Polar bear welfare impacts from sea ice loss are now documented at the individual level — longer fasting periods, reduced body condition, and reproductive failure have measurable welfare costs.
Polar bear climate welfare is now documentable at the individual level, moving beyond population projections to measurable individual suffering. Bears experiencing extended fasting periods undergo nutritional stress that causes muscle catabolism, immune suppression, and reduced reproductive success. Cubs born to nutritionally compromised mothers have lower survival rates — their welfare harm begins before birth. The welfare narrative of climate change for polar bears is one of gradual, cumulative deterioration rather than dramatic events: longer fasts, poorer body condition, reduced cub survival, and increasing dangerous encounters with humans as bears seek food near settlements. The only durable welfare solution is emissions reduction that stabilizes or restores sea ice. Short-term interventions including supplemental feeding are logistically impossible at population scale.