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Andri Snaer Magnason
.
Reykjavik, 1973. A versatile writer, he has dedicated his entire life to environmental activism.
In
On Time and Water
(Salamandra) he addresses climate change from science, poetry, history and mythology.
You say that the absolutely dire facts and figures on climate change have become a kind of buzz that we hardly pay attention to. Why? One of the reasons is that we have been manipulated into believing that the scientific data was not true. At the end of the day, if you go to see several doctors and they agree that you have a very serious illness but there are those who tell you that the doctors' diagnosis is not true, you welcome it with relief, you hope that So be it. And when someone assures that climate change falls within the natural cycle, we want to believe that it is so, we tend to park what our head tells us. But it's not just that, is it? No. Climate change is radically different from anything we have ever experienced.It is something so huge that it cannot even be explained in words, because language has its limitations. If someone had written about the Holocaust in 1930, it would not have the same meaning that the Holocaust has today or that it had in the 1960s, only 30 years after it happened. And now the same thing happens: when someone talks about the acidification of the oceans it is a vague concept, when someone says that the PH of the seas has fallen by 0.3 we do not know how to take it, because the vast majority of us are not oceanographers . But it is a gigantic change, the largest in the last 50 million years. It is so big that we cannot imagine it, because it exceeds our scale. The challenge of my book was precisely that: how to write about something that is greater than language.And to add to that, we don't have much time to understand what climate change means, right? That's how it is. How long did it take us to understand democracy, to understand that we are all equal? It is not something that is learned overnight. How long did it take us to understand women's rights? How long did it take for Copernicus to convince the world that his theory was correct, that it was not the Sun that revolved around the Earth but vice versa? About a hundred years? The problem is that we do not have a hundred years to understand the new reality posed by climate change, if we let a hundred years pass it will be too late and the words "ocean acidification" will be even bigger than the word Holocaust, because they could end all Marine life. Of course,I do not intend to minimize the Holocaust or the suffering of the past, not at all. What I'm trying to say is that climate change is on a completely different scale than anything else humans have ever experienced. Are politicians also responsible for climate change becoming a kind of noise? They talk and talk about it but rarely do anything about it ... Our politicians are democratic leaders, and they also have to take into account the will of the people. And if people do not understand climate change, it is difficult for politicians to take a firm stance on it and make the right decisions. And again, if there is confusion people are manipulable and the confusion increases even more. The coronavirus I think that in that sense it has been an interesting experiment,Because in order to protect ourselves, decisions have had to be made that I believe that normally a democratic society would not have accepted and that have led to the ruin of tourism, cinema, culture, everything ... It has been made for a superior reason, to save lifes. But it also raises a dilemma: Why don't we react in time? Why do we save grandparents now and not save grandchildren before they become grandparents themselves and suffer the consequences of climate change? The coronavirus pandemic has clearly revealed our fragility and how important nature is. Maybe things will change ... I think this pandemic is a great metaphor for our times and that it can become a point of reference. Climate change is getting more and more serious. And young people who haven't been able to go to school for a year,go to the movies or have fun for a year, they will see economics, science and the role of governments very differently than we did ten years ago, when neoliberal ideas were gaining momentum and the only means we had to change the economy it was as consumers, you couldn't make policies about it, or pass laws and regulations, the only thing you could do was consume in the right direction. But this generation I think is going to be much more radical when it comes to eliminating the things that are harmful, because they have already seen a tragedy happen. And there is also something else ... What? At universities today young people in their twenties born around the year 2000 study. Many of them will have a son who will make them grandparents around the year 2070, and that grandson will live until approximately the year 2160. That is,that today's university students will know and love a person who will be alive in the year 2160. Politicians think in terms of four years, companies think of making quarterly profits or one year ahead. My goal with this book is to update our sense of time, to make people understand that a date like 2160 is not so far away and that it is also full of intimacy, because someone very dear to us will live then. Speaking of the passage of time: changes that used to take place over a long time now happen at full speed. Is this the case with climate change? Yes, and we should be concerned. Glaciers are melting faster in the last 100 years than they have in the last 1,000 and even 5,000 years. And the acidification of the oceans is even much more dramatic,a person can see changes during his life that previously occurred in 50 million years; A single person born today can witness greater changes in the oceans not as all