Your Ice Blogger has been in Antalya in Turkey for a few days. Turkish Radio TRT organised an international radio contest for programmes on climate change. The 10 finalists were invited to take part in the radio festival, listening to each other’s work and adding their views to those of the “Grand Jury”. I am honoured to have been awarded the 2nd prize for the 2nd part of my “Climate College in Alaska” series: “Meeting the Inupiat”.

Interviewing a young Inupiat eskimo Kajan, featured in the programme. The photo was taken by Marc Cornelissen of the Climate Change College.
All about the Climate Change College

This was the series which led to the Ice Blog.
The Alaskan Arctic Series – audio features and photos

Thank you TRT, firstly for putting climate change in the limelight by making it the subject of the competition. And thank you for giving international radio broadcasters the chance to discuss the issue with one another and learn from each other. Congratulations to our Greek colleagues, who won 1st prize, Dutch colleagues who got the 3rd and Korean colleagues who won the innovation prize. And thanks for honouring DW with the 2nd prize.
All about the TRT Turquoise 2008 Climate Change Radio Contest and the Finalists

This polar bear (Ursus maritimus), is pictured on the pack ice in the Arctic circle. The photo is from WWF.
(c) WWF / www.JSGrove.com

more on the photographer

I read a story about a whole group of polar bears, said to be swimming for their lives off the coast of Alaska. I asked my colleague Emily Schwing in Alaska if she had any more background. She agreed to send us her own guest blog entry. Here it comes:

On August 16th, nine polar bears were sighted swimming in the open waters of the Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast of Alaska. Federal observers were conducting aerial surveys when they spotted the bears swimming more than 15 miles off shore. One bear was sighted nearly 65 miles off the coast and some of the animals were reported swimming north.

Environmentalists argue the recent sighting could indicate that polar bears are opting to take longer, more dangerous, energy demanding swims in search of land or stable sea ice. Sea ice coverage in the Artic was reported at a record low in 2007 raising serious questions about the extent of polar bear habitat available to the marine mammal. Polar bears depend on sea ice as a way to hunt ringed seals and other prey.

Between 1987 and 2003, only 12 bears were observed swimming in open water. But in 2004, 51 bears were found swimming in the open ocean. That same year, four polar bears were found drowned in the Beaufort Sea following a storm. The fate of the nine bears sighted last week is unknown.

According to biologists with the US Geological Survey, polar bears are very strong swimmers, but distances of 50 to 100 miles could be exhausting for the animal. Scientists and environmentalists alike speculate that as sea ice continues to decline, events like this could happen more often

Federal marine contractor, Science Applications International Corp was conducting the aerial surveys for the Minerals Management Service, which leased 2.76 million acres offshore for future oil and gas development in February. The surveyors were looking for whales and other marine mammals when they spotted the polar bears.

The US department of the Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in May of this year, after a large body of scientific information indicated that arctic sea ice will continue to decline.

The state of Alaska, under Governor Sarah Palin is currently suing the US Federal Government over the listing of the bear citing a lack of strong scientific data and information that relies on too broad a timescale.

And this is Emily’s own blog

And if anyone hears any more about those bears, please let us know. You can put the comment on the blog or send a mail to features@dw-world.de

Emily found this interesting bear story on the reuters website and promises more on US and Canadian attitudes towards polar bears in the near future.

Canadians concerned about polar bears and climate change

My “Flash Gallery”, with Alaskan photos and information, is now online.
Baked Alaska Flash Gallery
And Deutsche Welle is currently broadcasting the first installment of the “Climate Change College in Alaska” radio feature series. You can listen online or subscribe to the podcast.
Alaskan Climate Change Series on LIVING PLANET

This was us in Barrow just two weeks ago.
This morning, this email reached me from George Divoky, our ornithologist friend, observing climate change as part of his work monitoring a black guillemot colony on the Arctic’s Cooper Island:

“Was able to follow your travels via the B&J website and your blog and it looked like you were able to see some impressive examples of climate change in Alaska.
I was impressed with both the quality of climate change ambassadors and the media traveling with them. I tend to be skeptical of much of what is said and done to bring climate change issues to the public but found this exercise to be a good one and was glad I could become involved.
(…) I head off to Alaska in a week and Cooper Island about a week after that. After the late and snowy spring (which you know about first hand) things have gotten very hot there (5 C as I write this) and the snow all melted in the past two days.
Best,
George”

George J. Divoky
Friends of Cooper Island

Cara and Marie Lauré are 2 of the Climate College ambassadors committed to protecting the environment. They would love the atmosphere here in Bonn at the moment.
Bonn is “abuzz” with environmental experts and activists at the moment. Today was the start of “COP 9”, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
This is the nature protection event of the year. “One Nature. One World. Our Future” – that’s the motto.
CBD website
They’re expecting around 7,000 people from around the world. The event goes over 2 weeks. Next week, the ministers and heads-of-state will arrive for the “high-level” segment. You might ask yourself whether involving that many people in a conference is really good for the environment. Of course that also means me as one of the 500 (!) journalists accredited for the event. My ecological footprint isn’t deep for this one, as the conference is literally 2 tram stops away from our headquarters here at DW. I’m not sure whether the numbers don’t get inflated in general though. But I do think we need to do something, and if that means getting all these people around the table – then, so be it.
The German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel opened the conference, with Ahmed Djoghlaf, who’s the Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. They both stressed the link between biodiversity and climate, which is why Bonn is a great city to have it, as it’s home to the UNFCCC (Yes, there really are 3 “C”s), the Climate Secretariat.
Homepage for the UN climate experts
There is a live webcast of the conference, if you’re in to that sort of thing.(You’ll find it under the link above).
I went along today with my colleague Nina Haase. We’ll be reporting on what’s happening on Living Planet and other programmes over the next 2 weeks.
On the way there, I (almost literally) ran into a Greenpeace kids’ demo. They were singing their own German version of “Frère Jacques” adressed to the German Environment Minister. It goes like this:
“Sigmar Gabriel, Sigmar Gabriel, are you sleeping?
Can’t you hear the polar bears, Can’t you hear the polar bears: “Save the Climate”.
It’s great to see young school kids, with their faces painted and hand-made banners with tigers and polar bears on them being active for the environment.
You can listen to them singing below.
Thanks to teachers like Isobel who have responded to this blog. Isobel wants to use it to teach her pupils about climate change and related issues. She finds they show a lot of interest in these issues. More power to you Isobel and everyone reading this who’s working to get the next generation involved in protecting biodiversity, combatting climate change, and making sure they have a future.