Final answer:
Global warming impacts polar bears by melting arctic ice, which is vital for their survival as it provides hunting grounds. Shifting ecological ranges and rising sea levels also affect their habitat, presenting severe threats to their existence and exemplifying broader environmental challenges.
Step-by-step explanation:
Global warming significantly impacts polar bears, primarily through the loss of their sea ice habitat. As the climate warms, arctic ice melts at a rate that outpaces projections, reducing the available hunting grounds for polar bears to capture their main food source, seals. Polar bears face longer and more treacherous journeys to find stable ice, leading to increased energy expenditures and risks of drowning.
Polar bears are also experiencing habitat loss due to the melting of glaciers. Climate-induced changes are causing the shifting of ecological ranges, with species moving toward higher altitudes and latitudes. Unique climates and ecosystems, such as the polar regions inhabited by polar bears, are at risk of disappearing altogether, raising concerns about the species' future survival.
Additionally, global warming leads to rising sea levels and altered freshwater cycles, which affects polar bears indirectly by changing their broader ecosystem. These transformations signal a dire need for solutions to climate change, as they pose a threat not only to polar bears but to a myriad of species worldwide. The decline in polar bear populations could serve as an illustrative example in an essay's thesis statement, linking the specifics of their plight to broader environmental and conservation challenges posed by global warming.