CMCI Final project

Climate change is a major concern, especially for polar bears whose habitat is rapidly shrinking due to warming in the Arctic. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, causing sea ice to melt and putting polar bears in danger. Positive feedback processes, such as the darkening surface from melting ice, contribute to the accelerated warming in the Arctic. In 2007, Arctic land temperatures were significantly warmer than in the past 30 years, leading to accelerated sea ice loss. However, there is hope that cooling down the climate can help restore sea ice and protect polar bears. Research on polar bears and sea ice is challenging due to the remote nature of the Arctic, but more data is needed to fully understand the situation. Personal experiences in the Arctic have highlighted the importance and urgency of addressing climate change. Hello, hello. My name is Virginia and this is Planet Podcast. Welcome. I'm so glad you are listening in. Today we will discuss a problem on everyone's mind, climate change. When you think of climate change, you think of polar bears. Polar bears have become the poster child for climate change for many different reasons, including the fact that they are losing their habitat faster than anyone. Polar bears live and rely on the Arctic. The Arctic is warming two times faster than the rest of the world. Music The Arctic is warming rapidly for many reasons, causing sea ice to melt, which is putting the polar bears in danger. Animals in the Arctic rely on sea ice, and we are losing sea ice rapidly. We are losing 13% of sea ice per decade. The Arctic is an extremely sensitive environment, and temperature change affects the environment far more than it would in a lower latitude. The Arctic is also warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. You might be wondering why the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the world, because I was in the same boat until I learned about positive feedbacks. The Arctic has many different processes that amplify the warming. They are basically just processes that reinforce initial change. An example of one is positive feedback. The best way to explain this is if the Arctic warms, one of the classic things that happens is the ice melts. And as the ice melts, the surface gets darker. Then the surface absorbs more incoming sunlight, and the surface gets warmer, which causes more sea ice to melt. So it's a reinforcing cycle. A reinforcing cycle that we don't have at lower latitudes, because there's just not as much ice around. When we look at recent history, and when sea ice began to rapidly decline, the year 2007 stands out. In 2007, from August to October, the Arctic land temperatures were warmer than they were in the last 30 years by a pretty significant amount. In an article written by David M. Lawrence about the accelerated sea ice loss, he says the Arctic in 2007 is 2.3 degrees Celsius warmer than the years 1978 to 2006 on average. This, of course, has an effect on sea ice loss. This is not to say there's no hope. Sea ice is very affected by the environment. A little can happen, and a lot will change with sea ice drastically. This has been affecting sea ice in a negative way. But if we look at it in another light, we can see that if we cool down the climate, the sea ice will react in a positive way. So there's hope in the sense that losing sea ice is not irreversible. If we cool down the climate, sea ice will come back, and polar bears will be okay. But if we want to do this, we need to act now. Today, I was lucky enough to talk to my professor, Jennifer Kay. She's my ATOC 1060 professor, and she has an amazing knowledge on polar bears and sea ice. She's an associate professor in atmospheric and oceanic sciences, a fellow and associate director of Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Washington and a B.A. in economics and geology from Roundy University. She is an incredible lover of polar bears, and I cannot wait to talk to her. So sea ice and climate change are some of your main research interests. What draws you into this field? Great question. I think the thing that really brought me into studying the Arctic was 2007. And that summer, the Arctic sea ice hit a new record minimum, and it really shocked a lot of people. It was a lot lower than anyone was expecting, including me. And so I found that really intriguing. I wanted to understand kind of what would happen not only that year but into the future. Yeah, okay, for sure. I know you spent time researching sea ice and climate change in the Arctic. Could you tell me more about your experience? Yeah, I mean, I've been to the Arctic probably a half dozen times, essentially. Three times was with Polar Bears International, which is the world's leading conservation organization for polar bears. And the other three times were for field campaigns to collect measurements on the ground in the Arctic. So, yeah, it's a really fascinating environment. Yeah. A lot of extremes. Yes. Where exactly in the Arctic did you go? So I've been in northern Sweden, so that's technically the Arctic. It's a full order of 60 degrees. In northern Canada, in particular, Churchill, Manitoba, which is the polar bear capital of the world. 