Polar bears are in trouble. Our planet is getting warmer. This warming is caused by the burning of coal and oil as fuel. We use these fuels in our cars, houses, and factories. Burning them creates gases that act like a tent around the earth. This invisible tent traps in heat and causes what scientists call global warming.

Because the temperature is getting warmer, the sea ice is slowly melting. Polar bears use sea ice for platforms when they hunt for seals. Scientists say the sea ice is melting about three weeks earlier in the year than it did before. Whenever the ice melts, the bears have to stop feeding and head for shore. Because they are not eating as much, polar bears are getting thinner.

Scientists say that most bears are now about twenty-two pounds lighter than they used to be.

Without the right amount of fat, polar bears cannot stay healthy. They are having fewer and weaker cubs.

The melting ice causes another problem. Polar bears can swim far from shore by using ice floes as floats. Because the ice is melting, the distance between the floes is longer. The bears have to swim farther from one floe to another. Some get so tired that they drown.

In September 2004, scientists spotted four dead polar bears floating sixty miles off the Alaskan coast. Many other bears are feared drowned as well.

Polar bears have other problems besides global warming. They suffer from too much hunting by humans and polluted land and water. The number of polar bears is getting smaller. There are only about 22,000 polar bears left in the world today.

Many people are trying to help save the polar bears. They have asked that polar bears be placed on the endangered species list. This is a list the government makes of all the animals in danger of extinction (ick-STINK-shun). When animals are put on the list, the government tries to protect them and their surroundings.

Extinction means that the animals could die out forever.

It would be a great thing if we could all join together to help save the polar bears. It is hard to imagine the Arctic without them. The wondrous and magical Land of the Midnight Sun would never, ever be the same.