Surfbirds News

The site – a microsite hosted on the enhanced WWF-Canon Polar Bear Tracker (www.panda.org/polarbears) – will have a variety of activities suitable for children aged from seven to eleven.

Polar Bear, Norway © Pete Morris, Birdquest

In fun and engaging ways, and with the aid of two animated polar bear cubs named Auro and Borea, children will learn about threats to polar bears’ habitat, about the issues and challenges of climate change, their own impact on the environment, and how they can each make a difference.

The Polar Bear Tracker was launched in 2002 by WWF’s Arctic Programme and the Norwegian Polar Institute to track polar bears in the Svalbard archipelago. Canon recognised the importance of the project and became involved because polar bears are a key indicator of climate change and its effects on the Arctic.

Due to global warming, the sea ice on which polar bears live melts earlier and earlier every year, leaving them with a smaller area in which to find food. Though pollution and hunting are other threats to polar bears, climate change is the biggest of them all. Unless humanity takes radical action to reduce its emissions of global warming gases such as carbon dioxide, we are unlikely to be able to save the polar bear.

The announcement of the children’s site is timed to coincide with Canon Europe’s 50th anniversary.

“Climate change and the associated issues of global warming and environmental consciousness are of crucial importance to the people of Canon, both as members of a socially responsible company and as individuals” said James Leipnik, Chief of Communication and Corporate Relations at Canon Europe. “By working with WWF to address some of the key challenges of environmental sustainability through better understanding, we hope to engage as wide an audience as possible, from children to their parents and teachers, and encourage them to do their part for the environment.”