Flame Retardants

We once had a dog named Polar Bear. He was a big, white husky mix. He was a very sweet dog. He's dead. It starting to look bad for real polar bears these days. Luckily, I won't see the extinction at the end of this century. My grandchildren might. Hell of a world we are giving them.

"Already imperiled by melting ice and a brew of toxic chemicals, polar bears throughout the Arctic, particularly in remote dens near the North Pole, face an additional threat as flame retardants originating largely in the United States are building up in their bodies, according to an international team of wildlife scientists.

"An even more immediate threat to the world's 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears is global climate change, which is melting their hunting grounds.

"Bears in Canada's western Hudson Bay — the most well-researched population — declined from 1,100 in 1995 to fewer than 950 in 2004. In Alaska, wildlife biologists for the first time have documented that polar bears are drowning. Scientists predict that some populations could become extinct by the end of the century as more sea ice melts."