Photo by Ellen Williams-Masson Jim Hubing posing with Henry Vilas zoo's polar bear, Mishka.

Icing Global Warming at the Henry Vilas Zoo
article by Ellen Williams-Masson

There is an Arctic nip in the air as she lumbers through the snow, black nose twitching in response to zoo director Jim Hubing's familiar voice. Mishka, a 500-pound polar bear at Henry Vilas Zoo, is the face of a grass roots effort to ice global warming.

"Climate change is part of our environment and part of our planet," said Hubing, noting that the zoo clocked over 601,000 visitors last year, and more and more questions are being asked about global warming. "Our time on Earth has reached the point where we can inflict damage on our planet that it may not be able to heal itself. It has always been our belief that no matter what we did, our resources were infinite and the planet's capacity to recover from what we did was also infinite, and that's not the case any more."

As one of 1,000 volunteers who participated in The Climate Project, Hubing received personal training from former Vice President Al Gore, recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work to turn the tide of global climate change. Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," outlines the scientific evidence of a planet in crisis.



"He selected people from every walk of life," Hubing says of the 3-day workshop last spring. "At my table were an astrophysicist, geologist, clergyman, farmer, historian, retired person. It was very well represented."

As a conservationist, Hubing incorporates what he learned at the workshop into ongoing educational programs at the zoo and also gives presentations about climate change throughout the community. He likens the thickness of the earth's fragile atmosphere to a spray of water mist clinging to the surface of an orange. The emission of carbon dioxide and other gases thickens the atmosphere, preventing the escape of excess heat into outer space. Although a certain level of "greenhouse" gases are necessary to trap solar heat and warm the planet, vast amounts of carbon dioxide released by the burning of forests and fossil fuels can add up to too much of a good thing. As temperatures rise, the glaciers melt, weather patterns become more erratic and severe, and plants and animals are forced to adapt to changes in habitat - or perish. Most scientists agree there are clear signs that global climate change is already affecting the planet.

Hubing points to Mishka's kin in the wild, who are struggling for survival as the polar sea ice regresses and remains thawed for longer periods of time. Polar bears are uniquely adapted for life on the polar cap, snagging seals for dinner when they poke holes in the ice to breathe and hibernating on land during the summer thaw.

"The ice used to carry them over water that they could bring seals out of, but when you can't get out on the ice, because there isn't any, you don't have that much to eat," he said.

Climate change, coupled with loss of habitat from human encroachment, is pushing many species to the brink of extinction - including penguins, the great apes, and Bactrian "two-humped" camels. "In many of these cases, we are down to very few animals left, so further loss of habitat is very damaging to them," Hubing warned.

Diseases, which thrive in rising temperatures, are also taking a heavy toll. Approximately a third of gorillas in the wild have succumbed to Ebola, and a fungal disease is decimating poisoned dart frogs in their native Central American habitat. As a world leader in the conservation of these frogs, the Henry Vilas Zoo supports the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center and has added several popular amphibian exhibits in recent years. "Amphibians are thought to be the barometers of the environment; as they decline, so does our environment," Hubing said.

Estimating that at least half of the zoo's 170 species are endangered in the wild, Hubing emphasizes the importance of the careful management of captive populations. Zoos can also raise awareness by bringing people face to face with the beautiful animals that share our planet.

"All life is precious," he said. "By connecting people and animals, we begin to understand that we share our environment with the wonders of the natural world. Unless we care for them, they'll vanish- and so will we."

What difference can you make?

The Climate Project (www.theclimateproject.org) lists 10 simple things to do to lessen impact on the environment (and the pounds of carbon saved each year):

Replace one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb: 150 pounds
Drive less: 1 pound per mile not driven
Recycle more: 2400 pounds by recycling half of household waste
Check tire pressure: improved gas mileage saves 20 pounds per gallon not burned
Use less hot water: use a low flow showerhead (350 pounds) and wash clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds)
Avoid products with excess packaging; 1200 pounds if reduce garbage by 10%
Adjust your thermostat; two degrees difference adds up to 2000 pounds
Plant a tree; absorbs one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime
Turn off electronic devices not in use; thousands of pounds
Spread the word