Ice walker : a polar bear's journey through the fragile Arctic

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Title:

Ice walker : a polar bear's journey through the fragile Arctic

Personal Author:

Raffan, James, author.

ISBN:

9781501155369

Edition:

Simon & Schuster Canada edition.

Physical Description:

xxi, 161 pages : illustrations, map ; 20 cm

Contents:

Circling -- Dancing -- Nesting -- Birthing -- Venturing -- Learning -- Tagged -- Independence -- Rebirth -- Afterword: An Artic world in peril.

Abstract:

Nanurjuk, "the bear-spirited one," is hunting for seals on Hudson Bay, where ice never lasts more than one season. For her and her young, everything is in flux. From the top of the world, Hudson Bay looks like an enormous paw print on the torso of the continent, and through a vast network of lakes and rivers, this bay connects to oceans across the globe. Here, at the heart of everything, walks Nanurjuk, or Nanu, one polar bear among the six thousand that traverse the 1.23 million square kilometers of ice and snow covering the bay. For millennia, Nanu's ancestors have roamed this great expanse, living, evolving, and surviving alongside human beings in one of the most challenging and unforgiving habitats on earth. But that world is changing. In the Arctic's lands and waters, oil has been extracted--and spilled. As global temperatures have risen, the sea ice that Nanu and her young need to hunt seal and fish has melted, forcing them to wait on land where the delicate balance between them and their two-legged neighbors has now shifted. This is the icescape that author and geographer James Raffan invites us to inhabit in Ice Walker. In precise and provocative prose, he brings readers inside Nanu's world as she treks uncertainly around the heart of Hudson Bay, searching for nourishment for the children that grow inside her. She stops at nothing to protect her cubs from the dangers she can see--other bears, wolves, whales, human beings--and those she cannot. By focusing his lens on this bear family, Raffan closes the gap between humans and bears, showing us how, like the water of the Hudson Bay, our existence--and our future--is tied to Nanu's. He asks us to consider what might be done about this fragile world before it is gone for good. Masterful, vivid, and haunting, Ice Walker is an utterly unique piece of creative nonfiction and a deeply affecting call to action. --Publisher's marketing.

Subject Term:

Polar bears -- Effect of global warming on -- Hudson Bay.

Polar bears -- Climatic factors -- Hudson Bay.

Global warming -- Hudson Bay.

Climatic changse -- Hudson Bay.

Global temperature changes -- Environmental aspects -- Hudson Bay.

Genre:

Nonfiction.

Electronic Access:

Language:

English

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Location
Searching... Mount Washington Branch	Book	599.78 RAFF	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Nichols Branch	Book	599.78 RAFF	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

From bestselling author James Raffan comes an enlightening and original story about a polar bear's precarious existence in the changing Arctic, reminiscent of John Vaillant's The Golden Spruce .

Nanurjuk, "the bear-spirited one," is hunting for seals on Hudson Bay, where ice never lasts more than one season. For her and her young, everything is in flux.

From the top of the world, Hudson Bay looks like an enormous paw print on the torso of the continent, and through a vast network of lakes and rivers, this bay connects to oceans across the globe. Here, at the heart of everything, walks Nanurjuk, or Nanu, one polar bear among the six thousand that traverse the 1.23 million square kilometers of ice and snow covering the bay.

For millennia, Nanu's ancestors have roamed this great expanse, living, evolving, and surviving alongside human beings in one of the most challenging and unforgiving habitats on earth. But that world is changing. In the Arctic's lands and waters, oil has been extracted--and spilled. As global temperatures have risen, the sea ice that Nanu and her young need to hunt seal and fish has melted, forcing them to wait on land where the delicate balance between them and their two-legged neighbors has now shifted.

This is the icescape that author and geographer James Raffan invites us to inhabit in Ice Walker . In precise and provocative prose, he brings readers inside Nanu's world as she treks uncertainly around the heart of Hudson Bay, searching for nourishment for the children that grow inside her. She stops at nothing to protect her cubs from the dangers she can see--other bears, wolves, whales, human beings--and those she cannot.

By focusing his lens on this bear family, Raffan closes the gap between humans and bears, showing us how, like the water of the Hudson Bay, our existence--and our future--is tied to Nanu's. He asks us to consider what might be done about this fragile world before it is gone for good. Masterful, vivid, and haunting, Ice Walker is an utterly unique piece of creative nonfiction and a deeply affecting call to action.

Author Notes

James Raffan is a prolific writer, speaker, and geographer, and the author of numerous books, including the bestselling Circling the Midnight Sun ; Emperor of the North ; Bark, Skin and Cedar ; and Fire in the Bones . He has written for a variety of media outlets, including National Geographic , Canadian Geographic , Up Here , Explore and The Globe and Mail , and produced radio and television documentaries for CBC Radio and the Discovery Channel. His work has taken him all over the world. He is an international fellow of the Explorers Club, a past chair of the Arctic Institute of North America, and a fellow and past governor of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, service for which he was awarded many medals, including the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal. From 2010 to 2013, he traveled through the Arctic Circle, spending time in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, as he researched and wrote on culture and climate change in the North. He lives in Seeley's Bay, Ontario. Visit him at JamesRaffan.ca or follow him on Twitter @raffjam.

Reviews (2)

Booklist Review

In a manner reminiscent of Joy Adamson's classic Born Free (1960), Raffan introduces the life of a female polar bear as she battles her way through climate change. In this cautionary tale, seven-year-old Nanuruk, or Nanu, lives in southwestern Hudson Bay amidst global warming that brings her ever closer to the Indigenous people that share her arctic wonderland. Without anthropomorphizing Nanu, Raffan educates and fascinates readers, lending an intimacy as we journey along with her. While Nanu hunts and gives birth to cubs, Raffan ties her story to that of Hudson Bay itself, emphasizing how humans' existence and future are interconnected with Nanu's. Raffan describes scenes in a beautiful, captivating, and, at times, heartbreaking fashion, pondering how human life affects the bears and, by extension, all of existence. Of the approximately 25,000 polar bears currently living, 6,000 reside in Hudson Bay. As the ice melts, they are forced to hunt and live closer to cities and villages, and the difficulty in bringing live cubs into the world becomes even more of a hardship. Readers will also gain a detailed understanding of polar bear behavior, diet, hunting, mating, and evolution. Fans of John Vaillant's The Golden Spruce (2005) will be equally enthralled by this.

Library Journal Review

Canadian adventurer Raffan (Circling the Midnight Sun) portrays the lives of a family of Hudson Bay polar bears by following the family, Nanu and her two cubs Siu and King, over a two-year period, from the cubs' birth to their independence. Raffan skillfully weaves information about polar bear biology, their adaptations to their harsh, unforgiving world; mating, birthing, and hunting behaviors; and details of the cubs' development into a fascinating narrative as readers follow the family from their birthing den to the sea ice while they find food and avoid danger as the cubs grow and learn how to survive. With their distinct personalities, the bears and their relationships come alive. The author vividly describes the arctic setting and also illuminates the dangers to the bears from pollution and global warming and shows how polar bears are interconnected with the animals and people of the north. Maps of the median ice edge help put the Arctic Circle in context, and show the threat of disappearing ice and the climate warms. An annotated bibliography and a glossary round out the work. VERDICT Narrative nonfiction that offers a compelling, interesting, informative look at polar bears and their lives.--Sue O'Brien, Downers Grove, IL

Excerpts

Chapter One: Circling one Circling Excerpted from Ice Walker: A Polar Bear's Journey Through the Fragile Arctic by James Raffan All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.