"Expert" On Polar Bears To Give Lecture At Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium - kdka.com

Melting ice has meant the bears must swim further and further to get to dry land, and because they're only capable of swimming 50 miles at a time, it has become a life and death situation.

"There have even been reports of them drowning because they can't find sea ice," said Kacprzyk.

Zoo patrons will get a chance to hear more about the plight of polar bears, which are down to just 20,000 worldwide, when Robert Buchanan, who isthe president and CEO of Polar Bears International, comes to town next Friday for a special reception and lecture.

As the zoo's own polar bear brothers swim nearby, Buchanan will talk about what can be done to keep the species from extinction, something that some experts predict could happen by the year 2040.

Flashback: Polar Bear Testimony Suppressed Due to 'Inconvenient' Truths | NewsBusters.org

Dr Mitchell Taylor has been researching the status and management of polar bears in Canada and around the Arctic Circle for 30 years, as both an academic and a government employee. More than once since 2006 he has made headlines by insisting that polar bear numbers, far from decreasing, are much higher than they were 30 years ago. Of the 19 different bear populations, almost all are increasing or at optimum levels, only two have for local reasons modestly declined.