==JAPAN: KM== [Environment]

I know that you held a conference on 1997 in Kyoto protecting against the global warming and I believe that more people have started to pay attention to global warming, and get more information about ecological problems since then. Do you know that some species will even be in danger of extinction? If you have seen the list of the species which will be affected by the climate changes, you must have found our name among them--------yes, we polar bears. I have come here to talk more clearly, about what is really going on around us. Please do not say that such problems are not related to you. Please know exactly what kind of disasters will make us suffer--------we wild creatures. Then, think what should be done, what you should do.
The Arctic, where we live, includes the polar areas like Greenland and the northern edges of Canada, Russia, and Europe. Permafrost (covered with ice all through years) and tundra areas are there, and most species live in the latter. Though the weather is extremely hard and cold, there're spectacular kinds of life, which are found only there.
You may be surprised if I say that the Arctic has four-seasons. In spring, the seasonal plants start to grow, and hundreds of thousands of caribou migrate northwards following the plant growth to get enough food to reproduce. Summer is the breeding season for migratory birds. Fifteen percent of all the species of migratory birds choose the tundra for breeding, its cool weather and ample plants and insects for nutrition. After the short summer, fall comes and the tundra starts to be covered by ice. Winter is the hunting season for us. Walking across the sea ice, we hunt sea seals. For us, the timing of the weather changing is important, because our life cycles tightly follow it. If the coming of the warmer seasons becomes earlier and the colder term becomes shorter, this change is fatal for us. Let me tell you the problems that we polar bears have.
When the temperature rises, the conditions of packed ice get worse. It is a very worrisome problem for us, because we need deep snow caves to raise our children. Another big problem caused by it is the famine. We live on the ringed sea seals, which also require snow caves to bring up their youth. They must be raised in complete snow caves, because they are too young to have a layer of blubber that protects them from cold weather. Bad conditions of snow prevent them from growing safely, thus leading to our food problem.
In fact, our polar bear cousins living in Canada have already been hunt. In fall, they move from inland to the ice-covered Hudson Bay to hunt sea seals. But the ice-covered season of the ocean is becoming shorter and shorter, so they can't get enough snow and food. Their physical condition is becoming worse and the birth rate has been decreasing.
If the greenhouse gases are doubled, tundra available for us is expected to decrease as much as 30 percent and this will be easily realized in next century, if you continue to discharge gases at this pace. The destruction will be caused by the change of the tundra ecosystems. Greenhouse gases change the weather at such surprising speed that creatures can't adapt to it. When it becomes warmer, animals find the north more comfortable and try to move there. With warming, the tree line will also be pushed towered the Arctic Ocean. Thus, southern plants will invade our treasured tundra area.
During the 7000 years following the last glacial period, the temperature had risen about 6C per year; that was about 0.0012C per year. On the other hand, in Japan, if you move 100-km northward, the temperature falls about 0.8C; it falls 0.008C per kilometer. So we can suggest that the plants might have moved northward 150m per year to catch up with the changing weather. Compared to this, the change is much more rapid today; the temperature will rise 2C in the next 100 years. That is to say 0.02C per year. Now, we can suggest that plants move 2.5 km per year! This is a fearful speed. I'm afraid to say that there will most likely be a great destruction of the ecosystem even in the next century.
Please save us---------- our precious tundra and us. Don't rob migratory birds of their place for breeding. Don't prevent caribou from getting enough food. Before long we will find ourselves living in the wrong places in the wrong seasons. But we have no way to escape from this disaster. Don't make us suffer! We don't want to extinguish!
Some effective action must be taken immediately. Now that the real disaster has already started, there is no time to lose. Please carry out some concrete ways of decreasing greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, chloro fluoro carbon and stop the terrible disaster. Give us the possibility to live. Of course, I know it is not so easy to reduce gas, because it will disturb your comfortable life. We can't deny your wish to live comfortably, because it is the wish that we all have. For some of you in developing countries, it must be necessary to produce enough food and reduce pollution, yours. But you can still change some parts of your lifestyle. You can use trains instead of using cars. You can turn the switch of air conditioner off when you feel it becomes comfortable enough. You can decrease garbage even if you make small efforts. So, please think over your lives again, and start to do what you can do, to save our lives and YOURS.

COMMENT
Living things including us human beings are faced with the various ecological problems. Above all, the problem of global worming is one of the most serious ones. Owing to this problem, various forms of lives are exposed to danger. The polar bear of this story is not an exception to this problem.
In this story, the author speaks for the polar bear and thinks objectively about the environmental problems we produce. On account of the style, we can recognize the problem more seriously. So I will try to think about this problem again and again.

Shinpei Suzuki