Not only Why People should Save Polar Bears but How.

Argument Essay

Try to imagine that two polar bears stand on thin ice; there is nothing surrounding them but sea. They look exhausted and hopeless. Actually, it truly happened in the Arctic. This year, the Daily Mail took a dramatic photo and showed what the plight polar bears face (Mouland, 2007). Furthermore, scientists predicted that the Arctic would lose its ice cover in summer by 2030 (Artic sea ice cover at record low, 2007). All these pointed out that humans should take actions for polar bears immediately

Polar bear is the biggest carnivore, which can be 10 ft tall and 1700 lbs (Mouland, 2007), in the Arctic, and survives by hunting seals. Basically, polar bears rely on the floating ice to move to father place for hunting. Although, polar bear are adjusted to the water and can be swimming the long distance easily, the impact of ice declining is really crashed their lifestyle. In other words, polar bears need to swim longer than before that can delete their energy and make them exposure in danger indirectly. As a result, the melting of sea ice has forced polar bears to become endangered.

Recently, the increased emission of greenhouse gases has accelerated global warming and caused the shrinking of ice caps. Scientists have predicted that the Arctic could have no ice in summer by 2040 (Polar bears on thin ice, 2007). In addition, In Broder’s (2007) article “Warming is seen as wiping out most polar bears” the US government scientists reported that two-thirds of the world’s polar bears will disappear by 2050. One of the reasons is that their habitats are disappearing; another is illegal hunting (Langan, 2007). In brief, polar bears cannot protect themselves, but humans can protect them. As a result, people should save polar bears from extinction.

First, people should slow down the melting of sea ice by decreasing the production of greenhouse gases. Humans should try to find or create a renewable energy to replace unrenewable energies, such as oil and coal, which produce a mass of carbon dioxide when burning. Today, solar energy is being considered as a perfect new energy. Scientists have tried to use solar energy to heat houses or water and have had great successes. In addition, the carbon dioxide production has been rising more than two percent annually (Polar bears on thin ice, 2007). People should cut the emission of carbon dioxide by installing energy-efficient appliances or saving energy, such as taking public transportation or cutting off the power supply of offices at night.

Second, for the long term, illegal hunting is the biggest factor to threaten the polar bear population. Some people, like Inuit and Nunavut, have the tradition of hunting polar bears. For an Inuit hunter, it is not only a preservation of tradition but also a way to create income (Krauss, 2006). There were more than 40 polar bears that had been killed by hunters annually. As a result, many countries, such as Canada and Norway, have made laws to ban illegal hunting. These laws have contributed to protecting the polar bear. In fact, In Canada's eastern Arctic, one of 19 polar bear populations grew to 2,100, up from 850 in the mid-1980s (Langan, 2007). Considering all of the above, people should push all countries to make a law to ban illegal hunting.

Finally, helping polar bears to migrate to the north part from their current habitat is another solution. Although the Arctic has lost its ice cover gradually, the north part of the Arctic still abounds with ice. Recently, the evidence has showed that polar bears have been moving toward the north part (Langan, 2007). People can use advanced technological instruments to help polar bears transplant. Even now, scientists do not have any project about moving polar bear to the Antarctica. In “Job swap” Pond claimed, “polar bears would probably survive in the Antarctic, and the Southern Ocean around it, but they could devastate the native wildlife” (Job swap, 2005). In other words, polar bears can live in other icy environments, but could damage the original species, such as penguins.

Some people claimed we should spend money to help alleviate poverty and get a better life quality instead of saving polar bears. On the one hand, a study has showed that species could adapt to the mild climate change (Bhattacharya, 2004). That is one of the reasons that why the population of polar bears is climbing today in some coastal spots. However, scientists predicted that the Arctic would become an ice free world in summer by 2030 (Arctic sea ice cover at record low, 2007). It is impossible for polar bears to survive in ice-free surroundings. On the other hand, some people claimed that the amount of polar bears is increasing. Nevertheless, according to Langan (2007), “the increase in the population is not a climate-change related issue. It’s the result of conservation and an increase in the harp seal population”. As a result, undoubtedly, polar bear will become extinction in several decades.

In conclusion, global warming is linked to human activities directly. People have the responsibility to take the consequences and to solve the problem. The climate change is not only threatening polar bears but all species. People should try to reduce the greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide in order to cool the Earth and to reserve the ice of the Arctic. Moreover, international countries should promote laws to ban illegal hunting to keep the amount of polar bears. Transplanting is another option that would help the polar bear to move to a suitable environment. However, the melting of the Arctic is progressing. We should not just watch the problem became worse and do nothing. People should take some actions that would save polar bears from extinct immediately.


