Victoria Gill
Appearances
Global News Podcast
Man detained after Russian general's assassination
Ian Van Nest is a ranger for the Polar Bear Alert programme in Churchill, Manitoba. It's his job to move bears away from the town and from people.
Global News Podcast
Man detained after Russian general's assassination
In a warming Arctic, living alongside polar bears is becoming even more complicated. So while Ian and his colleagues keep bears and people apart, conservation scientists head to Churchill every year because as the sea ice forms here at the start of winter, the bears gather, waiting.
Global News Podcast
Man detained after Russian general's assassination
Elisa McCall is from the organisation Polar Bears International.
Global News Podcast
Man detained after Russian general's assassination
The ice-free summer period when bears aren't able to hunt is now about a month longer than it was in the 1980s. And in that time, this area has lost about half its polar bears.
Global News Podcast
Man detained after Russian general's assassination
Monitoring and studying polar bears here is a research team that we're tagging along with on the subarctic tundra a few miles from Churchill. About an hour into our trip, a young male bear approaches. There's a polar bear under our tundra boogie right now. He's very curious about us. My heart's really beating.
Global News Podcast
Man detained after Russian general's assassination
That's Polar Bears International's Geoff York. If bears are spending more time on land, does that mean there's more of a period where they're likely to be closer to people?
Global News Podcast
Man detained after Russian general's assassination
So for now, Churchill has to deal with hungry polar bears waiting for longer on shore. But in the long term, the sea ice that brings the polar bears and thousands of tourists here every year is melting away.
Global News Podcast
Man detained after Russian general's assassination
Dave Daly runs Wapusk Adventures, and he's raced sled dogs across the Arctic.
Global News Podcast
Man detained after Russian general's assassination
The disappearance of the sea ice here could transform this environment. That's why a new research facility that opened just this year is pumping cold water from the Hudson Bay into the laboratory to study it. Professor Fei-Yu Wang is a senior researcher at the new Churchill Marine Observatory.
Global News Podcast
Man detained after Russian general's assassination
Because essentially that seaway has been blocked by the ice. And that ice is retreating. This is a town preparing for a less icy future. But the fate of its polar bears depends on us and whether we can rein in rising temperatures and preserve that sea ice that they depend on. That report by Victoria Gill.