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May 03, 2006
"Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic" by Marla Cone
Who expects the world’s worst toxic contamination to be in the Arctic? No, this isn’t a rhetorical question. In the tradition of “Silent Spring” author Rachel Carson, Cone delivers a whirlwind tour of one of the most perplexing environmental disasters in modern times: the pollution of sparsely populated, isolated Arctic regions by organochlorines (DDT and PCBs) and methyl mercury. Cone explores the global voyage of such toxins as they make their way from southern, industrialized countries by mainly hitchhiking on atmospheric and ocean currents before settling on various rungs of the food chain necessary for the survival of the Inuit and other indigenous peoples. Cone does a fine job sifting through scientific data and interpreting the phenomenon with a layman’s stark curiosity and wonder. She paints a humane, highly personal portrait of families and wildlife whose lives and communities are directly threatened by the contamination. This Arctic dilemma has global implications. And this book shines a much needed light upon its legacies.
ISBN: 080211797X
Renoir, Reference
Posted by jnardine at May 3, 2006 11:24 AM