The Great White Bear (32 page)

[>]
 "They all ... these animals": Ibid.
"it's the closest": Geoff York, Tundra Buggy Lodge, October 31, 2008.

[>]
 "Every bear ... in fighting": Geoff York, Tundra Buggy Lodge, October 31, 2008.

[>]
 "There are some ... doing it again": Steven Amstrup, conversation with the author, March 9, 2009.

CHURCHILL

[>]
"The thing is ... really careful": Doug Ross, conversation with the author, October 23, 2008.
"There were times ... just in case": Ibid.

[>]
 "In Winnipeg": Tony Bembridge, conversation with the author, October 26, 2008.
"My girlfriend ... this door": Jon Talon, conversation with the author, October 26, 2008.

[>]
 "Please leave a note": Lance Duncan, conversation with the author, October 25, 2008.

[>]
 "once I cleaned ... in that position": Ibid.

[>]
 "Gone are those days ... in a bear season": Mike Spence, conversation with the author, October 26, 2008.

[>]
 "we just want": Shaun Bobier, conversation with the author, October 28, 2008.
"We had bears ... the holding facility": Ibid.

[>]
 "The dump ... totally different": Ibid.
"In 2005": Ibid.

[>]
 "Just prior ... chase them through": Ibid.

[>]
 "I talked ... work since": Mike Spence, conversation with the author, October 26, 2008.
"The community's ... respect that": Ibid.
"passing under the last streetlight"; "They said ... the truck": Lance Duncan, conversation with the author, October 25, 2008.

[>]
 "We would"; "They were skittish ... wouldn't run away": Len Smith, conversation with the author, January 19, 2009.

[>]
 "The first year ... one basket anyway": Ibid.
"We had ... people in": Ibid.

[>]
 "So, now ... damaged windshield": Don Walkoski, conversation with the author, October 29, 2008.
"I sure": Len Smith, conversation with the author, January 19, 2009.
"Welcome": Robert Buchanan, conversation with the author, October 26, 2008.

[>]
 "I first started ... dead on target": Ibid.
"essentially a fraternity": Ibid.

[>]
 "finance and educational"; "distributed mechanism": Ibid.
"We're doing ... be Arctic ambassadors": John Gunter, conversation with the author, October 26, 2008.

[>]
 "The thing ... just playing": Robert Buchanan, conversation with the author, October 26, 2008.
"We use ... incredibly smart": Ibid.

MELT

[>]
 "Except we": Robert Buchanan, speaking with visitors aboard Buggy One, October 26, 2008.
"What we're ... about it": Ibid.
"I want ... polar bear": Ibid.

[>]
 "The problem is"; "When ... just can't": Ibid.

[>]
"as opaque": Spencer Weart,
The Discovery of Global Warming,
p. 3.
"is a blanket": Ibid., p. 4.

[>]
 "I find it incredible": "Arctic Sea Ice Down to Second-Lowest Extent; Likely Record-Low Volume." Press release, National Snow and Ice Data Center, October 2, 2008.
http://nsidc.org/news/press/20081002_seaice_pressrelease.html
.

[>]
 "We are entering ... in one go": Dave Walsh, "Postcard from the Ice Edge," Greenpeace Climate Rescue Weblog, September 20, 2009.
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/climate/2009/09/postcard_from_the_ice_edge.html
.

[>]
"In the Bering ... disadvantaged": Brendan Kelly, conversation with the author, November 13, 2008. 195 "a substantial": Jonathan Verreault et al. "Chlorinated hydrocarbon contaminant and metabolites in polar bears
(Ursus maritimus)
from Alaska, Canada, East Greenland, and Svalbard: 1996—2002.
Science of the Total Environment
351–352 (2005): 369-390.

[>]
 "like science-fiction": Kieran Mulvaney, "Conservation as a Human Problem," in
Beyond the Bars: The Zoo Dilemma
(London: Thorsons, 1987), p. 157.

[>]
 "that polar bears": Ian Stirling and Andrew Derocher, "Possible impacts of climate warming on polar bears," p. 242
"fewer adult": Ibid.

[>]
 "If climatic warming ... their range": Ibid., p. 240.
"From 1981"; "The trend": Ian Stirling, Nicholas Lunn, and John Iacozza, "Long-term trends in the population ecology of polar bears in western Hudson Bay in relation to climatic change," p. 294.

