A chilling tale of global warming.THE UNITED NATIONS has ventured into children's publishing with a scary story about a small boy who loses a dogsled race because of global warming global warming, the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. . In November the odd little picture book cum policy brief, Tore and the Town on Thin Ice, made the rounds at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Kenya. The night after he loses the race by falling through a weak place in the ice, Tore has a dream in which he sees the Inuit goddess Sedna, who warns him that "rich countries use--and waste--an awful lot of energy. Huge cars. Too many cars instead of efficient trains and buses." The animal kingdom comes out in full force with some nightmarish warnings of its own. A snowy owl snowy owl White or barred brown-and-white typical owl (Nyctea scandiaca, family Strigidae) of the Arctic tundra, sometimes found in Europe, Asia, and North America. Snowy owls are about 2 ft (60 cm) long and have broad wings and a round head without ear tufts. tells Tore winning dogsled races "might not be your top worry" soon, since "some people who hunt for a living are already going hungry because a lot of seals and walruses are heading north." A polar bear polar bear, large white bear, Ursus maritimus, formerly Thalarctos maritimus, of the coasts of arctic North America. Polar bears usually live on drifting pack ice, but sometimes wander long distances inland. moans that he is starving starve v. starved, starv·ing, starves v.intr. 1. To suffer or die from extreme or prolonged lack of food. 2. Informal To be hungry. 3. To suffer from deprivation. , and then--when Tore gets upset--a whale calls to him: "That's the spirit! Get good and angry. You'll need all that energy to make a difference." Tore awakes, furious and full of resolve to build solar panels and to nag his parents about their gasoline gasoline or petrol, light, volatile mixture of hydrocarbons for use in the internal-combustion engine and as an organic solvent, obtained primarily by fractional distillation and "cracking" of petroleum, but also obtained from natural gas, by consumption--the United Nations' idea of a happy ending. |
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