Reference
Arctic sea ice cover at record low. (2007, September 11). CNN.com. Retrieved October 26, 2007, from http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/11/arctic.ice.cover/index.html?iref=newssearch

Bhattacharya, S. (2004). Global warming threatens millions of species. NewScientist.Com. Retrieved October 16, 2007, from http://www.newscientisit.com/article.ns?id= dn4545&print=true

Broder, J., (2007, September 7). Warming is seen as wiping out most polar bears. The New York Times. Retrieved November 01, 2007 from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/08/science/earth/08polar.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Job swap. (2005) NewScientist.com. Retrieved November 07, 2007 from http://www.newscientist.com/backpage.ns?id=mg18725133.000

Kizzia, T. (2007, September 8). Alaska polar bears called doomed. Alaska.com. Retrieved November 01, 2007, from http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/bears/polar_bears/story/9286663p-9200531c.html

Langan, F. (2007, May 3). Canadian controversy: How do polar bears fare? Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved October 25, 2007 from Lexis-Nexis database

Mouland,B. (2007). Global warming sees polar bears stranded on melting ice. Daily Mail. Retrieved November 11, 2007 from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=433170&in_page_id=1770

Polar bears on thin ice. (2007, January 10). Greenpeace International. Retrieved October 23, 2007, from http://www.greenpeasce.org/international/news/polar-bears-on-thin-ice

Travel in Japan

Fluency Exercise #5

I dreamed of traveling in different counties since I was a college student. This year, I joined a group that traveled to Bali, which is one of the islands that belong to Indonesia. I had a bad experience with the trip because the travel guide tried to sell something to us, and complained too much about their government. Since then, I decided that I do not want to join anymore guided tours.

Today, individual travel is a popular choice. People can book the flight tickets and reserve a hotel easily by the Internet. If I have a vacation, Japan is the best choice, especially for individual travel. One reason is that I can orient the direction easily because the public signs in Japan are usually written down in Chinese characters.

Another reason is that I don’t need to worry about the traffic problem because the transportation in Japan is very convenient. In Tokyo, the capital of Japan, the subway station connects each scenic spot and the train schedule is very frequent. I can spend the whole day taking the train to anywhere and without following the tour schedule.

Besides, I love the Orient culture. In the past, Japan has gone to mainland China to learn their music, customs, language and art. Japanese kept the most of the Chinese culture and made a different style gradually. Fortunately, they are trying to keep reserving the soul of the culture.

I believe that you cannot wait until the next vacation. Japan is a deserted option.

Before The Wedding

Fluency Exercise #4

In Taiwan, the style of the wedding has leaned towards the Occident traditional wedding form, but with some difference. For example, if one couple is getting married, it is very meaningful for two families to become one family. Before the wedding, the man and his parents will go to the woman’s house and ask her parents to allow their marriage. After getting their approval, they start to prepare their wedding.

There is one thing different from Occident, which is that our parents are involved with our marriage details. People have to discuss each wedding detail with our parents; most of the time, parents take charge of each trivial part. However, sometime, the couple might be broken because their parents have opposite opinions.

There is another thing different from Occident, which is that people usually spend a lot of money and time to take pictures for memories. Couples go to a wedding studio and wear the beautiful bridal veil to take more than 100 pieces pictures. In their wedding, the album will be put on the table in order to share with everyone.

One interesting custom is that people who join their wedding party should give the couple money to bless their marriage. On the one hand, everyone has the responsibility to share the cost of the wedding breakfast.

Compared to the Occident traditional wedding, I think the Orient wedding has a significant value for two families. Each tradition that we should follow leads the couple to prepare to be one.

The Future of the all Species

Summay Response- Practice

In Bhattacharya’s (2004) article, “Global warming threatens millions of species”, she claims that 25 per cent of the species, especially for land animals and planets, would be extinct by 2050, because of global warming. She quoted the study from Chris Thomas at the University of Leeds, UK, and colleagues that classified the climate change as mild, moderate and severe for all the species. She pointed out that the minimum climate change might drive all of the species to move into a warm area and try to adapt in the climate. It will lead the original habitats of some species to be invaded by alien species and exploited by human’s activities in order to get more land for living. According the article, Stuart Pimm, said that once the habitat has been destroyed, between 10 and 30 per cent of species would face being endangered. Moreover, some species that rely on plants to survive would be dying out.

Today, there are 1103 species that are still alive and most of them are only suitable in special areas, such as the Amazon, which has the biggest rainfall in the world. Although some species can adapt to the climate change, some species can only live in particular environments. It is hard to find the same conditions that provide the same factors to make them grow.

First, it is impossible for all of the species to move into a new place. For example, polar bears only can hunt in the freeze season. Once the Arctic loses its ice cover, they will be extinct. There are rare species that can migrate to a new environment that must be smaller than the old one. All of the clues show that the only way for these species is extinction.

Next, the climate change is related to human’s activities. In order to have the better life quality, people have used natural resources without limits, or have overproduced the greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, which heats up the whole planet. For example, illegal logging is the primary reason that causes the Amazon to lose its rainfall by about 40% in the recently years.

In conclusion, climate change leads to an unavoidable consequence such as decreasing habitats and species extinctions. In order to cut off the bad result for all the species, we should take some actions to stop the global warming that include cutting the emissions of greenhouse gas, which is the primary factor to heat up earth, finding new energy resources, such as solar energy or other nature capitals, and decreasing the discharge of carbon dioxide.

Reference:

Bhattacharya, S. (2004). Global warming threatens millions of species. NewScientist.Com. Retrieved October 16, 2007, from http://www.newscientisit.com/article.ns?id= dn4545&print=true