The Voice of the ice cap
Portrait of Emmanuel Hussenet, polar guide, arctic specialist, author & editor. Emmanuel dedicated his life to the arctic polar region to help raise awareness of the disappearance of the polar sea-ice and promote a real sense of adventure in our lives.
The portrait is done in black and white, to reflect the whiteness of the pole, with Emmanuel facing and looking at the arctic region in front of him. The eyes are particularly emphasized to draw the attention to his passion for this environment and how much it lights him up.
The following text is from him written like the last will of the Ice:
The Voice of the Icecap
I was far too big and imposing… like a tyrant. It was for you that I stopped growing. But without me you are lost!
Don’t think melting away will make me suffer. I am not made of flesh. Look at how my tears sweep me away and fill up the oceans. Oceans of tears which will drown your houses and your lands. But don’t complain. You have given me so much sorrow.
You have reduced Nature to slavery. You have used your intelligence to create an abstract and distant world, with no place for intuition. You have grown and grown with no regard for anything else. With no respect for the Laws of Nature. You should have used your power wisely. But, instead you have wasted it!
I am God’s shiver.
No, of course you couldn’t grab hold of me! To touch and smell me was to feel the cold of death. But everyone loved me. I only held on to the most clumsy and careless ones. I was a virgin until you came and contaminated the snow.
It is true that I am hard on your body. But by overheating your homes to get rid of me you got it all wrong. This artificial warmth will bring me down in the end …and you with me. Oh, I will be back in a few thousand years, but I will be sad because the Earth will seem so empty. And you will no longer be there.
Because Nature was so weak and docile, you fought over it among yourselves, to grab as much as you could. You thought you were alone in the world. But you were not alone. I was watching over you. But now am I leaving!
Oh, you can laugh if you want! Just be patient a little longer then it’s all yours. You will wear down the poles as you have worn down the tropics and then you will disappear, just like me. But, as I said, unlike you I will disappear without suffering. I will not scream in agony. Just a silent sigh.
You see how much freedom you had. Thanks to your genius the plains, valleys and mountains were transformed into gardens of Eden. You had everything! Grain, horses, gold and all the materials you needed to build with! I only had the cliffs to scrape a living from. A mere pittance!
Nature does not calculate. You invented money for your commerce, but then you decided to put a price on everything. Nature gives without counting. But where was your conscience? Your conscience was the most important thing – your safeguard! What have you done with it? Just the mention of my name filled your ancestors with terror. I kept the world on a balance and held it steady. I held the world in my hand and gripped it tightly!
But now…it is sliding away…
You think that things will be better by holding back a few clouds of gas here and there, while releasing twice as much somewhere else. Who do think you are fooling? I am melting away. You have taken the advice of the technocrats and followed them blindly. You fought among yourselves over who should own the most. And I wanted you to be fair and honest.
I dreamt that you loved me.
I was essential for you. Without me you can’t survive. Did I not warn you? I don’t care about your miserable fears or your tiny projects. I feel no pity. Until you try to live beyond your selfishness, then I don’t care about you. I kill as easily as I grow. I am the hand of eternity weighing down on your heads.
I have allowed to every kind of living species to evolve. I protected them from fire and hardened them with my breath? But then you came along. You betrayed me. Your progress made your walls thicker but did not bring you closer to me. You destroyed everything which I allowed to grow slowly over time. You emptied the tropics of their fortunes and now you are turning your greedy gaze on me. I have nothing against the explorers who came to me. They at least were not afraid. But you, the businessman, the murderer, the vulture ready to scavenge me…what do you think I am going to do?
My lover’s name is Storm. Be wary of his anger when he sees that I am gone!
Soon you will split my tomb in two. The propellers of your ships will cut me up. You hammer metal stakes into me to devour the thick, rotten juices of the earth. Your greasy gases have penetrated their putrid venom into my veins. The only way I can cleanse myself is by leaving this world…which is not mine but yours. I came down to show you the way; now I am going back. Heaven made me. He will decide.
You wanted a better life for your children, but you built them a furnace. I was just as important as the earth and the air. I was the element that created the mountain streams, the water of life. Can you imagine what your children will have to suffer before they die? No, I am not joking. You see I am already in tears!
I was your conscience. Guardian of the miracle of life. When I am gone you will no longer be Man. You will not even be Beast.
You will no longer be!
But I am still here for a few more short years. I am leaving you one last chance. It will only last a minute, so you must not miss it. One minute for me; one or two lifetimes for you. Just enough time to open your eyes. Just enough time to save me. So, stand up and fight! Give now as the Earth has always given to you.
Only then, perhaps, will I return!