Past issues
The Paper in print
RSS feeds
Print edition (PDF)
Email Alerts RSS Feeds
The weather last Saturday was warm enough for a swim — and that’s the problem, said members of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, who protested the summery weather by walking to the water’s edge, bowing their heads in silent protest, and walking away.
On a typical January weekend, of course, the Polar Bear Club, the Arctic Ice Breakers, and several other winter-swimming clubs would have been neck deep in the drink. But with the mercury hitting 71, the bathing beauties went public with their disgust.
“This is ridiculous,” said Tony Nastro, a five-year Polar Bear, who participated in Saturday’s protest and experienced a reverse form of seasonal affective disorder.
“I know a lot of people enjoy warm weather, but somebody had to take a stand and say, ‘This is wrong.’”
Nearby on the sand, two girls frolicked as if it was mid-summer. Nastro just shook his head in disgust and walked away.
An hour later, the Arctic Ice Breakers had its own “non-swim.”
The irony of the warm weather was not lost on club members.
Polar bears, after all, are one of the species that are now considered endangered because of global warming — but clearly, it’s not just the kind in the arctic.
Saturday’s non-swim didn’t raise any money for the world’s imperiled polar bears, but it did put their plight on the weather map.
“This is not about raising money,” said Polar Bear club spokesman George Shea. “It’s about raising awareness. Anyone can raise money, but raising awareness, ah, that’s much more important.”
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper
By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:
You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.
Enlarge this image
Print this story
digg
del.icio.us