Managing the polar bear’s habitat could help save them (Image: John Pitcher/Design Pics Inc./Rex Features)

WITH all the attention given to the loss of sea ice in the Arctic, it’s easy to forget that some ice will persist for many years yet. True, climate models project that much of the Arctic Ocean will be ice-free in summer by 2040, but they also predict that half a million square kilometres of sea ice could remain until at least 2100.

This ice will lie next to the northern coasts of Greenland and the Canadian Arctic archipelago, the region where the oldest and …