Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic
by Cone, Marla

#7875

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Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic: 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. Awarded a major grant by the Pew Charitable Trusts to conduct an exhaustive study of the deteriorating environment of the Arctic (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 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.

Silent Snow is not only a scientific journey, but also a personal one. In Greenland, Cone camped out on the ice with narwhal hunters from the northernmost village on Earth, and grew to crave seal and whale meat, which warmed and nourished her body as temperatures plummeted. On Norway's Svalbard Islands, she stroked the fur of newborn polar bears as they emerged from their dens, bear cubs that were born with high concentrations of toxic chemicals in their systems. Most of all, she learned that survival means walking in the footsteps of the Arctic's native people, and finding our own Inuksuk, an internal compass that will guide us as we decide what environmental legacy we will leave behind.

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Quantity:	No item(s) available
Weight:	0.50 kg
Price:	CDN$ 33.50 (US$ 32.60)

ISBN-10:	080211797X
ISBN-13/EAN:	9780802117977
Author:	Cone, Marla
Publisher:	Grove Press New York
Publication Date:	5/2005
Pages:	246 pages
Size/Dimensions:	9.36 x 6.3 x 0.94 inches
Binding:	Hardcover