The current issue about climate change is one that is often overlooked by the general population. Climate change is not regarded as an issue because the misinformed public believe that the only detrimental effect will be warmer winters and even warmer summers. To most Texans, the warmer winters do not seem like an issue and even seem like a positive outcome to the problem. Climate change is going to be a more pressing issue and will actually ruin the habitat and daily lives of species in the ecosystem if there is no course of action taken by the public.

  Climate change is the result of increased greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The results are extreme temperatures, melted glaciers and rising sea levels. Global warming or climate change is a concept that affects all parts of the globe; however, the outcomes on the arctic are far more observable than other parts of the world. The increasing temperatures in the arctic is causing the ice to melt earlier on in the year. This is leading to longer summers and shorter winters. Polar bears are marine mammals that rely on ice for survival. The polar bears have become victims to global warming and are struggling to find solid grounds of ice. Polar bears require ice for their daily lives to catch prey and to mate.  Thus, due to the melting of the polar caps, the polar bears have found themselves on the endangered species list. According to the article: Human- Driven global warming is the biggest threat to polar bears by The New York times “the single most important action for the recovery of polar bears is to significantly reduce the present levels of global greenhouse emission.” Polar bears have been on the endangered species list for almost ten years now. If there is no change in the status of the arctic it is very likely that the polar bears will move from the endangered species list to the extinct species list. The government needs to have a current plan that needs to take action to reverse the effects of global warming. However, currently people are under the impression that global warming is not real issue that we need to fix. Many people are skeptical about global warming because they do not see its effects and the detrimental changes it can cause. People are not as aware about the pressing issue of global warming because media does not do a good job to bring the problem to attention. The government is leading people to believe that global warming is a hoax. Thus, there is a decrease in the population of people who are willing to donate money or time to make a change.  Under the Endangered Species Act in 1973, congress intended to help bring back species from the endangered species list. In the 70s climate change was an issue that was addressed and the government had a plan to solve. Before the endangered species act, there was a movement to try to remove species from the endangered species list. Eventually, congress realized that the most effective way to create a positive movement towards climate change would be to change the plan to a law- Endangered Species Act.

According to climate change is the single biggest threat to polar bear survival by Arthur Nelsen, polar bears are “iconic and and beautiful species that are extremely important to indigenous communities.” Polar bears are magnificent creatures that are important for the ecosystem.  Polar bears are carnivores and at the top of the food chain. Since polar bears are at the top of the food chain they balance out the number of animals on other levels of the food chain. Polar bears are known as predators and if their numbers decline there will be a large increase in the number of prey. Having a large amount of prey will lead to a depletion of producers such as plants. With the decline of plants there will be a decline of food for the prey. Additionally, scavengers rely on the remains of the prey that the polar bears have killed for their food source. Without polar bears, there would also be a decline in scavengers. Scavengers are important to the food chain because they break down dead bodies and recycle those nutrients back into the ecosystem. Thus, the extinction of polar bears will lead to a series of events that will lead to the eventual extinction of the other animals in the food chain resulting in adverse effects on the ecosystem. In addition to causing polar bears loosing ground to hunt their prey on, global warming had also increased diseases within the polar bear population and increased human-bear interactions. Polar bears have become prone to disease because prey such as seals are passing down what they have contracted. Before, polar bears were not likely to have diseases, but from human pollution they have started to have weaker immune systems. Polar bears require ample amount of food in order to get the nutrients they need to survive the winter. If there is a decrease in the seal population, they will not be able to gain enough weight to survive during hibernation or to reproduce healthy offspring. There have been increased human interaction with polar bears because polar bears are not getting enough food from their regular diet. This has resulted in them becoming more hostile and even using humans as a food source. Since there is less ice in the arctic, polar bears spend more time on land hunting for prey.  The increase in number of attacks on humans directly correlates to the decrease in prey in the arctic. As the amount of ice decreases, there have been a growth of people wanting to go to the arctic for various causes such as tourism, mining and fishing.  The more polar bears are deprived of food they more likely they are to attack humans.

Climate change in the arctic is more observable because it is happening faster than anywhere else in the world.  According to the ecological society of America or ESA the “sea ice in the arctic has been declining since 1979 at an average rate of 11.3 percent per decade.” This does not show promising results for the future of the arctic. At this rate there will be no ice in the long term.  The ESA’s response to climate change can be proven with the data that they have collected. They calculated the amount of polar bear cubs that can be produced by a mother and the probability of how many will survive a year after they were born. This can be proven with a mathematical equation: n(t+1) = A n(t). In this case, n(t) shows the number of polar bears, A shows the population from zero years to one year later.  Additionally, they also calculated the amount of time where there is a depletion in the amount of ice. Anytime the ice was below 300 meters, which was less than 50 percent of the total concentration of ice, they named is as an ice free day. Their data shows us that the decrease in ice will lead to a decrease in the amount of offspring that will survive for more than one year. For the polar bear population to not become extinct the offspring need to reach an age, so that they can reproduce.  The ESA have responded well to the issue on climate change by collecting and providing data for the public to view. This shows good leadership because the first step to make a change is to make sure that people are aware of the problem. Not only does this make the general public aware of the situation, but it also provides data to support their argument. This type of leadership is best represented by adaptive leadership because they are properly responding to a change in the environment.  Adaptive leaders encourage their followers to asses the challenge and be willing to be flexible. In this case, the ESA is encouraging their followers to make a change in response to global warming. The term change in environment does not always have to be in regards with the environment, but the term is with reference to a change in society in general.

