The already iconic global warming images with polar bears sadly floating on small chunks of ice have acted as a double edge sword – on one hand they were impacting visual representations of global warming, showing the extent of damage which has already been done, but on the other hand, they created the idea that global warming is something isolated, something which only affects remote places of the Earth; nothing could be further from the truth! Climate change is real, it’s a huge problem for our entire planet, and it’s coming to a town near you – or as the IPCC puts it, “the polar bear is us”.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently warned the world that the effects of climate change won’t just affect ‘far-off’ species such as the polar bear. The IPCC is a scientific intergovernmental body regarded by many as the highest authority when it comes to estimating the overall status of the climate. At a scientific gathering in Japan, Patricia Romero Lankao of the federally financed National Center for Atmospheric Research summed up her peers’ concerns by saying: “The polar bear is us.”