Polar Bears: Branding Global Warming

Producer Note: After we aired this segment, we recieved a letter from a listener who was concerned with our coverage. He felt our Earth Day stories were propaganda, that the media over-hypes global warming concerns, and that "the statement that [polar] bears will become extinct because of warming is nonsense." He wrote, "According to the U.S. & CA Fish & Wildlife [services], the bear population [has] grown from 5,000 in 1955 to about 25,000 today."

I wrote to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to check on these numbers and to ask if there have been any reported ill-effects to polar bear populations due to the effects global warming. Below is the response we recieved from Valerie Fellows in the Office of Public Affairs:

"Hi Andrew,

"In response to your first question, it is true that polar bear populations did rebound dramatically following the implementation of legislation that curbed unlimited sport and commercial harvest of the animals. Whether the figure quoted for 1995 is accurate or not, is not verifiable, but no one denies that populations did recover when protected. However, the population rebound was not connected to the threats the bears face today.

"In response to your second question, the best place for the most current, up-to-date information on the threats climate change pose to polar bears is the US Geological Survey.  On the website below, you will find 9 reports concluded in 2007.  The US Geological Survey reports include information on the population of polar bears in the Northern and Southern Beaufort Sea and the Southern Hudson Bay; the loss of sea ice in the Arctic region; the reduction in available habitat for polar bears; polar bear population trends in response to the decrease in available habitat; and the likelihood of polar bear extirpation due to the loss of sea ice.
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/special/polar_bears/

"In summary, the reports found that future reduction of sea ice in the Arctic could result in a loss of 2/3 of the world's polar bear population within 50 years.

"The USGS research team also documented the direct relationship between the presence of Arctic sea ice and the survival and health of polar bears. Polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals, their primary food. But sea ice is decreasing throughout their Arctic range due to climate change. Models used by the USGS team project a 42 percent loss of optimal polar bear habitat from the Polar Basin during summer, a vital hunting and breeding period, by mid-century.

"To add a comment on the media's role in overplaying the risk of climate change to polar bears...I'm not sure whether or not the media has overplayed the plight of the polar bear.  But the media has consistently and incorrectly reported on the role of the Endangered Species Act in regualting climate change should the polar bear be listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

"It is beyond the scope of the Endangered Species Act to determine the cause-effect relationship of climate change on the environment and then regulate individual greenhouse gas emissions.  Science is not yet evolved enough to determine what percentage each cause of climate change might contribute to climate impacts in a particular part of the world using currently available scientific analyses. Nor is it possible to determine a specific link between an individual source of greenhouse gas emission and the effects it will have on an individual polar bear. Should the bear be listed, the Endangered Species Act is better suited to bring the problems facing the polar bear  to the public’s attention and help inspire conservation action.

"I hope that answers your questions.  Please don't hesitate to give me a call if you need any additional information,

Thank you,

Valerie Fellows
Office of Public Affairs
US Fish and Wildlife Service"