The European Environment Agency suggests at least 10,000 premature deaths can be connected to noise exposure each year.
In a world where noise pollutes so much of our lives – at times as toxic as fumes – silence is something to cherish. And when all that abates, there is sheer nothingness – known as Arctic Silence.
Three hundred years ago, philosopher George Berkeley posed the question: “If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?” Academics have debated it ever since – and alone, high above the Arctic Circle, knee-deep in snow on the remote Norwegian island of Vengsoy, I asked myself the same thing.Īs clearly defined as its serrated mountain ridges and tapering fjords, this part of the world has a distinctive sonic landscape: snowflakes crunching underfoot wind whistling through pine needles icicles melting with the hypnotic plod of a metronome.
