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With Arctic temperatures rising at twice the rate of the rest of the planet, the immediate threat to polar bears is ice melt. Sea ice is polar bear habitat. It's where they live, raise their young and provides the source of what they eat, seals. With higher temperatures causing the ice to melt earlier, they are driven ashore before they have time to acquire enough fat to survive the food scarcity of late summer and fall. We have only to watch the news to see the results.

Starving bears are forced into coastal communities looking for food where they become a threat to residents and so put themselves at even higher risk. Yet their only alternative to find food is to swim longer distances, which further depletes their fat reserves and can lead to drowning when no ice is found.

You're right, it's not a pretty picture… and it's not getting better. In 2008, Arctic sea ice shrank 34% below the 1979-2000 average! Our bears in Hudson Bay are already smaller, weaker and females are having fewer cubs. But it's not just Hudson Bay. Polar bear populations are decreasing worldwide. In the five “bear” nations – U.S., Russia, Greenland, Norway, and Canada – just 20,000 to 25,000 remain. With three-quarters of these in Canada, we must assume a leadership role globally by acting locally. Fortunately we have a plan.