Starving Polar Bears and Melting Ice: How the Arctic Imaginary Continues to Colonize Our Perception of Climate Change in the Circumpolar Region

Abstract

This paper explores the Arctic Imaginary and its impact on how the circumpolar region is perceived by people outside of the region. Whether as imagined by the tourist industry, in connection to climate change, or as part of a geopolitical agenda, the Arctic is often portrayed in a simplified, mono-story way. A biased, simplified view of the region limits a deeper understanding of the issues that are important to the people living there. By tracing the Arctic Imaginary through its various historical manifestations and comparing it with the reality of living in the circumpolar region, this paper aims to challenge our collective, projected, and romanticized images of the “Arctic.” By discussing how different guises of the Arctic Imaginary continue to “other” and simplify the complexities of the region, this paper will show how recent environmental discourse anchors the Arctic Imaginary in a new way. Viewing the Arctic as a place to be saved, a pure, pristine place in need of protection, imposes upon it an identity as an object of (white, male, colonial) desire.