PATIENCE

The snow is falling and the wind is howling. The temperature is probably in the single digits, but none of us dare venture outside for long to check. We are writing this in the Tundra Buggy Lodge, below the Arctic Circle, along the Hudson Bay. There’s a polar bear sleeping ten yards from us. Talk about patience. He’s waiting for ice to form. Waiting for the opportunity to hunt and eat seals on the ice. It’ll probably be at least another month before he’ll be able to do this, so he waits. Patience. What’s happening up here is that he has to wait longer and longer each year for his opportunity. With the Earth getting warmer every year, the ice forms later and later. He just got up to look at us, raising his nose to check the smells in the air. He fumbles with a branch in front of him, breaks it off with his mouth and rolls on his back to play with it. He settles himself and is silent and still again. Still waiting for ice. Patience.

As we fill the air with our emissions - from keeping the lights on when we’re not in the room, driving our cars for every little task, cranking the air conditioning in July even when the front door is cracked open, and from chopping down all the trees for our dining room furniture– we’re warming the planet. The changes may seem miniscule – maybe a few degrees warmer on a summer day – but the changes at the North and South poles are much easier to see. We are two of the lucky few to say we’ve seen a polar bear in the wild. Although you may never get that chance, do you want to live on a planet without them? He yawns, stretches his right leg, and curls up again. Patience.

Their fate is just the beginning of this snowball effect. If we continue on this path, your visit to the Jersey shore may be affected. As ocean levels rise, the boardwalks in Cape May and Wildwood will be under water, and the power of the sea will devour ocean-front properties. Skiing in the Poconos will be more difficult as the snow gets less and less. Can you afford higher electricity bills because you need your air-conditioning more each year? We look up and our furry friend outside is still asleep. Patience.

Canary in a coalmine is a phrase coined long ago when birds were used to test air conditions in mines before humans entered. The polar bear is the big white canary in the coalmine of the North. He’s telling us we need to stop wasting, stop abusing, stop taking what we have for granted. Patience. He’s patient because he has to be. We can’t afford to be patient any longer. We need to do something about it. Whether for your own children or the polar bear outside our window. Do something.