Associated Press: In the gateway to the Arctic, fat, ice and polar bears are crucial. All three are in trouble

Searching for polar bears where the Churchill River dumps into Canada’s massive Hudson Bay, biologist Geoff York scans a region that’s on a low fat, low ice diet because of climate change.

And it’s getting lower on polar bears.

There are now about 600 polar bears in the Western Hudson Bay, one of the most threatened of the 20 populations of the white beasts. That’s about half the number of 40 years ago, says York, senior director of research and policy at Polar Bears International. His latest study, with a team of scientists from various fields, shows that if the world doesn’t cut back more on emissions of heat-trapping gases “we could lose this population entirely by the end of the century,” he says.

To read more about the work Dr. Julienne Stroeve is doing in the Arctic, please visit the Associated Press.