Tip of the iceberg - by KT tunstall

Published on Friday 10 October 2008 20:40

CHARITY Cape Farewell sent an audacious band of musicians to the Arctic last week, hoping to provoke some ecologically inspired songs. Singer KT Tunstall and her husband Luke Bullen joined Jarvis Cocker and Martha Wainwright, among others, as part of the ongoing coalition between scientists and artists on climate change.

Here are her first impressions of her visit to the aptly named Disko Bay area of Greenland…

"I HAVE never stood in a place so removed, or so majestic. Last night at sunset, we reached the northernmost tip of our trip: Ilimanaq. (The 'q' is an amazing sound from deep in a Greenlander's throat.) The mountains flanking each side of the fjord were pure terror; a witch's fingers pointing skywards, her wrists plunging out of a troubled sea the colour of squid-ink; all warnings. You cannot stay here. This place is not for you. But the sunset was a perfect peach melba sundae – so much of a show despite the gnawing cold through your two pairs of gloves.

"Having only seen icebergs in photographs, I have been like an adult seeing snow for the first time. Some are the size of multi-storey car parks, road bridges, fields. They are beautiful and dangerous. They decide to flip over now and then, occasionally crack like gunfire and release yet another chunk of ancient water into the ocean. To be told that seven eighths of their mass is beneath the water takes on a new gravity when you creep up close enough to stroke one in a tiny boat.

"But the evening performance was just as awesome – the northern lights. For years, I have dreamt about seeing the swaying green curtains for myself, and finally there they were. Sharpening, blurring, moving like a cohesive wind. Above them, all the stars I've ever seen; below them, a cloud of phytoplankton disturbed by the ship's propeller, getting down in an oceanic disco; hundreds of tiny bright lights like stars dancing in the Arctic sea.

"We visited a town called Uummannaq, and I swear I felt I could have lived there. It is nestled in a bay and guarded over by a huge, maternal mountain. But could I? Could I ever get used to the 3,000 howling wolf hounds that outnumber the people two to one? Could I learn all the inherited skills needed to live in such a place? Could I learn this language with its sounds that I can't even repeat?

"But most of all, could I watch the ice retreat year after year? Watch Greenlandic ways of life diminish as the dog-sled drivers face continuous disappointment at the lack of sea ice these days? What about the stories, like the level of plastic particles in the Arctic water causing the genital mutation of up to 15% of polar bears, leading to them being unable to procreate?

"Could I stay and ignore it rather than come back home and desperately try to stop it all?

"I am a citizen of a country that needs to drastically change its behaviour towards an increasingly hostile and retaliating environment in order to lead the charge for change."

Visit www.capefarewell.com for more details