Churchill, Canada — Here on the edge of the Arctic in northern Canada, the annual migration of polar bears draws tourists, photographers and scientists like Geoff York.
Buggies traverse the frozen terrain, bringing tourists closer to something truly wild. The polar bears pass through Churchill, Manitoba, hoping to catch a ride out of the tiny town on Hudson Bay’s sea ice.
After a summer of fasting on land, the bears need to get back to their frozen home to hunt seals and bulk up.
“They’re just dreaming of ice and being back out there,” said York, senior director of research and policy with the conservation group Polar Bears International.
But this migration ritual is changing. The Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the globe, according to a study published in 2022 in the journal Nature.
“The Arctic is one of the fastest warming regions in the planet,” said Flavio Lehner, chief climate scientist for Polar Bears …