Global Warming remains the biggest threat to the survival of polar bears.  Seals are the primary source of food for polar bears, and the bears hunt the seals on ice.  When the ice melts in summer, the bears come ashore, but are unable to hunt the seals until the ice forms again in the autumn.   Due to climate change, the ice is melting earlier and the re-freezing is occurring later, which means that the polar bears have to go longer without food.  According to David Majewski, a naturalist for the National Wildlife Federation, this time period has increased from 120 days in the 1970s to 160 days in 2010, more than a month longer.  Especially affected are female polar bears of cub-bearing age.  To watch an excellent video on this topic go to the National Wildlife Federation website and key “no good news for polar bears” in the “search” window.
In another area of concern, Shell Alaska’s hopes to begin drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas this summer received a giant boost when the Obama Administration’s Interior Department approved the firm’s “emergency plan” for dealing with oil spills in that isolated region of the Arctic.  The area in question is 1000 miles from the nearest Coast Guard station and any urban or industrial infrastructure.  According to the L.A. Times, Shell’s oil spill response plan promises “beefed up well-drilling standards; the permanent presence of a full-time federal inspector on board; standards and inspections on blowout preventers; and the existence of a second drilling rig nearby to drill a relief well in the event of a blowout” in addition to a “fleet of oil-spill response vessels to be on hand at all times” and a U.S. Coast Guard vessel as well.  Approval of an emergency response plan was the biggest hurdle Shell had to face in its quest for an OK for its Arctic drilling plans.  It appears as if overall approval is near.  The firm expects to begin drilling in June.  As to the company’s claims regarding the efficacy of its emergency spill plan, let us not forget that BP also asserted that it could deal with massive oil spills before the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe last spring.