The polar bears stare forlornly at Hudson Bay. It's late November and they should be out on the sea ice hunting ring seals, but the ice hasn't formed and the bears are starving. Ursus maritimus doesn't hunt on land and normally fasts for months each summer. Now, however, the summers are growing longer across most of the Arctic, and the waters of Hudson Bay are ice-free for three weeks longer than they were thirty years ago. In a decade or two, polar bears won't be found this far south; by the end of the century, they might exist only in zoos.

LRB 6 January 2005 | PDF Download