Dear Editors
The January 2024 Sci-Am article “Rusting Rivers” is both informative and scary, the scary part being the risk posed by rusting water not just to human and animal life way up north in Alaska but worldwide.
The article forcefully sugggests that this leaching of iron and sulphuric acid is caused by rising temperatures and the thawing of permafrost. It states, too, that local villagers are suffering from the effects of this thawing because of spoiled water, crumbling structures, and so forth. Then quite suddenly, and in a blatant non sequitur, the plight of the native villagers is blamed on a whole host of factors, including devastation of the whales, epidemics and Christianization. “Christianization”? I turn to the cover of the magazine I am reading, and sure enough it says “Scientific American.” Ergo, being Scientific American and not National Inquirer, it must know what it's talking about. And maybe, just maybe, it is privy to a little known ritual involving some devout priest sprinkling “poisoned” blessed water in the local creeks. But if so it would surely tell us instead of leaving us totally mystified as we try our hardest to see the connection between rusted rivers and Christianity.
And incidentally, if global warming is really at the root of this rusting, then Sci-Am would do well to remind itself that the parts of the world that are most responsible for global warming are anything but Christian.
Ermes Culos
(who firmly believes that not even Sci-Am is beyond redemption)
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