That the I look out at the 400 year old oak tree, and wonder if it will still last another 400 years? Incredibly the terrible ice storm of 1998 did not kill it. With the help of John Watson who runs the McGill University Morgan Arboretum, I have tried to save the tree. He climbed up into the branches, with his son holding his safety line, and he "single handily" cut down the branches that were damaged by the ice. He had his chain saw in one hand and his other hand on his lifeline. Like some modern day Tarzan he swung from branch to branch, cutting dangling branches . The largest branch had jutted out for about 50 feet and when it came down, it was the size of a trunk of a normal tree.

The icestorm was caused by El Nino, thousands of miles away, made me realize that we can not sit isolated, comfortably ignorant of others and of global warming.

Most of the Oak's branches fell into the gully towards the river. I have let nature and bugs take care of this detritus. In the spring following the ice storm, I saw a great crested redheaded woodpecker going at the bugs. There are more birds around since the storm, with all the rotting wood and accompanying bugs, I suppose. The Canadian Geese seem to have had a birth boom, they fly around year round. Is it because the Northern Canadian climes are warmer? Evidently the tundra is melting, releasing methane gas, a green house gas. One of my petroleum geologist friends tells me that the melting of the ice in Hudson bay will allow bulk carrier ships easy access to petroleum drilling up there. Tell that to the starving polar bears, I am sure they are happy to know that.

There are plans to build more hydroelectric dams in Quebec; with California's electrical problems Hydro Quebec sees a silver lining in this. I have not been able to find the paper that was published on how the lands flooded by dams actually produce more pollution, methane gas, than coal burning plants. But if I do it will be small comfort, as everyone believes that water power does not pollute, at least not if it is far away up North. The Cree Indians will be happy to know that.

Today in Bonn, Germany, they are arguing about carbon sinks and such. Right after the 1998 ice storm I remember walking into the University of McGill arranged conference on Violent Weather events, are they increasing? And asking them if they believed in global warming. They said yes, and then I asked, what will happen? And they were honest and said they didn't know. Everyone wants Science to be like Religion with pat answers, like do this and not that and you will go to heaven, or hell. But climate change is not like that. No knows, so the skeptics can say what they want, they may be right or they may be wrong. They see it as a game, one they can make money from. It is not a matter of life or death. I know different, I know that.

What do I know?

In the ice storm I learned what it was like to go from living in a civilized, advanced culture to surviving in an ice age, without having to move from my house. I saw the surprised expressions of people who could no longer use their mobile phones, of people who did 360s on the road in their SUVs, and people who were desperate for warmth, food, comfort. These were my neighbors, my friends. At the same time, other people had light, heat, and could watch their neighbors on TV as they suffered, a few meters away from them. That is when I could see why Global warming is being ignored, if you can ignore your next door neighbor, then you can ignore the billions of people and wild life and plants that will be affected by climate change. As long as you are comfortable.

Now when I see someone in a Sports Utility Vehicle, and some of them are my friends, I think there goes the end of the world. I think about the ice storm and what happened. I changed radically. My world changed, or how I viewed my world. I no longer trusted technology, I no longer felt so self assured, so arrogant. Nature could knock you for a loop if you were not careful. Some say that El Nino was responsible for the ice storm, and other weather disasters in 1998. If that was so, then it made me realize that what happens thousands of miles away, continents away, could affect me and my family and my culture.

For years after the storm I felt pessimistic, I felt as if no one was listening. But then I saw signs that companies were saying that they were seriously looking at the problem of CO2. Now it could all be a "Green wash", smoke and mirrors devised by public relation firms and marketing people to fool everyone. Maybe. California passed stringent laws that have reduced smog in LA, just as London cleaned up it's problems of killer Fogs by reducing the use of coal heating. Could the same be done for Global warming? Or are we all ready too late?

People do not change unless they are forced to, or if they want to change. Green racing was born from the idea that people will not give up their cars, and car manufacturers will not stop producing cars. So how do we reduce CO2 emissions? If there is one thing that binds all people together it is sport, and car racing cuts across all frontiers. So why not have a race that pits cars that use alternative fuels against each other? It seems to be a good idea, to me at least.

Stephen Patrick McDonnell July 2001