The encounter between Mamgark and the tourists is where the real and practical world of the North confronts an idealized and romanticized Arctic. It’s an imaginary Arctic, part of an image sold for southerners’ consumption.
That tension is underlined by an increasingly common phrase: “last chance tourism." This phrase refers to the threats posed by the rapid ebbs and flows of the Anthropocene. As for Churchill, the term could mean a tourist’s last opportunity to see the Arctic as it is now, before its iconic wildlife is gone, a relic of a colder era.
A recent resolution by Alberta's ruling United Conservative Party (UCP) to recognize carbon as "a foundational nutrient for all life on Earth" is rooted in fossil fuel disinformation that dates back to the 1990s.