Pen Pal
THE FLAWED NOTION OF A SEPARATE HERE AND THERE Words Matt Roberts
Some ideas appear so straightforward that we simply take them for granted and rarely, if ever, question them. The existence of - and difference between - here and there, and the related terms of now and then, are just a few of those concepts that most of us likely never think about in depth.
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Now, to be clear, I am not about to argue there is no such thing as here or there - that would be ridiculous - they do exist. However, over the course of this article, I will attempt to spin a particular narrative that - perhaps - illustrates how sometimes a distinction between here and there, and now and then, is not quite as simple as it seems and that thinking in this dichotomous way could prevent us from properly addressing urgent future challenges. First of all, I want you to take a look at the two images below, taken from a very interesting article written by Dr. Craig McClain of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. At a glance the image on the left looks like it might be a visualisation of North America under the very worst predicted
effects of climate change. Thankfully however, this is not the case. It is North America - obviously - Only not in some dystopian future, but as it appeared around 100 million years ago at the height of the Cretaceous period. A few things have stayed the same since that time, but the vast majority have changed dramatically. Most obviously in relation to this article, the southern coast of North America no longer cuts right through the middle of the modernday states of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas. Curiously though, the outline of the Cretaceous period coastline is conspicuously apparent on the map to the right, not as a physical feature but as a socio-political feature. A county-level map of US election results in the southern states shows this connection very clearly.
North America 100 million years ago, and - approximately - the same area today showing county-level election results for the 2008 presidential election, source: McClain, 2012
