Save the Arctic - by Victor

For thousands of years, people have lived alongside animals in the Arctic. But now all that is changing. Climate change has caused sea ice to slip away, and every day the process speeds up. We need to save the arctic, to save the people that have called the Arctic home for millennia, to save the animals that are in risk of being wiped out completely, and to overall try to save our planet from certain doom.

4 million people live in the Arctic, most of them indigenous people. Over 40 different ethnic groups have made their home in the Arctic. But if we let the oil companies start drilling in the Arctic, an oil spill will be very likely, and be disastrous for both animals and humans. That would result in no less than a humanitarian crisis.

There are lots of animals that exist only in the Arctic, such as polar bears, arctic foxes, reindeer, and oxen. If we let the Arctic sea ice melt away, their habitat will also melt away, and these animals without a habitat will slip into extinction. That would be a huge loss for the world, when we don’t know a lot about these animals. And some animals live in Arctic waters too, so an oil spill might affect them.

Arctic sea ice helps keep the planet cool by absorbing sunlight. But climate change has caused ice to break up, so the oceans absorb the sunlight, which in turn makes the planet even warmer. Our planet that we know and cherish today would be much different without this frozen world.

Now, with climate change taking over the Arctic, the oil companies, the same people that started climate change, are now trying to grab all the oil for themselves. We can’t let that happen. We need to save the arctic, to save our planet.