英倫翻譯社/ Trsmaster

A huge white polar bear is an impressive animal. It can swim long distances in icy water and spend much of its life traveling across the Arctic ice. The Arctic ice is where polar bears usually live, hunt seals, and find their mates. But the Arctic sea ice is melting as our planet warms. Hunting seals on the decreasing Arctic ice fields is difficult. If a polar bear can't find any seals, it may starve.

Polar bears are on the American government's list of threatened species. They get special protection. The U.S. Secretary of the Interior, has warned that the decreasing Arctic sea ice is the biggest threat to polar bears.

The vast Arctic and Antarctic ice caps are like giant mirrors. They reflect a lot of sunlight into space. The polar ice helps to keep the Earth cool. The huge areas of polar ice balance and maintain our climate. Scientific observations have shown that the average time the Arctic ice covers Canada's western Hudson Bay is decreasing because of global warming. In that area, the polar bear population has decreased from 1,200 to 900 during the last three decades. Biologist Andrew E. Derocher from the University of Alberta has discovered that the Western Hudson Bay polar bears are likely to become extinct in about 25 to 30 years. If we can stop global warming, we can protect the habitat of polar bears. To maintain the Earth's polar ice caps, we need to decrease our production of greenhouse gases.

A crisis is a time of great trouble. What we do to protect the Arctic ice will also help to save polar bears and many other species. Perhaps the truth is that by helping polar bears, we can also help to protect our own species.