stay substantially cooler than the ground in the
surrounding area.
The gap between the Zimovs’ ambitions and
the reality of the park is unquestionably large.
During a tour one afternoon, Orlinsky and
I hiked soggy grasses to a stretch of marsh to
watch the horses. A lone bison hid in the dis-
tance. Nikita loaded us onto an eight-wheel
mini-tank and took us crashing through the
willows. After a steep climb we plowed over
some skinny larches. This is why he needs giant
herbivores, Nikita said: “At the moment I don’t
have any animals which can kill those trees.” He
spends a lot of time raising funds, most recently
in California, hobnobbing with the likes of for-
mer Governor Jerry Brown, just to keep this
proof of concept going.
The concept has its critics. Some scientists
dispute the Zimovs’ estimates of how many
large animals were roaming around Siberia in
the Pleistocene, or insist that their theory of
ecological change, both past and present, is
too simplistic. Above all, most criticism seems
leveled at the Zimovs’ audacity. Max Holmes of
Woods Hole, who knows them well, sees a spark
of genius in their work. The Zimovs are “at the
fringe,” Holmes said, “but that’s often where big
ideas and big changes originate.”
Outside Pleistocene Park, the modern world
has responded to the warming Arctic with com-
placency. We’ve spent decades ignoring the evi-
dence of climate change and hoping that things
won’t get too bad. We count on technological
advances that seem always just out of reach.
And we do this in spite of the fact that climate
scientists—permafrost experts in particular—
say all signs point to the need for urgent and
even audacious action.
The Zimovs are different: They’ve spent their
lives battling an unforgiving landscape that
rewards bullheadedness. Is trying to save per-
mafrost by restoring the Arctic steppe, they ask,
really so much crazier than counting on humans
to quickly retool the world’s energy system?
Maybe we need a little craziness.
“Fighting climate change needs multiple
actions from multiple different fronts,” Nikita
said. Only if we combine them all can we make
the future “not entirely miserable.” jA polar bear inspects
a car near Kaktovik,
Alaska. Melting sea ice
is driving more bears
onto land in search of
food—just as thawing
and flooding ice cellars
are forcing more Alas-
kans to store fish and
meat outside.
Staff writer Craig Welch’s latest feature was about
ecological change on the Antarctic Peninsula. Pho-
tographer Katie Orlinsky, based in New York City,
has covered the Arctic for more than five years.THE THREAT BELOW 99