or signup to continue reading "Where are all the whales?" someone asked on an eerily-warm Arctic morning. The haunting answer was waiting a few hours later on the peak of a primeval rock-strewn island. A large, rusted iron cross gripped by heavy granite boulders stood defiantly on the summit of Ytre Norskaya, one of many islands that comprise Svalbard, an archipelago of serrated mountains and yawning blue-white glaciers halfway between Norway and the North Pole.
No one knows who erected the cross. But it serves as a sentry over a wide bay once filled with so many bloated whale carcasses men used them as stepping stones, walking end to end across the water without getting their feet wet. From the early 1600s Dutch whalers and later, the English, invaded the Arctic in flimsy wooden ships armed with harpoons and ropes to hunt the bowhead whale, famed for its blubber and bone.
Bowheads are prodigiously strong but remarkably sensitive, startling when a bird gently touches the water's surface. One is reported to have dived in such painful fury after being harpooned by the English ship Truelove in 1856 that it plummeted for three minutes before snapping its neck as its head penetrated two metres into the mud of the ocean floor. These waters ran crimson as the bowhead was hunted to near extinction.
Hundreds of ill-clothed sailors also died pursuing them. But the Dutch, instead of burying their men at sea, laid them to rest on Ytre Norskaya. The Arctic, though, is as contemptuous of death as it is of life.
A layer of impenetrable permafrost, hard as titanium, lies beneath the surface. The Dutch could only scrape graves less than a metre deep. It's why boulders, not earth, support the cross on Ytre Norskaya's summit marking centuries of slaughter.
And it's why even the dead are not welcome in Svalbard's cemetery. The threat of dormant pathogens and viruses in corpses as climate change thaws the permafrost has increased. In the capital of Longyearbyen, the dead and those in the final stage of terminal illnesses are flown to mainland Norway.
Without a maternity ward, expectant mothers in their final trimester are also exiled. Bowheads are among the longest-lived mammals. Of the estimated 10,000 that remain, some are more than 200 years old, born in the midst of that frenzied bloodbath.
You wonder if these ancient giants still remember the carnage and if they could ever forgive us. Unlike other whales whose numbers are returning, the bowhead has struggled to recover. Three weeks into an Arctic expedition and each day reminds you that survival here is more demanding than in the most parched desert.
The region is vast but animal life is sparse. It took days to find polar bears, the world's largest land predator. We watched one snuffling through the remains of a walrus carcass on a beach, lifting its head regularly as our scent caught its attention.
Polar bears experience the world through noses hundreds of times more powerful than a bloodhound's. You wonder if they also sense their bleak future as Arctic temperatures rise six times faster than elsewhere because of global warming. We've seen the Arctic perspiring while walking across an ice sheet a kilometre thick, meltwater carving deep crevasses in its surface.
We've heard it grinding its teeth as rumbling glaciers pulverise beds of rock. But for all its brutal malevolence you cannot help but be entranced. There have been no deep north sunsets in months.
Summer has brought lusher valleys and air so clear the world appears in high definition. Pods of walrus with enormous tusks and weary faces belch and grumble like old men waiting impatiently for a second serve at a buffet. Millions of birds - puffins, little auks and Brunnich's guillemots with fake eyes on their tails - squawk and soar above dark cliffs stained white with their guano.
But this light, this extraordinary seeing, is another Arctic illusion because it also creates darkness. Neighbouring Greenland has an extraordinarily high rate of suicide. Researchers say this near-epidemic peaks during the endless summer when the sun's rays can feel like grit in the eye, causing insomnia, irrationality and thoughts of escape.
The science is clear. The top of the world is dying. But it is going out defiantly, just like those bowheads that thrashed and cried at the end of our harpoons.
When it finally vanishes someone will undoubtedly ask "Where has the Arctic gone?" And the answer will be obvious as tepid waters lap ever higher against more rock-strewn islands bearing crosses for the dead. What is the most distant place you have visited? Have you ever experienced a life-changing moment while travelling? Do you believe whales are sentient creatures? Have you made lifestyle changes to reduce your carbon footprint? Email us: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend . : - Former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce will have almost from his $23 million payout as the airline reviews "significant reputational and customer service issues".
