Two hospitals later, she feared she would not survive.

A person walks along the rocks near Hudson Bay while watching for polar bears, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Churchill, Manitoba. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)A person walks along the rocks near Hudson Bay while watching for polar bears, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Churchill, Manitoba. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

It’s the beginning of polar bear season in Churchill, a tiny town on a spit of land jutting into Hudson Bay, and keeping tourists safe from hungry and sometimes fierce bears is an essential job for Van Nest and many others. And it’s become harder asthe bears depend on to hunt, forcing them to prowl inland earlier and more oftena group of scientists that tracks how endangered species are.

“You’re seeing more bears because there are more bears on the land for longer periods of time to be seen” and they are willing to take more risks, getting closer to people, said Polar Bears International research and policy director Geoff York. There are about 600 polar bears in this Western Hudson Bay population, about half what it was 40 years ago, but that’s still close to one bear for every resident of Churchill.Yet this remote town not only lives with the predator next door, but depends upon and even loves it. Visitors eager to see polar bears saved the town from shrinking out of existence when a military base closed in the 1970s, dropping the population from a few thousand to about 870. A 2011 government study calculated that the average polar bear tourist spends about $5,000 a visit, pumping more than $7 million into a tiny town that boasts fancy restaurants and more than two dozen small places to stay amid dirt roads and no stoplights.

“We’re obviously used to bears so (when you see one) you don’t start to tremble,” Mayor Mike Spence said. “It’s their area too. It’s important how the community coexists with bears and wildlife in general to really get along. We’re all connected.”

Erin Greene holds one of her rescued sled dogs, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Churchill, Manitoba. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)Experts say climate change is causing erratic weather conditions in the country, resulting in a rapid collapse of riverbanks and the destruction of village after village. During the monsoon season, which runs from June to October, many rivers change course, devouring markets, schools, mosques and homes near their banks.

Millions are at risk of being displaced and becoming “climate refugees” because of sea level rise, river erosion, cyclonic storms and salty water creeping inland, scientists say. Bangladesh is expected to have about a third of South Asia’s internal climate refugees by 2050, according to a World Bank report published last year.Mohammad Jewel stands on his land which was lost due to river erosion in Elisha Ghat area in Bhola, Bangladesh on July 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)

Mohammad Jewel stands on his land which was lost due to river erosion in Elisha Ghat area in Bhola, Bangladesh on July 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)When Jewel and Begum visited their family’s old home in Ramdaspur a year later, even more homes were washed away, the river surging through new lands. Jewel said the river never felt that close by as a child, but it inched nearer every year.