a recent paper for the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

Its findings are summarized here:

• Global polar bear numbers have been stable or risen slightly since 2005, despite the fact that summer sea ice since 2007 hit levels not expected until mid-century: the predicted 67% decline in polar bear numbers did not occur. • Abundant prey and adequate sea ice in spring and early summer since 2007 appear to explain why global polar bear numbers have not declined, as might have been expected as a result of low summer sea ice levels. • The greatest change in sea ice habitat since 1979 was experienced by Barents Sea polar bears and the least by those in Southern Hudson Bay, the most southerly region inhabited by bears. • As far as isknown, the record low extent of sea ice in March 2017 had no impact on polar bear health or survival. • Some studies show bears are lighter in weight than they were in the 1980s, but none showed an increase in the number of individuals starving to death or too thin to reproduce. • A just-released report of Southern Beaufort Sea bears having difficulty finding prey in 2014– 2016 suggests that the thick ice events that have impacted the region every ten years or so since the 1960s have continued despite reduced summer sea ice. • Claims of widespread hybridization of polar bears with grizzlies were disproven by DNA studies. • Overly pessimistic media responses to recent polar bear issues have made heartbreaking news out of scientifically insignificant