Polar bears are dependent upon seasonal ice as the hunting platform for their main food source: seals. With rapidly warming temperatures in the arctic and subarctic, the season of ice-free days is expanding, limiting the time available for the planet's largest carnivore on land to eat.
TEMPERATURE
The temperatures are warming at a rate that's two to four times that of the rest of the global average in the arctic and subarctic/tundra regions of the globe. This is due to a loss of ice, which helps to keep the entire system cool but also changes the albedo (absorption of sunlight) of the landscape. Surfaces such as snow and ice reflect back the vast majority of sunlight incoming, thus keeping an area cool. With a shorter and shorter ice season and less multi-year ice, the arctic is absorbing more sun than it should be and thus heating up quickly.
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