Nathan Myhrvold continues his tales of travelling through the Nordic countries with a stop in Greenland. Myhrvold talks about the nation’s efforts for independence from Denmark, how ice — which covers 84% of the country — prevents economical development and what it’s like to eat… polar bear. [WhatILearnedToday]

However, this case was a bit different. Polar bears live on pack ice (i.e. ice that forms on top of the sea rather than on land) far to the north of where I was in south Greenland. When the pack ice breaks up in the spring, some bears get marooned on floating islands of pack ice and ride them south. The two bears that wound up in Iceland did that. Once they reach the south, they are doomed — there is no pack ice so they can’t hunt seals. They starve to death.