My First Arctic Nature

Designed to complement the curriculum for grades K-2, the My First Arctic Nature Activity Book features dozens of nature-related games, quizzes and classroom activities that encourage interest and engage children in nature and the natural sciences.

Bitter cold and constant snow. Polar bears, seals, and killer whales. Victor Frankenstein chasing his monstrous creation across icy terrain in a dogsled. The arctic calls to mind a myriad different images. Consisting of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, the United States, Russia, Greenland, Finland, Norway and Sweden, the arctic possesses a unique ecosystem—temperatures average negative 29 degrees Fahrenheit in winter and rarely rise above freezing in summer—and the indigenous peoples and cultures that live in the region have had to adapt to the harsh weather conditions. As global temperatures rise, the arctic is facing an environmental crisis, with melting glaciers causing grave concern around the world. But for all the renown of this frozen region, the arctic remains far from perfectly understood. In A History of the Arctic, award-winning polar historian John McCannon provides an engaging overview of the region that spans from the Stone Age to the present. McCannon discusses polar exploration and science, nation-building, diplomacy, environmental issues, and climate change, and the role indigenous populations have played in the arctic’s story. Chronicling the history of each arctic nation, he details the many failed searches for a Northwest Passage and the territorial claims that hamper use of these waterways. He also explores the resources found in the arctic—oil, natural gas, minerals, fresh water, and fish—and describes the importance they hold as these resources are depleted elsewhere, as well as the challenges we face in extracting them. A timely assessment of current diplomatic and environmental realities, as well as the dire risks the region now faces, A History of the Arctic is a thoroughly engrossing book on the past—and future—of the top of the world.

Featuring a wide variety of nature-related games, quizzes, and activities, these engaging activity books are geared toward children's curiosity about the natural world. The 30 activities featured within each encourage young learners to have fun while exploring nature, wildlife, and natural sciences. A variety of animals and plants—including bears, deer, nuthatches, mushrooms, and much more—are used to teach children about who lives in the forests in this unique activity book.

Sámi Nature-Centered Christianity in the European Arctic unpacks the theological significance of North Sámi indigenous Christianity, demonstrating how the tension between Sámi nature-centered Christianity and official Norwegian Lutheranism has broad theological relevance. Focusing on Christian cosmological orientation, the author argues that this is not fully given within the Christian faith itself. It is partly shaped by the religio-philosophical frameworks that various historical receptions of Christianity were filtered through. The author substantiates that two different types of Christian cosmological orientation are negotiated in the North Sámi Christian experience: one reflecting a Sámi historical reception of Christianity primarily filtered through the egalitarian world intuition of the Sámi indigenous tradition; another reflecting official Norwegian Lutheranism, primarily filtered through a Greek hierarchical world construct passed down among European intellectual elites. The argument is developed through thick description of local everyday Christianity among reindeer herding, river, and sea Sámi communities in Finnmark, Norway; through critical engagement with historical and contemporary Lutheranism; and through constructive dialogue with African and Native American theologies. The author suggests that the egalitarian, multi-relational logic of Sámi nature-centered Christianity points beyond the hierarchical binaries delimiting much of the theological imagination of dominant Christian theologies.

The Arctic,The Inuit and the Polar Bear,is a account of the most unexpected and incredible experience that I had ever had,living with three Inuits well within the Arctic circle.I became part of their extended family and for three weeks I worked,slept and ate with them,eating Inuit food,which is high in protein and fat and low in carbohydrates.I had to adapt to their diet,culture and to twenty four hours of daylight.this was very hard to do as there is no dawn or dusk to indicate the start and finish of each day. None of this was planned,it seemed like fate that I was destined to go,and celebrate my sixtieth birthday in a remote part of the world and if I had learned about it earlier in Life I would have jumped in with both feet at such an opportunity. I learned first hand of how they cope with a complete change in their lifestyle from being a nomadic race to learning to live in the twenty first century by white man's rules.In days gone by they were completely self sufficient but now they have to buy products from the 'south' such as clothes,snowmobiles and white man's food which has not done them any favours and has introduced obesity among other illnesses.They now have to earn money to pay their way in our world,and in their environment it is very difficult to do. The hunt was very difficult and all of us were working over eighteen hours each day and only sleeping when we were exhausted.At first it was difficult to realise that the temperatures were down to minus forty as the sky was blue and the sunshine made it appear warm but if you removed your gloves you could get frostbite within minutes. After a two day journey on snowmobiles pulling our sledges from Arctic Bay to the hunting grounds,we made base camp and from then on we reverted to using the dog sleighs,this was truly unbelievable and was exciting to say the least,it was remarkable how these dogs performed,they did all that their master asked of them and even more.How the could work as hard as they did on the minimum of food astounded me,any other dog would have died. For the first time in my life I was living with true hunters,these guy do it not for sport but for pure necessity,they needed food to survive.They were true masters of their art.At the start of our hunting day we released the dogs from their chains and harnessed them to their sledge in readiness to start our daily routine,which often lasted eighteen hours before we returned to camp and tied the dogs to their chains,where they stayed until the next day. To be free in such a pristine and frozen wilderness and be as one with nature is something that I would love to repeat,it was a remarkable twenty one days,we started from Arctic Bay as three Induits with their client,after two days I was part of the team and returned as close friends,I was now part of their family and will remain so for ever,I can't wait to go back in the summer and learn about how they survive and prepare for the winter to come.

A nature-based title in this prize-winning lift-the-flap series With bold, easy-to-lift card flaps, this stylish first words book is full of objects for children to recognize in nature. Every word is brought to life with charming artwork by home-ware designer Edward Underwood. And with flaps to lift on every page, little ones will enjoy exploring this book over and over.

This book shares graduate student experiences, lessons, and life learnings from research with Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic. The results of graduate student research are often disseminated in a thesis or dissertation, but their personal experiences building relationships with Inuit, working together to design and conduct research, and how this shaped their research approach and outcomes, are rarely captured. As such, there are limited resources available to new researchers that share information about the practical aspects of community-based research in the Arctic. The book is intended to provide a glimpse into what it is like to do research together with Inuit, and in doing so, contribute to the development of more productive and equitable relationships between Inuit and researchers. The chapters are written as structured narratives in the first-person and include reflections, and lessons learned.

From bestselling author James Raffan comes an enlightening and original story about a polar bear’s precarious existence in the changing Arctic, reminiscent of John Vaillant’s The Golden Spruce. Nanurjuk, “the bear-spirited one,” is hunting for seals on Hudson Bay, where ice never lasts more than one season. For her and her young, everything is in flux. 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, 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 kilometers of ice and snow covering the bay. For millennia, Nanu’s ancestors have roamed this great expanse, living, evolving, and surviving alongside human beings 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 neighbors 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, human beings—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. He 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 nonfiction and a deeply affecting call to action.