Paws
- Cinzia Chow
Cinzia Chow won third place in the 2025 Climate Change and Me essay competition.
In this essay, Cinzia writes about the devastating effect that rising temperatures and melting Arctic ice are having on polar bears and black bears.
“Climate change isn’t real,” they say, as pawprints once scattered throughout the snow slowly begin to disappear. “Climate change isn’t real,” they say, as fires rage and they cry out for help – their screams drowned out by the roaring of the flames. “Climate change isn’t real,” we say, as we scroll aimlessly – eyes fixated on a screen – swiping past anything that feels ‘too real’ and choosing to give our attention to futile material. Climate change is real, yet it is being ignored. Pause and think. Pawprints are disappearing.
As temperatures rise and the Arctic sea ice melts, polar bears find themselves losing their homes – being forced to move inland. As they wander through unfamiliar territory, they are susceptible to disease; their immune systems unable to protect them against new bacteria and viruses not present in their usual habitat. Unwell and disorientated, they continue to wander – searching for food but ultimately facing starvation. As the sea ice melts, not only do their homes vanish, but so do their hunting grounds. Once their platform for catching their prey, the ice meshes with the water below, leaving them with no access to their source of food and nutrition.
Fasted and malnourished, patches of white moving against an abnormal background, the polar bears walk. Slowly but surely, these creatures encounter human settlements as they move further inland. What’s more frightening? For a human to encounter a bear? Or for a bear to be on foreign grounds; confused, solitary, and without anything in its stomach, to then be faced with the sound of shrieks and screams, mere moments before being shot. They didn’t choose to leave their homes. If they had a voice would the world listen? The pawprints are disappearing and so are peoples’ voices.
Away from the Arctic and into the forest, the black bears should be asleep. The winters are meant to be long, and they’re meant to be cold. However, with climate change, this has not been the case. With temperatures on the rise, winters are becoming warmer, and this has a direct impact on hibernation patterns within the black bear population. Hibernation, a state of dormancy, is an essential aspect of many mammals’ lives, in order to survive the colder months of the year. Generally, a black bear will hibernate for seven months and during this time, metabolic activity is drastically slowed down. With climate change, however, it is estimated that by 2050, black bears may be awake during winter for an additional month, with each passing year.
How and why does a lack of hibernation affect a black bear’s life? In preparation for hibernation, black bears enter a state of hyperphagia – consuming a surplus of calories, in order to create fat stores within their bodies which then act as a source of energy and insulation throughout their torpor. This period of hyperphagia occurs throughout the late summer/early autumnal months – during which, black bears have access to multiple food sources and are therefore able to consume a sufficient number of calories.
However, when these bears are awake and active during the winter months, food sources are in short supply. Foods such as berries and nuts do not grow in the extreme cold and the black bears’ usual prey are no longer as abundant. For example, they are unable to hunt fish, as lakes are frozen over. Not only do the black bears go hungry, but additionally, in search of food, they begin to deplete their energy sources – burning fat reserves and hence, losing their means of insulation. Not only does this result in malnutrition but it decreases a black bear’s chance of survival in these harsh conditions. As with polar bears, black bears find themselves reaching human settlements, in search for any source of food. Desperate for nutrition, they rummage through dustbins and have no choice but to eat remains of human food. Once again, however, this can have a terribly negative effect on their health, as their bodies are not equipped to process the unnatural foods that we consume. These bears, petrified and afraid, ultimately come face-to-face with the same heartbreaking fate as polar bears. They were only looking for food. The pawprints are disappearing.
As the sea ice melts in the Arctic, fires rage through the forests. The ice sheets disintegrate, and the flames lick their way up the trees, setting the leaves and branches ablaze. We switch on the news and see what is happening in our once beautiful world, but we decide to change the channel – we ignore what is real. The bears don’t have the choice to “change the channel”. This is their reality. Uprooted from their homes, they wander.
“Climate change isn’t real,” they say, as pawprints are no longer in the places they should be. Innocent creatures are being punished for choices made by humans. They have no voice, but I wonder what they might say if they could speak. We have voices and we need to speak. The pawprints are disappearing. Pause and think.
Reference List
- Lions Tigers & Bears. In the Flame’s Wake: Challenges Bears Face After Wildfires [online]. 2024 November [Accessed 13 July 2025]. Available from: https://www.lionstigersandbears.org/in-the-flames-wake-challenges-bears-face-after-wildfires/
- National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Blog. Awake in Winter: How Climate Change is Disrupting Black Bear Hibernation [online]. 2025 January [Accessed 13 July 2025]. Available from: https://blog.nwf.org/2025/01/awake-in-winter-how-climate-change-is-disrupting-black-bear-hibernation/
- World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Polar Bear Threats [online]. 2025 [Accessed 13 July 2025]. Available from: https://www.arcticwwf.org/wildlife/polar-bear/polar-bear-threats/