AVOID LEAVING TRASH OUTSIDE, MAXIMIZE FOOD GRINDER USE: As polar bear roams in vicinity of Longyearbyen, city issues reminder about tips to help keep it away from town
By Mark Sabbatini on March 17, 2020
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With the most recent of several polar bears wandering near town recently being observed since Monday evening – and with some incidents of people leaving trash and otherwise acting at odds with common sense guidelines – the city issued a reminder Tuesday for locals about ways to keep bears away from inhabited areas.
“Please avoid attracting polar bears with rubbish,” the notice states. “We kindly remind you that waste should not be stored outdoors, other than in polar-bear-safe containers (i.e. public dumpsters). Please also use food waste grinders as much as possible. It is potentially fatal for both the bear and us humans to teach the bear that humans equal food.”
Trash left outside a dumpster in a residential neighborhood is observed Tuesday morning by a Longyearbyen resident who disposed of it properly and posted this picture online in an advisory about responsible disposal.
The bear was first seen near the cabin area of Bjørndalen, west of the airport, at about 5 p.m. Monday and was monitored by The Governor of Svalbard as it wandered into the valley away from town during the evening. It was seen again on the coast Tuesday morning, but entered the water and swam toward Isfjorden. The governor announced at about 1 p.m. Tuesday “the polar bear has landed on Revneset, and is heading down Carolindalen and is heading northwards.”
I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation.
Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads.
But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation.
Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads.
But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
Icepeople is again facing an immediate existential crisis due (of course) to hardships largely inflected by the pandemic. In short, 1) the website needs $22 U.S. (190 NOK) to stay online for another month and 2) the editor needs any and all help possible to avoid homelessness in the middle of polar winter (not that it’s legal here any other time of the year).
So if you appreciate Icepeople for its unique stories about Svalbard and/or critical news during these critical times, as well as its features about the more colorful aspects of life here (today’s feature about the upcoming Polarjazz festival is for the event that first drew our editor’s attention to Svalbard way back in 2008) please do whatever you can during what are admittedly incredibly harsh times for many.