I ONCE CHOOSED  TO WRITE A REPORT ON GLOBAL WARMING AND IT'S EFFECTS ON POLAR BEARS FOR A SCIENCE PROJECT. THIS IS WHAT IT CONTAINED:

Summary: Global Warming has been a threat for over 50 years. It causes the earth’s temperature to rise. This change in temperature affects all life on earth. Especially in the Arctic; the home of the polar bears. Global warming is forcing polar bears to change their behavior in order to survive in their melting habitat.

ABOUT POLAR BEARS:

1. Has white fur which they use for camouflage. The fur also protects them from the arctic cold.
2. Female Adults: Weight about 400-500 pounds. They grow up to be an average of 6ft long.
3. Male Adults: Grow up to be 8ft to 11ft long. They could even weigh up to 1,000 pounds.
4. They hunt seals and walruses, but they mostly eat ringed seals.
5. They have long bodies.
6. They are great swimmers. They have a strong sense of smell. They can smell food from 10 miles away. They can sniff out their prey under thick layers of ice and snow.
7. Female polar bears usually give birth to twin cubs.
8. A polar bear gives birth during late November or early December.
9. A pregnant females will occupy an empty den from October to April.
10. At birth cubs weight 1 1/2 pounds.
11. At birth they are only 10inches long.
12. Most cubs live with their mothers for up to 2 years.
13. Wild polar bears have the ability to live up to 33 years of age.
14. Captured polar bears can live longer than 33 years.
15. There are about 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears left in the world.
16. They rarely attack humans.
17. Before humans used to hunt them for their fur and meat.

Laws that Protect them

In the past polar bears were hunted for their fur and meat. This caused a great decrease in the polar bear’s population. Now many countries had made up laws that helped these creatures from being extinct. Like the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. It prohibited any body from hunting, killing, or harassing any species of marine mammals. The animals protected by this law include: dolphins, whales, seals, sea lions, polar bears, mentees, dugongs, and walruses.

A DANGER TO THE WORLD

1. Global Warming is caused by heat-trapping gases like: Carbon Dioxide, greenhouse gases, methane, etc.
2. Global Warming is causing the following problems:
3. Air pollution
4. Smoke
5. Harsher or constant storms
6. Warmer water temperature
7. Spreading of insects
8. Floods
9. Fires
10. Rise in sea levels
11. Heavy rain, water shortage, and increase or decrease in populations.
12. Greenhouse gases are constantly being released by factories and cars. These gases cause air pollution and smoke. This results in poor air quality. The heat is drying out water, causing droughts, heat waves and fires. The increase in temperature is causing ice glaciers to melt, which in turn causes landslides and floods.

13. The arctic ice has been decreasing each year. At first, it was only decreasing by a small amount, but now the decrease in ice is becoming a great problem. So bad in fact, that by the year 2030 or probably sooner, the Arctic Ocean will become ice-free. From the years 1980 to 2008, the ice has decreased by 1.2 million square miles.

14. Global Warming is melting the ice glaciers in the arctic. The melting glaciers than become water and becomes part of the arctic sea. This causes the sea level to rise. Glaciers are a large moving mass of ice and snow.

Conclusion:

Since the Arctic Ice is melting, they need to find new forms to hunt. Especially since, they depend heavily on the ice to hunt and travel; polar bears will most likely be the first species to be put on the endangered list because of global warming. Global warming is reducing the number of surviving cubs, and taking away their environment. These are the reasons why people are frequently reporting polar bear sightings on land. The polar bears are now eating plants found on land. This is considered bad since the plants do nothing to help with their energy supply. Other alternatives for food the bears are using are hunting reindeers, and already killed bow-head whales. Both the North and South hemisphere are being affected by global warming, especially the Northern Hemisphere. The reason why it is being affected more is because it has more land. Moreover, land is able to warm faster than the ocean. The greenhouse gases and other heat-trapping gases are causing the ice to melt to further progress. In turn, this causes an increase of warm air; warm air is able to holds water vapor that make up clouds, and this causes to keep more heat in the arctic.

Bibliography/Sources:

National Geographic Society. “Twilight of the Arctic Ice” and “Arctic Ocean: The Unexpected Frontier,” National Geographic Magazine, May 2009

“Global Warming” http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/

“Some of the Major Laws Protecting Endangered Species” http://www.earthtrust.org/wlcurric/appen2.html

“Glaciers and the Glacial Ages” http://www.uvm.edu/whale/GlaciersGlacialAges.html

“ESA Listing Not Needed for Polar Bears” http://www.heartland.org/policybot/results/20631/ESA_Listing_Not_Needed_for_Polar_Bears.html

“Why Glaciers” http://nsidc.org/glaciers/information.html

The Topic: Glaciers“ http://42explore.com/glaciers.htm

“Effects of Global Warming“ http://www.woottonwebdevclass.com/webdevlcass/Lim_Ketnita_MP3Project/Global%20Warming/index.html

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/

http://www.climatehotmap.org/

http://technorati.com/r/tag/global-warming

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-polar15-2008may15,0,3046744.story

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-polar15-2008may15,0,3046744.story

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1095565

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/globalwarming/globalwarming.html

http://www.americazoo.com/kids/arctic.htm

http://thomonthenet.com/Alaska2006/Alaska9999a.jpg

http://www.r10net-seo-yarismasi.com/resimler/Global-Warming.jpg

http://www.arcticimages.com/images/extra213.jpg