Polar Bares

One would only have to ask the local cross-country skiers, the Snowmobilers or the tourist camp operators who had hoped for some ice fishing revenue if they thought maybe, just maybe there was some truth to the global warming controversy. Controversy, because despite all the science and the anecdotal stories about heavy rains, unusual windstorms, shifting hurricanes and melting ice, some people say it is just a phase. Not that these people have anything to gain or lose economically or politically – they simply cannot be convinced by science. Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ is just a movie, after all!

The possibility that our poles might be going bare is simply beyond our comprehension. Just because a huge chunk of the Ross Ice Shelf broke loose and is drifting north, or that a large island-sized berg from our north is now making its way south, is not cause for alarm. These islands of ice could not possibly affect the ocean currents, could they? All that melting ice and snow could not raise the water level around the whole world, could it? The extra moisture being sucked into the atmosphere would stay there. Well, we might have a few more cloudy days that either warms or cools the atmosphere, depending on which weather guru you ask. When it does rain, it might cause some local flooding, but nothing like the rain Noah had to face. Surely, we will get a sign when it is time to start building arks.

Except that the polar bears are not into building arks or even boats to go a-sealing. It makes the news when the polar bears cannot venture out onto the ice to catch seals. And despite the stupid ad that has penguins at the north pole with the polar bears sharing a Coke, the bears need to eat, not drink. The people trying to raise our awareness about global warming may find it easier to make their case with the polar bears, but there are any number of signs of changes that are even more dramatic. Those signs are from the unglamorous bottom of the food chain, not the top.

Beetles ravishing the pine forests may seem like a remote problem for us in the East, but when those beetles run out of BC and Alberta pines, they might just find their way across the prairies and into the coniferous forests that we rely on for our forest industry. When those Emerald Ash borers run out of tress in southeastern Ontario, they may start moving north and changing their diet. As with both beetles, what they did not like was the frost, but since we have been warming the planet for them, they are changing their range – and likely getting more tolerant of the cold, if Darwin was at all correct.

The invasion of exotic beetles and other small critters that are eating our forests and flowers may have very serious consequences for us. We rely so much on the trees to keep our air clean and recycled that the loss of the boreal forests may soon be as serious as the loss of the rain forest. As we destroy or remove our forests, we also have a great impact on the creatures that nature uses to keep the beetles and bugs in check – the birds. We can work our way right up to the top of the food chain and see the effect that global warming is having and will have. Eventually, that chain is going to break and then we are in serious trouble.

In the meantime, what are we doing if we are even a little suspicious about the changes in the weather? The simple answer is that we are too many, but the solution to that problem is at the very root of many religious and cultural customs, and of course, our current economic model. More is better, is the business mantra! Actually, less is better. We have to consume less and pollute less, and that might seem like an easy answer until we try to apply it to our daily lives.

The automobile has become a part of our North American life style and it is one or our leading polluters. Even the most fuel-efficient cars are big polluters. Idling vehicles burn fossil fuels and pollute the air. We all know it, but who turns off their engine when sitting at a stop light? Even our public works and utility vehicles still sit idling despite a ‘no-idling’ policy. Some old mechanical myth about diesels being hard to start still persists in the trucking industry as the drivers stop for a meal or coffee break and leave their rigs idling.

We homo sapiens may have been able to reverse the ozone-layer problem by limiting the fluorocarbons, and we may have stopped a dangerous trend in banning DDT, but these were problems caused by specific actions. Global warming has many, many root causes and we may not be able to correct them all in time. The first step is to convince ourselves that there is a problem. In the spirit of entrepreneurship, some have even suggested that it is not a problem, but an opportunity.

The world of our grandchildren may be entirely different from ours, and perhaps that will be fine with them. They may never miss the great pine forests or the sight of a ruby-throated hummingbird. To see a pink lady’s slipper may be of no interest, nor the thought of catching their first frog or a pollywog in a bottle may not stir their imagination or curiosity. Perhaps they will get the thrills of their life by virtually skiing down a mountain slope or swimming through a reef on their PlayStation XXVI, but I think it would be nice for us to give them a choice to experience the world as we know it today.

Bill Walton

( I have just published “The Klimt Connection”, the third novel in the Frank Pilger crime series. It is available from www.amazon.ca , www.authorhouse.com/bookstore or www.daisywheelpress.com )