The Inuit—the little semi-nation of Nunavut—is going to become significantly more valuable in a warming world. Right now Nunavut’s a frozen wasteland. I would love to be the guy with the Nunavut promotion account twenty years from now because I’m going to rechristen the place “the gateway to the hemispheres” and invite celebrities, and cruise ships will be stopping by, and the sign on the dock will say, “Welcome to Nunavut, Gateway to the Hemispheres!” We’ll see all kinds of wild economic activity up there. There will be change, yes. The traditional way of life will fade and be replaced with something else, maybe something zany, but change seems an inevitability of human experience. Really no society on earth, maybe the ones in the Amazon basin are the only exception, has been able to insulate itself from change. We can’t insulate ourselves from it and I doubt the Inuit will ever be able to do that, either.
The Global Warming Denial Progression
- A: Nothing's happening. You're a fool and a communist if you think something is.
- B: OK, somethings happening but it has nothing to do with us, it's sunspots or something.
- C: OK, maybe it's got something to do with us, but we can't try to do anything about it. That might be bad for business. Trust in the market to find a solution.
- D: Heyyyyyy....Maybe we can make some money off of this...
3 comments:
Gregg Easterbrook makes a valid point... but Cliff, you are an evil genius on the order of Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor, and I've always known it. Take advantage of a process that's already happening, dude! Hats off to you, and I eagerly await your first See Nunavut Now ad...
With all due respect, Nunavut is not a frozen wasteland.
With all due respect I was quoting something that appalled me but apparently unsuccesfull in communicating that it appalled me.
To be clear: I think the article is incredibally twisted thinking, grotesque flippancy about incredible environmental and human disruption and a moral incoherance that is disgusting.
Frankly I think the people of Nunavut should be taking the bigest global warming polluters to the world court.
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