Churchill Canada bills itself as the Polar Bear Capitol of the World.  Perched at the Northern tip of Manitoba… and pressed up against the Arctic Circle…  the people of Churchill are pondering a problem.

With not a single road leading back to the rest of the world… they depend on wealthy tourists to come see the bears… and leave their bucks behind.  Tundra Buggies take them out on tours …

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Churchill is the place that polar bears wait for  the ice to harden …. and as winter takes hold they lumber off onto the frozen sheet hunting for seals.

In Churchill there’s no great love for polar bears.  When they’re hungry… they’re  so dangerous last week trick-or-treaters in Churchill were followed by parents in cars… just in case of polar bear attack.   The New York Times says… drivers take wide turns around corners… in Churchill … llest they plow into a polar bear. 

That’s trouble enough but Churchill has a bigger problem and its climate change.  Which is happening more quickly the farther north you go.  Almost every Christmas we hear about a heatwave at the north pole and it’s suddenly warmer than Utah up there. 

So the ice forms later and later each year.  The bears get less time to hunt seals… and when their hungry they produce fewer cubs… So their  population is dwindling.  And Churchill wonders… how to lure the tourists?  You can see the Northern Lights there… but that’s true of any town up north.

Churchillians are moving out.   The town’s thriving population of 5,000 is down to 800…  and soon… thanks to climate change…

the town that will soon by popalted not by its hardscrabble people… nor by majestic    polar bears ..    But only by ghosts.

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