Churchill is on the shoreline of the west coast of Canada. Over the past few years this has become one of the most sought over environmental holidays. However does this mean that it is threatened by the change in climate?
The polar bears come inland during autumn so that they can stay on dry land, and they head towards Churchill. The polars take over Churchill and wander round taking over local villages and towns as well. The nickname, Polar Bear capital of the world, came from the fact there are so many of these cuddly creatures. This has helped boost the tourist industry around the area, and now tour operators offer Canada tours dedicated to this area, to show people the stunning environment.
Churchill is an area known as an Ecotone. When you have several environments or climates close together, this is called an Ecotone. Churchill is on the border of three of these extremely different climates. They are the Boreal forest to the south, the Tundra climate to the north east and the Hudson Bay to the north. If you have never seen the Aurora Borealis then this one of the best places on the planet. Not only does this area have all these attributes, it is also home to the Beluga whales in summer, over 57,000 of them, and has a very extensive amunt of bird fauna that cover the whole area.
Because of all the surrounding species and the Polar bears, Churchill needs to rely on the tourist industry heavily. If the environment experiences a harsh change then this area will become desolate, the animals will have to migrate somewhere else. The tourism industry will fail. Canada holidays benefit greatly from this environmental phenomenon, but how much longer will it last. Alaska Cruises also circle round to this area, so maybe that holiday is better sooner rather than later.