Save the Polar Bears
How we can save our planet, our democracy, and ourselves from the transnational threats we face OR How seeing the humanity in animals can help us see it in one another
When I was in about fifth grade or so, my mom showed my siblings and me the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth;” produced by former U.S. VP Al Gore, it warned of the perils of global warming, or as we now call it, climate change.
The documentary profoundly moved me. Upon watching it, my eyes opened. My world opened. One could say I was awokened (in the actual sense of the word). Looking back, I think, perhaps, I realized my life’s purpose that day, and henceforth, my mantra was “save the polar bears!”(1)
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New Information: From what I remember, the documentary begins with Al Gore standing atop a ladder in front of a huge projector, telling a story about a classmate who asked of South America and Africa, “Did they ever fit together?” At that time, neither Gore’s teacher nor the world’s leading scientists seemed to know it, but the two continents had fit together in this huge landmass called Pangea.
My Translation: Humans are still learning about our world and we don’t know everything yet. Those who are brave enough to observe and ask questions and think about it may be rewarded in the future with knowledge or bragging rights or something. In any case, it’s really important to observe and question and care.
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New Information: Actually no, I think the movie begins with Gore cracking a joke about how he is the “former future next President of the United States.”(2) Of course, this led me to the question of how that could be to which my mom explained that Gore ran for president a few years back and that that election was controversial in some way.(3) But anyway, my mom said, this documentary wasn’t really political like that. Gore just cared about the world and the people in it. That’s it. It’s not about politics.
My Translation: It’s entirely about politics. Politicians are public servants who care about people and about fighting for people.(4) They will go out of their way to help our country even when our country doesn’t vote them into office because politics is about changing the world and improving the world.(5) As my mom said, global warming is an issue that extends beyond partisan politics, or at least it should be. Message received.
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New Information: In one particularly heartwrenching scene, the documentary showed a video of a poor, innocent, exhausted polar bear trying to climb up onto a chunk of ice. His natural habitat, the arctic tundra, was melting underneath his feet due to global warming. I watched in horror as the ice broke every time he managed to get a foothold onto it. He fell back into the water again, and again.
He had been swimming for miles trying to find a block of ice on which to rest. He couldn’t make it onto this floating block of ice either; it wasn’t big enough. All around him was only the cold, lonely, desolate arctic ocean. He had nowhere to go. Resting on that ice was his salvation and it was hopelessly out of reach. He probably wouldn’t make it on land, or ice, ever again.
My Translation: I was so upset.(6) Looking back, part of what devastated me so much about this polar bear struggling to get onto the ice was the fact that he (or she or they) was struggling.
He was struggling so hard to get on the ice. That’s all he wanted was to get on the ice. It was at once so reasonable, mundane even, and yet also so high stakes. It was life and death. Moreover, it was we humans who had put him in that impossible scenario. It was our fault. We had to do something. I had to do something.
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New Information: Going on, Gore explained how increased fossil fuel emissions were contributing to this thing called the greenhouse gas effect, whereby these gases, like CO2 and methane (apparently from cow farts), were trapping excess heat from the sun causing our planet’s average temperatures to rise. These rising temperatures would wreak havoc on the planet and its inhabitants at an accelerating pace if we didn’t do something to stop the process.
My Translation: It was a big, monumental problem (and a collective action problem), one that desperately needed solved. How can we (as I was now fully in the “we” camp) get people to care about this issue. How can we take meaningful action to save our planet, and of course our furry friends, the polar bears?(7)
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Reflection: I think so often it’s easier for us to see the humanity in animals than it is for us to see the humanity in one another.(8).
So much of the deranged, violent actions people engage in today are motivated by an innate survival instinct that we all have because we’re all human. I wish we’d remember this when we engage in politics today. We’re all human, and in theory, we’re all on the same side of so many issues. I’ll say more on this in future newsletters.
Side Note: A few upcoming topics for Rough Draft are book reviews of Abundance and Careless People, two books that speak to this moment (my reviews of them are currently in the not-yet-presentable, first-draft stage).
Thanks for reading!
Obligatory disclaimer: all opinions expressed are my own and are not representative of my employer or the U.S. government.
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End Notes
(putting my tangents aside)
1. My mom didn’t know what she’d gotten herself into.
2. I think he also may’ve poked fun at himself for inventing the internet, as some claimed he claimed he did. In other words, Gore had the capacity for self-reflection and for receiving criticism. That was nice.
3. by which I’m sure she meant that he won the popular vote in 2000, yet the Supreme Court handed the presidency to Bush without a full recount and now we’re in two wars, one of which was sold to the American people on faulty claims of WMDs and now the economy is not doing great, like there’s a recession or something…well, in hindsight, I know this all was the situation anyway.
4. at least the Democratic ones are and do. I thought, okay, we can trust Democratic Party leadership— I mean, look at Al Gore, about whom, by the way, I was now agrieved that he was not president since clearly he’s who we need.
5. It’s not about a personal Machiavellian drive towards power. Notably, Gore accepted the results of the election. He took the loss like a man, back when men were men, am I right?
6. I cried. It’s not easy for me to cry, but I cried. I sobbed.
7. whose arctic home we were so carelessly and thoughtlessly destroying.
8. and perhaps even in ourselves. The vegan in me also wants to clarify that in lieu of “humanity” I could also say “sentience” or another non-species-specific term, though humanity is fine by me.