Review: Being caribou by Karsten Heuer.

Summary

For eons, female members of the Porcupine caribou herd have made the 2,800-mile journey from their winter feeding grounds to their summer calving grounds. They once roamed borderless wilderness; now they trek from Canada, where they're protected, to the United States, where they are not. What's more, beneath the calving grounds lay vast reserves of oil. Determined to convey both the enormity of the caribous' migration and the delicacy of their habitat, Karsten Heuer and his wife spent their honeymoon following the herd. For five months, they traveled an uncharted course on foot over mountains, through snow, and across frozen rivers, with only three semi-scheduled food drops for support. As with the caribou, Heuer and his wife faced dwindling fat reserves and stalking by ravenous grizzlies and wolves just awakened from hibernation. Both a rousing adventure story and a sober ecological meditation, Being Caribou vividly conveys this magnificent animal's world.

My review

Being caribou is both entertaining and eye-opening. It is the journal of a fabulous adventure in which both Karsten and Leanne are ready to do anything they need to follow the herd to its calving place and back. 

“There are some patterns in the way the caribou migrate, but they can't be predicted, much less mapped, from year to year. Being caribou means not having fixed goals, objectives, or destinations. Our task would be to follow them, move like them, act like them, perhaps even think like them, and see what we learned along the way.”

The journey is sometimes epic, sometimes extremely disappointing (for them), when they lose the herd for instance, but it shows that endurance, resilience, and faith in everything these creatures embody are stronger than any other consideration. Leanne and Karsten are not only studying a herd of porcupine caribou, but they are also showing us the folly of wanting to destroy their habitat to drill oil. This is indeed a very potent ecological manifesto! 

“There is nothing real about an economic system that measures prosperity in dollars and material goods when the real wealth -- clean air, pure water, abundant wildlife, and the freedom to move -- is further compromised with each dollar made.”

“Throughout the process of writing this book, and while Leanne edited and co-directed the award-winning film about the journey, we both wondered whether it was a eulogy we were producing or a successful call to action. Time will tell, I suppose, but unfortunately, time is running out.” 

Never before have we been so close to the sadly famous Amerindian saying:

"When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money."

When will humanity take heed of that warning?