The book deals with issues other than these. A book like this can afford to. One of the issues it deals with is the possibility of a racial memory in creatures that allows them to adjust to situations instinctively. The creature that is highlighted is the wolf – which in the ice age prior to the present inter-glacial period, had roamed in packs of one hundred or more in efforts to hunt mammoth and other large creatures. As the book begins, wolves follow the manitou host, a huge herd of Canadian antelope, south as they seek a warmer climate in advance of the cold they sense is coming. The Canadian white man stationed to keep an eye on the area cannot believe what his Canadian Eskimo assistant tells him – that the manitou are moving south. The Eskimo tells him that the wolf is signaling the movement – and the wolf is not wrong.
During the first third of the book, Stovin sees a dead child being slowly cut out of ice near Novosibirsk.
People like me, who often write on issues from an apocalyptic viewpoint, need to keep the following sentences in mind when writing. Indeed, anyone who makes predictions needs to.
An unaccustomed feeling was stealing over him [Stovin]. Mentally, he examined it and found to his surprise that it was shame. The theories of climatic change that he had argued were one thing. That small dead face was another. He knew now, bitterly, that in the past few weeks he had even felt a grim satisfaction that at last he, the controversial Stovin, was being proved right; that eminent contemporaries who had doubted him must now listen attentively to all he had to say. But there was no satisfaction here at Novosibirsk, where a small boy he would never know had reminded him that there was more to being a man than pride in the power of the mind.The movie The Day After Tomorrow, made a quarter century after The Sixth Winter was published, also reflects the era it was made in, the early 21st century; cell phones and computers abound. Data is transmitted instantly from a British oceanographic tracking station in northern England to the United States by e-mail. In this story, the concept of global warming is used to provide the apparent paradox of an oncoming ice age, and the protagonist, a Professor Jack Hall a paleo-climatologist, a person who studies ancient weather patterns, is first seen at a conference in New Delhi where this is being discussed, and where it is snowing. He leaves the conference with a Professor Rapson, an English oceanographer who is an expert on ocean currents. In this story, just as in The Sixth Winter, the climate in New Delhi is remarkably cold and snowy.
Article comments
1 - MAOZ
Hag Same'aH, Ruvy!
I stumbled across something that might speak to you, in the Revava.org forum's discussion titled "Weak Dollar". A link is given there to an article.
I didn't have time just now to go through the entire article. But in skimming through it, it struck me that you might be interested in seeing it.
Kol tuv.
2 - duane
Ruvy, you hint around at your belief that there will be an apocalypse. What is the nature of such an apocalypse as you envision it? Something specific? Natural disaster? War? Disease? What does the aftermath look like? I know you don't know, exactly. I'm asking for your speculation.
Realizing with a certain humility that it is not us who cause the wind to blow and the rain to fall.
Nice turn of phrase. But a bit at odds with the belief that humans can cause or prevent a catastrophic climatic change.
3 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Thanks, MAOZ!!
A great read! Great reference!!
Have some sufganyot (jelly doughnuts) for me!
Hanukkah SameaH!
4 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Duane,
I'll get back to your question in a little while. This is the only computer with internet connection and I promised my wife some time at the computer for an internet version of "Brick Blaster." See you in a bit...
5 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Duane,
The original closing sentence in the essay was:
We would do well to realize that we have not been good stewards of the planet G-d entrusted us with, and seek to do better, hope for the best, and trim our sails to however the wind blows, realizing with a certain humility that it is G-d and not us Who causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall.
The editor, in editing the this piece ever so lightly, edited G-d out....
Be that as it may, the phrase "Who causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall" is lifted from the Standing Prayer, the 'Amidá that I recite and that is recited three times daily.
I'll be back with more later, Duane. You have hit at the fundament of my writing and I may write an entire article based on your question.
In the meantime, thanks for the kind words.
Later,
Reuven
6 - Mike Johnston
Christianity has been waiting for an apocalypse for something like 2000 years now without much in the way of results. Climate change is such a man made event that any apocalypse would be something that we would have to intentionally allow to happen because we have the means to stop it (just not the will).
Science fiction is great because it serves to translate dry, scientific data into a form that the general public can digest. But making it entertaining can often blur reality and fiction.
If we step up to the plate and learn to manage our planet responsibly there will probably never be a climate change apocalypse.
7 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Mike,
Jews had been praying to live in and control Jerusalem for 2,000 years without much of anything for results. Check my screen name again if you're having trouble getting the point.
By the way, we are still praying for the re-building of Jerusalem. Until OUR Temple stands on the Temple Mount and this entire land belongs to ALL of the People of Israel, that rebuilding will not be complete.
In the Tana"kh, the Hebrew Bible, it is written that when G-d blinks His Eye, 1,000 years pass. That verse is part of how our sages came up with a 15 billion year age for the universe.
When you deal with an Entity that is outside of time, you need patience - real patience.
I would counsel a bit more humility on your part. Two thousand years is but two blinks of G-d's Eye.
Re-read, please.
We would do well to realize that we have not been good stewards of the planet G-d entrusted us with, and seek to do better, hope for the best, and trim our sails to however the wind blows, realizing with a certain humility that it is G-d and not us Who causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall.
Shavua Tov - Have a good week.
8 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Duane,
Ruvy, you hint around at your belief that there will be an apocalypse. What is the nature of such an apocalypse as you envision it? Something specific? Natural disaster? War? Disease? What does the aftermath look like? I know you don't know, exactly. I'm asking for your speculation.
Apparently the answer to your question has been rattling around in my head for some weeks and is found at this article in comments #16 and #20.
First of all, though, a small correction in terms. The word "apocalypse" is a Christian term referring to a Christian idea, a final battle between Good and Evil to take place around Har Megiddo (Mt. Megiddo) in Israel. The Greek then messes up the Hebrew and gives you Armageddon, which is the Christian term for the location of this battle, as well as a generic term in English for an apocalyptic battle or confrontation, or in the case of this article, a sudden change in affairs (climate) that causes great upheaval...
The Hebrew term is geulá, meaning Redemption. As mentioned to Irene Wagner, the Redemption can be early, an event caused by massive repentance of Jews and others and a turning away from sin. In this event, the terrors that are prophesied in Biblical Books like Isaiah, Zechariah, Ezekiel, Joel or Jeremiah do not occur, and you go straight to a wonderful world on earth. Or, you get to do it the hard way: the terrors of the coming of the messiah do occur (mishléi hamashíaH in Hebrew) and you get that wonderful world only after lots of blood is shed, and many people die.
Either way, the messiah comes and rights the world, and either way, something like what is in those comments is what I speculate will occur.