P.A.D.D.
January 29, 2009
Here’s an embarrassing confession for you (Hey, it’s a blog. What do you expect?). Every time, and I mean EVERY SINGLE TIME I read about or see footage of a struggling polar bear, I cry. Oh, it’s not always a single, silent tear running down the cheek. It’s often accompanied by a little hyper-ventilating, some useless fanning of my face and an overwhelming sense of panic. Don’t even get me started on these twins…
Let’s call it Polar bear Affected Depression Disorder. And sadly, the cure requires a shitload of effort on a global scale.
I’m going to give it to you straight: Polar bears are some of the strongest swimmers in the ocean, capable of paddling as much as 100 miles without a break. And they’re drowning. Because the ice just isn’t where they remembered it was last year, or the year before that, they have to swim greater distances to get to solid ground and they don’t always make it. The polar bears that do make it are washing up on shores so exhausted that they lie motionless for two days, trying to gain the strength to walk away and hunt for food, as people and cars gather around them. Not choked up yet? How about the thought of brand new baby polar bears being crushed to death in their snow dens because the temperature climbed too high too early in the season and they collapsed?
It is a gross understatement to say that life for polar bears completely sucks right now. And it’s not exactly the best material for bed time stories. Our kids are currently obsessed with them and it upsets me so much to think that, at the rate things are going, these bears are bound for extinction in their lifetime. Maybe even in my lifetime. So while you can spare the little guys the awful details, you can say that the places the polar bears like to live are getting smaller because people waste energy. When you turn off extra lights, say you’re doing it for the polar bears. When you unplug cell phone chargers, or car pool to school? It’s all for the polar bears. I’m finally considering making the big sacrifice of switching to less flattering compact fluorescents throughout the entire house, not just in the closets. I’ll look green and hideous during my polar bear inspired crying jags, but hey, it’s for the polar bears.
p.s. Right this minute, the other best thing you can do is send a message to the new Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to let him know exactly what you think of Bush’s decisions to weaken the endangered species act and open up wide swaths of the Alaskan wilderness to oil drilling.
