It is hard to imagine a world in which polar bears don't exist in the wild. Alun Anderson, former editor-in-chief of New Scientist magazine, says that it most likely will occur in our lifetime. In his book After the Ice: Life, Death, and Geopolitics of the New Arctic, Anderson takes a close look at the complicated history, present and future of the Arctic region, the area of Earth that he says is certain to feel the effects of global warming first and most powerfully.
Anderson travelled extensively in the Arctic to tell the story of a place that few are familiar with. His greatest frustration was that no one he spoke with was taking the long or multifaceted view when discussing the region — considering the environmental with the political; the business with the science; the way of life of those who actually live in the Arctic with movements to protect endangered animals.
Excerpts from an interview:
You begin your book, describing the first polar bear you ever saw. Can you describe the moment and how it led to this book?
I had gone on a trip to the Canadian Arctic by chance. I knew nothing about the Arctic. On our first day I had flown in from England and was quite jet lagged, so I stayed up all night. I went up on deck and saw this small dot in the distance. As we got closer, [we found] it was a polar bear. It ignored the boat completely. It was the bear's world. A biologist on deck told me: "This bear will not make it through the year. It is too thin. And there is no ice for it to swim out to so that it can hunt." I was completely gutted. I wanted to know more about the bear and the ice.
In the summer of 2007, a large area of ice in the Arctic (161,8750 square kilometres) melted away at a speed no one has seen before. You call it "the great crash of 2007". Was this a first signal that global warming was becoming more potent?
Yes. Global warming had been making the ice thinner for a long time. From a satellite view, you just see ice. You don't know if it is thick or thin. That was a very sunny summer and suddenly we knew that this ice was a complete mess. The melting forced scientists to think again about what they knew. They couldn't see before that the area was becoming more vulnerable. Their previous data revealed we wouldn't get [to the point of a massive ice melt] until 2056. We reached it 50 years early.
You write about how the politics of the "south" can cause trouble for Arctic people. For instance, you describe villages in Greenland becoming impoverished because of campaigns to ban the import of seal products to other nations. Can you explain?
Everyone has seen the pictures of baby white seals being clubbed to death. Most people agree that this should not be allowed. What this led to, though, were bans on seal products being imported, into Europe, particularly. Throughout the Inuit Arctic, they don't [club baby seals]. They hunt adult seals. All of a sudden, their means of income was wiped out. They say they have been doing it for over 100 years. They say: "Why can't you accept our way of life?" They got caught up in something that has nothing to do with them.
What was your greatest discovery along this journey?
It was visiting a northern Inuit community and seeing how a hunting community lives. On the beach were dead seals and a narwhal head. That is how humans lived long ago. It was striking to see a hunter-gatherer society. I had to adjust my values.
What will happen "down south" if the Arctic completely melts? You call it "the Arctic's Revenge".
A big shock to me is that this melt is unstoppable now. In a relatively short time, the Arctic will be ice-free. Going from white ice to black water should be a signal to the world that something is coming. As the ice melts, it changes weather patterns in the northern hemisphere [and also] there will be a rise in sea level. Perhaps 3 feet. That may not sound like a lot but a 1-foot rise takes out chunks of cities. As the ocean warms, it lets off greenhouse gases, which will warm the Earth further. As the permafrost thaws out, microorganisms get active and digest carbon. It will be a slow change but it will give us centuries of further warming we can't stop.
When will the Arctic melt completely?
The date predictions range from 2013 to 2050. If it is within 10 years, I wouldn't be surprised.
You write that the issue of who owns the Arctic region is complicated.
There is still a lot of area [that] a lot of people are claiming — Russia, the United States, Greenland, Norway and Canada. They all claim to extend their territory further out into the Arctic waters. The first 321 kilometres out from the land, no one disputes that. But every nation is keen on claiming more. The United Nations Law of the Sea gives you only ten years to make a claim. If you don't, it is lost forever. They are claiming the area in case there is something of value there in the future.
What about oil?
On the Russian side of the Arctic, where there are tremendous amounts of oil and gas, Russia is pushing ahead, out into the Arctic Sea — they have got nothing stopping them and they need the wealth. ... In the Chukchi Sea, the US has a large amount of oil. The big oil companies [particularly Shell] had plans to drill exploratory wells miles off the north coast of Alaska. ... The environmental groups of Alaska do not want the offshore oil activities because they are afraid more species will be endangered. The indigenous people are opposed to offshore oil because they are afraid they won't be able to catch whales.
If the ice disappears completely, will polar bears disappear completely?
Yes.
Walruses?
They probably won't disappear completely but they will be decimated. The way they live — the mother has the pups on the ice. The ice moves north as it melts. The mother and her babies usually float along. But the ice is melting so fast that they are being carried into regions where they can't feed.
Whales?
The beluga has the best chance. It is quite a generalist. The narwhal — it is a specialist at finding food under the ice. No one else gets into that area. As the ice melts, killer whales will get into the Arctic and will hunt and kill the narwhal.
Plankton?
There will be more water exposed to light for longer [and] so more green stuff in it.
What are your predictions for the Arctic's future? What will it look like in 2050?
By 2050, the Arctic will be free of ice in the summer. A lot of the permafrost will have melted. A lot of houses and villages will have been sunk.
We don't yet know what a future Arctic will look like. An industrially developed Arctic for the benefit of the people of the south — a land exploited, leaving the people of the Arctic impoverished — that would be a nightmare.
