It’s easiest to detect global warming if you live near the arctic circle:
Thirty miles from the Arctic Circle, hunter Noah Metuq feels the Arctic changing. Its frozen grip is loosening; the people and animals who depend on its icy reign are experiencing a historic reshaping of their world.
Fish and wildlife are following the retreating ice caps northward. Polar bears are losing the floes they need for hunting. Seals, unable to find stable ice, are hauling up on islands to give birth. Robins and barn owls and hornets, previously unknown so far north, are arriving in Arctic villages.
The global warming felt by wildlife and increasingly documented by scientists is hitting first and hardest here, in the Arctic where the Inuit people make their home.
The Inuit’s whole way of life is being disrupted. And they are just the first to be impacted by global warming. As the ice melts it not only disrupts their hunting environment, but the hunting and breeding grounds of many species. The increased exposure of open water leads to higher frequency of violent storms. The Bush administration would do well to listen to the warnings coming from the Inuit community….
“People have become disconnected from their environment. But the Inuit have remained through this whole dilemma, remained extremely connected to its environment and wildlife,” she [Sheila Watt-Cloutier, head of the International Circumpolar Conference] said. “They are the early warning. They see what’s happening to the planet, and give the message to the rest of the world.”
That message?
“These are things that all of our old oral history has never mentioned,” said Enosik Nashalik, 87, the eldest of male elders in this Inuit village. “We cannot pass on our traditional knowledge, because it is no longer reliable. Before, I could look at cloud patterns or the wind, or even what stars are twinkling, and predict the weather. Now, everything is changed.”
and:
In Nain, Labrador, hunter Simon Kohlmeister, 48, drove his snowmobile onto ocean ice where he had hunted safely for 20 years. The ice flexed. The machine started sinking. He said he was “lucky to get off” and grab his rifle as the expensive machine was lost. “Someday we won’t have any snow,” he said. “We won’t be Eskimos.”
Our government needs to stop protecting big business and start listening to the people to our north.
Hell, I’m experiencing climate change. We all are. The last few winters around here have been noting like the ones when I first moved to Upstate NY. Below freezing and lots of snow replaced by January temps in the 50’s and 60’s and lots of — rain.
I am constantly amazed at the power of the media to convince so many people that the truth about global warming that one can see with their own eyes, if he or she but chooses to look, isn’t happening.
I’ve been feeling the same way as you lately, Steven. Though I’ve always believed in the problem, the actual signs in our everyday life seem to be popping up more and more. Like yours, our winters are increasingly less cold and snowy, and the extremes of summer seem so much more extreme than they used to. For a while, I kept thinking that my perception of the winters not being as bad was just due to exaggerated childhood memories, but the more I talk to others, I keep hearing the same thing. Something is definitely changing all over, but I fear it is/will be too late to do anything substantive about it.
I take it you’ve seen Al Gore’s presentation on Global Warming? I caught it a while back on LINKTV and it was stunning and very frightening. Anyone who doesn’t believe it’s happening now needs to spend an hour with Al and have their reality chamber reorganized.
No I haven’t though I intend to go see the documentary he made when it gets a general release this Spring. I’ve been scared for 20 years about global warming, and like you I fear it may be too late at this point to stop it or slow it down, but God I hope not.
If you happen to get LINKTV (out of San Francisco), keep your eye out because they have been showing the presentation quite a bit the last month or so. I, too, am anxious to go see An Inconvenient Truth as well… comes out in May, I believe.
I truly regret some of the goofy things I said about Al years ago, even though I never passed up the chance to vote for him… well, except in 1988 when I voted for Jesse Jackson in the primary. LOL
Go take a look at this video on Gore by Spike Jonze — it was shown only one time at the Dem 2000 convention. This is the Gore all those Dem consultants never lat us see on the campaign trail. Would that he had abandoned his handlers and done it “his way” back then.
I’m really hoping hoping that Gore stays out of the election & starts speaking out more. He’ll be more blunt that way.
OT:
Have any of you guys seen Jeffrey St. Clair’s piece today? Be prepared to get angry: it’s a story about no-bid DHS contracts to cut-out Native American corporations which are then sub-contracted. Brokered by Ted Stevens. More big $$$. Wackenhut, one of the sub-contractors, is one of the companies Catherine Austin Fitts discusses in her Prison Profits series at NarcoNews.
How a Remote Alaskan Indian Tribe Got One of the Most Lucrative Post-911 Security Contracts, But No Jobs
of uneducated savages? Bush would rather listen to someone knowledgable, like Michael Crichton…
The spouse and I are taking a cruise to Alaska in June — I think we’re getting there just in time…
You are right, BooMan, that people living close to the environment can probably see the effects of climate change. Governments should not only listen to them, they should listen to the overwhelming global scientific consensus which crosses many disciplines.
Anthropogenic global warming is a fact, and there is alarming recent evidence that it is happening faster than predicted.
Seals, walrus and polar bears are amongst the northern animals whose food sources, breeding, and migration patterns are being disrupted by the rapid loss of sea ice. In this extract from his recent book The Weather Makers, Tim Flannery says that polar bears are slowly starving to death. He predicts that well before the end of this century they will be extinct in the wild.
But this is – pardon the pun – only the tip of the iceberg. We are facing mass extinctions of plant and animal species around the globe and horrific loss of human life within the lifetime of our children.
I strongly recommend the Flannery book to anyone who is interested in understanding the science of climate change and being armed with the arguments. It is a readable and interesting account of the history of climate change – both before and as a result of human interference – and a great lay person’s guide to the science.
Try Powell’s or alibris(cheaper).
And BTW, watch out in the next few weeks for reports of the draft of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It will reflect the scientific consensus and use much stronger language than previous reports – a BBC preview is here. Remember when you read or hear about the IPCC Report that it is a consensus document which is approved by governments – ie inherently restrained language and conservative conclusions.