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photo by Michael Epis

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These days everyone understands what climate change is, but it was not always so – and the iconic image of the polar bear adrift has played a key role in that process. The image fuses in our minds just what is at stake, distilling a complex process over an extended duration into a single image, with emotional resonance.

First, let’s recap the role of ice in climate change. Ice covers 10 per cent of the globe. It cools the world, by reflecting – not absorbing – the sun’s heat. But as greenhouse gases get trapped in the atmosphere, the temperature rises, melting the ice. That ice turns to water, enters the ocean, and warms. It is no longer reflecting the sun’s heat, but now, as water, is absorbing that heat, thus adding to the heating up of the planet. This brings other effects: warmer water adds energy to storms: bigger, more devastating and more frequent storms and cyclones have long been predicted as a consequence, which is already coming to pass. Another effect is rising sea levels: if all of Greenland’s ice melted, the sea would rise seven metres. About 230 million people live on land that is less than one metre above sea level. Up to one billion are on land less than 10 metres above sea level. The notion of hundreds of millions of people made homeless because of rising sea levels is horrifying. The pain it would cause is incalculable, and the geopolitical disputes would likely be much worse.

All of this complexity is squeezed into that one image of the polar bear adrift. Its habitat is being destroyed; it is denied food; it has lost its home. It is just like us. It helps that the polar bear is “charismatic megafauna” – an animal to which we can relate, especially as it waves goodbye.

A survey of National Geographic found that in 20 years of articles on climate change, 72 of 102 associated pictures were of polar bears; it is indeed the poster boy of climate change.

Which is why some – such as mining billionaire Gina Rinehart addressing girls at her Perth alma mater last year – will tell you polar bear numbers are increasing. They might be, no-one knows exactly: polar bear population data is inconclusive and complex. If they are increasing, it might be because the Soviet Union banned their hunting in 1956 and the US in 1972, and Greenland in 1973.

But that misses the point – the image tells a complex story, emotionally. Children get it immediately – which bothers the Gina Rineharts of this world.