Global Warming Has Happened
Was reading an article in The Washington Post some time back - it scared the hell out of me. We always talk about global warming as a theoretical concept, as something that will happen to the world in future. Well, if someone tells you that the effect of global warming has forever changed a way of life he has known for thousands of years, you are bound to get alarmed. Inuits - the hardy people who inhabit the Arctic - known as the sentries for the rest of the world, are seeing signs of global warming. They are the first and the hardest hit. Their lives are changing rapidly. And they don't know how to deal with it.
Inuits are people who live in or near the Arctic Circle, in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and the Russian Far East. They have through thousands of years been intimately connected with the environment they live in. Hunting is their main occupation. Today they face scarcity of food as fish and wildlife follow the retreating ice caps northwards. Ice has become so thin in some regions, where just a year back it was thick, that they can no longer use their snow mobiles safely. They are having to drill wells for water for the first time because there is not enough ice left to melt. They are seeing dramatic changes in weather. A series of warm winters with last winter being the warmest, and rain and high temperatures in February, a time when the average temperature is usually around -20. Around them, polar bears are loosing the floes they need for hunting, so hungry bears are often seen lurking near small village communities. Seals, unable to find stable ice, are coming to unfamiliar islands to give birth. Thousands of their pups are getting washed away to the sea by storms and high tide. Birds like robins and barn owls, which were never seen in the Arctic region before, are being seen so far north now. A village elder in an Arctic village says, "These are things that all of our old oral history has never mentioned. 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 has changed." There are species that have adapted to a certain regime over 40,000 years. Given the current changes, scientists believe some will make it, some will not. A hunter in Baffin Island, Canada, says, "They call it climate change. But we just call it breaking up."
What this article says is indeed quite alarming. What is happening up north is a reality of global warming and a big warning to the rest of the world. It will be felt by us in the lower latitudes sooner than we imagine. What makes it worse is that we don't know the potential impacts yet. If somebody could impress the potential danger on world conscience(if there was a single world conscience) and each country would take concrete steps to stop further damage...If the most influential person in the world was more inspired by the idea of saving the world than making wars and establishing democracies in far flung lands....
While an issue of such tremendous global impact does need global awareness and global efforts for risk management and disaster control, I think it all comes down to the individual in the end. We can make a difference. Here's how. Be aware, and create awareness in the society you live in. Avoid plastics, avoid fossil fuels(if you can help it), and plant more trees. Find out NGO's working on environment in your neighbourhood and volunteer with them. Be aware of the choices you make, the products you buy. Don't buy products that come from environment damaging sources. If you know, for example, that a gold ring dumps about 20 tons of solid waste in the environment on an average and contaminates the ground water with a poison as deadly as cyanide, would it look as desirable anymore? Say NO to dirty gold. So on and so forth.
Was reading an article in The Washington Post some time back - it scared the hell out of me. We always talk about global warming as a theoretical concept, as something that will happen to the world in future. Well, if someone tells you that the effect of global warming has forever changed a way of life he has known for thousands of years, you are bound to get alarmed. Inuits - the hardy people who inhabit the Arctic - known as the sentries for the rest of the world, are seeing signs of global warming. They are the first and the hardest hit. Their lives are changing rapidly. And they don't know how to deal with it.
Inuits are people who live in or near the Arctic Circle, in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and the Russian Far East. They have through thousands of years been intimately connected with the environment they live in. Hunting is their main occupation. Today they face scarcity of food as fish and wildlife follow the retreating ice caps northwards. Ice has become so thin in some regions, where just a year back it was thick, that they can no longer use their snow mobiles safely. They are having to drill wells for water for the first time because there is not enough ice left to melt. They are seeing dramatic changes in weather. A series of warm winters with last winter being the warmest, and rain and high temperatures in February, a time when the average temperature is usually around -20. Around them, polar bears are loosing the floes they need for hunting, so hungry bears are often seen lurking near small village communities. Seals, unable to find stable ice, are coming to unfamiliar islands to give birth. Thousands of their pups are getting washed away to the sea by storms and high tide. Birds like robins and barn owls, which were never seen in the Arctic region before, are being seen so far north now. A village elder in an Arctic village says, "These are things that all of our old oral history has never mentioned. 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 has changed." There are species that have adapted to a certain regime over 40,000 years. Given the current changes, scientists believe some will make it, some will not. A hunter in Baffin Island, Canada, says, "They call it climate change. But we just call it breaking up."
What this article says is indeed quite alarming. What is happening up north is a reality of global warming and a big warning to the rest of the world. It will be felt by us in the lower latitudes sooner than we imagine. What makes it worse is that we don't know the potential impacts yet. If somebody could impress the potential danger on world conscience(if there was a single world conscience) and each country would take concrete steps to stop further damage...If the most influential person in the world was more inspired by the idea of saving the world than making wars and establishing democracies in far flung lands....
While an issue of such tremendous global impact does need global awareness and global efforts for risk management and disaster control, I think it all comes down to the individual in the end. We can make a difference. Here's how. Be aware, and create awareness in the society you live in. Avoid plastics, avoid fossil fuels(if you can help it), and plant more trees. Find out NGO's working on environment in your neighbourhood and volunteer with them. Be aware of the choices you make, the products you buy. Don't buy products that come from environment damaging sources. If you know, for example, that a gold ring dumps about 20 tons of solid waste in the environment on an average and contaminates the ground water with a poison as deadly as cyanide, would it look as desirable anymore? Say NO to dirty gold. So on and so forth.
posted by Pallavi at 9:47 AM
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