Wow, what
an
interesting…and scary…story. Producers of hot gases like factories, cars, and Bill O’Reilly have had such a
devastating effect on climate conditions on the Arctic that indigenous peoples are being forced to come up with words
for phenomena and things that before they had no knowledge of. According to Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chair of the Inuit
Circumpolar Conference, hordes of animals are migrating north at unprecedented speeds (unprecedented at least in human
terms) due to the warming of the planet. Also an eight-nation report this month says the Arctic is warming twice as
fast as the rest of the planet and that the North Pole could be ice-free in northern hemisphere summer by 2100,
threatening indigenous cultures and perhaps wiping out creatures like polar bears.
There are, of course, several ways of looking at the problem. 1) we can be scared sh*tless, panic, cause mayhem and
begin end of world vigils in cities around the world, 2) try to reduce these gases (i.e. sell that SUV and take
O’Reilly off the air), 3) buy soon-to-be beach front property in places like Nevada and Alaska. Don’t know about you,
but I may buy my ticket for Nome very soon.