Posted on 10 April 2014
| Every autumn, in the Arctic archipelago
of Svalbard, polar bears build dens to give
birth and nurse their young through the
first days of life. Knowing how many cubs
are born – and where their dens are located
– is critical to understanding the status
of the bears as they face a future of rapidly
decreasing ice.
When the polar bears
of Svalbard venture from their dens this
year, a joint expedition of WWF-Canon and
the Norwegian Polar Institute will be there
to observe how the bears are adapting to
changing sea ice conditions.
The WWF-Canon expedition
comes only weeks after the maximum extent
of Arctic sea ice was found to be at its
fifth lowest level in the satellite record.
A recently published paper also suggests
that the Svalbard expedition area will be
ice-free in summer by 2050.
“We don’t know what
the future holds for these bears,” said
Geoff York, WWF lead on polar bears. “We
do know that bear populations deprived of
sea ice for significant amounts of time
are less likely to survive or breed successfully.”
There is some evidence
that the Svalbard population is moving away
from traditional denning sites on the Norwegian
islands. The bears need to be close to sea
ice to hunt when they emerge from their
dens. One possibility is that they are moving
further east where the ice survives longer.
“For WWF, this is important
work to understand how many cubs were born
last winter and where they were born,” said
Gert Polet, an Arctic expert with WWF-Netherlands.
“We want to see how polar bears use an area
that is encountering such rapid change because
of melting and shifting sea ice.”
NPI researchers will
place satellite collars on female bears
so that they can track their travel over
the next year. Comparing the position of
the bears to satellite information about
the sea ice will help explain how polar
bears are responding to ice conditions and
how they might adapt to future changes.
Four of the bears collared
during the expedition can be followed on
WWF’s polar bear tracker as soon as the
satellite collars are activated. The NPI
and WWF-Canon expedition runs from April
11 through April 21 and can be followed
at http://panda.org/svalbard
The expedition is sponsored
by Canon Europe, Conservation Imaging Partner
of WWF International. Canon has a longstanding
partnership with WWF that goes back over
sixteen years, using imaging expertise to
help WWF record and promote awareness of
the state of the environment and climate
change. Canon is supplying photographic
equipment for this project and sponsoring
a leading Swedish wildlife photographer
and Canon Ambassador, Brutus Östling,
to capture images of the wildlife encountered
along the way.
+ More
Gambling problem?
Posted on 11 April 2014
| As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change meets on measures to reduce the impact
of climate change, the answer to the global
problem remains clear: The world must stop
betting on a dirty fossil fuel energy system
and should instead double-down on investment
in clean, sustainable renewable energy.
While no easy task,
the good news is that the shift is already
beginning.
In a report released
today, WWF details how action is being taken
to promote renewable energy in countries
around the world. The report -- Decarbonizing
the Future: Seizing Power for Global Change
-- demonstrates the solutions for reducing
global greenhouse gas emissions and holding
global temperature increases below 2°C.
In India, a national
action plan will result in up to 20 billion
watts of grid-based solar power coming online
by 2022 – accounting for close to 10% of
India’s total installed power generation
capacity.
In China, where wind
power is already generating more electricity
than nuclear, Decarbonizing the Future shows
how proven renewable energy technology could
support over 80% of the country’s growing
power demand toward 2050.
In Norway, the world’s
largest sovereign wealth fund is evaluating
the climate change impact of its coal, oil
& gas investments.
In Mexico, a national
program details specific sectors and cross-sector
activities for each ministry in the public
administration, including clean energy infrastructure
and forest conservation.
In South Africa, where
per capita emissions are higher than in
China and India, WWF is working to help
the old carbon economy become more efficient
and productive using green economy strategies
and building completely new sectors through
low carbon technologies, infrastructure
and systems.
“The clear message from
the IPCC is that climate change is a massive
risk that the world isn’t doing enough to
tackle. Changing the world’s energy sector
is central to the task of confronting that
risk. We can’t continue to gamble with the
future of the world we depend on,” said
Dr Stephan Singer, Director of Global Energy
Policy for WWF.
With renewable energy
such a safe bet, why keep bluffing our way
through taking real action on climate change?
As Decarbonizing the Future shows, action
on climate change is accessible, achievable
and is already being taken.
WWF’s Seize Your Power
campaign calls on financial institutions
to significantly increase their funding
of renewable energy and cut funding to fossil
fuels as a key means of tackling climate
change. In the past year the World Bank,
European Investment Bank and the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development
have all committed to virtually end coal
investments.
