Polar bears could be facing extinction by 2050
US scientists have predicted that two thirds of the world's polar bears could be killed off by 2050, and the total population of Alaska completely wiped out, due to thinning sea ice in the Arctic. Only in the west coast of Greenland and the islands in the Canadian Arctic are there expected to be any survivors according to the US Geological Survey. They predict that the current population of 16,000 bears will rapidly decline, and the ones in the north coast of Alaska and Russia will disappear in the next half century. Polar bears are dependant on the sea ice for hunting seals, as they very rarely catch them on land or in the open waters. Even if mankind make drastic changes to the amounts of carbon the are producing it's unlikely this forecast will change, considering the rapid decline in the Arctic sea ice. Polar bears have existed on earth for over 40,000 years.
[via MSNBC]
