‘Polar bear capital’ warming too fast that could cause animals to die

“The bears know the ice is coming back soon. They’re waiting,” says Alysa McCall of Polar Bears International (PBI).

Alysa and her team are at a trail traveling observation lab in the Canadian Arctic outside of the small town of Churchill that allows them to safely observe bears.

Churchill is referred to as the “Polar Bear Capital” of the world.

Daily life is shaped by the proximity of polar bears to the city. Residents have bear-proof litter boxes, and the state assigns bear guards to accompany the kids when they’re trick-or-treating during the Halloween holiday.

In the city, it is common to leave the doors of parked cars open so that other people have a place to escape when they encounter a stray bear.

In the frozen Hudson Bay in Churchill, bears use sea ice as a platform to hunt seals.

But the sea ice season in this part of the Canadian Arctic is getting longer and bears can’t be hunted for long.

About 2,000 km to the south, in Montreal, international officials met at the UN biodiversity summit to reach an agreement that protects wilderness areas and reverses human-induced loss of nature.

hungry bears

The plight of the polar bears has become a symbol of the devastation caused by climate change. And for Churchill, the fate of the species represents the inextricable link between protecting the natural world and tackling global warming. The polar bear capital of the world is getting too hot for polar bears.

By 2050, the length of the ice-free season could drive bears to the point of starvation, conservation scientists say.

“Looking back at the last two decades, the ice forms later and breaks earlier and earlier in the spring,” says researcher Flavio Lehner of PBI.

“So this mid-season, when bears are on land and unable to take advantage of hunting opportunities, is getting longer with global warming.”

Bears rely on seal oil for energy. Especially mothers raising their offspring need to consume enough fat.

“in 180 days [sem gelo marinho]We’re starting to see the effects on their reproductive success,” says Lehner. “So over time, we’re likely to see declines just because they can no longer reproduce successfully.”

These omnivorous predators eat almost anything they can find on land, including fruit, eggs, small rodents, and even reindeer, says McCall, “but nothing can replace seal oil. [com alto teor de energia]????????

These changes also bring bears and humans closer together, making places where polar bears and humans coexist, like Churchill, more risky for both.

A study by the US Geological Survey using data from satellite tracking collars of more than 400 polar bears in Alaska shows that the time they spend on land has increased significantly in recent years.

“In the 1980s, polar bears only stayed on land for a few weeks each summer,” says USGS wildlife research biologist Karyn Rode. “Many now spend about two months on land each year.”

And communities along Alaska’s North Slope have seen bears before.

The fate of Churchill, seasonal sea ice, and the hundreds of polar bears in Hudson Bay basically depends on what every country in the world does to reduce emissions of planet-warming gases that are changing Earth’s atmosphere so rapidly.

“Sea ice projections are highly dependent on temperature, and temperature is determined by how much greenhouse gas we’re releasing into the atmosphere,” says Lehner.

McCall says the western Hudson Bay bear subpopulation that he and his colleagues studied has declined by up to 30% in the last 30 to 40 years due to less access to sea ice.

“This is a wake-up call for what is to come for polar bears living further north. [onde os invernos gelados são atualmente mais longos],” he adds.

Lehner says climate change is changing the way we think about conservation.

“It permeates all life on this planet,” he tells the BBC. “So creating reserves like a national park is not a bad thing, but it won’t help if that ecosystem changes due to climate change.”

“These are not separate issues – if you care about animals, if you care about conservation, you should also care about climate change.”

– This text was published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/geral-64033204.