This remote town depends on polar bear tourism, but has to adapt as the climate warms.
Tourists who want to see polar bears flock to Churchill on Canada’s Hudson Bay coast. However, their characteristic animals are decreasing due to global warming. Even the ground is changing.
Remote town where tundra meets forest, with the aim of revitalizing its port and railway After the closure of the military base, he turned to tourism.
With the arrival of climate change, leaders began to design more flexible buildings and trying to attract more diverse visitors in case shrinking sea ice decimates polar bear populations, as scientists fear.
Residents, officials and experts a model They are facing radical changes and they attribute this to the rural mentality that focuses on fixing, not complaining.
How Churchill became the “polar bear capital of the world”
Churchill is located approximately 1,700 kilometers north of Winnipeg. The city had thousands of inhabitants before. military base and a research rocket launch center closed decades ago. these places went into declineand what had been a busy port was closed. Train services were interrupted for more than a year as weather conditions destroyed the rails in poor condition.
As the city gets smaller bearsThey began coming there more often, no longer afraid of the base’s noise and rocket launches, and desperate as climate change reduced the ice of Hudson Bay on which they depended as a hunting base.
A local mechanic built a recreational vehicle see bears safely. Photographs and documentaries attracted the attention of tourists, who spent an average of 5 thousand dollars (4 thousand 525 euros) per visit and millions of dollars in total.
Churchill now polar bear capital of the world and although it has no traffic lights, it has upscale restaurants and many independent hotels.
Climate change forces Churchill to adapt
If this ends, Churchill hopes to be prepared.
The city revitalizes tourism white whalesAlthough these may also suffer as the entire Hudson Bay ecosystem, including the food consumed by beluga whales, changes to that typically seen further south.
Visitors’ visual perspectives are also highlighted. northern lightsThey can spot birds they can’t see at home, or even try dog sledding.
“Eventually bear season will disappear. We know that. Anyway, We will have to adapt to this change“says Mike Spence, mayor since 1995.
Spence grew up with the military installation “and all of a sudden it closes down and the tourists come and the abundance of wildlife and the aurora. That’s where you take advantage of that.” Some things are fixed and life is improved“.
Were the port closed and the train tracks damaged? The municipality took care of it and got them both working again. Is the ground collapsing because it’s rainy? permafrost Is the ice defrosting? Newer buildings, like that of Polar Bears International, a nonprofit conservation organization based in the city, have metal jacks that can be adjusted if a corner collapses nearly 2 feet in five years.
A leading example of a city planning ahead
Lauren Sorkin, executive director of the Resilient Cities Network, says all cities should have a plan to adapt to impacts climate change In economy and tourism.
ADVERT“Churchill es An extraordinary example of a city “It’s an approach that pre-plans to protect communities and our natural environment and biodiversity,” he says.
Spence, who is Cree, grew up without electricity or running water in “flats” on the outskirts of the city run by a white minority. Churchill approx. two-thirds of the indigenous population: Cree, Metis, Inuit and Dene. Spence remembers his father telling him that if he spoke better English he could tell the authorities how to fix the city.
“I think I’m doing this for him,” Spence says. “You don’t just say, ‘I have a problem.’ You go there with a solution.”
Climate change-induced rainfall impacts Churchill’s transport systems
You can’t drive to Churchill. Food, people, cargo, Everything comes by train, ship or plane. Rail is the cheapest and most residents take the night train to Thompson and head south from there.
ADVERTThe train tracks, which were rented to a private company until a few years ago, were not properly maintained, and in the rainy and stormy spring of 2017, 22 landslides Spence explains what the line is between Churchill and points south. The company couldn’t afford to fix them.
Major storms in Churchill Up to 30% wetter than 80 years ago Cornell University climate scientist Angie Pendergrass says this is due to human-caused climate change.
For 18 months, “the service was paralyzed,” Spence recalls. “It was devastating.”
Meanwhile, not enough goods were coming to the aging port. Spence, boarding center and rail linesthey were supposed to work as an integrated systemor, it’s not run by an absent American owner, so the city negotiated with federal and state governments for local control and federal financial assistance.
ADVERTIn 2018, the Arctic Gateway Group, a partnership of 41 First Nations and northern communities, assumed ownership of the port and rail line. Rail service returned on Halloween that year. Manitoba officials said 610 kilometers of roads have been improved and 10 bridges repaired in the past two years. Maritime traffic in the port has more than tripled since 2021. including the return of his first cruise in ten yearsthey said.
Earlier this year authorities announced an additional $60 million (€54.3 million) in port and rail financing.
How local residents are creating a better future for Churchill
Former Chamber of Commerce president Dave Daley says local ownership is important in Churchill. Left town in the 80’s but he returned five years later because he and his wife missed him. Major hotel chains once said they could fix the city’s infrastructure and build something big.
“We all stood up and said ‘no,'” Daley says. “We’re a very close-knit group. We have different ideas and stuff, but We know what we want Churchill to be“.
ADVERTAs Churchill develops, its forgotten past sometimes surfaces when tourists ask questions about residents and their history, says Georgina Berg, a longtime resident who, like Spence, lived in apartments as a child. This past contains ‘not so happy stories’ about forced displacement, missing women, poverty, subsistence hunting, ignorance, deaths and abusesays Berg, who is Cree.
Daley, a dog sled racer and president of Manitoba Indigenous Tourism, describes how Metis in particular have been overlooked: mistreated and punishedbut ends the history lesson with a sudden twist.
“We can’t change what happened five minutes ago, but we can change what happened five minutes later,” Daley says. “That’s what I teach my kids. It’s okay to know the history and all the atrocities and everything that happened, but if we want to grow from there we must look forward and see what we can do to change that in five minutes.”
Meanwhile, Daley and Spence realize: changes in climate: Not only is the weather warmer, but they also rumble here in a way that was previously unimaginable. The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the world. Spence says that while it’s not that bad because Churchill is south of the Arctic Circle, “it’s something we take seriously.”
ADVERT“It’s about finding the right combination of: adapt to climate change” says Spence. “And work with it.”
