A Tale of Two Continents

Ilulissat, Greenland -- I'm back in the New World, even though I had to get here by way of the Old. The symposium, "The Arctic: Mirror of Life" which brought me here to this Greenland settlement, originated farther east, in the Old World, when we took off from Heathrow Airport with the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Churches, Bartholomew I, the "Green Patriarch." Bartholomew has been holding these symposia on "Science, Religion and the Environment" for more than a decade, each year exploring the issues in one of the world's oceans or seas. (Last year, the Amazon qualified.) Yesterday, in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI specifically endorsed the Symposium and led prayers for "greater respect for God's creation." Three days earlier, he led an eco-friendly youth rally, attended by an estimated 500,000 faithful, in which the Pontiff called on world leaders to act "before it is too late."

The Patriarch's leadership, and the Pope's appeal, are not the only signs that the Old World has leaped ahead of the Americas environmentally. Flying over the coast at Liverpool there is a nice, neat off-shore wind farm dotting the Irish Sea. On the flight itself, the only available paper is The Times of London, a Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid. This isn't the New York Times or the Financial Times, mind you -- it's a tabloid. But it covers the Pope's ecological appeal. And it has a lengthy and thoughtful story on how the BBC has decided that its job is to educate, not motivate, and that Live Earth-style mass appeals (in British terms, "campaigning") are not what a media outlet should do. Then there is a full-page ad by the Saintsbury grocery chain. The entire selling point is that Saintsbury's organic carrots cost exactly the same as its competitor, TESCO's, but that Saintsbury's packaging is biodegradable. The tag line? "Same prices. Different values." And the front-page, full-color story covers new studies showing that food additives are almost certainly part of the story of hyperactivity and learning disability among children and runs with a half-page follow-up telling readers precisely which artificial additives are implicated. (Interestingly, about half of the bad actors are banned in the US already -- so while Europe's sensibilities may have leaped past ours, regulations still lag.)

On the flight we are given a brief brochure on Ilulissat which explains that its inhabitants have a foot in both the Old World and the New. "We get the news as fast as anyone. We see the results of global warming, caused by the past two centuries of western industrialization, of which we are also a part. ... Taking part in the modern world, and at the same time preserving the essential Arctic survival skills, is demanding." And what are those ancient skills? "Being able to make your own decisions -- as in the old hunting days. Sitting in the qajak (kayak) one had no time to ask before shooting -- the hunter had to be self reliant... Quick decisions, and swift competent movements, based on your own judgment. That is the ideal .... however, the coin has a back side to it. Brought up in the spirit of Illit aalajangissuat a person can be very much alone ... some get stronger in this individualistic oriented process of learning how to be an up-to-date Greenlander -- others do not."

Ironically, the core meaning of llit aalajangissuat -- it's up to you -- is rendered pointless by global warming -- it is no longer up to any one of us, it must be up to all of us together.

Comments

[Boxorox]

There is much to admire about the Old World and it is easy to get lulled into a desire to go back to those ways. But remember that the Old World ways included life expectancy rarely inexcess of forty years, no refrigeration (so vital for food preservation and transport and modern medical practices). Imagine to a world in which 6 billion people tend to livestock, not only for food,but also for sharing the burden of labor and transportation. Recall a standard where everyone in the family worked at least 6 days per week, rarely less than 10 hours each day. Think of a time when lumber (untreated) was the chief building material and every metropolitan area was under threat of widespread and sudden fire that would destroy everything from suburb to suburb. Then there is disease that would be rampant in our modern society where millions live in a spaces previously that only hundreds would occupy. What of the unmeasurable volumes of waste, trash and refuse that would become unmanagable?
If there is any component of human existance that contributes to global warming, then it is simply a matter a fact of being here in the first place. Our civilization owes its existance to the warming that has happened since the last ice age, and we can be thankful for it too that we have the resources, living space and agricultural capacity that a warm climate makes possible.
Fight global warming? Why?

[maddogbitesback]

Maybe I fight it because I think that my children should have a good life. Not a life with aSUV but a life where they can eat and don't die of what were exotic diseases and on and on. Just a silly maternal thing I guess. Or maybe an ethical one. I never did think that anything was worth dying for except the wonder of it all. Got to go. A lovely little green bird has a broken wing. He is in my garden because I gave up grass and let the lawn reforest. He is a miracle of beauty. And adaptation. I would like to think he could survive global warming but I doubt he will.