美國生物多樣性研究中心表示，稀有的綬帶海豹（ribbon seal）可能會是第一種因為全球暖化而喪失棲息地的物種。綬帶海豹依賴北極海洋冰層來生存，但是海洋冰層卻在快速縮小中。
這個組織與國家海洋漁業局（National Marine Fisheries Service）共同提出一份科學性的陳情書，試圖以聯邦瀕危物種法案來保護綬帶海豹，因為在暖化的氣候下牠們的棲地正逐漸減少。
陳情書的主要作者，也是生物多樣性研究中心生物學家渥夫（Shaye Wolf）表示：「在全球暖化之下，北極正處於危機狀態，它的整個生態系統正在快速地融化中，因為我們一直無法在全球暖化上作出具體因應，使綬帶海豹處在成為第一個犧牲者的狀態中」。
綬帶海豹是最所有海豹中身上飾紋最明顯的種類。牠們的幼獸是純白色的，而成獸則具有帶有白色環紋的黑色皮毛。
維吉尼亞大學的生物學家卡樂登瑞（Carleton Ray）解釋說：「為什麼綬帶海豹要有這樣的飾條呢？可能是要讓水面下的掠食者較無法看到牠們。但是這種美麗又討人喜愛的物種可能很快就要完全地消失了，因為一些氣候模型預測，牠們春天繁殖地的海洋冰層會持續地消減。」
The rare ribbon seal may be one of the first species to lose its habitat to global warming, says the Center for Biological Diversity. The ribbon seal is dependent on Arctic sea ice for survival - but that sea ice is shrinking fast.
The group has filed a scientific petition with the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect the ribbon seal under the federal Endangered Species Act due to decline of its habitat in a warming climate.
"The Arctic is in crisis state from global warming," said Shaye Wolf, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity and lead author of the petition.
"An entire ecosystem is rapidly melting away and the ribbon seal is poised to become the first victim of our failure to address global warming," he said.
The ribbon seal is the most decoratively patterned of all seals. While the pups are pure white, the adults have black fur wrapped in white circles.
"Why does the ribbon seal have its stripes? Probably to make it less visible to underwater predators," explains ribbon seal biologist Carleton Ray from the University of Virginia.
"But this beautiful, charismatic species may soon become totally invisible should its spring reproductive habitat of sea ice continue to diminish, as climate models predict," he said.
During the late winter through early summer, ribbon seals rely on the edge of the sea ice in the Bering and Okhotsk Seas off Alaska and Russia as safe habitat for giving birth and as a nursery for their pups.
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In my healing journey and learning to attain the breath awareness, I become aware of the reality that all the creatures of the world are breathing the same breath. Take action, here and now. From my physical being to the every corner of this out of balance's planet.