            The purpose of the environmental protection agency or EPA is to protect the environment and the health of the people. It was created by President Nixon in the 1970s with the intent of enforcing environmental laws and conduct research.  In the case of Massachusetts vs EPA, Massachusetts and many other states were going against the EPA (environmental protection agency) on the grounds that the EPA needs to control the amount of carbon dioxide that is being released into the air from cars.  The emission of carbon dioxide needs to be monitored because this is the cause of global warming because green house gases are being released into the environment. The increase in carbon dioxide in the environment is directly proportional to the increase in the temperatures. According to article Massachusetts v EPA by Lora Lucero “global warming is not merely a future threat, but a present deadly reality.” This case shows that the Massachusetts was trying to make the Supreme Court aware of the horrible reality that is global warming. They wanted the Supreme Court to know that is was important to take action now rather than wait until it was too late. Massachusetts showed good leadership because they took charge of the situation and sued the EPA for not following the clean air act. They argued that the clean air act was suppose to fight air pollution that could be a potential danger to health. This court case made people aware of the impacts of climate change on the environment as well as the general population. Many people were not aware of the fact that global warming can cause health issues such as malnutrition and malaria. Global warming also leads to an increase in natural disasters such as hurricanes and fires. This is evident now in 2017 from the plethora of hurricanes that have been happening and the massive wildfires on the west coast. However, at the time of this case in 2007 this was not the case. Thus, this shows how passionate the states were about the problem before it became a bigger issue. This type of leadership is best represented by servant leadership because they are putting their followers before themselves. Servant leadership is described as leadership that puts their followers first through commitment to the growth of people and awareness.

            The decline in the polar bear population has been monitored throughout the years. The article by Peter K. Molnar called predicting survival, reproduction and abundance of polar bears under climate change discusses the percentages of polar bear population. The article states that “3-6 percent of adult males in the Western Hudson Bay would die of starvation before the end of a summer and 28-48 percent would die if climate warming increases the summer.”  The decrease in the population is an approach towards extinction because the number of polar bears are decreasing and they are not able to reproduce. There needs to be an even amount of male and female populations, so there is an even amount of mates. If one gender population is higher than the other, then they will not be able to reproduce. This data is helpful because it provides a snap shot of the trend the population is following so we can better predict how much time we have to help the polar bears.

There is still a large amount of the population that believes that climate change is not a threat to our lives because it does not exist. Many people believe that since there has been a large time period of cold weather, global warming is no longer a problem. This is prevalent in the United Kingdom where there has been a time frame of colder weather.  The truth is that global warming results in extreme temperatures on both ends of the spectrum. The arctic is having issues with an increase in temperatures, but in other parts of the world there has been a severe drop in temperature.  The temperature drop has caused people to be less worried about the effects of global warming.  According to the Stuart Bryce Capstick’s article called public perception of cold weather events as evidence for and against climate change, states that it is “absurd to make the case for global warming at a time of incredible cold.” Since people in the UK have not experienced it themselves they find the realities of global warming hard to believe. People are less likely to accept something unless they experience it for themselves or if the media emphasizes the topic over and over. The truth is that the public is not educated about global warming as they are here in the United States.  The people of United Kingdom are under the false impression that weather and climate virtually mean the same thing.  The difference between weather and climate is that weather is short term change and climate is the weather conditions for a longer time frame. These two definitions can be used interchangeably by people if they do not understand what the difference is.  This article proves that we need to make the threat of global warming more publicized for the rest of the world. In the United States most of the population is aware of what it is and has been able to take a step towards preventing it. However, in the rest of the world this is not the case because it is not emphasized as it is here.

With regards to the recent events the fight to prevent climate change is moving away from success. The Paris agreement is with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change (UNFCCC) is to bring countries together to decide how to create a global response to climate change. The goal of the Paris agreement was to make sure that temperatures do no rise above two degrees Celsius. However, in June 2017 President Trump chose to withdraw the U.S, which will take effect soon. This will be a negative step for combatting climate change because we will not be able to work with the other countries to prevent any further climate change. Additionally, President Trump wants to cut the budget of the EPA. This will lead to less enforcement of environmental laws and less protection of human health from the effects of climate change such as air pollution.

Climate change is an issue that had been ignored for many years. It is time to make a change in the way we are treating the planet. To make a change we need to first bring awareness to the situation so more people can be involved. Additionally, we can start to use renewable energy such as wind and solar power instead of burning fossil fuels. We can decrease carbon dioxide emission by using hybrid and electrics cars, or simply by carpooling to reduce the amount of cars on the road.