Polar bear killed: people did not understand two things – cruises

During an expedition into the Arctic, a polar bear was shot on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The case shows that we still have not understood much. In addition to those who venture too close to predators, climate change is the main threat to the polar bear

"Pure Arctic" – that's what the operator promises Hapag-Llyod cruise ships during his expedition into the Arctic Ocean. On Saturday, an expedition of the "MS Bremen" on the island of Spitsbergen has now become uncontrollable: a polar bear attacked a crewman on a shore so violently that colleagues shot down the animal angry. The polar bear died on the spot.

The great indignation about the polar bear killed shows that man has understood nothing in two ways. First, the Arctic is the natural territory of polar bears. Anyone who adventure naively and recklessly in his homeland has not understood that a polar bear is a dangerous predator. The crew must therefore be held accountable for its actions – also to deter imitators.

Tourist expeditions are a problem, but not the biggest

Second, tourist shipments are not the biggest problem for polar bears – it's climate change. Anyone who has seen bears threatened once in the wild at a safe distance is even more aware of the climate drama unfolding far from our eyes. A general ban on such trips is therefore not effective.

It is much more crucial that the international community – including Germany – finally do more to combat climate change.

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According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the average temperature in the Arctic has increased five degrees in the last 100 years. At the same time, sea ice has declined by ten percent per decade. The Alfred Wegener Institute predicts a dramatic decline in sea ice by 2040. Marine pollution and intensive fishing are endangering the habitat of the polar bear. The population of Alaska and Canada has risen from about 1,500 polar bears in 2004 to just 900 recently, according to the journal Ecological Applications.

The big problem is that normally animals can adapt to a changing environment over time. But the polar habitat of polar bears is changing so fast because of global warming that animals have little time to do so.

If the Bad Svalbard incident has good things, it may be that it finally urges us to act, that save us the best white bear today. only tomorrow.

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