Global warming is melting the polar bear's habitat, making it hard to survive

The argument

Polar bears are in danger of extinction. Global warming has caused a lot of damage to their habitat. Because of the increased temperature, the ice they live on has started melting, and the consequences of the melting ice have been astounding. What is disappearing is not one resource among several but the surface on which the animal's entire way of life is conducted. That is why the effects show up everywhere at once. Because of the melting, polar bears have been forced to make changes to their livelihood. For instance, hunting, traveling, and nesting. Because of the depleting habitat, polar bear mothers have had to move inland to make homes, away from the environment the species is adapted to. Hunting has also become difficult, and the difficulty compounds itself: just like polar bears, seals, caribou, and other small prey animals that polar bears eat rely on the ice and snow. Without it, they too deplete in numbers, starving the polar bears. The same habitat loss therefore strikes twice, taking away both the platform the bears hunt from and the animals they hunt. The projected timeline leaves little room to respond. By 2100, scientists predict that all but a few polar bears living in the Arctic will be gone. At the rate that greenhouse gases and carbon emissions are ripping apart the ozone layer, that's not enough time. Action to stop the extinction of polar bears should be swift, because the trend does not pause while a response is debated. Otherwise, time will slip through everyone's hands, losing the polar bears entirely.

Context

In 1975, scientists found trace amounts of airplane fuel gas in the ozone layer. Because of the gases, the ozone layer surrounding earth was believed to be in danger. The ozone layer is a part of the earth’s atmosphere that keeps a large amount of the sun’s heat and ultraviolet rays from negatively affecting humans and the environment. To try and reduce emissions, scientists and activists have tried to find solutions. Polar bears are artic predators that live exclusively in artic regions such as Alaska, Russia, Antarctica, and Greenland. Due to rising global temperatures, scientists have noticed that artic regions are melting and causing polar bears to decline.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Polar bears aren’t in as much danger as scientists say. Recently, polar bear numbers have been increasing. Compared to 1950s, the population has risen five times more until 2008. In fact, the reason why the numbers started rising was because of the push to stop excessive hunting. The only reason why the push to help polar bears started was because of a video of an emaciated polar bear uploaded by National Geographic in 2017. Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen, the ones who shot the video, explained that the polar bear was not supposed to represent the dangers of habitat loss. Instead, the interpretation was misguided. The polar bear was supposed to provoke thought as to what if climate change made polar bears look like the polar bear in the video. As far as habitat loss goes, yes, habitat loss is a problem for polar bears. It is proven that the ice is melting and forcing them away from familiar territory. However, polar bears are very resilient. They store fat so that they don’t starve and become dehydrated as easily. If there is still some prey around, they will be alright. With, every piece of information about the polar bear decline should be taken with a grain of salt. The polar bears aren’t dying as rapidly as scientists make it seem. In fact, the animal has been doing much better since the mid-20th century. It should be noted that, yes, climate change should be monitored to prevent a horrible future. But the polar bears aren’t going extinct anytime soon.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Polar bear are resilient creatures that can use fat storage to keep them from starving. [Rejecting P2] The population has grown a lot more since the 1950s. [Rejecting P3] Scientists are overestimating because they want climate change to be controlled properly.