yesterday NASA and the US National Snow and Ice Data Center released a bunch of alarming satellite images that show the Arctic ice is melting at a previously unimaginable rate. summer ice cover has shrunk by twice the size of texas and is 20 per cent smaller than in the 70s. whola!
we've heard it all before, you know. the polar bears won't be able to hunt seals from the ice. they will die or move south, where they will die. and they are so cute. look.
and that's before we even think of the PEOPLE. the PEOPLE who call this area their home. the artic has always gotten the raw end of the stick. it's bloody cold to begin with, hard to make a decent living, and then it seems as if the world's climate and pollution problems zero in on the region like a poor a slug baking under a magnifying glass. persistent pollutants and heavy metals follow the air currents and concentrate in the north. frighteningly high levels of these toxins started turning up in inuit women's breastmilk a few years back. many communities have turned to more packaged, flown in foods, which are both more expensive and may be contributing to the epidemic of obesity and diabetes in these northern communities.
and now, as the earth warms, it will always be the distant, exotic and beautiful artic who is hit the hardest.
i guess that is what makes the whole global climate change, not my problem, not in my backyard, over my deadbody, but do i really have to give up the SUV?, situation worse. the dramatic effects seem so far away from the daily lives of the governments and people who need the message about climate change and consumption the most.
i've never been up north myself. but i feel like part of my country is just melting away. makes you want to buy bulk and ride your bike. right?
(read a less melodramatic report here from the BBC and check out the original release here for some nice pictures of the ice caps)