The estimates are calculated in recent comprehensive analyses by the U.S. Geological Survey and the World Conservation Union.
This week, Canada, Russia, US, Greenland/Denmark, and Norway will come together for a formal meeting in Tromsø, Norway, to identify useful polar bear conservation strategies.
The Tromsø meeting starts on Tuesday. It is the first time in more than 25 years the contracting parties to the 1973 international Agreement for the Conservation of Polar Bears and Their Habitats will come together for a formal meeting under the agreement.
The 1973 agreement obliges the five Arctic states with polar bear populations to take action on climate change at a meeting, says WWF.
- You cannot protect polar bears without addressing global warming, says WWF polar bear coordinator Geoff York.
- It is widely accepted that we need to keep the global temperature increase below 2 degrees in order to avoid irreversible climate change. The most important action we can take to help preserve polar bears is to slow the rate of climate change, and ultimately to stop it so that their habitat does not entirely disappear, Geoff York says.
