• Question: Will polar bears die if the ice melts

    Asked by phsycics108 to Cat?, Elaine, Helena, Iain, Gabriel on 7 Mar 2016. This question was also asked by BROD!!!.
    • Photo: Helena Quilter

      Helena Quilter answered on 7 Mar 2016:

      Oh that’s a really sad thought! Polar bears spend most of their lives on the sea ice. They need the sea ice to hunt for their food and if more ice melts they will have to travel much further to try to get food so they might not be able to get enough. However polar bears can live on land – they do for some months of the year while the sea isn’t frozen. Usually during that time they change their diets and they don’t eat as much as when they’re on the ice. The sea ice melting wouldn’t be very good for polar bears 🙁

      It’s not all bad news though. Last year lots of leaders like our Prime Minister from different countries got together in Paris and agreed to take action against climate change so hopefully that will make a difference and the rate the sea ice melting will stop increasing and polar bears will be OK! There’s also lots of research into helping the polar bears too. I think polar bears are very beautiful animals and hope they’re around for a long long time.

    • Photo: Cat Scott ?

      Cat Scott ? answered on 13 Mar 2016:

      If all the ice melted it would be very bad for the polar bears! ? ? As Helena said, they would have to change how they normally live, and travel further to find food – they might be able to adapt to having less ice eventually, but it would be hard for them. ? The best thing we can do to help them is to try and stop climate change from getting so bad that all the ice melts, this means trying to save energy (like by turning lights off when you leave a room ?) and always trying to recycle things rather than throwing them away.

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