Polar Bear Houses Melting

By Alicia Dorr in News on Oct 6, 2006 5:16PM

No one seems to be able to agree on whether it's the ominous specter of global warming or the earth's own ebb and flow of planetary hormones, but either way, some damn thing is up with the polar ice caps. You know, like how they aren't really icy anymore.

The facts just keep piling up: The Inuits are switching on air conditioners in public buildings, experienced hunters are disappearing through cracking and melting ice where it used to be rock solid, the end of the world is coming, seals have less fur ... the list goes on and on.

Tangible changes in the Arctic climate recently prompted one scientist from the University of Chicago to organize her colleagues around the world to campaign for the safety of one of the most well-known Arctic animals -- the polar bear. With temperatures 7 degrees warmer than ever before and the ice not recovering from summer melting, Pamela Martin organized an appeal to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, urging that the polar bear be listed as a "threatened species."

Well, we're all for it. We think polar bears are okay. We do wonder, however, if the bears are even in the Arctic just now. After all, we saw them on a tropical island while watching "Lost", and it got us to thinking: maybe they're just taking some time off with the money they've earned from Coca-Cola in the last decade. They'll probably be back in time for the Christmas campaign.