outdoors

Our state is not Montana with its broad rivers, or Colorado with its mountains, or Louisiana with its coastal wetlands -- but Minnesota, home to the bluffs and streams of the southeast, farmlands in the west, thousands of lakes and rivers ...

And north woods.

But the Minnesota we have long known is changing and will continue to change, probably at a faster pace than any of us realize.

Climate change is the reason. And we all are contributing to it. How much is an open question. So is the pace at which changes will occur.

But this much is certain: As the Earth continues to warm, Minnesota will -- for the first time in recorded human history -- become a place significantly different than it is today.

Everyone will be affected, not least because the state's economy is largely tied to what we can grow and harvest here, from corn to jack pines.

Minnesotans who participate in outdoor activities will perhaps feel the changes most acutely.

Look around.

Not long ago, opossums were virtually unheard of at 45 degrees north latitude. Now they're commonplace here and even farther north.

Similarly, decades back, raccoons were rarely, if ever, seen on northern Canadian prairies. Now they are. And -- as they do in Minnesota -- they regularly feast on duck eggs.

Consider also white-tailed deer. Never in modern times have Minnesotans seen so many deer. Or killed so many during hunting seasons. Pheasants, too: The state's upland habitat base hasn't significantly expanded in the past decade. But bird numbers and hunter harvests nevertheless have neared modern-day highs.

Climate change has not been as kind to moose. A proliferation of ticks in northern Minnesota might be one reason why moose there appear to be dying off. Recent warm winters also have prevented the freeze-out of some of the state's shallow lakes, ponds and marshes, allowing surviving minnows in those waters to contribute to the further degradation of state wetlands and other important waterfowl habitat.

Short story: Our northern climate -- our bit of paradise -- is at risk.

To amplify the point, the Bell Museum of Natural History on the University of Minnesota campus is featuring an exhibit called "Paradise Lost? Climate Change in the North Woods.''

The exhibit is part of an effort extending through April that the Bell is bringing to the issue of climate change (check out www.bellmuseum.org for programs, dates and other information), keystone of which is "Paradise Lost.''

A caveat here: "Paradise Lost? Climate Change in the North Woods'' was not produced in Minnesota but rather in Wisconsin, at the university in Madison. But no matter. In important respects, Wisconsin's climate is similar to Minnesota's, and the two states share similar pasts -- and probably similar futures.

That said, what's intriguing about "Paradise Lost'' is that it is not just another tiresome scientific report issued by eggheads nodding gravely as they cue slide after slide in a tired PowerPoint demonstration.

Instead, "Paradise Lost'' is the outcome of a gathering in northern Wisconsin in May 2006 of 20 artists, seven scientists and six educators. The intent was for the science-types to tell the artist-types about climate and climate change.

Then the artists -- some photographers, some painters, some poets, among others -- would use their creative talents to show the risks that climate change presents.

So it is that this exhibit at the Bell is different, perhaps, from most. Rather than relay only facts and knowledge about pending climate change, "Paradise Lost'' attempts to remind us, through art, what we have to lose.

One exhibit painting by Joyce Koskenmaki shows a moose fleeing a subtly represented forest fire. "The Moose Running'' is a metaphor, Koskenmaki says, for the effects of global warming on all wild animals.

Similarly, Mary Burns offers a weaving entitled "The Trail of Feathers,'' showing various bird species that might no longer be able to breed in a changed northern country. Among these are redstarts, evening grosbeaks, blackburnian warblers and trumpeter swans.

Loons, also.

Some estimates -- and not extreme ones -- show that by 2080 Wisconsin could enjoy the same climate Arkansas does now.

In that scenario, the mean summer temperature in Madison, Wis. -- now 67 degrees F. -- could rise to 85 degrees F.

Were that to occur, much of what is now commonly referred to as "north woods'' would become oak savannah.

• • •

It can be reasonably said that technology is the counterweight mankind will use to offset the effects -- some good, many not so good -- of climate change.

But if the past is prologue, technology will be deployed only to the degree politics allows it, and politics generally is not a tool of science but of people -- specifically, their hearts and minds.

More effectively than science, art influences these -- hearts and minds -- sometimes by whimsy, others by grandeur, opening both to new ideas.

Doubt it?

Visit the Bell Museum of Natural History between now and April and see for yourself.

Dennis Anderson • danderson@startribune.com