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November 30, 2011
Hannah Milks, Student Life editor
As you know Coca-Cola’s iconic symbol is the polar bear. If you’ve grabbed a can of it lately you may have noticed that the cans have changed from the classic red to the silver and white can depicting polar bears. It turns out that Coca-Cola is teaming up with World Wildlife Federation and will be donating 2 million dollars to help the plight of the polar bears and matching another 1 million dollars with the help of Coke drinkers across America.
Coca-Cola’s mission is to help polar bears have a safe home in the future. Polar bears rely on ice for food, shelter, and mating grounds. The company is raising money to build a 500,000 square mile refuge in Canada and Greenland, calling it a “natural safety net,” for the polar bears.
The fast melting ice provides a living environment for animals that are food for the polar bears. Polar bears eat ringed or bearded seals and narwhales. The more the ice melts and habitat is lost, the less food is available for the polar bear, sometimes making it survive off of fat preserves for up to 3-4 months. In late autumn each year the polar bear mothers make dens to keep their babies alive with body heat and milk. The average polar bear has two cubs that each weigh about two pounds (the size of a guinea pig).The mother polar bear’s heart rate slows down from 60-90 to 27bpm. But without enough food the mother and baby polar bears will die of starvation from lack of food.
Helping the polar bears is only one way that Coca-Cola is trying to be more environmentally friendly. Other things they are doing is trying to reduce their C02 emissions by 5%, switching to hybrid-electric vehicles, using high efficiency vending machines and refrigerators, and reducing water waste by 20% in 2012.
If you go to Coca-Colas website www.arctichome.com you can “track” a bear. All of the bears are mothers with baby cubs. You can see how far they traveled, age and number of cubs etc. One polar bear, Callista is known for her traveling she has traveled over 2,916 miles. She not only has traveled the most of any polar bear being tracked but is also one of the largest females weighing 499 pounds. If you would like to help Callista and her cubs, donate to Coca-Colas fund.
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