Editing Polar bear (section)

===Cultural significance===
{{further information|Cultural depictions of bears}}
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| image1            = Ours nageant (Musée du quai Branly) (3034045389).jpg|caption1=[[Ivory carving]] of a swimming polar bear from the [[Dorset culture]], northern Canada
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Polar bears have prominent roles in [[Inuit culture]] and [[Inuit religion|religion]]. The deity [[Torngarsuk]] is sometimes imagined as a giant polar bear. He resides underneath the sea floor in an [[underworld]] of the dead and has power over sea creatures. [[Kalaallit]] [[shaman]]s would worship him through singing and dancing and were expected to be taken by him to the sea and consumed if he considered them worthy. Polar bears were also associated with the goddess [[Nuliajuk]] who was responsible for their creation, along with other sea creatures. It is believed that shamans could reach the Moon or the bottom of the ocean by riding on a [[Tutelary deity|guardian spirit]] in the form of a polar bear. Some folklore involves people turning into or disguising themselves as polar bears by donning their skins or the reverse, with polar bears removing their  skins. In [[Inuit astronomy]], the [[Pleiades]] star cluster is conceived of as a polar bear trapped by dogs while [[Orion's Belt]], the [[Hyades (star cluster)|Hyades]] and [[Aldebaran]] represent hunters, dogs and a wounded bear respectively.{{sfn|Engelhard|2017|pp=152–153, 156–162}}

[[Nordic folklore]] and [[Scandinavian literature|literature]] have also featured polar bears. In ''[[The Tale of Auðun of the West Fjords]]'', written around 1275, a poor man named Auðun spends all his money on a polar bear in Greenland, but ends up wealthy after giving the bear to the king of Denmark.{{sfn|Fee|2019|p=32}} In the 14th-century manuscript [[Hauksbók]], a man named Odd kills and eats a polar bear that killed his father and brother. In the story of ''The Grimsey Man and the Bear'', a mother bear nurses and rescues a farmer stuck on an ice floe and is repaid with sheep meat. 18th-century Icelandic writings mention the legend of a "polar bear king" known as the {{lang|is|bjarndýrakóngur}}. This beast was depicted as a polar bear with "ruddy cheeks" and a [[unicorn]]-like horn, which glows in the dark. The king could understand when humans talk and was considered to be very astute.{{sfn|Engelhard|2017|pp=165–166, 181–182}} Two Norwegian fairy tales, "[[East of the Sun and West of the Moon]]" and "[[White-Bear-King-Valemon]]", involve white bears turning into men and seducing women.{{sfn|Fee|2019|p=98}}

Drawings of polar bears have been featured on maps of the northern regions. Possibly the earliest depictions of a polar bear on a map is the Swedish ''[[Carta marina]]'' of 1539, which has a white bear on Iceland or "Islandia". A 1544 map of North America includes two polar bears near [[Quebec]]. Notable paintings featuring polar bears include [[François-Auguste Biard]]'s ''Fighting Polar Bears'' (1839) and [[Edwin Landseer]]'s ''[[Man Proposes, God Disposes]]'' (1864). Polar bears have also been filmed for cinema. An Inuit polar bear hunt was shot for the 1932 documentary ''[[Igloo (1932 film)|Igloo]]'', while the 1974 film ''[[The White Dawn]]'' filmed a simulated stabbing of a trained bear for a scene. In the film ''[[The Big Show (1961 film)|The Big Show]]'' (1961), two characters are killed by a circus polar bear. The scenes were shot using animal trainers instead of the actors. In modern literature, polar bears have been characters in both [[children's literature|children's fiction]], like Hans Beer's ''[[The Little Polar Bear|Little Polar Bear and the Whales]]'' and Sakiasi Qaunaq's ''The Orphan and the Polar Bear'', and fantasy novels, like [[Philip Pullman]]'s ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' series. In radio, [[Mel Blanc]] provided the vocals for [[Jack Benny]]'s pet polar bear Carmichael on ''[[The Jack Benny Program]]''.{{sfn|Engelhard|2017|pp=xi–xii, 36, 82–83, 100, 116, 184, 215}} The polar bear is featured on flags and coats of arms, like the [[coat of arms of Greenland]], and in many advertisements, notably [[Coca-Cola polar bears|for Coca-Cola]] since 1922.{{sfn|Fee|2019|pp=32, 133–135}}

As [[charismatic megafauna]], polar bears have been used to [[Consciousness raising|raise awareness]] of the dangers of climate change. Aurora the polar bear is a giant [[marionette]] created by [[Greenpeace]] for climate protests.<ref name=Born2019>{{cite journal|last=Born|first=D.|year=2019|title=Bearing witness? Polar bears as icons for climate change communication in ''National Geographic''|journal=Environmental Communication|volume=13|issue=5|pages=649–663|doi=10.1080/17524032.2018.1435557|s2cid=150289699|doi-access=free|bibcode=2019Ecomm..13..649B }}</ref> The [[World Wide Fund for Nature]] has sold [[teddy bear|plush polar bears]] as part of its "Arctic Home" campaign.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Dunaway|first=F|year=2009|title=Seeing global warming: contemporary art and the fate of the planet|journal=Environmental History|volume=14|issue=1|pages=9–31|doi=10.1093/envhis/14.1.9}}</ref> Photographs of polar bears have been featured in ''[[National Geographic]]'' and ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazines, including ones of them standing on ice floes, while the climate change documentary and advocacy film ''[[An Inconvenient Truth]]'' (2006) includes an animated bear swimming.<ref name=Born2019/> Automobile manufacturer [[Nissan]] used a polar bear in one of its commercials, hugging a man for using an electric car.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Martinez|first1=D. E.|contribution=Polar bears, Inuit names, and climate citizenship|title=Culture, Politics and Climate Change In 2009|editor-first1=Deserai A.|editor-last1=Crow|editor-first2=Maxwell T|editor-last2=Boykoff|year=2014|publisher=Taylor & Francis|page=46|isbn=9781135103347}}</ref> To make a statement about global warming, in 2009 a Copenhagen ice statue of a polar bear with a bronze skeleton was purposely left to melt in the sun.{{sfn|Engelhard|2017|page=xiii}}