The Arctic is no longer the freezing, pristine environment of our childhoods. While future oil exploration threatens the Arctic habitat, climate change has caused a local temperature rise of 4°C over the last 50 years. This may not sound like much, but it's been enough to melt an extra 1.3 million km² of ice between 1978 and 2005 – an area five times the size of the UK. With less ice, a polar bear finds it much harder to hunt. With no ice, a polar bear is unable to hunt at all. Unless these problems are tackled at once, the Arctic's summer ice may be lost by 2040, and the polar bear's extinction is predicted by the end of the century.


The issues that need to be tackled

• Melting ice caps caused by climate change
• Oil exploration
• Over-fishing and illegal fishing

The facts at a glance

Rise in localised Arctic surface temperatures over last 50 years	4°C
Extra ice melted between 1978 and 2005	1.3 million km² - an area five times the size of the UK
Polar bear's weight loss for every week earlier the ice melts	10kg
Predicted collapse of the Arctic cod stocks	15 years
Deadline for moratorium on oil drilling around Lofoten island in the Barents Sea to be renewed	2010
Predicted loss of all summer Arctic ice	2040
Predicted extinction of the polar bears	By the end of the century

Please start investing in the future today. Your support is needed urgently.

We are sorry but you are currently unable to apply online.

To back our Arctic programme, either:

• Print the investment form, enter your details and return to us in an envelope using our FREE post address: Glyn Davies, WWF-UK, FREEPOST (KE4 714), NORTHAMPTON NN99 1WF.
• Or call our team on 01483 426 333 quoting reference 'Invest'.

How your investment will help

• We will help protect the marine environment that polar bears depend upon.
• We will pressure governments to commit to robust targets for reducing CO₂ emissions. We'll identify 'no-go' areas - for example, we need to persuade Norway to extend the moratorium on oil and gas exploration off the coast of Lofoten Islands beyond 2010 – just 3 years time.
• We'll lobby Arctic-based companies to take out environmental insurance policies and improve their oil spillage contingency plans – this work has already led to improvements in the transportation of noxious cargo.
• We'll aid the study of polar bears, monitoring their health and movements via electronic collars, to track how climate change affects them as a species.