Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
~Job 38:16-18 

In the spirit of everything is not horrible these days, did you hear the good news about polar bears? Scientists have been concerned about how polar bears could adapt to the warming arctic due to climate change. Years ago Greenpeace released a moving campaign about saving the arctic featuring a homeless polar bear wandering the streets of London. The polar bear’s wanderings were set to a song by Radiohead (“Everything In Its Right Place”) and featured a voiceover from Jude Law—Join the Movement. Save the Arctic. Because the fate of polar bears has been on peoples’ minds and hearts for quite some time.

Though researchers who have been studying polar bears in the Norwegian Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard shared that the polar bears in that specific population have become “fatter and healthier” despite the ice loss! Polar bears need sea ice to use as platforms to hunt seals. Eating seals (rich in blubber) helps polar bears have better fat reserves which in turn provides enough insulation and energy for mother bears to produce milk to feed their cubs. Here’s how the BBC explained what has been discovered, “Researchers weighed and measured 770 adults in Svalbard between 1992 and 2019 and found that bears had become significantly fatter. They think that Svalbard bears have adapted to recent ice loss by eating more land-based prey, including reindeer and walruses.”*

The polar bear is not out of danger of extinction by any means. Some have wondered if this particular population rebounded because of hunting restrictions adopted in the 1970s. This could simply be positive news for the time being. Polar bears still need some sea ice to survive, and if it disappears entirely so will they. And yet, these Norwegian polar bears somehow getting fatter and healthier despite everything happening to their environment certainly seems hopeful.

Somehow life finds a way.
Love,
Pastor Lauren

*Victoria Gill, “Polar bears on Norwegian islands fatter and healthier despite ice loss, scientists say,” BBC, January 29, 2026, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2l1xpz03no

Photo by Hans-Jurgen Mager on Unsplash