their ancestors put together, but ten times those seen throughout human evolution. It is something so immense that it surpasses us. Precisely for this reason, because they are scales that surpass us, is that why in "On Time and Water" you approach climate change through small, personal and intimate stories? I think scientists themselves have a hard time connecting with their data. Data is processed with the head, while stories touch the heart. I try to create a connection between the brain and the heart, I tell the data through stories. And I hope that this connection between the brain and the heart will lead us in another direction.As a writer, it is difficult to pretend to change things, but I make a sincere attempt to do so because I believe that this connection between the brain and the heart is necessary. Scientists themselves know that people understand stories, not data. Of course, I respect the data and use it. But I also use mythology, poetry and my grandparents to try to put soul in what I tell. His grandparents, indeed, are very present in his book. If we all talked with our grandparents about what nature, cities and towns were like 60, 70 years ago, would we be more aware of climate change? Yes. And that the life of the older generation was not always easy, they faced many challenges, especially World War II. But they saved us and built our society, the cities, the infrastructure we have .... The elderly give us perspective, they show us how things that seemed impossible were possible. But I also use my grandfather to connect myself with the grandchildren that I will one day have, I use the past to project myself into the future. The future always seems vague to us because, as it has not yet happened, it does not seem to exist. And why do you also turn to mythology to explain climate change? Mythology has always explained the greatest forces: love, earth, creation, destruction ... That is why it seemed appropriate to use it. Prometheus stole fire from the gods of Mount Olympus, and the gods thought that humans could not control fire. But our fire today is 200 times more powerful than all volcanic eruptions on earth put together. The story is about empires: about trade routes,of alliances, religions, wars, migrations ... Mythology deals with the oceans, mountains, creation, the foundations of the world. Moses parted the waters of the Red Sea so the Israelites could cross it, but I don't think he thought he could raise the world's oceans by one meter. We are shaking the foundations, and that is a mythological situation. And what do we do to avoid this catastrophe? Everything, everything we do really counts, so we have to reach smart goals. The water already knows that it evaporates when it reaches 100º and freezes when it drops below 0º, so if it is at -1º it is freezing and it is enough that the temperature rises just one degree for it to melt, so everything counts. Climate change is a problem caused by us humans, by 50-100 years of human activity,but scientists assure that there are possible ways to solve it. Spain, for example, could run largely on solar energy. You can change the transportation system, you can change agriculture, the waste system, you can change the way you consume, you can change laws and regulations ... When I went to university, people used to say that one had to try to make your dreams come true: buy a private jet, consume at the highest possible level. We did not care about carbon dioxide emissions, because then the problem they caused was not really known. But today's generation of young people has to meet the challenge of climate change, they have to. We must change agriculture, the way it is consumed, we must change fashion, we must find solutions to transport ...Everything has to be rethought and redesigned. And I believe that it will be the young people who will make that change, and who will set the new rules for us. You sound optimistic. But what if those changes are not made? Well then we will die. I am optimistic because I believe that young people will not continue to do what we have done for the last 30 years. I am optimistic because they have access to information. I am optimistic because in that generation there are kids who have taken responsibility for climate change, while politicians acted childishly. I am optimistic because they will not forget what they have already learned. Things have to change, and I think the next 20 years will be very different from the previous 20 years. Does the industry think that it will also understand that changes have to be made? Industries will develop,adapting to the new times, at the same time that we do it. And I think industries that don't adapt will die, whether it's by law, by public reaction, or by activism, someone will shut them down. When I say activism, I am not talking about ecoterrorism, but about a strong and direct activism that will force the closure of those places that are most damaging to the environment. When the coronavirus pandemic ends, we will feel relieved and return to normal life. But the kids will not forget, they will remember the climate challenges and these will become the most important issue.but rather a strong and direct activism that will force the closure of those places that are most damaging to the environment. When the coronavirus pandemic ends, we will feel relieved and return to normal life. But the kids will not forget, they will remember the climate challenges and these will become the most important issue.but rather a strong and direct activism that will force the closure of those places that are most damaging to the environment. When the coronavirus pandemic ends, we will feel relieved and return to normal life. But the kids will not forget, they will remember the climate challenges and these will become the most important issue.
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