The snow leopard is a resident of High Asia. Its imagery can appeal not just to people there but to those dependent on the cryosphere that the region is home to
I was born in the early 1980s and grew to young adulthood in the 90s. I grew up on the images that National Geographic and the Discovery Channel flashed before me like they did before countless other children of my generation. Among them, was one that left me rivetted: the polar bear.
I still remember the documentary shot by National Geographic on the polar bears of Churchill on the shores of Hudson Bay in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The 1982 documentary, beamed much later in India, showed how the little town was the ‘polar bear capital of the world’. How bears visited the town every year in hordes and their interactions with local residents.
Although I do not remember the names now, there were other documentaries that I saw which talked of the polar bear in great peril, with sea ice vanishing due to global warming. It is 30-40 years in the past and I only have vague memories now.
Although I did not know it then, not just me but the whole world was captivated by those images. And there was a reason.
Molly Segal, a climate and environment reporter working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, quoted Kari Marie Norgaard, a professor of sociology and environmental studies at University of Oregon, in her story last year on the appeal of polar bears:
It is something that children have an attachment to or it’s this iconic animal in certain ways
Yes, the polar bear is truly iconic. It is after all, the largest land-based carnivore globally, bigger than its cousin, the Brown Bear (including the Grizzly or the Kodiak Bear) as well as the Siberian Tiger.
In the coming decades, this appeal of the polar bear would catch on even more.
Andrew Derocher, a biologist at the University of Alberta Edmonton, was among the first scientists to draw attention to the plight of the polar bear.
As Kate Yoder noted in her article for Canada’s National Observer earlier this year, Derocher warned in a 1993 paper of the polar bear’s habitat loss, lower reproduction rates and increasing conflict with humans.
There was no outcry. Cut to a decade later. In 2004, his new paper warned that “polar bears were unlikely to survive if sea ice disappeared completely”. The rest is history.
Today, when the world is in the throes of a climate emergency, some in the West have criticised the imagery of the polar bear and its use as a mascot for the climate crisis.
Norgaard told Segal last year: “But I think we need lots and lots of symbols, not just one. Any kind of symbol that points to collective action… would be more useful.”
The global cryosphere is not restricted to the two poles. There is a ‘Third Pole’ as well. Inner Asia comprises of mountain ranges such as the Altai, Tian Shan, Nan Shan, Kunlun Shan, Pamir, Karakoram, Hindu Kush, and of course, the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas.
This region is home to most of the snow and ice on Earth outside the poles. From this region, at least 12 rivers fan out in every direction across the Asian continent:
This ‘Water Tower of Asia’ provides essential ecosystem services – it provides clean water for a third of the world’s population. It is estimated to be warming at nearly two times the average rate of warming in the Northern Hemisphere.
Is it then time for another mascot, at least in these high mountains of Asia, one that people here can relate to?
“Certainly,” Koustubh Sharma, Director-Science and Conservation at the Snow Leopard Trust, a Seattle-based organisation, told Down To Earth.
“The polar bear symbolises the alarming decline of ice cover at Earth’s poles, and these images must persistently urge action to combat climate change. However, the Third Pole is a vital source of sustenance for one of the world’s most densely populated regions, and we require a mascot to champion climate adaptation in this crucial area,” he added.
According to Sharma, despite their importance for biodiversity and ecological security, the areas that make up the Third Pole have often been out of the public and political conservation consciousness due to their remoteness and sparse human populations.
“It is critical for snow leopard conservation and human welfare that effective climate adaptation and resilience measures are implemented in the Third Pole. We must, therefore, improve our understanding of how warming and the consequent melting of snow and glaciers will affect snow leopards and the Third Pole’s indigenous communities,” said Sharma.
This World Snow Leopard Day, we should give serious thought to this idea. Indeed, we need several, not one symbol or mascot of climate change.
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Photos: iStock. Collage by Ajit Bajaj/ CSE.png)
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