Aus: Glacier World 4/07:
In diesem Sinne.....The whole world talks about global warming at the moment. The melting of our glaciers, storm disasters, hurricanes of never experienced gale forces and floods cause tremendous damages and even the loss of human lives. Is it our fault? Are the greenhouse gases, spin-off products of our highly technical world, destroying our planet? Or is the global warming phenomenon only a part of a cycle, which works completely without our impact?
Even more important than the question of who or what causes all this, is if it lays in our hands to take actions, that could slow down the process or perhaps even invert it? Or are we completely and utterly at nature’s mercy?
The journal GLACIER WORLD took an interview with the glaciomythologist Doctor G. Cribstone, whose theories and works are very appreciated in scientific community and he found some surprising initial stages for a solution.
GW: Doctor Cribstone, in your new soon to be published work you present a completely new theory concerning the global warming phenomenon and especially the melting of the glaciers. Could you please present your revolutionary ideas in a nutshell?
Cribstone: If you look at the glaciological cycle since the beginning of mankind, you will always find warmer periods ensued with extreme declines of the glaciers and also Pleistocene, where the valleys where covered up again with the again advancing glaciers.
GW: But this would mean that the theory, that the global warming is only a consequence of today’s intensive exploitation of fossil energy sources, is obviously shaken?
Cribstone: Yes, that’s completely right. There were climatic fluctuations even in the Stone Age and all through the history of mankind. I would like to remind you of the finding of “Frozen Fritz” in the Ötztaler Alps [part of the Alps between Austria and Italy]. A hunter of the Stone Age, who died in the high mountains and was mummified by an advancing glacier. And in the 16th century there was a so called “Small Pleistocene” and even last century there was a period of remarkable growing of the glaciers.
GW: So the human kind is not responsible of the global warming?
Cribstone: You could come to this conclusion, but only if you would blind out some sources of the scientific focus.
GW: What do you mean by that?
Cribstone: Well, if you want to understand the global warming phenomenon, you have to regard every source of this special topic, even the ones from former significant climatic changes. In the last years I engaged myself very intensively with European mythology, especially the sagas and legends of the Alpine region provide completely new basic approaches of explanation of climatic phenomenons.
GW: Ok and what exactly does that mean?
Cribstone: Just look at the coherences: Sagas and legends provide you with a pretty compelling protocol of cause and effect of local changes. There are many stories in a couple Alpine regions of former fertile mountain pastures or wealthy villages, which were destroyed and covered by a materializing of an advancing glacier. Of course these processes didn’t happen overnight, as you will often read it in the legends, but like the Deluge, it was a slow process, which still, over a period of years, had some relevant effects on the rural environment of this time.
GW: But where do you see the connection to our global warming?
Cribstone: Well, the sagas prove it, every climatic change to the worse – doesn’t matter if it is the biblical Deluge or the latter “Small Pleistocene” in the Alps – was preceded by human misdemeanor. A typical alpine legend is the tale of so called “Übergossene Alm” [Original Austrian name of the saga; translated approx. „Showered Pasture“]
in Salzburg, an Austrian province. Where there is nowadays a glacier, there was a wealthy pasture with lush grazing. And the “Senner” [Alpine herdsmen and dairymen] lived on the fat of the land, they bathed in milk, they paved their paths with cheese and the “Sennerinnen” [female Alpine herdsman and dairyman] did sexual offence with the farm laborers and the jaegers. But when a poor wayfarer came and asked for food and shelter, they refused with cruel words, after that the fair punishment followed, a thunder storm arose and the complete pasture was covered up with snow and ice.
GW: What would you derive from that legend?
Cribstone: The whole history of mankind is full with such myths and they offer undoubtedly to our nowadays problems. I searched thousands of books and I engaged myself with the sagas of many peoples and I fund compelling coherences, as I said before. After each stage of oversized dissipation and sexual offence followed a cold spell with harsh winters and advancing glaciers. On the contrary the reflection on a humble life with abstemiousness let the temperatures rise again, the glaciers retract and cultivable land sprung up again, where there was ice before.
GW: So you want to say that our morale has influence on our climate?
Cribstone: I think the data speaks for itself.
GW: But if you would apply your theory on the present problem, I mean we’re obviously in a warm period and suffer from the effects of weather phenomenons and increased smelting of the glaciers….. what would that mean?
Cribstone: Morale and climate are in a dynamic balance, dissipations lead to cold spells, exaggerated moral behavior and abstemiousness on the other hand to hot spells…. The connections are significant!
GW: But this would mean….
Cribstone: Yes, you’re on the right track. Undoubtedly the world seams to be too little sinful, the balance between dissipation and abstemiousness is imbalanced. I can’t say if the reasons for our new domesticity are the reviving moral values in some western states, where even the president pleads to act always in gods will. But fact is that it lies in our hand to induce some changing-process.
GW:Thank you for your time and this interesting conversation.
Cribstone: It was a pleasure.
Doctor G. Cribstone studied climate research at Sheldon Jackson College, Alaska and made his PhD in mythology at the University of Colorado – Boulder. He also did some researches in the Alps of Austria and Switzerland. He lives with wife and three children in Anchorage, Alaska and he is member of the Free Church of Christ. Doctor Cribstone currently works on his book “Climate and Morales” where wants to present his revolutionary theory and it is forthcoming in fall.
. Und den Bush möchte ich zumindest nicht einbürgern.
