An Isolated Polar Bear
As human attempts to develop more and more technologies in industrial aspects, new and grand industrial infrastructures started to establish at a rapid speed around the world. Since human’s needs for various advantages from industrial development are endless, the globe inevitably is affected by those. One of the major global environmental problems is ‘global warming’. The factors of global warming can be varied. For example, it can be the high usage(heating) of coal and oil, deforestation, the immense amount of garbage(plastics, electronic devices) etc. According to WHO (World Health Organization), climate change affects social and environmental determinants of health such as clean air, safe drinking water etc. They also expected that between 2030 and 2050, climate change will cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year. Surface temperature increases 0.2 °C in every decade on average and from 2011 to 2021, the average temperature rose 1.09°C more than the average temperature between 1850 to 1900, which is the standard of industrialization.
For the North Pole, March 21, 2021, the maximum range(area) of glaciers on the Arctic Ocean recorded the lowest value as of 2007. The range of sea ice is decreasing by 13.1% on average every decade. The global loss of ice is at a serious level. Especially, between 1994 to 2017, the loss of ice increased record-breaking.
‘An Isolated Polar Bear’ shows an obvious circumstance that the most polar bears in the North Pole are in. Normally, a polar bear on only one glacier is able to inhabit larger glaciers with the proper temperature which fits them. However, the polar bear is just standing on one glacier dangerously. There are other glaciers, but they are already polluted with several factors that contribute to global warming, so they aren’t normal glaciers anymore. Other glaciers consist of a high usage of coal and oil, an immense amount of garbage including microplastics, exhaust gas from cars, and deforestation. These glaciers are threatening the embattled polar bear. Among those glaciers, the polar bear doesn't seem to have a force to stand out anymore on only one glacier.
References
By Jeehoo Lee
Email address: jeehoo.lee26@fryeburgacademy.org