I listen to a music and I listen it a lot. Recently I’ve listened to a Japanese J-pop star Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and I really enjoyed her songs. The Yumeno Hajima Ring Ring song is a lovely piece, but the video clip of this song is a piece worth watching I think. It features prominent figure: a white polar bear playing rock guitar and performing other stunts and roles in this music clip. It’s just a lovely animal and I think perfectly fits the subject of this song: a young girl graduation and journey into adult life. The polar bear even weeps on the girl departure! Just lovely!
When participating in ‘Turn Down the Heat’ course I’ve been reading and watching additional resources more or less related to the course subject. The one by British writer and presenter David Attenborough has caught my attention called ‘The Truth About Climate Change’. This two-part episode covers changes experienced by nature and humans due to climate change. While some parts of this document are greatly covered by course I’ve been attending, some topics are complementary and offers different point of views on the same subjects - from the perspective of wild nature animals, their life, behaviours and future prospects.
David Attenborough starts his document with the same cute animal, loved by kids around the world: a polar bear. The problem of all polar bears is that they are vanishing, as they population number decreases due to warming climate. As the climate warms the changes most visible on the Arctic with decreasing ice cover, early melting, raising temperatures, longer vegetation periods. The problem of polar bears is they - as apex predators - are very sensitive to a very subtle changes to their ecosystem. David Attenborough gives example of how earlier spring (about three weeks earlier) affects number of cubs of polar bears that manage to survive each year. The early melting of sea ice literally causes their habitat to vanish, as they have to migrate to land earlier than usually and the sea-ice cover is their main area where they hunt and gain weight. Please take a moment to watch David Attenborough initial minutes of linked video document for details and detailed explanation.
I hope this short story with the help of excellent video clip and documentary will allow you to better establish some basic fact related to climate warming and wildlife: the animals on the top of food chain - apex predators - can be the worst affected even by small change in their habitat due to warming climate. And we are humans and we are also apex predators.
The changes that are coming due to climate warming will not only impact nations on global scale, they will also impact wildlife on different scale and hit different species. Let's try to mitigate upcoming changes and prepare world around us to work together!