Emaciated Polar Bear: Poster Child for a Climate Change

(Newswire.net — September 15, 2015) Las Vegas, NV — In September, climate change is on the international agenda as world leaders descended upon New York to attend the United Nations headquarters to discuss various tactics and procedures to try ensure the environmental health of the planet and create preventive measures to see that no more damage is done.

New photographs of excessively thin polar bears are popping up on social media. Some of these images show very gaunt bears. Climate experts may be at odds with wildlife professionals.

Thousands of climate experts see this trend as a signal that global warming is causing more of an ice melt and less aquatic habitat for bears. It would seem logcial that a disruption in the food supply or environmental shift would be attributed to global warming. Other wildlife professionals make no such connection. The decline of species is rarely attributed to a single event. Rather, the ’cause and effect’ of populations is often a cascading effect of food, environment, disease or a more complicated trend. The adaptability of the species is what stimulates strength and diversity.

One wildlife photographer commented, “I realized the fat, healthy bears are nearly exclusively males which stay on the pack ice all year long. The females, on the other hand, which den on land to give birth to their young, are often very slim. With the pack ice retreating further and further north every year, they tend to be stuck on land where there’s not as much food. In the first year, they often lose their first cub. Only once I have seen a mother with a nearly independent cub. A few times I have seen beautifully fat mothers with beautifully fat young. But, many times I have seen horribly thin bears, and those were exclusively females.”

It certainly is a heart-wrenching scenario. But what more can be done than a meeting of world leaders to address this increasingly hopeless situation?

Ordinary people are now taking things into their own hands and turning to crowdfunding platforms in a grassroots effort to protect our environment.

Earlier this year, a determined group of people decided to act.

International Development and Code REDD, a California-based advocacy group, launched their Stand for Trees campaign, which allowed people to purchase certificates that will fund forest conservation projects in tropical countries to rebuild our natural environment. Their goal was raise $1 million in the first year.

Jim Graham, crowdfunding expert, agrees, “People are becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of intelligent solutions from governments around the world and want to personally do something to tackle environmental issues,”Graham explains.

“You can’t just sit by and watch the damage to the earth continue unabated, so ordinary people are turning to crowdfunding to raise money to try and do something about the decline of our environment.”

There are many campaigns created by ordinary people, who recognize crowdfunding as a popular and effective platform for promoting change. Graham’s team agrees. In addition to working hand in hand with dozens of non-profits, they are hosting the highly anticipated webinar, Kickstarter Millionaire, which trains people on product launching by inviting members into the ‘war room’ of an 8-figure product launch.

According to Graham, “Crowdfunding is being used to not only launch products and make people a ton of money, but it is launching new brands in record time, funding social justice and opening up an entirely new way to transact business and get one’s mission into the public eye.”

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