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| December 20, 2006 Red Alert by Soren Wuerth The hand-crank flashlight in my stocking
“A creation perfectly evolved to meet its own end.”
~ Cormac McCarthy, The Road.
Fifteen or so showed up for An Inconvenient Truth. I guess it’s a good turnout for a Wednesday movie night in Ketchikan on short notice. “Each time I see it, I see something new,” a man told me afterwards. “I didn’t realize that, in Alaska, the days of winter road travel in the Arctic have decreased from 200 to 50.” A woman turned the conversation to fuel-efficient cars and the bio-fuel alternative. Yes … you can buy your way into a greener paradise. The new eco-magazine Plenty offers a showcase of “green gifts.” It also, incidentally, points out that only 15% of Americans know a lick about global warming. But hey, 66% of us buy organic occasionally and sales grew by 17% in 2005. Individuals making different consumer choices … demand, they say, will see us through. So, another man at the movie said he thought it was funny that, while Al Gore complains about the threat of global warming, he flies everywhere (a poor consumer choice). “Individual initiative won’t make any difference at all,” I shot back. “We need a radical shift in priorities. Global warming is proof that our obsession with progress and growth has failed us, failed our planet.” Maybe it was getting late, or maybe my challenge to the universal assumption of (and I hear this often) “you can’t stop growth” ticked the man off. Whatever, the man stood up quickly and left. For me, the truth I noticed on this viewing had to do with confusion over scientific credibility. Gore pointed out that in a study of 928 peer-reviewed articles on global warming (one-tenth of scientific papers on the subject), zero articles questioned the fundamental assertions that global warming is a fact and that it is human-caused. In a study of media reports on the subject, however, 53 percent sniffed that the crisis is theory. Humans couldn’t do that! We’re too crafty. A few days later we boarded a plane bound for Seattle. We had heard about a storm, but didn’t realize its severity until we got firsthand accounts from locals sitting next to us in an airport diner. Winds ripped trees from the ground, power gone for nearly 1 million customers, long lines in front of gas stations, driving the road like going over a half-foot of rubble. Our hotel was booked, so we ended up staying the night in the airport,“the safest place in town right now,” a ticket agent told us. That night I read Cormac McCarthy’s latest novel, The Road, about a man and his son who wander a post-apocalyptic world of grayness, ash and hunger. Bands of cannibalistic marauders lurk the road for food, slaves or weapons. The world McCarthy gives us is uncomfortable, close and believable. Scientists are finding growing oceanic “dead zones,” more coral reefs are bleached and gone, and, despite what Al Gore says about our success in stopping ozone depletion, the hole over Antarctica broke a new record, according to Harper’s “Findings.” A friend told me he had tears in his eyes as he told his students the world just lost another species of fresh water dolphin. You can buy all the green stuff you want. Go ahead. Thanks to our model of economics, it will all be a gray, dead world someday, the remaining humans coughing blood and eating their own. Forget the head, go after the fingers, and, along the way … … have a Merry Christmas. Soren Wuerth is perhaps Alaska's best known community activist, and is the winner of the Alaska Press Club's 2006 'Best Columnist' award. He resides in an undisclosed location in rural Alaska and can be reached at soren@insurgent49.com. 'Red Alert' appears on insurgent49.com every Wednesday. |
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December 13, 2006 December 6, 2006 November 29, 2006 November 21, 2006 November 10, 2006 November 3, 2006 October 27, 2006 October 20, 2006 October 13, 2006 October 6, 2006 September 29, 2006 September 22, 2006 September 15, 2006 September 8, 2006 September 1, 2006 August 25, 2006 August 18, 2006 August 11, 2006 August 4, 2006 July 28, 2006 July 21, 2006 July 14, 2006 June 30, 2006 June 23, 2006 June 16, 2006 June 9, 2006 June 2, 2006 May 26, 2006 May 12, 2006 May 5, 2006 April 28, 2006 April 21, 2006 April 14, 2006 April 7, 2006 March 31, 2006 March 24, 2006 March 17, 2006 March 3, 2006 February 24, 2006 February 17, 2006 February 10, 2006 February 3, 2006 January 27, 2006 January 20, 2006 January 13, 2006 January 6, 2006 December 30, 2005 December 23, 2005 December 16, 2005 December 10, 2005 December 2, 2005 November 25, 2005 November 18, 2005 November 11, 2005 November 4, 2005 October 28, 2005 October 21, 2005 October 14, 2005 October 7, 2005 September 30, 2005 September 23, 2005 September 16, 2005 September 9, 2005 September 2, 2005 August 26, 2005 August 19, 2005 August 12, 2005 August 5, 2005 July 29, 2005 July 22, 2005 July 15, 2005 July 8, 2005 July 1, 2005 June 24, 2005 June 17, 2005 June 10, 2005 June 3, 2005 May 27, 2005 May 20, 2005 May 13, 2005 May 6, 2005 April 29, 2005 April 21, 2005 |
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Reserved. in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership. |
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