| Description |
ix, 246 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Introduction : a moral compass in a vast, lonely land -- 1. Blowing in the wind : a contaminant's long journey north -- 2. Unexpected poisons : serendipity at the top of the world -- 3. The world's unfortunate laboratory -- 4. Plight of the ice bear : top of the world, top of the food web -- 5. Ties that bind in Greenland -- 6. A fish can't feed a village : Alaska's communal hunts -- 7. Fear is toxic, too : communicating risk to Canada's Inuit -- 8. Into the brains of babes : searching for clues in Faroese children -- 9. Beyond silent spring : a global assault on sex hormones and immune systems -- 10. The Arctic in flux : global conspirators and the whims of climate -- 11. Islands of sudden change : the evolution of the Aleutians -- 12. The diagnosis : scientists write a prescription -- 13. POPs and politics : taking the first step toward a solution -- 14. The chain of evil continues unbroken : the Arctic's new toxic legacies |
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Epilogue : survival of the fittest : walking in the Inuit's footsteps |
| Summary |
"Traditionally thought of as the last great unspoiled territory on Earth, the Arctic is in reality home to some of the most contaminated people and animals on the planet. Los Angeles Times environmental reporter Marla Cone traveled across the Far North, from Greenland to the Aleutian Islands, to find out why the Arctic is toxic." |
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"What she discovered was shocking: Tons of dangerous chemicals and pesticides from North America, Europe, and Asia are being carried to the Arctic by northbound winds and waves, and amplified in the ocean's food web. As a result, Inuit women who eat seal and whale meat have far higher concentrations of PCBs and mercury in their breast milk than women who live in the most industrialized areas of the world, and they pass these poisons to their infants, leaving them susceptible to disease. Also affected, polar bears near the North Pole are increasingly born with skewed sex hormones and suppressed immune systems. Cone reports with an insider's eye on the dangers of pollution to native peoples and ecosystems, how Arctic cultures are adapting to this pollution, and what solutions will prevent the crisis from getting worse."--BOOK JACKET |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-234) and index |
| Subject |
Pollution -- Arctic regions.
|
| LC no. |
2004060707 |
| ISBN |
080211797X |
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