Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic

Traditionally thought of as the last great unpoiled territory on Earth, the Arctic is in reality home to some of the most contaminated people and animals on the planet. Awarded a major grant to conduct an exhaustive study of the deteriorating environment of the Arctic by the Pew Charitable Trusts(the first time Pew has given such a grant to a journalist). "Los Angeles Times environmental reporter Marla Cone traveled across the Arctic, from Greenland to the Aleutian Islands, to find out why the Arctic is toxic. What she discovered was shocking: Tons of dangerous chemicals and pesticides from the United States, 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 cat scal and whale meat have far higher concentrations of PCDs and mercury in their breast milk women who live in the most industrialized areas of the world. and they pass these poisons to their infants.leaving them susceptible to disease. Polar bears near the North Pole are increaseingly born with altered immune system and sex hormones."Silem snowis not only a scientific journey, but a personal one. Whether hunting giant bowhead whales with native Alaskans who are struggling to protect their livelihood, or tracking endangered polar bears in Norway, Cone reports with an insider's eye on the dangers of pollution to native peoples and ecosystems, how Arctic cultutres are adapting to this pollution. and what solutions will prevent the crisis from getting worse.