Ice walker : a polar bear's journey through the fragile Arctic / James Raffan.
Record details
- ISBN: 1501155369 : HRD
- ISBN: 9781501155369 : HRD
- ISBN: 9781501155369
- ISBN: 1501155369
- Physical Description: xxi, 161 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm
- Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster Canada, 2020.
Content descriptions
General Note: | "Phyllis Bruce editions." "Reader's guide inside"--Page 4 of cover. |
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 145-152). |
Summary, etc.: | "From the top of the world, Hudson Bay looks like an enormous paw print on the torso of the continent, and through a vast network of lakes and rivers, the water in this bay connects to oceans across the globe. Here, at the heart of everything, walks Nanurjuk, or Nanu, one polar bear among the six thousand that traverse the 1.23 million square kilometres of ice and snow covering the bay. For millennia, Nanu's ancestors have roamed this great expanse, living, evolving, and surviving alongside humans in one of the most challenging and unforgiving habitats on earth. But that world is changing. In the Arctic's lands and waters, oil has been extracted and spilled. As global temperatures have risen, the sea ice that Nanu and her young need to hunt seal and fish has melted, forcing them to wait on land where the delicate balance between them and their two-legged neighbours has now shifted. This is the icescape that author and geographer James Raffan invites us to inhabit in Ice Walker. In precise and provocative prose, he brings readers inside Nanu's world as she treks uncertainly around the heart of Hudson Bay, searching for nourishment for the children that grow inside her. She stops at nothing to protect her cubs from the dangers she can see,other bears, wolves, whales, humans and those she cannot. By focusing his lens on this bear family, Raffan closes the gap between humans and bears, showing us how, like the water of the Hudson Bay, our existence and our future is tied to Nanu's, and asks us to consider what might be done about this fragile world before it is gone for good. Masterful, vivid, and haunting, Ice Walker is an utterly unique piece of creative non-fiction and a deeply affecting call to action."-- Provided by publisher. |
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Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oliver Wolcott Library - Litchfield | 599.786 RAF (Text) | 36123001526829 | Adult Nonfiction | Available | - |
Author Notes
Ice Walker : A Polar Bear's Journey Through the Fragile Arctic
James Raffan is a prolific writer, speaker, and geographer, and the author of numerous books, including the bestselling Circling the Midnight Sun ; Emperor of the North ; Bark, Skin and Cedar ; and Fire in the Bones . He has written for a variety of media outlets, including National Geographic , Canadian Geographic , Up Here , Explore and The Globe and Mail , and produced radio and television documentaries for CBC Radio and the Discovery Channel. His work has taken him all over the world. He is an international fellow of the Explorers Club, a past chair of the Arctic Institute of North America, and a fellow and past governor of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, service for which he was awarded many medals, including the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal. From 2010 to 2013, he traveled through the Arctic Circle, spending time in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, as he researched and wrote on culture and climate change in the North. He lives in Seeley's Bay, Ontario. Visit him at JamesRaffan.ca or follow him on Twitter @raffjam.