A warming planet is having unforeseen affects on people living in the far north. Because of melting ice on the Bering Straight between Alaska and Russia, Polar Bears that usually live on the ice-covered ocean hunting seals are being forced dangerously close to the small village of Wales, very near school children walking to school.
“The weather has changed a lot, and it has made the animals change their behavior,” said Clyde Oxereok, a ninth-generation resident of Wales told USA Today. “Our main concern is the kids.”
You can actually see Russia from the village of Wales and the recent melt off of ice has changed the lives of the locals as more and more oil tankers now use the newly opened lanes to travel from polar regions to the American West Coast and beyond. And stressed bears, who can no longer find food are coming dangerously close to the village.
In 2012, a teacher was chased by a bear before a local chased it off with his snowmobile and bears are regularly seen in and around the village. Polar Bears can weigh up to 1,000 pounds, stand 10-feet tall when on their hind legs and be extremely aggressive. Law enforcement in the area is non-existent due to its remote nature, so the villagers have taken matters into their own hands, forming the Kingikmiut Nanuuq Patrol to keep an eye on the bears and guard village children as they walk to and from school.
Polar Bears are protected by the Endangered Species act but Inupiat hunters that live in the village are allowed to kill the bears to maintain their traditional way of life. Or to protect their children. But mostly they use blow horns and firecrackers to try and scare the animals. Regardless, the native way of life is being influenced by factors thousands of miles away.
“It’s decisions that are being made really far outside this community … and yet the community is taking on that burden, that risk, of managing it,” says Elisabeth Kruger, Arctic program manager for the World Wildlife Fund who has been in Wales to help with the bear problem. “To me, it’s unimaginable.”
