Climate Change In Canada

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A typical year in the arctic follows the same seasonal structure as a typical year in Canada – mild springs, followed by warm summers and cold autumns and winters – with the exception of it being exponentially colder. Springs and summers in the arctic, however, are becoming increasingly warmer and are starting earlier than normal, thus causing shorter and warmer autumns and winters. This, in turn, allows less time for the ice which melted in the warm months to freeze over again in the cold months. The seriousness of this issue is discussed in a report titled Climate Change Impacts on Arctic Wildlife by Greenpeace researchers Michelle Allsopp, David Santillo, and Paul Johnston (2012). They state that the shorter season of the temporary sea ice …show more content…

Because spring is starting earlier and winter is being cut short, polar bears are not able to hunt enough, rendering them unable to gain the amount of weight needed to last them though the warmer seasons. As a result, polar bears are spending more time on land where there is little food, causing malnutrition, poor body condition (Fig. 2), and lower rates of reproduction and survival (p. 5-6). This has resulted in a 22% reduction in population size between 1987 and 2004 (p. 6). In Conservation and management of Canada’s polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in a changing Arctic, Peacock, Derocher, Thiemann, and Stirling (2011) state that Canada has a responsibility for the conservation of polar bears – the decline in their population is not acceptable, and Canadians must be active in protecting the species from extinction because “majority of the polar bears in the world occur within the nation’s borders” (p. 371). They are one of the most sensitive Arctic marine mammals to climate change because their main prey are either located in the ocean (such as beluga whales), or on sea ice (such as seals) (p.

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