The Long and the Short of It - The Changing Arctic Environment: The Arctic Messenger - page 354

Every week or so, the evening news seems to contain an item that drives home the
urgent need for some sort of framework to guide global emissions. By spring 2013, the cli-
mate station on Mauna Loa in Hawaii hit a CO 2 concentration of 400 ppm. (See the 2013
paperin Nature byMonastersky). Theatmosphere hasnotbeenatsuchalevel since atleast
3-5 million years ago. That is a time in the geological past before our species evolved.
With that thought, we can prepare to move on to the last chapter, but first, I want to
come back to our mentor: the Arctic Messenger. After all, the power of so much of this
story comes from what is happening in the Arctic and on the implications to the rest of the
world. Here is a little thought experiment similar to those popular with early twentieth-cen-
tury nuclear physicists. Imagine that the Arctic Messenger has read Jared Diamond. In its
wisdom, it ponders the effectiveness of the reaction of humankind to each of the six envir-
onmental issues we have discussed. What would it conclude on the prospects for a healthy
future for the Arctic and for the whole of humankind?
Here is my guess: It could conclude that in each case of environmental degradation
thathasbeenexamined in this topic,humankindcametoaforkintheroad.Wehadachoice
of going in one direction to a dismal future and in the other to a healthy one. For strato-
spheric ozone depletion and acid rain, the Arctic Messenger could feel quite comfortable
that we have found our way and are heading in the right direction at a reasonable speed.
For POPs, heavy metals and radioactivity, the judgement could be that we have found our
way and are heading in a healthy direction but too slowly. We need to move faster and we
havefartogo.WhatourArcticsagewouldfindutterlymystifyingisourreactiontoclimate
warming - the most serious of all the issues. We are on the track and heading as fast as we
can in a wrong direction. We have our eyes wide open and fully understand the implica-
tions to our children, our environment, our long-term economic well-being and ourselves.
We know that all we have to do is to turn around. But we refuse to do so.
What will the Arctic Messenger conclude from this? Well, the Arctic Council was set
up to address such issues. Will it heed the call for help? This is the topic of the following
epilogue.