Kudos for Coke: Polar bear campaign seeks 'last ice' Arctic preserve

Polar bear campaign seeks 'last ice' Arctic preserve - Politics - CBC News:

The plight of the polar bear is so dire due to the shrinking of sea ice crucial to its habitat that some scientists are musing about moving them to a "last ice area" in the high Arctic.

The belief is that polar bear survival is reaching a tipping point because of the retreating sea ice. Currently, there are 150 to 160 ice-free days in the Arctic each year. Once that number reaches 170, Andrew Derocher, a University of Alberta polar bear researcher, frets the bear population will decline by up to 40 per cent.

That prediction has Derocher calling for drastic action.

"It's very clear that populations in the southern regions of the polar bear range are going to disappear," argues Derocher. "The best thing we can do is have areas set aside where they can live relatively undisturbed."

And it isn't just academics who are worried. Soft drink giant Coca-Cola is teaming up with the World Wildlife Fund to raise awareness about the Arctic icon's fate.

This Christmas, Coke will change 94 million of its iconic red cans to white to raise awareness about the fate of the polar bear. The company will also donate up to $3 million to WWF over the next five years.






 
Rest of the story here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/10/26/pol-environment-polar-bears-relocation.html

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