Rapid action needed to save polar bears from climate change: WWF

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Environmental group defends Canada's seal hunt
A Quebec environmental group on Wednesday called on the European Parliament not to ban seal products, saying it would hurt the Gulf of Saint Lawrence ecosystem and local communities. Nature Quebec, part of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said in a letter to EU parliamentarians that a proposed ban "could have grave consequences" for residents of the Magdalen Islands and Newfoundland province. If the 350-year-old seal hunt were stopped now it also would damage the "ecological balance" of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, it said. The group cites studies which found that the seal population, if unchecked, would boom and threaten North Atlantic cod stocks. It also notes that the annual cull does not threaten the local seal population, estimated at 5.5 million in 2006. Last week, the European Union's legislative branch voted to ban products derived from seals from being imported into the EU, exported from it, or even transported through EU territory. The Canadian government responded with an ardent defense of the "humaneness" of seal-hunting and rejected efforts to outlaw the practice. The full European Parliament is to vote on the ban at a April 1 plenary session in Brussels. The measure also has to be approved by EU governments before it can be implemented. Each year, animal rights groups clash with sealers and Canadian fisheries officials on Canada's Atlantic coast, denouncing the hunt as cruel. "In our opinion, the international campaign against (the hunt) has no scientific foundation and has nothing to do with the way the animals are treated," Nature Quebec said. The group's director Christian Simard told AFP: "From an ecological standpoint, widespread opposition to the seal hunt is due to the graphic nature of bloody images of seals being clubbed to death." Seals are hunted mainly for their pelts, but also for meat and fat, which is used in beauty products. According to the European Commission, Canada, Greenland, and Namibia account for about 60 percent of the 900,000 seals hunted each year, with Canada being the biggest source. Seals are also hunted in Iceland, Norway, Russia, and the United States as well as in EU member states Britain, Finland and Sweden.

by Staff Writers
Oslo (AFP) March 12, 2009
Polar bears are in danger of being wiped out unless urgent measures are taken to combat climate change and rapid warming in the Arctic, environmental group WWF warned Thursday.

"No sea ice equates no polar bears. It's really that simple," WWF polar bear expert Geoff York told reporters.

York was speaking in Oslo days before representatives of the five countries bordering the Arctic were set to meet in the northern Norwegian town of Tromsoe on March 17 to discuss how to safeguard the bear.

The WWF insisted the Arctic countries had a special obligation to spearhead efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

"People have caused the problem, people have to fix it," said Rasmus Hansson, the head of WWF Norway, adding that several of the five Arctic nations "are also extremely important (to the development of) international climate change policies."

The three-day Tromsoe meeting grouping Canada, Denmark (with Greenland), Norway, Russia and the United States will discuss how to address threats against the polar bear that have emerged since they first signed a conservation agreement in 1973.

Back then, hunters were the only known threat against the white bear.

"Nobody thought about climate change at that time," said scientist Thor Larsen, who helped negotiate the 1973 accord.

More than three decades after the signing of the agreement however, WWF says climate change is now "the predominant threat" facing the majestic Arctic animal.

"Speaking about polar bears without addressing climate change is like discussing cod without wanting to speak about the sea," Hansson said.

As many as two thirds of the 20-25,000 polar bears that roam the Arctic could disappear within the next 50 years due to global warming, according to recent estimates from the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

And climate change is not the only thing threatening the bears today.

They are also increasingly exposed to toxic substances like PCB that flow into the region on the back of ocean and atmospheric currents, breaking down the mammals' immune systems and reproductive capabilities.

This in turn further complicates their ability to adapt to the shifting climate.

The Tromsoe meeting comes at "an extremely important moment," ahead of the talks on a new global pact on climate change in Copenhagen in December set to replace the Kyoto accord, Hansson said.

In the United States, President Barack Obama "has sent completely different signals than the previous administration on climate issues," he added.

According to some estimates, the Arctic sea ice that makes up the polar bear's hunting ground could completely disappear during the summer months by 2020.

It is not too late to act, said York, who used to work for the USGS.

He cautioned however that "oil, mining, shipping and military activities did not exist in previous times of warming," calling for all these activities to be reined in across the region.

WWF also warns that the problems facing polar bears today serve as an indicator for how the ecosystem is being affected, something that will eventually have serious implications for humans.

"If polar bears run into serious troubles, then we human beings are in for serious troubles too," Hansson said.

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British explorer sets off for Arctic ice cap mission

London (AFP) Feb 11, 2009
A British explorer set out Wednesday on an expedition to the North Pole to measure the thickness of the melting ice cap in a bid to help scientists predict the length of time before it disappears.

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