The North Pole
- Location: NY - 10524
- Marching Since: May 9, 2006
- Impact: 2 marchers
"As I'm marveling at this frozen floating icescape, I am struck by the idea that later in this century the Arctic Ocean could well be uncloaked in the summer, no longer crusted in ice but instead mainly open water, as wave-tossed and blue as the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.... Humans have always changed their environment, damming streams, planting crops, fencing pastures, netting fish. Much progress has happened this way. But in this century most climate experts have concluded that we are no longer just acting locally. In raising the capacity of the atmosphere to hold in the sun's energy, we have gone global. As so many writers and thinkers have said, with power comes responsibility. Now, whether we like it or not, people are becoming responsible for the shape of things to come on earth. We are somewhat like a student driver, learning the rules as we roll along."
From The North Pole Was Here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World. Copyright (c) 2006 by The New York Times. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
This illustrated volume by Andrew C. Revkin, environment reporter for The New York Times,is the first book on global and Arctic climate change written for the whole family. (Kingfisher, April 2006)
For more information: www.nytimes.com/learning/globalwarming
