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December 22, 2006
Signs of the Post-Normal Times
by Sylvia S Tognetti
Nobody expects to see bears wide awake and roaming wild in the winter. Apparently, they have stopped hibernating in the mountains of northern Spain. Or osprey in the Scottish Highlands in December (which normally migrate to west Africa), or Red Admiral butterflies, or buff-tailed bumblebees or swallows or blooming Evergreen ivy, ox-eye daisies, primroses and daffodils in Britain, or 240 wildplants and 200 cultivated species flowering in the Netherlands, or for the smew (a diving duck) to stay home for Christmas - in Russia and Scandinavia. Or to find the American breadbasket growing in Canada - which hasn't happened yet - and which might be a double surprise, since, as a commenter to the article pointed out, the topsoil in Canada and Siberia were scraped off during the last ice age. Or, authentic Japanese restaurants in Paris, or Tuscan Villas in Chevy Chase (suburbs of Washington DC), or muddy springs in Silver Spring, or the Spanish Inquisition on Halloween. Or for Henry Kissinger to say "Its time to rock" and then ask Stephen Colbert to "Crank it up." (If you missed Guitarmageddon, i.e., the Colbert Report on Wednesday 12-20-06, watch the whole series of clips from The Shred Down - Stephen went way over the top in this last show of 2006). And if you want to know what this has to do with science and policy, watch Stephen explain politics to a class at the Harvard Institute of Politics.
Nor did anyone expect the Greenland ice cap to melt but, apparently, this also has some unexpected economic benefits. A new microbrewery in Greenland, can now brew beer from "the purest water imaginable" - melted inland ice - but only that which has broken off. As the Greenland Brewhouse website (hat tip: Jeff Masters) explains:
We are very much aware of the global warming, and it is very important to us not to destroy or use the unique inland ice, but only use the ice that have broken off. We are strong supporters of sustainable development, and care for nature and environment - and strong opponents of the industrial pollution !
...Greenland's inland ice is about 3000 metres thick, 2000 kilometres long and 800 kilometres wide. The snow at the bottom fell over 180,000 years ago. Every year about two metres of snow falls over the inland ice and slowly the snow is pressed into ice. The enormous pressure in the centre forces icebergs out into Greenland's many fjords.
Our beer is brewed by hand with great care using the world's purest water. The melted inland ice, which is one of the main ingredients in beer from Greenland Brewhouse, is at least 2,000 years old and therefore completely free from pollution. The small icebergs are specially selected by local fishermen, who tow them to the brewery in Narsaq. Here, the ice is melted to form the unique water that is used in the hand-brewed beers from Greenland Brewhouse.
Orders for it are said to be flooding in but, to find out whether or not trading the ice-cap for pollution-free beer is a good deal, see the next post from Paul Baer, in which he will present an analysis of the actual worth of the ice-cap, which was not considered in the Stern calculations of the costs of climate change. Yes, I know I said this post was coming soon about a month ago but he got side-tracked by the AGU meeting in San Francisco, had to track down a figure he wanted to use, and apply for a job etc. It was worth the wait. We should have it up there before Christmas.
Also coming soon will be reviews and discussion of two new books on science and policy: The The No-Nonsense Guide to Science by Jerry (Jerome) Ravetz, and Interfaces between Science and Society, edited by Ângela Guimarães Pereira, Sofia Guedes Vaz and Yours Truly. This last book is the product of a workshop held in Milan in November 2003, where I went to re-establish contact with those who were my real mentors in graduate school, and present the idea for this blog as a way to create a space for broader discourse on science and policy necessary to address all of these new challenges. ok, so November/December is also a good time to visit relatives in Italy - that is when the olive oil is fresh and green with a pungent heavenly taste of... olives! At least for now... Now its time to "crank it up."
Posted by Sylvia S Tognetti at December 22, 2006 11:32 AM
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