Melting ice will wreck polar bear populations

The 40 members of the polar bear specialist group of the World Conservation Union warned last week that the population of the Arctic's top predator could crash by 30 percent over the next 35 to 50 years and should now be rated as vulnerable on an international "Red List" of threatened species.
"This is the first time that we've evaluated the plight of polar bears (with) respect to climate change, and we found that they were vulnerable to extinction," said the group's outgoing chairman, biologist Scott Schliebe, who oversees management of polar bears in Alaska for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Polar bears don't have a place to go if they lose the ice."
"I'm impressed to have a detailed, thoughtful evaluation," said Rosa Meehan, chief of marine mammal management for the agency in Alaska. "The outcome makes my heart sink."