Bears In the Pressure Cooker

Species fall to extinction every week Of natural selection, scientists speak But habitat destruction is caused by man Who neglects to take an environmental stand Ozone depletes as gas poisons the air And death watch begins for the polar bear Fluffy, white creatures who romp in the snow Thrive in temperatures of fifty below Earth’s Arctic playground is disappearing Glaciers and tundra are quickly clearing Revealing the woolly mammoth’s remains Sad echoes from the last Ice Age retained Since 2004 the Pole cap has depleted Half the Arctic ice to sea has retreated Glacial thickness shrinks a half foot each year As mother bears nuzzle their cubs in fear Preservation efforts now underway But where will the rescued polar bears stay If climate changes prevent the North Pole From shifting to a site that’s polar-bear cold Just twenty to twenty-five thousand remain Perched on floating icebergs, moaning sad refrains In fewer than fifty years all may be gone Perhaps only in children’s books they’ll live on * For Amy's "Ode to the Endangered" challenge