It was spring in Alaska’s frozen north, and Todd Atwood was fidgety.
A wildlife biologist and the leader of the U.S. Geological Survey’s polar bear research program, Atwood would normally be in a helicopter, flying over the ice-bound southern Beaufort Sea looking for bears.
Instead, he was planted at his desk in Deadhorse, scrolling through weather reports; poking his head outside to look at the sky and anxiously clicking through various webcams focused on the Arctic coastline.
Retreating sea ice in the Arctic is crippling scientists’ ability to study and monitor polar bears, Atwood and other experts say. The study of the bears, top-of-the-food-chain carnivores with adorable faces, is critical for conservation of the animals and their environment.
Polar Bears Are Suffering from the Arctic’s Loss of Sea Ice. So Is Scientists’ Ability to Study Them - Inside Climate News
A wildlife biologist and the leader of the U.S. Geological Survey’s polar bear research program, Atwood would normally be in a helicopter, flying over the ice-bound southern Beaufort Sea looking for bears.
Instead, he was planted at his desk in Deadhorse, scrolling through weather reports; poking his head outside to look at the sky and anxiously clicking through various webcams focused on the Arctic coastline.
Retreating sea ice in the Arctic is crippling scientists’ ability to study and monitor polar bears, Atwood and other experts say. The study of the bears, top-of-the-food-chain carnivores with adorable faces, is critical for conservation of the animals and their environment.
Polar Bears Are Suffering from the Arctic’s Loss of Sea Ice. So Is Scientists’ Ability to Study Them - Inside Climate News