Bear Den II | Oil and the Caribou | 2002 | 68 in. x 86 in.

Late March 2002, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain, Alaska. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain is the only land conservation area in the United States for denning polar bears. The Arctic sea ice has been melting at an unprecedented rate due to anthropogenic climate change, which is having devastating impact on marine species that critically depend on sea ice, including polar bears, walrus, ringed seals and seabirds. As the sea ice melts and progressively become thinner, the bears come to rely more on land dens. Pregnant females go in these temporary dens in October–November; give birth during December–January; and nurse their cubs inside the den until March–April, at which point they emerge from the dens with usually one or two cubs. At that time, the mothers have not eaten for five to seven months and critically require good spring sea ice for seal hunting to feed themselves and to nurse their cubs. The oil companies have been pushing hard to open up both the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge for onshore and the Beaufort and the Chukchi Seas of Arctic Alaska for offshore oil and gas development. Such industrial projects will only exacerbate the fate of the polar bears.