Polar Opposites
While the news trail is icy (unless your Technorati keywords are any of the following: bird flu BRD espionage Bush innumerate crimes), the Arctic circle is not, and a lot of Germans are reaching for their solar panels. Spiegel checks in with awesome German adventurer (and he knows the score, even though he's not receiving government grants or expeditioning in stripped-down yachts) Arved Fuchs and asks why he's totally freaked about the 'caps:
"The information we are collecting agrees with what all the climate models and satellite data are showing. The Arctic is warming up quickly and the ice is melting incredibly fast... In 2002 experts said the thawing of the Northeast Passage was simply the result of a natural extreme in weather conditions. Today we know that this wasn't an exception. Everywhere on our travels, we have seen melting permafrost. It is a terrible feeling to see how fast the Arctic is changing."
Two interesting points besides the fearful imminence (presence?) of global warming -- and both of them have an American angle. Comparing Fuchs' work to The Day After Tomorrow seems particularly unfair, or loaded. Any time a topic is addressed in a blockbuster film, it is officially jejune. Moreover, it indicates that we don't need to do anything about it, because someone's already looking into it. Films don't cause riots, activism or reform, if they ever did -- they just act as a prophylactic for issues they are treating as plot points. Even a prophetic film like The Siege -- one which today's Hollywood is incapable of, by the way -- tends to get swept aside even after its nightmares come true.
And, of course, there is this:
"It is simply sickening that the USA, which has 5 percent of the global population, emits 25 percent of the world's CO2. And I don't think a change in mentality will happen quickly in the USA -- especially not with the present administration in charge."
Oh schnap! Seems like no news story is safe from the reverse Midas touch of Bush. Where will I go now...