[>]
 "Earth's climate"; "these climate changes": ACIA,
Impacts of a Warming Arctic,
p. 8.
"reduction in sea ice": Ibid., p. 10.
"about the possible": Press release, 11th meeting of PBSG, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1993.
http://pbsg.npolar.no/en/meetings/press-releases/11-Copenhagen.html
.
"ecological change"; "greatest future": Press release, 13th meeting of PBSG in Nuuk, Greenland, 2001.
http://pbsg.npolar.no/en/meetings/press-releases/13-Nuuk.html
.

[>]
 "As the distance": Andrew Derocher, Nicholas Lunn, and Ian Stirling, "Polar bears in a warming climate," p. 166.

[>]
 "by the 2050s": Ibid.
"it is unlikely": Ibid., p. 164.

[>]
 "Large mammals": Ian Stirling, Andrew Derocher, William Gough, and Karyn Rode, "Response to Dyck et al. (2007) on polar bears and climate change in western Hudson Bay," p. 199.

[>]
 "had ever": Tom Kizzia, "Funding and Review of Palin-Touted Study Criticized,"
Anchorage Daily News,
January 27, 2008, p. A14.
"probably 5,000"; "Other experts"; "widely accepted"; "In a May 20": Peter Dykstra, "Magic number: A sketchy 'fact' about polar bears keeps going ... and going ... and going,"
SEJournal,
August 15, 2008.
http://www.sej.org/publications/alaska-and-hawaii/magic-number-a-sketchy-fact-about-polar-bears-keeps-goingand-going-an
.

[>]
 "Five thousand": Ibid.
"Most data"; "was almost certainly"; "people were just": Ibid.

[>]
 "the scientific ability": Ibid.

[>]
 "Dodging cracker shells": Charles Wohlforth, "On Thin Ice: Polar Bears in a Changing Arctic," in Kazlowski,
The Last Polar Bear,
p. 75.

[>]
 "Places like ... and return?": Steven Amstrup, conversation with the author, March 9, 2009.

[>]
 "I'm sure ... ice is absent": Ibid.

[>]
 "It seems ... from the sea ice": Ibid.

Some bibliographies are more useful than others. I am not a fan of listing pages upon pages of titles, some obscure and arcane, that do not provide the reader with any sense of which ones may be of greatest relevance. So what I have done here is provide an annotated guide to the books I found of particular use and interest during the course of this project, and which I suspect will be most likely to appeal to readers of this book.

Following that, I have also listed the key articles, reports, and scientific papers I consulted during my research, primarily the ones to which I referred most frequently and those whose findings I referenced directly in the text. I have kept these separate from the book listings because I recognize that most of the more technical papers will be of limited interest to many readers.

BOOKS

Anderson, Alun.
After the Ice: Life, Death, and Geopolitics in the New Arctic.
New York: Smithsonian Books, 2009.
A journalistic look at the science and politics of climate change in the Arctic.

Archer, David, and Stefan Rahmstorf.
The Climate Crisis: An Introductory Guide to Climate Change.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Two highly respected climate researchers provide a concise, informed, and accessible primer on this most vital of topics.

Bieder, Robert E.
Bear.
London: Reaktion Books, 2005.
A slim, enjoyable guide to the natural and unnatural history of all bear species, extinct and extant.

Born, Erik W.
The Walrus in Greenland.
Nuuk, Greenland: Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, 2005.
This well-illustrated guide crams an enormous amount of information on the polar bear's great foe into fewer than 80 pages.

Born, Erik W.
The White Bears of Greenland.
Nuuk, Greenland: Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, 2008.
Hugely informative, packed with color photographs, with a focus on Greenland but a wealth of material relevant to the study of polar bears worldwide.

Brunner, Bernd.
Bears: A Brief History.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
Charming romp through ursine and ursine-human history.

Davids, Richard C.
Lords of the Arctic: A Journey Among the Polar Bears.
London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1982.
Despite being relatively brief, in my mind one of the most informative popular polar bear books available, although of course now dated.

De La Lez, Mireille, and Fredrik Granath.
Vanishing World: The Endangered Arctic.
New York: Abrams, 2007.
Large-format volume with some explicatory text, but primarily devoted to some spectacular photographic imagery of the Arctic and its wildlife.