The decision comes after Qantas lost a High Court battle over firing ground staff in 2020 and a settlement with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over cancelled flights. - A pay rise for early learning educators is a step towards universal childcare, the Prime Minister says. Early childhood and out-of-school hours staff are in line to receive a 15 per cent pay rise over two years, following a by the federal government.
- Most women were killed by their male partners while and regional women were overrepresented in domestic violence statistics, a landmark report has found. The NSW coroner Teresa O'Sullivan handed down the Domestic Violence Death Review Team report on Thursday, which looked at all domestic violence-context homicides in NSW between July 1, 2000 and June 30, 2022. "We need to be realistic.
There is very little we can do now to stop the ice from disappearing from the North Pole in the summer. We probably cannot prevent the melting of the permafrost and the resulting release of methane. .
.. I fear we may be too late to help the oceans maintain their ability to absorb carbon dioxide.
" - King Charles III When John took aim at our national floral emblem, the wattle, accusing it of triggering his hay fever, the burrow leapt to its defence. "Perhaps he doesn't know that, according to Australian immunologists 'Wattle trees are frequently blamed for early spring allergy symptoms, but tests rarely confirm that wattle pollen is the cause'," writes Suzette, the president of the Wattle Day Association Inc. "Perhaps understandably, because bright flowering wattles are so obvious, many people blame and avoid them repeating the persistent myth that wattle pollen triggers hay fever and asthma.
They are perhaps unaware that wattles produce a relatively small amount of heavy, sticky pollen that is spread by birds and insects. This contrasts to the vast amounts of small, light pollen produced by wind-pollinated trees at this time of year, and grasses later on in the year. It is the pollen from these mostly exotic plants that gets up your nose and into your lungs.
I write this as an asthma sufferer who plants insect-pollinated wattles to create a low-allergy garden around my home. I encourage my fellow allergy sufferers to do the same." Roger writes: "The wattle quandary! In my garden I have huge Cootamundra wattle, maybe 30 metres tall.
As winter progresses I watch this tree with its flowers slowly changing from green to glorious yellow - it's almost there now and I gaze on its beauty in wonder but I know that I will soon pay the price when I start sniffing and wheezing. Every year I think of getting rid of it and every year I think 'maybe next year'." "I think you need to settle down and simply start expecting it to happen," writes Sandra.
"What a waste of a good mind getting grumpy about it. I am another sufferer and didn't know what hit me when I shifted from Sydney to Bendigo 40 years ago. But give me the bush any day compared to car fumes, etc.
Man up, you can do it." Jennifer writes: "Constantly running nose, itchy bloodshot eyes and a foul sinus headache that can last for days, since moving to Canberra from seaside Sydney. Hay fever got worse each year until I discovered the cause.
Scented flowers. All those magnificent smelly spring flowers like jonquils, daffodils, daphne and the strongly scented summer flowers like honeysuckle and roses. I can't bring any of these inside as they set me off, but wattle is fine as it doesn't smell.
I brought wattle in yesterday to celebrate spring and brighten my home. No hay fever until I go outside where smelly flowers abound. Loving the birds, including local magpies who know me to be harmless.
" Karis shares John's fondness for that other spring staple, the much maligned magpie: "Magpies are intelligent. They recognise human individuals, sometimes play games with them, can work out complex structures invented by humans that provide access to food after several manoeuvres, learn how to use traffic to crush seeds for them." "I heard an allergist on radio comment that wattle is unfairly blamed for hay fever as the pollen is quite heavy and therefore doesn't blow about in the wind very much," writes Sue.
"As I had just walked home on a typical windy Canberra day, with small wind powered pebbles pelting my bare legs, I wasn't impressed with his opinion, although I admit there could be other allergies contributing to my non-stop spring/summer sneezing fit. I was in Europe for three sneeze-less months at one stage. We landed in Brisbane on a hot, late summer morning, and had to disembark.
We walked some distance, past wattles and through dust. When I reached the terminal, I was hot, sweaty, my eyes were watering and yes, I was sneezing! I swear the staff member greeting us was grinning when he said, 'Welcome to Australia.'" Garry Linnell is one of Australia’s most experienced journalists.
He has won several awards for his writing, including a Walkley for best feature writing. He writes a weekly column for ACM and the Echidna. Garry Linnell is one of Australia’s most experienced journalists.
He has won several awards for his writing, including a Walkley for best feature writing. He writes a weekly column for ACM and the Echidna. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team.
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