Do you dream about drowning polar bears, weary seals, and starving walruses? I do. Each day the ice gets thinner. Polar bears swim over 80 miles, and finding neither ice nor food, they drown. I have thought and thought about what to do. I couldn't think of a thing and then I had brainstorm. PLASTIC! Here's my idea, but it needs more expertise than I have.

We have more plastic than we know what to do with. We take small amounts of it and make picnic tables and benches. Why not make islands and take them to the Arctic? I know it sounds crazy but think about it. Here is my novice idea of the requirements of these islands.

1. They need to float.

2. They need to be sturdy enough to not break up and to hold a polar bear or two, or any other mammal that needs to take a break.

3. They need to be rough enough to trap ise and maybe provide a foothold.

4. They should probably be tethered from the bottom so they don't just float off to shore somewhere.

5. There needs to be a bunch of them.

So here is where you come in. I know nothing about plastics, molds, or real Arctic pressures. I have no resources or contacts (that I know of) that do know these things. All I have is an idea. I figure that if the idea travels far enough that it will run into those who have the knowledge, the resources, and the contacts. So share, contribute, and pass it on.

I had the exact same idea a while back! It seems that some kind of plastic pontoon (thick air filled tubes) could keep the things afloat. A simple structure holding that together, and on top of that some kind of deck. I think the design is simpler than the materials. This is an idea whose time is now, we just need the right contacts.

Posted by: camron assadi on November 21, 2006 9:57 PM

You don't need to worry about polar bears yet.

Polar bear populations are still doing ok. While some populations are declining in some S parts of their range (often people generalize from these well studied areas to the entire polar population), they are increasing in others.

Hunting, not climate change, is the biggest source of mortality for polar bears, and a least in Canada and Greenland hunting is regulated (if at possibly a bit high levels).

For a good review of climate change impacts on biodiversity see C Parmesan's recent review article

http://cns.utexas.edu/communications/2006/11/global_species.asp

Posted by: Garry Peterson on November 22, 2006 11:37 AM

I received the following email from Camron in response to the question he posed at Polar Bears Internationalin response to this article:

Several people have asked about this. We posed the question to polar
bear scientist Dr. Steven Amstrup, who serves on our advisory council.
His answer is posted on our web site in a section called "Ask the
Experts." I've attached a text version here. Unfortunately, this isn't
a solution that will work for the bears.

The text response:

A: The problem with disappearing ice is that ice is the platform from which polar bears hunt. Polar bears are adapted to a few very specific kinds of predation strategies, all of which depend upon access to seals at the air/sea/ice interface. Giving polar bears a place to rest doesn't solve their main problem, which is how to catch something to eat in an ice-free environment. Hence, the idea of floating platforms--even if you could figure out how to anchor them in thousands of feet of water (100 miles north of Prudhoe it is 10,000-feet deep)--does not solve the main problem that polar bears are likely to face in the future.

Dr. Steven C. Amstrup is the Ursid & Arctic Marine Team Leader at the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Science Center in Anchorage, Alaska. He also serves on PBI's Wild Bear Advisory Committee. If you'd like to submit a question for this column, please visit our Website at www.polarbearsinternational.org and send it via our contact form.

I am not sure this actually answers the question as It would seem that the platform would not need to be anchored per se (ice floes aren't) just with enough resistance to keep them from moving around too much.

Thanks to PBI for responding and Camron for reporting.

Posted by: Rowan Wolf on November 22, 2006 7:46 PM

Well, Polar Bears International got back to me. Below is their response. Essentially they argue that the platform idea won't work because they could turn into battering rams.

Thanks for your continued interest and concern. The seas can be so rough in the Far North that unsecured platforms could end up acting as battering rams. This could be hazardous to coastal communities or ships. Ice floes have a different structure--there is always way more ice beneath the surface, which helps keep them anchored.

Right now, scientists are focused on the urgent task of gathering data related to climate change and polar bear populations so that the news can be reported worldwide and informed decisions can be made. There is still a window of time to slow down climate change. Gathering and distributing fact-based information has been the main thrust of our efforts.
People like you can help us make in difference in this, and we appreciate your concern and support.

Warm regards,

Barbara Nielsen
PBI

Posted by: Rowan on November 27, 2006 7:51 AM