needs more ice
I know I don’t blog very often about environmental issues. There are many reasons for this; most of which can be summarized as apathy and a distaste of the more militant tree-hugger tactics. No, I think global warming is (mostly) a man-made catastrophe waiting in the wings, yes - I do recycle and make environmentally conscious choices when I can. Just don’t tell anyone about the multiple flights back home last year, ok? But I don’t kid myself that I’m actually making an appreciable difference or helping stave off melting ice caps. I’m just doing it because it’s the right thing; not because I seriously think that sorting a couple of bottles for recycling will save anyone. Illogical, resigned to my fate and perhaps defeatist? Yeah. All of those.
And my uncharacteristically somber mood is due to a couple of images I saw yesterday.
arctic sea ice concentration in 1979.
arctic sea ice concentration in 2007.
Full archive. The pictures start from somewhere in 1978.
And in related news, Russia is making a play for a large part of the exposed arctic.
On 11-Aug-07 at 9:16 pm,
Darwin wrote:
It is concerning but you know, we can’t really do anything about it individually. I like to think of it as a meteorite heading towards us only much slower - so it won’t really be a problem in our lifetimes as such…
Like you, I do what I can and leave it at that. No point stressing about something I can’t change right?:)
On 12-Aug-07 at 4:04 am,
RH wrote:
Interesting you should bring this up. When you’re next in LK we should have a chat (aside from the usual pub sessions!). There’s a project I’m working on, which is related to the subject matter of the post. It would be good to discuss it with you from a tech and non-tech perspective.
On 12-Aug-07 at 10:08 pm,
N wrote:
The battle was lost a long time ago..now its just some damage control…probably will never be enough…
On the plus side every little thing each of us does helps…I hope…
On 13-Aug-07 at 11:30 am,
drac wrote:
Darwin: Yup. Completely agree, although I confess that I sometimes snark at the environmental hand-wringing. It’s my personal little Dawkinesque crusade.
I used to think that it wouldn’t be a problem in our lifetimes either - but I think the contrast between the two images brought home the fact that it could happen sooner, I guess. It was a momentary lapse. I’m back to being misanthropic now.
RH: Oh, cool. Which smoothly transitions to the “what happened after” question which I thought was unseemly to ask earlier
N: I want it to be different (ie:, to have the environmental measures actually make some impact) but I fear you’re right.