Polar Bears and the Politics of Climate Change: A Response to Simpson

Abstract

Abstract We respond to Simpson’s recent critique in these pages of Canada’s interpretation and implementation of the 1973 International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears and Their Habitat. While Simpson’s article explores the important and under-researched issue of the ethics and environmental sustainability of polar bear management, Simpson’s critique misreads the Canadian polar bear law and policy landscape, ignores the imperative of Indigenous-settler reconciliation and the adaptive capacity of Indigenous laws and practices, and speciously links polar bear hunting and climate change. We conclude by briefly sketching an alternative approach to conceptualizing and practicing polar bear conservation research in the Arctic.