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polar bear population near historic highs
==Population and Protection==
==Population and Protection==
A belief in over-hunting during the 1960s and 1970s and the drop in bear population levels prompted the five Arctic nations with polar bear populations to create and sign the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears in 1973.<ref name="bearfacts">Polar Bears International: [http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/bear-facts/ Bear Facts]</ref> Since these conservation efforts had been made, the world population rose to an estimated 22-27,000<ref>Nature Canada: [http://www.naturecanada.ca/climate_change_polar.asp Climate Change and Polar Bears]</ref> even though there is no adequte census.<ref name="bearfacts"/> where it currently stands. However, a variety of additional factors, such as airborne toxins (polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs) or the claimed effects of man-made [[global warming]] may have caused a decrease in bear population, principly [[Alaska]] where an estimated 2,000 bears exist, and [[Hudson Bay]], Canada, where a drop was recorded from 1,100 bears in 1995 to fewer than 950 in 2004.
A belief in over-hunting during the 1960s and 1970s and the drop in bear population levels prompted the five Arctic nations with polar bear populations to create and sign the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears in 1973.<ref name="bearfacts">Polar Bears International: [http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/bear-facts/ Bear Facts]</ref> Since these conservation efforts had been made, the world population rose to an estimated 22-27,000<ref>Nature Canada: [http://www.naturecanada.ca/climate_change_polar.asp Climate Change and Polar Bears]</ref> even though there is no adequte census.<ref name="bearfacts"/> where it currently stands. However, a variety of additional factors, such as airborne toxins (polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs) or the claimed effects of man-made [[global warming]] may have caused a decrease in bear population, principly [[Alaska]] where an estimated 2,000 bears exist, and [[Hudson Bay]], Canada, where a drop was recorded from 1,100 bears in 1995 to fewer than 950 in 2004.
In 2002, the US Geological Survey in the Arctic Refuge Coastal plain reported the polar bear population was near historic highs. [http://icecap.us/index.php/go/faqs-and-myths#2]
==Activism==
==Activism==