Jon Mooallem says the polar bear is losing its potency as an environmental symbol:

I don’t know whether you saw the YouTube video that Obama put out to accompany his big climate speech in June, but I was surprised: There wasn’t a single polar bear image in it. It was all floods and storms and dried-up corn. Four years ago, there would have definitely been polar bears in that video. Today, though, the polar bear is just not as potent a symbol. It’s become too political. It doesn’t really resonate with environmentalists anymore and it ticks off everyone else. What’s amazing is that it’s just a freaking bear, yet it’s become as divisive a figure as Rush Limbaugh.

Previous Dish on polar bears here, here, and here.

(Photo by Susan Poupard)