Science: Richard Ellis: The Changing World of the Polar Bear

At once fierce and adorable, the polar bear symbolizes the harsh beauty and muscular grace of the Arctic. In our age of global warming, polar bears have also come to symbolize the peril that faces all life on Earth. But while the population of polar bears has shrunk by half in 20 years, wildlife painter and acclaimed science writer Richard Ellis says the polar bears' extinction and the ice caps' disappearance is far from inevitable. Ellis, author of On Thin Ice, says that as the polar bears' habitat disappears, their survival rests on our willingness to take critical steps, such as listing them as endangered, even though that would render their territory off-limits to oil drilling. Presented as part of the Seattle Science Lectures series, with Pacific Science Center and University Book Store. Sponsored by Microsoft.