Last night I couldn't sleep. I kept replaying in my mind the nine day endurance swim a polar bear and her cub attempted, due at least in part to climate change. I kept imagining the mother swimming on and on, through water as deep as 3400m for 232 hours straight. She never stopped, and was not carried by currents; rather she was continuously pushed away from her path and had to fight the current. No one knows when her cub died, but the scientists who reported the findings concur that the most reasonable explanation was that the cub likely died from exhaustion before the 687km swim was completed. Imagine the scenario. A lone polar bear swimming through an endless dark blue sea with her young cub following her, valiantly trying to keep up. Somewhere out there in that deep sea, where the ice used to be she must turn her head and watch her cub succumb to the depths and there is nothing she can do. To survive she must keep on swimming, hoping that the ice will appear on the horizon soon. Imagine her grief. Her baby is gone, her constant companion, lost to her. Don't believe it didn't hurt her. It did.
Read more »