It was not the Arctic you might expect. It was lush and warm and greener than Greenland. There were blue poppies here the size of dinner plates. and the last polar bear to arrive here was shot dead as an undesirable. It was sad, really. There was a time when sea ice would last through the summer months in the Denmark Strait. Bears would use these rafts for loafing between spring and fall. But with global warming, that option was gone.

From Circling the Midnight Sun by James Raffan ©2014. Published by HarperCollins Canada.