Because of melting sea ice, it is likely that more polar bears will soon starve. They are high-energy beasts,
burning through 12,325 calories a day. Climate change is heating up the Arctic faster than anywhere else,
and sea ice is shrinking 14 percent per decade.
In the late spring, the ice is breaking up sooner and
forming later in the fall, forcing bears to burn huge amounts of energy walking or swimming long distances
to get to any remaining ice. Or they stay on land longer, spending the summer and, increasingly, the fall
fasting, living off their fat from the seals they caught in the spring.
The bear shown in the video lost close to 44 pounds,
including her lean muscle, in 10 days. This bear even leapt into the sea in a failed attempt to catch a seal
swimming by.
Will Things Get Worse?
Melting glaciers add to rising sea levels, which in turn increases coastal erosion and elevates storm surge
as warming air and ocean temperatures create more frequent and intense coastal storms like hurricanes and
typhoons. Specifically, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are the largest contributors of global sea
level rise.
Right now, the Greenland ice sheet is disappearing four times faster than in 2003 and already
contributes 20% of current sea level rise. How much and how quickly these Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets
melt in the future will largely determine how much ocean levels rise in the future. If emissions continue to
rise,the current rate of melting on the Greenland ice sheet is expected to double by the end of the century.
Alarmingly, if all the ice on Greenland melted, it would raise global sea levels by 20 feet.
Today, the Arctic is warming twice as fast as anywhere on earth, and the sea ice there is declining by more than
10% every 10 years. As this ice melts, darker patches of ocean start to emerge, eliminating the effect that
previously cooled the poles, creating warmer air temperatures and in turn disrupting normal patterns of ocean
circulation.
