10 January 2007

Go North!

The European Environment Agency came out with a report today detailing some of the cultural changes that will occur because of climate change. Tourism could be affected in the Med; more people will die in Southern Europe because of heat (but fewer in Northern Europe because of cold). We could be eating different types of fish. As usual the Independent is out front, putting the story on their front page, but also as usual their tone is alarmist and generally lacking in solutions. The Indy is becoming a strange beast, an environmental tabloid.
I rarely buy a paper these days (I read online or at the office) but I picked up the Sunday Observer over the weekend (well actually Rachel bought the thing, I picked it up when she got home). Interesting article here about Haparanda-Tornio in Sweden/Finland, and how global warming and an international flavour might make it a really nice place to hang out. But here it seems to me that the economics are a bit fuzzy. Ikeas are everywhere, and the fact that 'firms carrying goods from China to Europe will send their ships through the ice-free North East Passage' won't make the place rich. If busy ports equalled cultural and economic power, Grimsby would be the capital of the United Kingdom.

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