Domico, Terry.
Bears of the World.
New York: Facts on File, 1988.
Large format, well illustrated, and easily comprehensible text.

Eliasson, Kelsey.
Polar Bears of Churchill.
Churchill, Manitoba: Munck's Café, 2006.
Short, helpful background on the "Polar Bear Capital of the World" and its most famous denizens.

Ellis, Richard.
On Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
One of the most recent and comprehensive entries into the canon of polar bear literature. Very good resource.

Fast, Dennis, and Rebecca L. Grambo.
Wapusk: White Bear of the North.
Winnipeg, Manitoba: Heartland Associates, 2003.
Guide in words and photographs to the polar bears of Hudson Bay and beyond.

Feazel, Charles T.
White Bear: Encounters with the Master of the Arctic Ice.
New York: Henry Holt, 1990.
I'm a fan of this book; a nice guide to polar bears, their environment, and their interactions with humans, well written and with some strong firsthand accounts.

Gosnell, Mariana.
Ice: The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.
A gem; only partly about the sea ice that is the realm of the polar bear, but a splendidly written look at ice in its many and varied forms.

Guravich, Dan, and Downs Matthews.
Polar Bear.
San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1993.
Basic, light on text, heavy on stunning photographs, introduction, and overview.

Henson, Robert.
The Rough Guide to Climate Change.
New York: Rough Guides, 2006.
An excellent introduction to, and explanation of, the subject that has so many concerned for polar bears' future.

Hopfner, Glenn.
Tales from the Tundra.
St. Rose, Manitoba: Glenn Hopfner, 2005.
A Tundra Buggy driver shares his experiences.

Kazlowski, Steven.
The Last Polar Bear: Facing the Truth of a Warming World.
Seattle: Braided River, 2008.
Terrific book. Large format, with sensational photographs. Atypically of this genre, it also includes some first-rate journalistic essays on polar bears.

Keith, Darren, et al.
Inuit Qaujimaningit Nanurnut: Inuit Knowledge of Polar Bears.
Gjoa Haven, Nunavut: Gjoa Haven Hunters' and Trappers' Organization/CCI Press, 2005.

Very nice compilation of interviews with Inuit hunters and trappers, with some real observational gems.

Koch, Thomas J.
The Year of the Polar Bear.
Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1975.
Uses the travails of a polar bear over the course of a calendar year to describe the species' natural history, ecology, and interaction with humans.

Lopez, Barry.
Arctic Dreams.
London: Picador, 1986.
Although less than 10 percent is devoted solely to polar bears, this book remains the literary standard by which Arctic nonfiction is judged.

MacIver, Angus and Bernice.
Churchill on Hudson Bay: The Stories and History of Churchill, Manitoba as Told by Two of This Community's Pioneers.
Churchill, Manitoba: Churchill Ladies' Club, 2006.
Useful history of what has become the "Polar Bear Capital of the World.
"

Mangelsen, Thomas D., and Fred Bruemmer.
Polar Dance: Born of the North Wind.
Omaha, NE: Images of Nature, 1997.
While this big and beautiful book is mostly a showcase for Mangelsen's first-rate photographs, Bruemmer's text is literate and engaging.

Maslin, Mark.
Global Warming: A Very Short Introduction.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Slim and pocket-sized, but a comprehensive, clear, and highly valuable explanation of the science of climate change.

Miles, Hugh, and Mike Salisbury.
Kingdom of the Ice Bear.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985.
Account of the filming of a BBC documentary series about the Arctic and its wildlife, particularly the carnivore that bestrides the sea ice realm.

Milse, Thorsten.
Little Polar Bears.
Munich: Bucher, 2006.
Recipe for a successful book: 1. Include a small amount of text and a large number of photographs. 2. Ensure the photographs are exclusively of adorable polar bear cubs and their mothers. Absolutely delightful volume.

Mulvaney, Kieran.
At the Ends of the Earth: A History of the Polar Regions.
Washington, DC: Island Press, 2001.
An environmental history of the Arctic and Antarctic.

Ovsyanikov, Nikita.
Polar Bears: Living with the White Bear.
Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, 1996.
A classic. A firsthand account of studying the polar bears of Wrangel and Herald islands in the Russian Arctic.

Perry, Richard.
The World of the Polar Bear.
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1966.
An early overview of what was then known of polar bears and their natural history—which was really not a great deal.