UPDATED.
An Inuit elder speaks
Recorded in a tent during a rainstorm
by Cien Fuegos in July, 2007
in the Valley of the Ancients on Greenland.
When I first heard his voice in 2007 I wished I could move radio stations to play this recording every day to show that voices like his can reach us and inspire us to recognize our common future. But even though there is enough water bound up in the melting Greenland ice sheet to raise sea level by 21 feet and drown the cities of London and New York this program had very limited distribution. That’s why I decided to play his appeal again – two years later as the Inuit of the circumpolar regions appeal to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. They want the world to pay attention to the one region of the world where climate change is the most rapid and has accelerated since Ithluk spoke.
In 2008, one year after he was recorded, Greenland had the greatest ice losses ever, three times the amount that Ithluk had observed. That may mean that Greenland has reached the tipping point. Jason Box, associate professor of geography at Ohio State’s Byrd Polar Research Center, said after the 2008 numbers were compiled QUOTE “We now know that the climate doesn’t have to warm any more for Greenland to continue losing ice,” Box said. “It has probably passed the point where it could maintain the mass of ice that we remember.” That loss of ice translates into global sea level rises of potentially up to 6 feet by 2100.
For a broadcast quality mp3 version click HERE >
code A304/306CD: >To receive Ithluk’s speech as bonus track on the recording of Dr. Thompson on abrupt climate change click here $10.00
