Team Work to Help the World's Polar Bears
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Dr. Andrew Derocher believes in the value of educational efforts. Click the image to enlarge.
Education
While the studies above will provide us with fact-based information that will aid in conserving the world's polar bears, PBI's educational efforts are equally important. Dr. Andrew Derocher, chair of the Polar Bear Specialist Group, believes that education is a prime component of conservation. “If people truly understand the dangers not only to polar bears but to other animals species, I think they would change their behavior,” he says.
Derocher says that we need to help people grasp the issues and to mobilize them to respond in a meaningful way. “They can take very small actions like conserving gas in their vehicles or shutting off lights or turning down the thermostat. Longer term, we really need new technologies that will lessen the impact that we have on a global scale.”
Eventually, he thinks, government and industry will need to play a role in developing reasonable alternatives to fossil fuels, although change will probably have to come from the bottom up rather than the top down, with citizens contacting their governments to request change.
PBI's commitment to education ranges from an informative Web site to fact sheets for school children. We continue to develop a number of innovative teaching tools under the umbrella of our Adventure Learning Program. These include our annual Leadership Camp, which brings top students from around the world to Churchill, Manitoba, to learn about the bears first hand; our Distance Learning Classrooms, which link students with scientists via satellite technology; In-Field Lectures that take place on bear-watching tours each fall; Polar Bear Awareness Programs held in cooperation with zoos; and a Churchill Lecture Series that plays to packed auditoriums during the bear-watching season.
“We believe the more that people know about the Far North, the more motivated they will become to try to preserve it,” says Robert Buchanan of PBI. “We're relying on financial help from our members to fund both educational efforts and research projects. In view of Arctic climate change, membership support is needed more than ever.”
While the studies above will provide us with fact-based information that will aid in conserving the world's polar bears, PBI's educational efforts are equally important. Dr. Andrew Derocher, chair of the Polar Bear Specialist Group, believes that education is a prime component of conservation. “If people truly understand the dangers not only to polar bears but to other animals species, I think they would change their behavior,” he says.
Derocher says that we need to help people grasp the issues and to mobilize them to respond in a meaningful way. “They can take very small actions like conserving gas in their vehicles or shutting off lights or turning down the thermostat. Longer term, we really need new technologies that will lessen the impact that we have on a global scale.”
Eventually, he thinks, government and industry will need to play a role in developing reasonable alternatives to fossil fuels, although change will probably have to come from the bottom up rather than the top down, with citizens contacting their governments to request change.
PBI's commitment to education ranges from an informative Web site to fact sheets for school children. We continue to develop a number of innovative teaching tools under the umbrella of our Adventure Learning Program. These include our annual Leadership Camp, which brings top students from around the world to Churchill, Manitoba, to learn about the bears first hand; our Distance Learning Classrooms, which link students with scientists via satellite technology; In-Field Lectures that take place on bear-watching tours each fall; Polar Bear Awareness Programs held in cooperation with zoos; and a Churchill Lecture Series that plays to packed auditoriums during the bear-watching season.
“We believe the more that people know about the Far North, the more motivated they will become to try to preserve it,” says Robert Buchanan of PBI. “We're relying on financial help from our members to fund both educational efforts and research projects. In view of Arctic climate change, membership support is needed more than ever.”