Climate Change & Polar Bears
Several people responded to my request about local observations and larger patterns.
This is what concerns me: at the Society for Ecological Restoration, in Zaragaoza, Spain last year, we heard many reports from indigenous groups whose traditional agricultural means are failing due to weather patterns. It forces them into dependency on globalization and disrupts values, as being forced to eat livestock that are like extensions of their family & spiritual world. Now I am thinking the serious disruptions are already universal rather than contained into extreme situations, as New Orleans.
Until now, I had seen serious disruptions particularly at the geographical planetary extremes, as island nations at the equator and Siberia. When I began Ghost Nets, one of my public statements was that I thought, based on statements from scientists, that we had 10 years to forestall serious damage. That was in 1990. Now Gore is saying we have ten years to avert major disasters. I wish I could see his film but we don't have movie theatres up here. I hope to get his book.
But it seems to me, based on this scant input I have & my own experience, that we are all making a mistake to think there is time left to lead normal lives, let alone think in normal ways, when we think of "ten years". When I did my installation at Exit Art, one of my statements was we must make dramatic changes "immediately", first of all in our thinking. I am wondering if even that is too tame a statement.
I am not sure where the line is here between alarmism and reality. I suspect it's pretty thin. Despite what I wrote above, I believe we still have to live in paradoxical double vision- half normal for the sake of our sanity, half in triage. I would appreciate hearing more thoughts from others about how far we must go right now, further on local observations and what measures people are taking in their practice to address the apparent urgency.
This morning I got this from a friend:
June 12, 2006
Polar Bears May Be Turning to Cannibalism
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:16 p.m. ET
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) –
This is what concerns me: at the Society for Ecological Restoration, in Zaragaoza, Spain last year, we heard many reports from indigenous groups whose traditional agricultural means are failing due to weather patterns. It forces them into dependency on globalization and disrupts values, as being forced to eat livestock that are like extensions of their family & spiritual world. Now I am thinking the serious disruptions are already universal rather than contained into extreme situations, as New Orleans.
Until now, I had seen serious disruptions particularly at the geographical planetary extremes, as island nations at the equator and Siberia. When I began Ghost Nets, one of my public statements was that I thought, based on statements from scientists, that we had 10 years to forestall serious damage. That was in 1990. Now Gore is saying we have ten years to avert major disasters. I wish I could see his film but we don't have movie theatres up here. I hope to get his book.
But it seems to me, based on this scant input I have & my own experience, that we are all making a mistake to think there is time left to lead normal lives, let alone think in normal ways, when we think of "ten years". When I did my installation at Exit Art, one of my statements was we must make dramatic changes "immediately", first of all in our thinking. I am wondering if even that is too tame a statement.
I am not sure where the line is here between alarmism and reality. I suspect it's pretty thin. Despite what I wrote above, I believe we still have to live in paradoxical double vision- half normal for the sake of our sanity, half in triage. I would appreciate hearing more thoughts from others about how far we must go right now, further on local observations and what measures people are taking in their practice to address the apparent urgency.
This morning I got this from a friend:
June 12, 2006
Polar Bears May Be Turning to Cannibalism
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:16 p.m. ET
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) –
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