Polar bears face an accelerating welfare crisis as sea ice loss reduces hunting opportunity, causing increased nutritional stress, family disruption, and human-bear conflict.
Polar bear welfare under climate change presents a case where individual welfare decline and population conservation crisis are inseparable. The nutritional stress experienced by bears during extended ice-free periods is acute and measurable: thin bears show behavioural changes including increased movement in search of food, reduced activity to conserve energy, and increased boldness in approaching human settlements. Cubs born to nutritionally stressed mothers start life with reduced reserves and lower survival probability. The welfare crisis is driven entirely by climate change, which means that the only long-term solution is the only thing that cannot be achieved quickly: rapid decarbonisation. Short-term interventions including conflict reduction around communities and supplemental feeding in emergencies can mitigate individual welfare harm but cannot address the structural cause.