900 people, 900 polar bears. That's kind of a crazy job. And then I've been in the U.S. Arctic, too, in Alaska. So both Dreadforce and Utqiagvik, which was formerly known as Barrow. What was your most memorable experience when you were with polar bears in that part of the show? I have a picture of this in my living room. So we were doing educational activities, like trying to bring the Arctic to people. And oftentimes that involved just scanning the landscape and looking for polar bears and finding them and then just bringing them to people's living rooms. And this polar bear came out of nowhere and just sat right next to our van. I was just looking at that, and it was kind of creepy and awesome. I could really tell you about climate change, and this polar bear was right there. I was just like, what the hell are you all, what are you doing? That's crazy. So yeah, that was pretty memorable. I know polar bears are your favorite animal. Why are they special to you? I think just because they're terrifying, right? Female polar bears are like 500 pounds. Males can be up to 1,000 pounds. They go months without eating, and they only eat seal fat. Can you imagine going months without eating and then only eating fat? That's insane. They would eat you, too. And also they're just really being affected by climate and climate change. That's why they're an icon for us, even though I think in a lot of ways they're sort of an imperfect icon. The IUCN estimates there are 26,000 polar bears left in the world, but if actions are not taken by the end of the century, we can only have a few populations left. Do you think there's any hope, and what do you think we need to do? I think there is hope. I never give up hope. With the polar bears, yeah, they're losing their habitat, which is the ice that's just frozen. The good thing about sea ice is it's very responsive to climate, so if we reduce greenhouse gases, cool things down, the sea ice is going to come back, and the polar bears will be okay, too. I have hope in that sense that it's not some sort of irreversible thing that's happened already. The more polar bears are threatened, the fewer of them there are, the harder it is to imagine them rebounding easily, even if there's sea ice around. Extinction is forever, as people like to say. It's hard to bring things back like that. Because polar bears live in such remote places, it's hard to track them all. This leads to controversy. Some say they're not as endangered as others. What are your thoughts on this? Well, it's not like there's just one polar bear environment. There's actually a whole bunch of different subspecies of polar bears, and they've all adapted kind of differently to their environment, mostly when the sea ice is present, they're out on it, and when they're not, some stay on land. So, yeah, it's totally fair. It's not like a one-size-fits-all in terms of how things are being impacted. For people, you know, the climate is changing, and the impacts on someone, for example, in Texas, where, for example, maybe you have more 115-degree days, that's very different than the impacts on Colorado, where maybe it means our landscape is drying out more, and we're having more fires. So it's not a one-size-fits-all, but at the end of the day, polar bears are independent on sea ice. Sea ice is a sensitive climate indicator, so if the sea ice goes away, the polar bears are going to be in trouble. It's just not all the same way at the same time. What do you think the other knowledge gaps are we have about polar bears? Oh, my gosh. I mean, I think sometimes even as basic questions as, like, how many polar bears there are, like, that's kind of a hard thing to actually ask me. The remote Arctic is hard to collect data from, and, you know, we can assume that we understand what's going on, but a lot of that is, you know, based on research that's pretty hard to do. So there's kind of two areas where there's been very long-term studies of polar bears, in the U.S. Arctic and also in the Canadian Arctic, and the Russians probably have a lot of data, too, but we don't always talk to Russians. That's fine. Anyways, there's some complicated geopolitical things there, too. But those long-term studies are really important. But it's just two spots, right? Like, you can imagine that you can't extrapolate to everything from that. Yeah. I think more data is always helpful, but it's also important to listen to imperfect data and make decisions with imperfect information. We're never going to have all of the answers. Yes. Going back to your time in the Arctic, was there something that changed your opinion or perspective about