Commit to Help Polar Bears on International Polar Bear Day, February 27th

International Polar Bear Day is February 27th, a day when Polar Bears International (PBI) focuses attention on the problems polar bears face in a warming Arctic and how each of us can help. For the second year in a row, we’ve organized a worldwide Thermostat Challenge to celebrate the day, one of seven action events in our Save Our Sea Ice Campaign. The goal is to keep polar bears in the Arctic, always.

With the Thermostat Challenge, PBI invites people and businesses around the world to adjust their thermostats up or down by at least two degrees—depending on where they live—and to make this action a habit. We also encourage people to invite others to join us and to speak up to elected officials in support of energy-saving measures.

“Our research shows that two-thirds of the world’s polar bears will be gone by the middle of the century unless we take action to greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” says Dr. Steve Amstrup, PBI’s chief scientist. “The Thermostat Challenge raises awareness of how our daily actions impact the polar bear’s sea ice habitat. By taking part in this initiative, we can lower our carbon emissions and show our commitment to action on climate change.”

Participants in the Thermostat Challenge are invited to post photos of their actions on PBI’s Save Our Sea Ice Community Page. While there, visitors can also commit to additional actions. Choices include those at the individual, community, and policy levels, all of which are needed to stop climate change.

For motivated youth who want to do even more, PBI has developed a Thermostat Challenge Toolkit, the first in a series of community action toolkits developed in conjunction with the SOS! campaign.

The Thermostat Challenge is the launch event for PBI’s larger Save Our Sea Ice Campaign, a series of conservation challenges that begin on International Polar Bear Day, February 27th, and continue through Polar Bear Week in early November. The goal of the campaign is to save polar bears by motivating greenhouse gas reductions to stop global warming.

“These challenges are a great way to start making every day a polar bear day,” says Krista Wright, executive director of PBI. “We all make countless daily decisions that have an impact, and it’s important to remember that, collectively, they add up.”

About Polar Bears International

Polar Bears International (PBI) is the world’s leading polar bear conservation group, dedicated to saving polar bears by saving their sea ice habitat. We focus our efforts on research, education, and action, with a goal of keeping polar bears in the Arctic, always. PBI’s chief scientist, Dr. Steven Amstrup, is world-renowned for his work with polar bears and conservation efforts. Prior to joining PBI, he led polar bear ecology research in Alaska for 30 years. In 2007, he led the U.S.G.S. research team whose reports became the basis for the 2008 U.S. decision to list polar bears as a threatened species. More recently, Dr. Amstrup led an effort showing polar bears are not unavoidably doomed. In the December 2010 paper issue of Nature, he and his co-authors showed that preserving polar bears is all about controlling human-caused temperature rise.After retiring from his government position in 2010, Amstrup joined PBI to speak up about the need to save polar bears. He has been tireless and passionate in his outreach. In 2012, Amstrup was selected as the recipient of the Indianapolis Prize, considered the Nobel Prize for animal conservation, and a Bambi Award, one of the highest honors in Europe. To learn more about PBI or make a donation to support PBI’s work, visit www.polarbearsinternational.org.