Have you ever wrinkled your nose in disgust at the smell of decay, smoke, and polluted air? But little did you know,  not only you, but animals all around the world are suffering because of the dirty air and machines that are destroying their habitats, causing a dramatic change in their ways of life and development. In my opinion, the most dangerous form of pollution is global warming.  For example, in the Arctic, global warming has melted much of the polar bears’ habitat, causing population decreases, increased scarcity of food, and melted ice platforms that make swimming a hazardous action. Scientists have proved that refreezing the ice caps would only cost about 8 billion dollars a year. Countries around the world could gladly afford the economic cost, but the 
Population decrease

In places like Hudson bay, there is no ice during the summer, so polar bears there have to stay on land to wait for the ice to freeze in the fall. During this fasting time, they metabolise their fat and protein stores and recycle metabolic by-products, resulting in a form of hibernation. In just 20 years, the ice-free period in Hudson bay has increased by 20 days, cutting short the polar bears’ hunting seasons for almost three weeks. It gets better for them when the ice starts to freeze in the fall, but it is the spring ice melt that is especially hard for the bears. As the ice-free period gets extended, the polar bears have a narrower time frame to hunt  in the critical season when seal pups are born.  As a result, average bear weight have dramatically dropped more than 15 percent, causing reproduction rates to decline.

Scarcity of food

Recent studies by biologists show that the declining habitat of polar bears may also be affecting one of the polar bears’ main prey --- seals. The dramatic reduction in ice platforms near productive areas for the fish that the seals eat affects their nutritional status and reproduction rates too. Reports also show that some starving polar bears have decided to take on cannibalistic behavior, devouring other starving polar bears to revive themselves. Although it has long been known polar bears will kill for dominance or kill cubs so they can breed with the female, outright predation for food was previously unobserved by biologists.

Retreating ice platforms

The retreat of ice in the last few years was astronomical;  it was beyond the obvious habitat loss. Remaining ice was  farther away from shore, making it harder for the polar bears to reach and use. The larger gap of open water between ice caps and solid land also results in rougher wave conditions, making the bears’ swim from shore to sea ice more hazardous. In 2004, biologists discovered four drowned polar bears in the Beaufort Sea, and suspect the actual number of drowned bears may have been considerably greater. If this horrifying report keeps on continuing, how much polar bears will be drowned or starved in future years?

Conclusion

In conclusion, the polar bears are at high risk of being endangered, or even extinct. Their habitat is being destroyed by global warming, scarcity of food is forcing them to extremes, and melting ice caps is drowning even their best swimmers. Polar bears are like the proverbial "canary in the coal mine" of the serious threat global warming poses to animal and plant species around the world. In my opinion, the reason why global warming cannot be cured is because not everybody cares or helps; so if everyone puts a hand in to end global warming, not only us, but all organisms in the world will be able to leave this burden behind and live in a cleaner world.

 

Speed Comparisons

One of the most bustling questions we receive in this world in technology is “What are some of the fastest phenomena in this world, and how do they compare with each other?” Well, the fastest person in the world went 100 meters in 9.58 seconds which is 23 mph if he can maintain this speed consistently for a mile, but the 3rd fastest animals include the cheetah that can go 70 mph. Although we may not be able to beat animals physically, we might be able to beat them other ways, by using engineering/mechanics.

First off, let’s compare the fastest water slide with a fish, The fastest water slide is name the Insano. It is about 41 meters high and is about the height of a 14 stories high building. Because of its height and slope it can reach about 65 mph! Now the fastest fish is a Sailfish, a sailfish looks similar to a swordfish because of its long bill. The sailfish can go about 70mph, easily outrunning a typical car on a freeway. Nature wins this round.

Secondly, we’re comparing the fastest wind and the fastest manned plane. The fastest wind was scaled up to 318 mph during a tornado in Oklahoma. The scientists say that it was put up to F6 in the fujita scale, and the maximum of the Fujita scale is F5!! Now, the first manned plane was driven by a lot of people, but Pete Knight was the first to go make it go near the speed that of which, 318 MPH. This rocket-powered aircraft was tested in the early 1960’s. Its fastest speed ever recorded was up to 4,519 mph and it might have been able to faster. Obviously humans win in this one by a long shot.

Humans are obviously faster than nature on earth, but what about in space? NASA has made a spacecraft named New Horizon to send off to Pluto and study its moons. When it was ejected into the solar system it went an amazing 36,360 mph!

However, there are particles even light cannot match in speed, Tachyons. Tachyons are particles that can go faster than the speed of light. It was first discovered by a physicist named Arnold Sommerfeld. The tachyon’s strange structure makes it go faster when it loses energy and slower when it gains energy. (Its slowest speed is that of light!)


Although, nature won the fight 2-1 the sailfish could had been easily be beaten by the fastest car, train, and etc. But even everything combined in on earth can’t beat these particles that can go over light speed. In essence, this tells us that the diverse comparison between abnormal particles, light, organisms, and other unknown objects may never come to an end. Our knowledge limits us to the many phenomena of speed yet to be discovered.