EXPLAINER: How warming affects Arctic sea ice, polar bears
By SETH BORENSTEIN, CAMILLE FASSETT and KATI PERRY
Associated Press
As world leaders meet in Glasgow, Scotland, to try to ramp up efforts to curb climate change, the future of polar bears looms over them. Scientists and advocates say the threatened animals are “the canary in the cryosphere.” The Arctic has been warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. That has meant less sea ice. Polar bears need sea ice to hunt. So, shrinking sea ice means shrinking polar bears — literally. Scientists say polar bears in some places are smaller than they used to be.
