Flip-Flop: Local weather makes polar bears skinny & fats! NYT in 2026: ‘Some Polar Bears Are Getting Fatter Even as Sea Ice Shrinks’ – Researchers ‘surprised that the polar bears were actually gaining weight’ – However in 2017 ‘starving’ & ‘skinny’ polar bears had been because of ‘climate change’
CBS News – Jan 29, 2026: ‘Fat, healthy polar bears surprise researchers’ – ‘Surprised to see the bears thriving as climate change shrinks the sea ice cover in the region.’
National Geographic: ‘These polar bears are getting fatter as sea ice melts. What’s going on?’ – The finding offers a small window of hope for a polar bear population vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Jan 29, 2026: NYT: Some Polar Bears Are Getting Fatter Even as Sea Ice Shrinks – Seals favored by Svalbard bears are becoming easier to hunt as ice declines, a study found. –
By Eric Niiler – The population of polar bears in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago has improved over the past 27 years despite predictions that melting sea ice would make it harder for them to find food. Researchers on Svalbard, between mainland Norway and the North Pole, compared the body condition index, a measurement of weight and fat content of the polar bears, with the rate of sea ice melting in the surrounding Barents Sea. Over a 27-year period, they found to their surprise that the polar bears were actually gaining weight as the ice receded.
“When I started, if you asked me what do you think will happen, I would assume they would be struggling and they would get leaner, skinnier and maybe you would see effects on reproduction and survival,” said Jon Aars, senior scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute and author of the study, which was published on Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports. “That was wrong.” The Svalbard polar bear population has remained stable at around 2,650 animals, while the number of ice-free days has increased by 100 since the study period began. Dr. Aars said some of the polar bears are now eating reindeer and walrus, whose populations have increased since they have been protected from hunting. Others are taking advantage of denser congregations of ringed seals, which gather on remaining patches of sea ice, or eating new foods like bird eggs.
But wait… Climate activists and the media have been promoting the claim for decades that ‘global warming’ would result in skinny polar bears!
Flashback 2017: NYT: Video of Starving Polar Bear ‘Rips Your Heart Out of Your Chest’ – Last week, Mr. Nicklen, his group SeaLegacy and National Geographic published photos and videos from the encounter. They showed the world the polar bear, stranded on iceless land, its white coat dirtied, its body emaciated, its movements labored. And when the world saw, millions recoiled in heartbroken horror. … Inexcusable,” wrote one commenter on Instagram…“What,” several asked, “can we do?” Experts and environmentalists say the broad answer — however controversial and nuanced it may be — is to reduce the present levels of global greenhouse gas emissions in order to curb global warming.
2015: Photographer of ‘horribly thin’ polar bear hopes to inspire climate change fight
2018: National Geographic admits skeletal polar bear-global warming link ‘went too far’ – One of the world’s most respected publications says the reasons for an individual polar bear’s apparent starvation are impossible to ascertain, after originally attributing them to climate change.
Flasbhack 2020: CNN: ‘Polar bears are getting thinner and having fewer cubs. Melting sea ice is to blame’ – CNN — The impact of the climate crisis is becoming more and more obvious to humans and their animal neighbors. But among all species, polar bears might be some of the hardest hit. Researchers found polar bears are becoming thinner and having fewer cubs, and their declining health was tied to melting sea ice. … “Climate-induced changes in the Arctic are clearly affecting polar bears,” study author Kristin Laidre, professor of aquatic and fishery sciences at the University of Washington, said in a statement. “They are an icon of climate change, but they’re also an early indicator of climate change because they are so dependent on sea ice.” … The bears are spending less time on land and losing weight.
Show me a climate claim, I’ll show you a lie: In 2017, the NYTimes reported that global warming was emaciating polar bears. But today, we learn, it’s actually making them fatter. https://t.co/eQagtcjZxZ pic.twitter.com/KtgcGtZXFy
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) January 29, 2026
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Climate Depot’s Marc Morano comments: We have known for decades that polar bears are highly adaptable to their living conditions and were not under threat from man-made ‘climate change.’ See my 2008 report on Polar Bears:
[Climate Depot Note: Morano wrote a report on polar bears and climate back in 2008, debunking this global warming threat when I was a senior staff member at the U.S. Senate Environment & Public Works Committee.
See: U.S. Senate Report Debunks Polar Bear Extinction Fears – January 30, 2008 – By Marc Morano]
Related:
BEAR-MAGEDDON: 7 Outlets Scaremonger Polar Bears ‘Rewriting’ DNA to Fight Climate Change – Morano: ‘When current reality fails to alarm…they make scarier & scarier (unfounded) predictions of the future’
December 17, 2025
Excerpt: Climate Depot founder Marc Morano blasted the media outlets perpetuating this nonsense in comments to MRC Business. “Scientists and scientific data have known for decades that ‘climate change’ was not threatening polar bears in the Arctic. The number of polar bears in the Arctic has increased dramatically in recent decades, particularly since a hunting ban was imposed.” Specifically, said Morano, “The polar bear population exploded from an estimated 5,000 in the 1960s to 30,000 or more today.” …
But this is a load of bunk, as Morano joked to MRC. “It is safe to say that polar bears are disappearing, but only from Al Gore’s books and movies!” He joked that “In Gore’s 2006 film, he made the polar bear a poster child for global warming, but fast forward to his 2017 film and book sequel, and Gore did not even mention them.” Scientists have testified before Congress that “polar bears have survived several historic episodes of much warmer temperatures over the last 10,000 years, and they have adapted,” Morano noted. In essence, polar bear adaptation to a changing climate isn’t even a new thing.
Morano argued that what the new study does, if anything, is reveal “some insight into one of the many ways these bears have adapted.” …
But the seemingly nuttier bits of climate change tomfoolery continuously oozing out of the media eco-sphere shouldn’t be expected to fade away, Morano said. “When current reality fails to alarm, the climate activists will continue to make scarier and scarier (unfounded) predictions of the future.”
[Climate Depot Note: Morano wrote a report on polar bears and climate back in 2008, debunking this global warming threat when I was a senior staff member at the U.S. Senate Environment & Public Works Committee. See: U.S. Senate Report Debunks Polar Bear Extinction Fears – January 30, 2008 – By Marc Morano]