But did you know that the phenomenon is actually starving polar bears into extinction?

In fact, a recent research predicts that the polar bear could go extinct within the span of a human lifetime.

A chain reaction

In the study titled 'Nature Climate Change', scientists said the shrinking sea means that the time for the bears to hunt for seals has been cut short.

And when they fail to hunt for food, their declining body weight means they could not survive the Arctic winters without food.

Steven Amstrup, the chief scientist of Polar Bears International, told AFP -Relaxnews that the bears face an ever longer fasting period before the ice refreezes so that they can head back out to feed.

He said that the new births of polar bears will also be compromised everywhere by the year 2100.

However, Amstrup said global warming is not the actual threat to the species, but rather the inability to adapt to a rapidly shifting environment.

“If somehow, by magic, sea ice could be maintained even as temperatures increase, polar bears might be fine.

“The problem is that their habitat is literally melting,” he was quoted as saying.