by Oliver St John

     Food is getting scarce in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. A polar bear, a member of a once-proud yet diminishing species, has had to swim out further and further to find his meal today. The oceans are getting warmer, and the creatures who provide his sustenance are themselves fewer and fewer in number. His appetite only partially sated, he begins the trek back.

     The same warming of the oceans, however, has fragmented the ice floes he calls home. The smaller pieces of ice are melting rapidly, and there is no longer sufficient ice to hold the weight of a bear. Exhaustion is settling in, and stable ice is still far away.

     Finally, his tired limbs simply refuse to take him any further. Even keeping his head above water requires more effort than his muscles have left in them. With no land in sight and no rescue, he manages one final breath before he goes under.

     Within a few moments, the once-magnificent polar bear is reduced to a half ton of flotsam, perhaps leaving his mate abandoned or his cubs orphaned.

     I wish this were fiction. Regrettably, the depletion of the polar bear population is making the news as one more heartbreaking consequence of global warming, and our own inaction to prevent it.

     If the rising temperatures are not bothering you, if the slowly encroaching sea levels are not affecting you... consider the beautiful animal you've seen at zoos, in National Geographic, even in a hundred Coca-Cola commercials around the holidays.

     The polar bear is on a course toward extinction. Your grandchildren may never see one.

     We've seen some good work done by campaigns to Save the Rainforest, to Save the Whales, to Save the Planet - please consider what you can do to Save the Bears.