Polly the Polar Bear Sleeps Well

Polly the Polar Bear calls Norway’s Svalbard Islands home — a rugged realm of snow and ice high above the Arctic Circle, where the Barents Sea meets the Arctic Ocean. For eight months of the year, temperatures stay well below freezing. Each spring, Polly and her kind emerge from their dens to hunt seals on the melting sea ice, feasting through the summer to build up thick reserves of body fat.
One day, Polly’s friend Hilde worried aloud that climate warming would melt so much ice that polar bears would no longer catch enough seals to survive. Polly’s mother smiled and gently explained why that isn’t true. When sunlight reaches open water, it actually boosts the entire food chain, helping seal populations grow and providing even more food for polar bears.
The good news is that polar bear numbers in Svalbard and across the Arctic are thriving. So, Polly drifts off to sleep each night knowing the sea ice will always return in the fall, just as it has for thousands of years.

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