climate change and sea ice? Yeah. I mean, mostly I work with large data sets and models and satellites because they provide perspective over many years, and you can do controlled experiments or you can test hypotheses. It's a much, for me, much more satisfying intellectual environment. But actually being there, it changes your whole perception of how important this is because it affects people there. It affects land people there. It affects everything there, people, plants, animals, all these things. The very first time I stepped on sea ice, I fell through. I didn't go down to the bottom of the ocean. It was like this surface layer that had frozen, and then there was some water underneath, and then there was more ice underneath. But I screamed because I was like, I was like, ah, it's melting in the Arctic Ocean. And it's just one of these things that I think being there in person, I'm like, oh, yeah, it's melting. It's going away. Being there in person, it's like, I have no idea if there's a thin layer and that I'm not going to the bottom of the ocean. It's really important to be connected, and more than just the data and the hypotheses, but connected. Yes, for sure. Here is a message from our beloved sponsor, Patagonia. A great way to slow climate change is to support sustainable brands, and that is what we are all about here at Patagonia. Fight alongside Patagonia to save our beautiful climate. With code, we got this, exclamation point, exclamation point, get 10% off our entire winter collection. One of the lasting effects will be the distinction of polar bears. Polar bears rely on sea ice to hunt, eat, create a habitat, and live. During the months the ice is present, polar bears walk across and hunt seals out of the cracks and holes. There are only a few months of the year where the holes, where there are holes, where the sea ice is strong enough for polar bears to walk on, so they can hunt seals. During seasons where there is no sea ice, or the ice is too frozen, polar bears fast. They are able to fast for long because they gorge on seal fat, which is extremely high in calories. However, the time that polar bears are having to fast is growing larger each year. This is caused by the fact that polar bears are able to hunt seals for a long period of time. They are able to hunt seals for a long period of time, and they are able to hunt seals for a long period of time. The time that polar bears are having to fast is growing larger each year. This is causing them to be smaller and malnourished. They are having a harder time feeding their cubs. Female polar bears are having smaller litter sizes, and the cubs are having a harder time surviving because they have limited access to food. This causes polar bears to access not nourishing and fulfilling other sorts of food like human debris, whale carcass, snow duck eggs, but they are not as nourishing and fulfilling as seal fat. Therefore, they are becoming weaker. As the Arctic warms, polar bears are losing their habitat. A study shows that polar bears have lost two-thirds of their denning material since 1980. Because the warmer conditions have melted their dens and put their cubs at risk, polar bears are a keystone species, meaning they are at the top of the food chain. Since polar bears are endangered, the entire food chain is affected and endangered. Putting sea ice in danger puts the entire Arctic in danger. It does not just affect the polar bears, it affects every creature in the Arctic. Polar bears are having a harder time hunting seals, so they are getting into human debris. Polar bears are exploring closer to human populations looking for just anything to eat. Polar bears can be dangerous to humans, especially when they're hungry. There have been a few reported instances where polar bears have attacked humans, and a few more instances where polar bears have gotten hold of their household pets. While this is not sustainable for polar bears, and will most likely not be a lasting effect, it is a great danger, as you can imagine. While it's important and curious how climate change is and will affect the polar bears, it is also important to recognize how climate change will affect us all. Climate change affects every living being on Earth. It might not be obviously danger yet, but it is certainly coming, and soon the changes will be irreversible. Climate change is serious. The writing is on the walls, and we must take action now. Humans are causing climate change, and climate change is affecting everyone, whether we like it or not, and polar bears are getting the brunt of it. However, we can stop it, but we need to act now. If we don't act now, we lose the ice, which is reversible, but the distinction of polar bears is forever. This is a serious topic. Please share, and thank you so much for listening. Anything helps. Let's share the word to save polar bears. Hashtag, we got this. Thanks for listening to the Planet Podcast with Pierce.