Climate change - are humans to blame?

Mum says that there are some people who think that the climate isn’t changing because of what humans are doing. Some people think climate change is just natural and that it would happen anyway. Some people think that all the pollution that is being pumped into the atmosphere and the rivers every day, and all the dumping of toxic waste, all the litter, all the cars that are being driven, all the waste that every human produces each day – all of that makes no difference.

Well, we believe it DOES make a difference. Those folk who say it doesn’t make a difference don’t live up here in the Arctic. They don’t see all the changes that mum sees.

Due to climate change over a hundred thousand animal species have been made extinct this year. Extinct means “all gone” – so that means they will never come back. That’s a shame.

Ten million tons of toxic chemicals have been released into the environment by industries this year. Mum says that lots of those chemicals can make you humans really ill. We don’t know how much a million is because we can only count to ten, but we bet it’s a lot.

Did you know that today the sun’s energy striking earth will be over 16 billion MWh?

Did you know that there is enough energy coming from the sun each day to power the whole world? The energy that comes from the sun is free. And it doesn’t pollute anything, so why don’t you humans use more of it? Only 7% of energy coming from renewable sources like the sun is used by the world each day, the rest comes from things that aren’t renewable, like coal, oil, gas and stuff like that. Things that pollute the atmosphere.

Did you know that this year alone 20 billion tons of CO2 has been pumped into the atmosphere?

We reckon that those folk who say that climate change isn’t happening because of what humans are doing are simply fooling themselves. Mum says they’ve got their head stuck in the snow, or is it sand? Anyhow, mum says they just don’t want to know because they don’t want to accept responsibility. Mum says that people should act now, whilst they’ve got the chance. If everyone did just a little bit more than they’re already doing, it would make a big difference. We want our world to stay clean, as clean and as lovely as the photo below.

Litter can kill!

We’ve had a great day today playing in the snow, but mum says that some of our relatives in a place called Alaska are running out of ice and snow because of all this global warming business.

The ice is melting when it shouldn’t melt and some of our relatives are having to eat human food in order to survive. Mum says they have to raid litter bins, go on rubbish dumps, like the one below, and eat leftovers from places where humans eat.

Mum says these human food places are called ‘fast food’ places, and that the food is sometimes horrid.

We don’t know what she means by fast food. Perhaps it’s food that can run really fast? Cheetahs can run really fast and some dogs can run really fast, but they’re not food. Not for us anyway. Mum says that there are ‘fast food’ places called Muck Donalds, Ken Yucky Fried Chicken and Bogey King. We reckon you humans go there and then have to chase your fast food around all day before you catch it. We bet you’re dead hungry by the time you eat it, with all that running around and stuff.

The trouble is, mum says that some humans eat this fast food and then throw all their litter all over instead of putting it in bins or recycling it.



Dumping litter is HORRIBLE. It looks ugly and it can kill animals and it pollutes our planet. Some things like plastic carrier bags and plastic pop bottles can last a long, long time – hundreds and hundreds of years and they can kill animals because animals sometimes eat them or get trapped in them, read about plastic bags here - Deadly plastic bags

Don’t litter! Never! Don’t let your mums and dads litter, and don’t let them use any more of them killer plastic bags and tell them always to re-cycle those plastic pop bottles and not to dump them in the countryside like some nasty people do. They should put rubbish in a litter bin where it belongs, recycle things whenever possible and use those nice re-useable cotton bags for their shopping. Remember, its YOUR planet so don’t let them kill it.

Here’s a clip about the ice melting – its funny to watch, but sad too. The ice has always melted in these parts, that’s what happens, but it’s melting at times when it shouldn’t melt, and in some parts its not coming back – and we polar bears need ice to survive.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LMmu-DKaQ0

Did you know.....?

Did you know that polar bear cubs are born in a den deep under the snow? Just like the one above. Can you imagine that? I bet you think that it’d be really cold, but it wasn’t because mum is all furry and warm. Mum made a great big den deep in a snowdrift and sneaked in when nobody was looking, then she covered the entrance so that from the outside nobody knew that there was a huge polar bear underneath it.

After a week or so she gave birth to us and then we all stayed in the den together for three whole months. When mum was in the den with us she didn’t eat or drink anything at all and she didn’t have to go to the toilet. You’re probably thinking that’s impossible, but it isn’t. Mum says that female Polar Bears have a very special METABOLISM - we don’t really know what that word means, but whatever it is mum’s right, it must be VERY special.



We were very tiny when we were born. Much, much tinier than a human baby. We looked a bit like that photo above. We only weighed about 500 grams and we were blind to start with and couldn’t hear very well, but we soon started growing with the rich milk that mum fed us.

After about three months mum decided it was time to get out and find some food. By that time we were big enough to walk and play.

“By that time Snowball had got on my nerves SO MUCH I was DYING to get out.”
“ME? Getting on YOUR nerves? Listen everyone - Snowflake had been a pain too, she kept wanting to play ‘Eye-Spy’ and trust me there isn’t much to spy in a big white snow den - it was always something beginning with 'S' - boring....”
“It was better than noughts and crosses....”

What would happen if all the snow melted? Then mum polar bears wouldn’t be able to dig ice dens and they wouldn’t be able to have any more cubs. That would be a CATASTROPHE – We don’t really know what that word means, but mum uses it a lot.

INTERESTING FACT: Did you know that the word ‘Arctic’ comes from the Greek word ‘arktos’, which means bear?

Watch this great video about a mum polar bear emerging from her ice den with her two cubs - it could be us....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwZH_aT0FGI

We've now got names - THANK YOU!

Hello! After calculating the offline votes at Crystal Peaks and the online voting, the winning names were Layla for mum, Snowball for the little boy Polar Bear cub and Snowflake for the little girl Polar Bear cub. The other favourites were Nyla, Paws and Poppy. Thanks everyone for voting.

“Hello, I’m Snowball and I’m the little boy Polar Bear cub.”

“Hello, I’m Snowflake, and I’m the little girl cub.”

“TOGETHER WE’RE THE ICE BLOGGERS.”

It’s great having names, it’s a bit dull being called Little One and Little Two, which is what mum used to call us. Mum’s lovely but she hasn’t got much imagination. Now mum’s got a name too and she’s really proud and keeps telling her friends to call her Layla

We’re writing to you from the Arctic, which is the cold bit around the North Pole and a lot of it looks like that photo above. We don’t know why it’s called the North Pole, because there isn’t a pole here. Well, if there is one we’ve never seen it and neither has mum, and she’s been around a LONG time – she’s ancient – but don’t tell her we told you that.

The Arctic is REALLY, REALLY cold, but not as cold as it used to be ‘cause your mums and dads haven’t been very green in the past and now the world’s warming up much faster than everyone thought it would and if something isn’t done about it all the snow and ice might melt and we’d have nowhere to live. We’d be homeless and after that us Polar Bears might be extinct. We think that the word ‘extinct’ means ‘all gone’. We don’t want to be all gone, we want to keep living and have our own cubs one day. With your help maybe we will.

We’re off now to play with mum and look for something to eat. See you soon.

Here’s a game for you to play until our next blog next Monday.

Polar Hockey