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The coming north
Feb. 23rd, 2004 01:46 pmI'm in a northerly mood today, not just because I went to the Hamburger Bahnhof yesterday to see Berlin North, a show of the work of Scandinavian artists working in Berlin, but also because I read this article in The Observer saying that Britain 'will be Siberian within twenty years.' It's not cranky eco freaks who are saying this, but the Pentagon, which now ranks the risk posed by climate change as greater than that posed by terrorism. The report, commissioned by influential defence adviser Andrew Marshall, continues: 'Major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.' (The reason that global warming will make Britain colder is that Britain is on the same latitude as southern Alaska, but has a much warmer climate thanks to the Gulf Stream, which will be disrupted by the effects of CO2 emissions and the melting polar ice caps.)
So, in the spirit of these coming norths, imaginary and real, idealised and apocalyptic, here's a little tale you can tell your children after the nuclear war. It's called The Female Beaver:
'A young man was coming home from a hunting trip late one winter day. He had been walking through deep snow all day and was very tired, but decided to keep walking until he got back to camp. He walked and walked, but didn't see any of the familiar signs of home. He suddenly realized that he was lost.
It was dark by now, but he kept walking, hoping that he would find the camp of another band. Then, he saw a fire through the trees. There was a camp ahead, next to a lake. He started running toward it, and when he got to the camp, was happy to see people, at last!
The man was greeted by the people. They told him that though they looked like people to him, they were really beavers. He had strayed out of human territory and into beaver land.
The young man was very tired. He looked around at the beavers' camp. He saw a pretty young woman next to one of the houses. Although he knew she was really a beaver, he decided to take her as his wife and to stay in the beaver camp. He lived there all winter long, with his new wife and her relatives.'
Read more...
When People Meet Animals is a page on the Alaska Native Education Kindergarten Unit website. You can learn more about climate change and the Gulf Stream here. I chose the forest picture because it's pretty, but it's worth pointing out that if the Gulf Stream really does switch off, Britain will lose most of its trees.
So, in the spirit of these coming norths, imaginary and real, idealised and apocalyptic, here's a little tale you can tell your children after the nuclear war. It's called The Female Beaver:
'A young man was coming home from a hunting trip late one winter day. He had been walking through deep snow all day and was very tired, but decided to keep walking until he got back to camp. He walked and walked, but didn't see any of the familiar signs of home. He suddenly realized that he was lost.
It was dark by now, but he kept walking, hoping that he would find the camp of another band. Then, he saw a fire through the trees. There was a camp ahead, next to a lake. He started running toward it, and when he got to the camp, was happy to see people, at last!
The man was greeted by the people. They told him that though they looked like people to him, they were really beavers. He had strayed out of human territory and into beaver land.
The young man was very tired. He looked around at the beavers' camp. He saw a pretty young woman next to one of the houses. Although he knew she was really a beaver, he decided to take her as his wife and to stay in the beaver camp. He lived there all winter long, with his new wife and her relatives.'
Read more...
When People Meet Animals is a page on the Alaska Native Education Kindergarten Unit website. You can learn more about climate change and the Gulf Stream here. I chose the forest picture because it's pretty, but it's worth pointing out that if the Gulf Stream really does switch off, Britain will lose most of its trees.