HAPPY
ST. PATRICK'S DAY

from all of us at

Polar Bears International

New PowerPoint Presentation

for Middle School Kids

MOTHERS & CUBS

a video 

GREAT WHITE BEAR 

Join us in celebrating  Earth Hour on Saturday, March 26, when people around the world will turn out their lights for one hour at 8:30 p.m. local time in a show of support for action on climate change.
This year's message?
Go beyond the hour. Take action to make our world
a better place and share your act with the world.  

Portico Group 

GOOD FOR THE SOUL

FLIP CAMS 

Have you seen the new designs on the easy-to-use Flip Cams?
They feature polar bear photos by Daniel J. Cox/Natural Exposures. Each sale generates a donation to PBI. How COOL is that?

Sign of Spring . . . Frisky Polar Bear Cubs

Want to know what it's like to witness polar bear cubs emerging from their birth dens? Then join the PBI team on Alaska's North Slope--where temperatures can plunge to 20 degrees below zero--and follow our Scientists & Explorers Blog.

And look at the images coming in from hidden cameras used in our maternal den study, led by Dr. Tom Smith. They capture the high-spirited play of wobbly young cubs as they break free into the vast, white world of an arctic spring after months in dens under thick drifts of snow.  

"When the cubs first come out of the den, they're the cutest little things, they just race around," says Smith. "But they weigh only about four or five kilograms and are quite vulnerable. When bears are denning, they can't walk away from a disturbance. If reproduction is compromised, it can decimate a population." 

The PBI-funded study is:  

• Adding much-needed understanding of this critical period in a polar bear's life
• Providing data on the health and condition of mothers and cubs  
• Helping to set guidelines to protect denning families from industrial disturbances

PBI President Robert Buchanan is visiting many of the zoos in our Arctic Ambassador Center network this Spring as part of our Be Cool tour. He's celebrating the accomplishments of member zoos and raising awareness about the need to take action on climate change to save polar bears and their sea-ice habitat.  

"The zoos in our network play an important role in informing and inspiring the public," he says. "We're pleased and proud to support them in their efforts."

Many of the zoos have arranged special activities and public presentations--including talks by PBI scientists--as part of the tour. See if your local zoo is involved. The schedule includes:

Trees for You & Me . . . and Polar Bears, Too

Something to cheer about: Members of the American Association of Zoo Keepers (AAZK) rallied their members in a spirited fundraising competition to see which chapter could raise the most money to help PBI plant trees and combat CO2. 

Together they raised almost $14,000! Brookfield Zoo was the winning chapter in a close race with second-place winner Columbus Zoo, followed by third-place Galveston Zoo.

The funds will help PBI plant as many as 42,000 trees in our Polar Bear Forest project. The annual contest is all part of the wider PBI-AAZK Acres for the Atmosphere initiative that grew out of PBI Leadership Camp  and the efforts of PBI Ambassador Christy Mazrimas-Ott of the Brookfield Zoo.

A big paws up to all the chapters that took part! Take a look . . .

We're SO heartened--and impressed--by the creative, can-do projects of teens who took part in our Project Polar Bear 

contest, sponsored by Lowepro. From Arizona to Virginia, Oregon to New Jersey, teams involved their communities in reducing CO2, with total savings from all teams that completed the contest of 32 million pounds! For example:  

AHS Zoo School, North Carolina. Performed energy audits to help businesses and individuals cut back on power usage, rewarding participants with donated packs of CFL bulbs. Also launched recycling drives.  

Bear Necessities, Pennsylvania. Organized a Band for Bears concert that raised enough money to plant 1,500 trees. Also took part in numerous outreach events where they collected carbon-reducing pledges.   

We'll announce the grand prize winning team at an awards ceremony in April. But in the meantime, we thought you'd enjoy learning about all the teams by visiting their blogs.

Inspired to do your own projects? Be sure to share what you're doing on our Facebook or My Actions for Polar Bears Flickr pages.   |more  

World Forestry Day is March 21st ... and we're celebrating with tree-planting projects throughout the Spring as part of our Polar Bear Forest program. We chose the name to help the public make the connection between planting trees and removing CO2 from the atmosphere.

Of course, preventing deforestation in the first place is key to combatting climate change. According to the U.N.:

• Deforestation accounts for 12-20% of the global greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming
• Forests store more than 1 trillion tons of carbon
• Forests are home to 80% of terrestrial biodiversity

So, this Spring, show us your green--by launching tree-planting efforts in your community or by donating

to our Polar Bear Forest project. Share your photos and accomplishments on our Facebook or My Actions for Polar Bears Flickr pages!

At drive-through banks and drugstores. At railroad crossings and fast-food places. Every day, hundreds of thousands of vehicles sit with their engines idling, sending untold tons of CO2 spiraling up into the atmosphere. Do you know that you should turn off your engine for any wait longer than 30 seconds?    

One of our Project Polar Bear teams, the Green Teens of Oregon, successfully converted their area schools into no-idle zones, racking up amazing CO2 savings. Why not inspire a similar effort in your community? With prices at the pump so high, the timing couldn't be better.