to whom it may not concern …

So it’s World Environment Day today!

This year’s World Environment Day’s theme is ’Melting Ice - a Hot Topic?’ … but needless to say, the topic is not that hot in our region, as I can’t recall any significant efforts exerted by governments, ministries or even individuals.

Anyways, so the earth is burning: that’s a fact. Another fact is that it’ll probably take ages (perhaps less) till it really affect us, and we’ll all probably die without really noticing it, heck some people would love that nice tan it’s giving them. Selfish? Yes, yet human.

Now what really touched me more than anything else during the UNEP presentation for World Environment Day is not the fact that insurance companies are suffering ever-increasing economic losses due to weather-related disasters, (they’re making millions anyways, so less millions won’t really make them starve), not the fact that indigenous people are relocating due to climate change (so what if they relocate? I relocated!), and not the fact that coastal cities can sink under water causing millions to evacuate (relocate again!), but what really touched me is the fact that polar bears are drowning already because of ’Melting Ice’!

But how can a polar bear drown?

The whole earth is warming, but the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average! The area of the Arctic Ocean covered by ice each summer has been shrinking, and the remaining ice is becoming less thick. Since 1980, between 20 and 30 per cent of sea ice in the European Arctic has been lost!

The polar bear’s Latin name is Ursus maritimus, which means ’sea bear’ because polar bears depend on sea ice, where they hunt seals and use ice corridors to move from one area to another. Pregnant females build winter dens in areas with thick snow cover. They have not eaten for five to seven months when they emerge with their cubs in the spring. They need good spring sea-ice conditions for their own and their cubs’ survival.

Those poor defenseless beautiful animals who have no idea what Man has done to them are starving and drowning because they sometimes have to swim for as far as a 100 miles without finding a solid slice of ice to rest on, and if they did, they’d be too tired to hunt. Scientists have already documented multiple deaths of polar bears in Alaska, where they drowned after swimming very long distances.

While our region is not considerably contributing to global warming, and while China and the US remain the two main polluters, our apathy and indifference will have a serious effects in the long run.

Finally can you, we, us, make a difference?

Absolutely! I drafted a list of simple steps that individual can take to help save the environment. Contact me to get a copy as they’re too verbose to be posted.

On a relevant note: The Green Idol

Leonardo DiCaprio is a wonderful example of a true environmentalist, and he really seems to believe in the cause and is not just doing it for the sake of PR. DiCaprio is an active environmentalists who launched his own environmental website and currently sits on the boards of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Global Green USA.

He drives a hybrid car and lives in a solar-paneled home and is co-writing and producing “The 11th Hour“, a documentary about planet Earth in crisis. He’s been dubbed Green Idol by Vanity Fair magazine, and he really is. I think we’re looking at the second Al Gore here.

Happy World Environment Day!