The Changing Arctic - The Changing Arctic Environment: The Arctic Messenger - page 10

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Part I The Changing Arctic
When my grandfather was born in 1877, the Arctic environment appeared to be in much the
same condition as it was when our younger son was born exactly 100 years later. Today,
it is known that even in 1877, change was under way and now it is unequivocal that these
changes are beginning to happen much more quickly. We could be utterly amoral and say:
“Well, that's too bad, but not many people live there.” However, even if we had the mor-
al turpitude to sacrifice such a unique ecosystem with its irreplaceable human cultures, we
would be unforgivably ignorant of what these changes mean to the globe as a whole. We are
now beginning to understand the towering import of the role played by the Arctic in moder-
ating the global climate. If the Arctic climate continues to follow its present rate of change
(it is actually exceeding projections), the implications for the rest of the globe are ominous.
The words of John Donne written 400 years ago were never as apt as they are today:
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main …
That is one way of capturing the stark and naked message the Arctic is giving the world.