ENGAGE
Cultural Connections
We've discussed how Earth's ocean helps regulate our planet's temperature by moving its excess heat in vast currents from where it's hot to where it's not, namely from the equator to the poles.
As we will learn in subsequent segments of this module, this is even more so for the atmosphere. And like the ocean, there is an unfortunate passenger that hitches along with the atmosphere for its cross-country ride - industrial pollution.
Along the way, industrial pollutants end up in the food web, concentrating from the bottom-up as they move poleward. As these dangerous compounds enter the food web, they bio-accumulate each step of the way, concentrating at higher latitudes primarily in the fats of arctic mammals - the blubber of seals and whales among others that arctic people have been consuming to survive for thousands of years.
The fall-out in the Arctic from industrialized societies at lower latitudes are the industrial pollutants released from modern factories. The list includes heavy metals, PCBs and POPs and everything else in between. These dangerous chemicals are rafted toward the poles aboard the ocean and atmospheric currents that carry them from lower to higher latitudes.
It is ironic and tragic that the more densely populated western industrialized societies at lower latitudes that are most responsible for atmospheric pollution have such a detrimental impact on those who live in the sparsely populated, minimally developed arctic regions.
It is doubly ironic that those who are the least culpable for creating pollution and who live closest to the land and subsist most directly from their immediate environment, are most at risk for suffering the effects of industrial pollution.
EXPLORE
Teachers' Domain
Watch these two TD videos that explain the mechanisms that cause the Contaminants in the Arctic Food Chain and the Arctic Haze that threatens the arctic ecosystem and those who live there.
Contaminants in the Arctic Food ChainArctic HazeYouTube
Here's another resource describing research efforts to understand the causes and implications of Arctic pollution is this YouTube video, NASA ARCTAS Mission, produced by NSERCTV -- The National Suborbital Education and Research Center
NASA ARCTAS MissionEXPLAIN
- Why are dangerous pollutants accumulating disproportionately in the Arctic?
- What vectors are responsible for transporting pollutants to the Arctic?
- How does bio-accumulation occur?
- Research the risks of nursing infants in the arctic.
- What are the responsibilities of industrialized societies regarding the impacts of pollution rafted elsewhere?
ENGAGE
Career Connections
Ever adapting, Alaska Natives embrace the use of new technologies to provide food, shelter, safety and transportation in a harsh and demanding environment. This could reasonably be said of all cultures, but the extremes of the Arctic environment and the remoteness of Native villages raises the stakes and brings the use of new technologies into sharper focus.
EXPLORE
Teachers' Domain
Let's take a few minutes to explore a lofty career that is vital across the vast distances of Alaska, Alaska Native Pilots.
Alaska Native PilotsEXPLAIN
- Why is aviation so important in Alaska?
- What are some of the unique perils Alaskan aviators face?
- Describe how Alaska Native pilots merge their traditional knowledge with western science.
- What digital resources would be useful to a bush pilot?
EVALUATE
- What are the proper roles of new digital technologies in the context of Native Ways of Knowing?
