The Arctic isn’t disappearing; it’s re-emerging. Change is painful, if a sense of place is your intimate relation to the animals who sustain you,

This is a sweet, timely essay. Neil Shea works for National Geographic, so there are beautiful pictures of vanishing frontiers, declining herds of caribou, Inuit fishermen. But there’s also a melancholy, poetic voice. The Arctic isn’t disappearing; it’s re-emerging. Change is painful, if you believe that a sense of place is about your intimate relation to the animals who sustain you, and the weather which defines you. The loss of the caribou is felt as a personal affront by their hunters. “They go away because we haven’t given back to them.” Inuit have lost their igloos, their language, their maps and place names, their ownership of wilderness.

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