Bears On Ice

Late one night I was surfing through the TV channels when a breaking CNN story caught my attention. There he stood, the once majestic Polar Bear balancing precariously on an ice cube no bigger than my sofa. The story went on to explain how the earth was getting warmer, all the ice was melting, and polar bears the world over were destined to carry out the rest of their lives floating around the arctic on small melting chunks of ice.

The news story hit me as hard as a 2 a.m. Sally Struther's starving kids commercial. Immediately the obvious questions rolled through my mind. What would happen to the bear once that ice cube melted? Were the other bears floating around on bigger ice cubes? Smaller?
Of course I imagine the bear was asking his own questions as well. Like "Why did those people with the camera put me out here on this ice?", and "I agreed to all of this for a couple of salmon? Or perhaps he was simply thinking, “When can I get off here and swim over to the 1000 square mile glacier I usually hang out on". Of course this is purely speculation since I have little to no experience relating to the thought processes of a polar bear. Although from the look on its face it seemed a bit confused as undoubtedly the camera crew, with footage in hand, high tailed it to the CNN studios leaving the polar bear standing in the dense exhaust of the boats' dual 1000-Horsepower gas powered engines.

However, the mental picture is a powerful one. Less powerful after seeing the same footage of the same bear on the same ice cube for the 468th time, but powerful nonetheless. I wanted to save polar bears and was determined to do whatever it took to assist in the bear rescue cause. Could we build ice caves? Artificial icebergs? Raise them as pets? Whatever the price we needed to be willing to pay.
Of course I was disappointed to learn that the "stranded" Polar Bear, unbeknownst to him, was in many ways being used to pressure the politicians to deem the bear endangered so we couldn't drill for oil in “polar bear sensitive” habitats. It always seems to come back around to oil doesn’t it?
The tactic worked, the Bush administration’s hand was forced, and the bear was listed as endangered. It’s hard for me to blame Bush for caving to the pressure. (I'm too busy blaming him for everything else.) I mean really, does anyone want their legacy to be “I killed all the Polar bears.” ?
Soon the memories of the CNN footage faded but it left behind thoughts of the earth and whether anyone is actually serious about saving it. Will politics always get in the way of our efforts or will we at some point step up and do what it takes as humans to preserve what is left of the earth? I still want to save bears, but in the process I wouldn’t mind if we also saved the earth at the same time.
On that thought I'd better go. Have to get to the Ford dealership to tune up the truck. Have to keep that ol' V8 engine running smooth. For the environment of course....