More problems for Polar Bears

Not only do they have to worry about their home dissolving right from under their paws but now they have to be careful what they eat. We really stuck it to them.  They have been around for about 200,000 years with virtually no worries and suddenly they have more than their share. Polar bears are the world's largest land predators. They top the food chain in the Arctic and the large males can weigh up to 1500 pounds so they really had no one to fear until global warming and life threatening man made chemicals showed up in their prey.

Due to warmer temperatures caused by global warming the Arctic ice is melting sooner in the spring so the bears are eating different foods. The bears now eat more harbor and harp seals and fewer bearded seals than before.  This shift in diet resulted in higher levels of PCBs and flame retardants in their tissues.  These chemicals have been linked to negative impacts on their reproductive and immune systems.  Also the bears are becoming thinner, have shorter life spans and give birth to less babies due to the shorter hunting season created by a shorter season of winter ice.

I am sure about now you are asking how in the world did flame retardants end up in the tissue of one of the most magnificent creatures on earth.  Flame retardants do just what you think, they make it harder for something to burn. The problems occurs when products sprayed with flame retardants are not properly dealt with after their “useful life“.  Hard to believe but some of the products end up in wastewater treatment plants instead of being reused or properly disposed of.  Wastewater treatment plants dump their “treated” sewage in the ocean and the flame retardants, now on the loose, swim towards the nearest piece of plastic. Flame retardants and other similar dangerous chemicals don’t mix well with water so they are attracted to pieces of plastic. In fact the concentration of these chemicals is a thousand times greater on the plastic in the ocean then in the surrounding water.  Then its up the food chain from the small fish eating these tiny chemical coated pieces of plastics to the polar bear.  It’s amazing what disgusting and disheartening information you can find when you really look for it.

But when can do something right now to slow and stop this process. Reuse everything you possibly can and please, whenever humanly possible, don’t buy plastic products, especially plastic water bottles.