evidence: The consensus is clear – as Arctic sea ice melts, polar bears are finding it harder to hunt, mate and breed. While polar bears have shown some ability to adapt to changes in their surroundings – for example, by foraging for food on land, or swimming more to hunt for prey – scientists project that as sea ice diminishes, polar bears will find it harder to survive and populations will decline. [...] However, temperatures in the Arctic are rising nearly four times as fast as the global average, and Arctic sea ice extent has declined since 1979 for every month of the year. The chart below shows how Arctic sea ice extent has diminished in recent decades. [...] "Historically, there was actually too much sea ice in the high Arctic for bears. The multi-year sea ice can be 10 metres thick, so it stifles productivity. So there is a transient phenomenon where in some of these high Arctic areas, as it’s getting warmer and sea ice is melting, the conditions are getting to be just right.