves all polar bears less and less time to find food, but the squeeze is particularly hard on recent mothers because of the high energy demands associated with giving birth to and raising their cubs. Polar bear moms nurse their cubs for over two years until the cubs are big enough to survive on their own.

When polar bears can’t find as much food in the spring and fall as they need, cubs just aren’t born or do not survive.

Fight for the Next Generation of Polar Bears

For polar bear moms to win their struggle against hunger, they need us to curb the unprecedented warming in the Arctic. Alaska has warmed twice as much as the contiguous United States, and warming is severely altering the Arctic landscape, including melting permafrost.

In 2012, over 3 million people like you spoke up in support of limits to carbon pollution from new coal-fired power plants.  Across the U.S., three times as many voters say the government is doing too little to protect America’s air, water, wildlife and other natural resources (44 percent) as say it’s doing too much (14 percent), according to a post-election Zogby poll.  And two-thirds of voters (65 percent) say elected officials should take steps now to reduce the impact of climate change on future generations, while just 27 percent say we should wait for more evidence.

The President is listening, but time is short. We need to remind President Obama that his legacy depends on taking action on climate change by taking immediate steps to halt the expansion of dirty energy, like tar sands, and set limits on carbon pollution from coal-burning power plants—the largest source of carbon pollution in the nation.

Let’s take advantage of this opportunity.

Speak up for the polar bears cubs—urge the President to move forward on addressing climate change now.

A polar bear mother and her two cubs near Churchill, Manitoba. National Wildlife Photo Contest Entry by James Seith.

The timing of this announcement could not be worse. The bears saw their Arctic ice habitat melt to a record-shattering low this past summer, a sign that climate change is altering the planet at a much faster pace than previously projected.

To make matters worse for polar bears, in response to a lawsuit by the Alaska Oil and Gas Association and the state of Alaska, a judge overturned a federal rule aimed at protecting critical habitat for polar bears in the U.S. The decision, if not reversed, means that notwithstanding the disturbance to bears from oil and gas drilling and extraction activities, as well as the outright danger of oil spills, oil and gas development will likely accelerate in prime polar bear habitat.

Protect the Home, Protect the Species

After the polar bear was listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated more than 187,000 square miles as critical habitat for the struggling Arctic polar bears in 2010. This science-based decision included both Arctic sea ice and terrestrial habitat, including denning areas, for polar bears in Alaska. The designation facilitated greater scrutiny of oil and gas development and stronger safeguards in critical habitat.

Because it helps protect the places where polar bears live, the designation of critical habitat was welcomed as a way to give polar bears a fighting chance against the threats of global warming. The judge’s decision means that polar bears now face the double whammy with their habitat: the sea ice is literally melting away because of global warming and what is left faces increasing disturbance from oil and gas development in the areas they require to hunt, den and rear their young.

Speak Up to Help Polar Bears

Helping polar bears requires protecting them from disturbance, including the threat of oil spills, in their critical habitat. It is imperative that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service take action to get the bears’ critical habitat reinstated, by making a few corrections to its original proposal.

Helping polar bears also requires action to reduce the carbon pollution that is accelerating the melting of their Arctic home. You can help polar bears by sending a message to the Environmental Protection Agency in support of limiting carbon pollution from coal-burning power plants.

However, there is no question but that the most memorable experience came when my friend and colleague, Dr. Steve Amstrup, asked me to help him tag polar bears on the frozen Beauford Sea out of the Iñupiat village of Kaktovik on Alaska’s north slope. I worked for the State of Alaska while Amstrup was the chief polar bear researcher for the U.S. government (Fish and Wildlife Service and—later—U.S. Geolgical Survey). Polar bears are classified as marine mammals, like whales and seals, and the Federal government—not the state of Alaska—has management authority for marine mammals. I’d gone to school with Steve and leapt at the chance to do something I never dreamed I’d have the opportunity to do. The reality was even more wonderful than my expectations.

National Wildlife Photo Contest entry by Lois Settlemeyer.

When I retired from my job in Alaska I moved to Montana, where I took a job with the National Wildlife Federation. At NWF, I could work directly on projects designed to save the polar bears that had made such an impression on me 20 years earlier. This conservation work was now more urgent, as from the time of my experience with Amstrup to the present, studies by Amstrup and others had demonstrated that the very survival of polar bears was in grave jeopardy. Indeed, at the southern part of their range in Canada’s Hudson Bay, where I went twice as an NWF employee, it was clear that polar bears were highly unlikely to persist until mid-century in what is now known as “the polar bear capital of the world.”

Arctic sea ice extent for October 15, 2012 was 5.18 million square kilometers (2.00 million square miles). The purple line shows the 1979 to 2000 median extent for that day. The black cross indicates the geographic North Pole. Sea Ice Index.

This year set a new record low for the amount of polar ice, breaking the previous records just 5 years earlier. There was about half as much ice in Sept. 2012 as the average during 1979-2000.  Polar bears are already responding with reduced numbers, increased mortality of cubs, and more malnourished and starving adults.

Help Us Fight for Polar Bears

Only success from efforts like those being made by National Wildlife Federation to stop climate change can save the polar bear. Unless the amount of greenhouse gasses is reduced from its current 390 ppm to something less than 350 ppm, nothing can save polar bears. Success in this effort depends on more, however, than the efforts of NWF and other conservation organizations—it also depends on each of us individually taking actions to reduce our personal carbon footprints and each of us making it clear to our elected representatives that they must find ways to assure that, collectively, alternative fuels are encouraged and fossil fuels are discouraged.

Two polar bears playing and wrestling in the falling snow. National Wildlife Photo Contest entry by Bonnie Flamer.

Please continue to help the National Wildlife Federation in its efforts to address the threats to polar bears and many other species posed by our rapidly changing climate by making a generous contribution today

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo by Christine Haines

See more of Christine Haines’s photos on Flickr >>

What’s Your Favorite Photo?

Enter your favorite photo that you’ve taken of wildlife or landscapes in our Flickr group Photo Challenge! The winning photo and photographer will be featured in a PhotoZone article and on social media. How to enter >>

Today, I got to see polar bears. Up close. In the wild. Holy wow!

An inquisitive female polar bear checks me out.

Today was our first day out on the tundra. At this time of year, polar bears are gathering on the shores of the bay, waiting for the sea ice to form so they can go out and hunt seals, their primary source of food.  This makes it one of the best places on the planet to see wild polar bears.

The bears did not disappoint. Within a few minutes of heading out on the Tundra Buggy® we spotted a female bear who wandered over to us and propped herself up on the tire for a closer look.

Shortly after that, we encountered two males sparring, a playful, wrestling behavior that helps males size each other up, reducing the likelihood of bloody and potentially fatal battles later when they’re competing for mates.

Two male polar bears sparring.

Not only that, you’ll also hear from and interact with polar bear expert Andy Deroscher from University of Alberta, snowy owl biologist Denver Holt of the Owl Research Institute, and climate change expert Kassie Siegel of the Center of Biological Diversity.  You really don’t want to miss this.

Get the Tundra Connections webcast schedule here.

A lone polar bear patiently waits for the sea ice to form so it can hunt seals and break its months-long fast.