| That's no big deal in Hawaii- but Greenland? Now | | | | And after all Christmas really is about SHOPPING! |
| there's another idea for Al Gore. Talk about an | | | | Even when America is attacked and our Twin |
| "Inconvenient Truth", if it be so. But, if the most dire | | | | Towers were destroyed, some of the first words by |
| climate forecasts come true the tourism industry in | | | | WW Bush we're, "get out there and spend". |
| Europe's far north, already feeling the effects of global | | | | The village of 2,000 people, located a three-hour drive |
| warming, may find itself promoting a Santa in shorts | | | | north of Rovaniemi, has already succeeded in |
| and a camel-drawn sleigh. Yuk! | | | | persuading British tour operators to bring planefulls of |
| Each year at the end of autumn, residents, | | | | holiday tourists seeking a winter wonderland to their |
| shopkeepers, travel agencies, reindeer herders and | | | | town. While global warming presents several |
| even politicians in the Finnish Arctic town of Rovaniemi | | | | short-term advantages (lower energy bills, greater |
| -- home to Santa Claus' Village, one of the biggest | | | | agricultural possibilities, a longer summer tourism |
| tourist attractions in Finland -- look to the skies in the | | | | season), the long-term effects are dire for the region's |
| hopes of a snowy winter. | | | | fauna, flora and local population. Reindeer herding, the |
| The past three or four years have been difficult in | | | | traditional activity and main income for the 70,000 |
| Rovaniemi. Each year they attract some 300,000+ | | | | indigenous Sami people spread out across the Arctic, |
| visitors eager to meet the "real Father Christmas. Real | | | | is also at risk. |
| you say? Real! | | | | How will Santa do without back ups? |
| This December, with only a few weeks to go before | | | | Sami Ruismaeki is one of Finland's 7,000 reindeer |
| Christmas, there are only seven-and-a-half inches of | | | | herders whose livelihood has become more and more |
| snow on the ground, just enough for snowmobiles and | | | | precarious. "When it doesn't rain, there are no |
| dog- and reindeer sleighs. But the rivers and lakes, | | | | mushrooms and the reindeer aren't able to build up |
| which normally freeze over in winter and are used to | | | | their body fat before the long winter. Then the lichen |
| take tourists on snowmobile or sleigh rides, have not | | | | disappears under the heavy layers of ice," he said. The |
| turned to ice yet, and that's bad news. | | | | reindeer "have to be fed with grain or hay, and we |
| Tourism generates some 345 million US$'s of direct | | | | have to bring water from home. It's not profitable |
| and indirect revenue in Finnish Lapland, of which about | | | | anymore," he said. |
| 60 percent comes during winter. It is an enormous | | | | We're talking mushrooms and lichen- and global |
| amount of money for the region, hit hard by high | | | | warming? |
| unemployment and the rural exodus to bigger towns. | | | | Beats talking about Santa is shorts! |