Sunday, July 31, 2011

Polar Bears


There was a documentary about the Polar Bears, these beautiful creatures of Canada which are in the verge of distinction on CBC the other night and it answered a question I had a long time ago. The story speaks about Churchill, Manitoba, a little town adjacent to Hudson Bay.
Every year the Polar Bears who are wandering around northern Manitoba and vicinity of Hudson Bay, get trapped at the south side of it because of the ice meltdown in July and have no way to go back north. For that reason they get deprived of having their most nutritious food, the seals. They have to roam around Churchill and other places for food, like garbage, goose egg, fish and small stuff like that. They, then, lose a significant amount of weight, some die because now the meltdown is longer as a result of global warming. The documentary does not say what happens to the larger population of Polar Bears who their habitat is not around Hudson Bay but generally blames global warming for as the prime risk for them. That's a sad story because just watching these beautiful creatures on TV is very nice. Imagine that you're in Churchill on that very special vehicle and watching them from feet away, where I wanted to go in 2005 and couldn't and I still want to. The Government apparently does not have a plan yet and I hope they come up with something before we only see them on Loonies. I hope the Government consider this problem as important as Somalia and Afghanistan!
(Photo: This map, although small, shows where Churchill in Northern Manitoba is located)



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