Save the Polar Bears!

  environment

3 min read | 622 words | 806 views | 0 comments

When you think of cute and cuddly pets, polar bears may not come to mind first thing. But polar bears are one of the most affectionate creatures that roam this planet, and the loss of such a wonderful species to global warming (yes, it's happening), would be beyond catastrophic. Do your part to help save these amazing creatures before it's too late, and help make the world a better place! By simply changing your lifestyle with these revolutionary tips, you can ensure that generations to come will still be able to enjoy these marvelous creatures.

First and foremost, you need to be motivated. To gain an appreciation for this wonderful species, I highly encourage you to watch this short documentary. You can watch this with your students in a regular class period or watch it during a break in your day. This is truly one of the most inspiring documentaries I've ever watched, topped only by the 9/11 documentary "Inside the Twin Towers", (But I'll wait until September to post that.) You can watch this documentary right on this page.

If this video won't play, you can watch it directly on YouTube.

Update: As of 2020, "World of Discovery - Polar Bears: Arctic Terror" has been taken offline. You may obtain it from ABC.

Hopefully after you watch this video, you'll have a bigger appreciation for our friends at the North Pole. Here are some ways that you can help save the polar bears:

• Adopt a Polar Bear — The Polar Bears International Website has a page where you can "adopt" a polar bear. Don't worry; it's all symbolic. Unless of course, you would rather adopt a real polar bear and swim with it like this guy!
• Turn your monitor off at the end of the day, or when you're not using it. Computer monitors may seem like a trivial and neglectable source of wasted power, but let me assure you: if everyone in the world left their monitors on overnight that would be a lot of wasted electricity. Let your monitor sleep.
• Connect infrequently used (and frequently used) devices and appliances to power strips and surge protectors. Not only is this safer, but with the flick of a switch you can easily shut off power to anything drawing power from it — another easy way to save power.
• If you're leaving your home for extended periods of time, take a moment to visit your electrical panel before you do. Look through all of the switches and switch all of the circuits you won't need off, such as the power to your bathroom or your living room lights. Or, if you're travelling during a temperate time of year, you can probably just turn the whole panel off. Just make sure that you reset your alarm clock when you come back.
• Don't leave the water running — If you're waiting for it to warm up or cool down, collect that water and use it for something else.
• If possible, walk to where you're going. Not only will help reduce carbon emissions, but you'll get some excercise too.
• Go see the polar bears at the zoo. Although this doesn't help the polar bears, it will be fascinating to see polar bears in a semi-natural habitat and perhaps you'll get some inspiration while you're there.

Those were just a couple things you can do to help the environment — but there's many more out there! Now that I've given you some ideas, do something today to reduce your carbon footprint and help the polar bears out! I appreciate it, and I'm sure that the polar bears will too!

If the king should someday be toppled by environmental change, what would it say about the survival of his subjects?

(46:46 from video above)