On Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear

Polar bears—fierce and majestic—have captivated us for centuries. Feared by explorers, revered by the Inuit, and beloved by zoo goers everywhere, polar bears are a symbol for the harsh beauty and muscular grace of the Arctic. Today, as global warming threatens the ice caps integrity, the polar bear has also come to symbolize the peril that faces all life on earth as a result of harmful human practices. Here, the acclaimed science writer Richard Ellis offers an impassioned and moving statement on behalf of polar bears—and all they stand for.

Ellis gives a vivid and brilliantly articulated picture of earths largest land predators—including their hunting, mating, and hibernation habits. Polar bears are exceptionally well suited for hunting—especially when it comes to ringed seals, their favorite prey, which they can smell from more than a mile away. But as the ice melts in the Arctic, the ability of polar bears to find food diminishes in spite of their incredible physical capacities. Some bears will vainly take to the water in search of ice on which to hunt, and many of them swim until they drown. In the past twenty years alone, the world population of polar bears has shrunk by half. Today they number just 22,000.

Still, On Thin Ice is an ode, not an elegy: Ellis reminds us that the extinction of the polar bear—and the disappearance of our ice caps—is not inevitable. While the killing of polar bears remains a matter of ritual solemnity among the Inuit, U.S. government officials continue to balk at placing the polar bear on the endangered species list because doing so would place the bears territory off-limits for oil drilling. As the polar bears habitat disappears beneath them, their survival rests entirely on our willingness to take such critical steps.

Urgent and stirring, On Thin Ice is both a celebration and a rallying cry on behalf of one of earths greatest natural treasures.

As global warming threatens the ice caps' integrity, the polar bear has come to symbolize the peril that faces all life on Earth. Here, the acclaimed science writer Ellis offers an impassioned and moving statement on behalf of polar bears--and all they stand for.

Richard Ellis is the author of more than twenty books, including Tuna: A Love Story; The Book of Whales; Dolphins and Porpoises; The Book of Sharks; Men & Whales; Monsters of the Sea; Great White Shark (with John McCosker); Deep Atlantic; Imagining Atlantis; and The Search for the Giant Squid. He is also a celebrated marine artist whose paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. He has written and illustrated articles for numerous magazines, including Audubon, National Geographic, Discover, and Scientific American. He lives in New York City.

I       Introduction

 

II     Europeans “Discover” the Polar Bear (and the Bear Discovers Them)

 

III    The Great Ice Bear

 

IV     Polar Bear Nations

 

V      The Eskimo and the Polar Bear

 

VII   Hunting the Hunter

 

VII   In the Zoo and at the Circus

 

VIII On the Whiteness of the Bear

 

IX    Global Warming and the Bear

 

X      Is the Polar Bear Doomed?

 

Afterword

Bibliography

Index