Heat in a cold place can be terrifying (copy)
Heat in a cold place can be terrifying.
Just ask any polar bear as heat for them equals starvation. They need sea ice to hunt for seals. As the sea ice disappears they are no longer able to hunt. Ideally they gorge on seals in the spring and summer and then fast for the rest of the year on stored energy.
As the ice disappears so will these beautiful creatures. Their white coats blend in so easy with the ice and their front paws are shaped like fish hooks to yank the seals out of the water. Wildlife biologists believe the bear numbers will dwindle with the ice retreating further north and disappearing.
Polar bears may look cute and cuddly but they are at the top of the chain as predators of the far north. Jeff Goodell in his new book “The Heat Will Kill You First” describes how they only eat meat and males will even eat cubs. Mother bears will go to any length to protect young cubs and keep them away from males.
There is nothing that hunts polar bears and they are afraid of nothing.
Jeff also cautions that a rapidly warming Arctic will accentuate our sea level rise and eventually bring havoc to coastal areas with the resulting migration of many inward.
This is not likely to be immediate but all that melted ice water has to go somewhere and the history of our planet certainly shows it has happened before. The problem this time is that we humans are the cause and in addition to the sea ice we are also responsible for the melting of the permafrost.
This melting releases large amounts of methane gas that is many times more potent than CO2. This means more warming, and locked up in this permafrost are viruses and pathogens from an earlier time.
Scientists are alarmed. The EPA says the best way to stop heating up the planet and stop this melting is to stop burning fossil fuels and dumping more CO2 into our atmosphere. We would like to think that will happen soon but the International Energy Agency says the industrial nations are still dumping about 35 billion tons of CO2 into Mother Earth’s atmosphere each year.
A warming Arctic is not just a symbol of our changing climate. Eventually it will upset the lives of everyone as the balance of the atmosphere changes and weather patterns take on different paths that scientist see as a scary scenario for much of mankind.
In addition to the daily visits of destructive fires, storms, floods and droughts there is concern for the food supply and what effect the warming will have on ocean currents like the Gulf Stream and air currents like the jet stream.
I think it’s time to stop kicking the can down the road and get serious about what is happening. There is much we can do.