Read 'n' Seed 6: Final Review of "Silent Snow"

This semester I read the book "Silent Snow" by Marla Cone. This book focused on the many different arctic nations across the globe and the toxic pollutants that the animals and people living there are exposed to. The author spent time traveling to these different countries, such as Greenland, Canada, Norway, Russia, Alaska, and many more. While she was there she spent time living with different Inuit tribes or families, living as they do with sparce resources.  Some of th emajor topics dicussed were the history of and detection of pollutants in the Arctic throughout the 1900's, the specific compounds found in certain countries, the effects on the animals, effects on humans consuming the animals, daily life of inuit tribes, legislations currently trying to control these compunds, the future and new compounds causing new threats, and many more.

three most significant things

I think one of the most significant topics throughout the book was the continued mindset of the Inuit people regarding the issue of the food they eat being contaminated with toxins. They believe that their people have been eating this food for thousands of years and nothing has happened, therefore it must be safe. It is true that their sea diet provides excellent amounts of nutrition. The beluga whale blubber contains highly nutritious dense fat, rather than the animal fat consumed in America. But the diet also contains small traces of harmful toxins, such as mercury. Another significant topic in the book were the actual effects recorded. In a study done on infants through adolescense in a small inuit town, they were checking the affects of mercury on these children from their mothers eating the mercury tainted food while pregnant. The findings were mostly cognitive, hardly any physical, and were relatively minor; such as slightly lower IQ's and reaction time. As far as animals go, they found a couple polar bears with both male and female reproductive organs. However, they were not able to definitively prove that was a cause of pollution. Finally, a significant topic was the last section about what is being done about stopping or slowing the pollution rate. This section focused on new flame retardants used on electronics and furniture that has been found in the Arctic and is highly dangerous. It also outlined manufacturing bans that many countries have signed in an effort to control this dilema.

Why is it important?

The findings discussed in this book are important for everyone. It discusses at length possible future outcomes and affected populations, if the pollution rate to the arctic does not slow down. More close to home, the book talks about the extremely high levels of contaminants in the Washington state area and especially the Great Lakes. Parts of the Great Lakes are more contaminated than Arctic areas.

Recommend?

Because of the reasons in the previous section I would recommend this book for anyone. It addresses key issues across the globe today, but also provides never-before-heard-of (at least by me) descriptions how arctic people go about their lives. To me that was always the most interesting material, what they have to do to hunt, how they prepare food, what kind of technology they have, and what they do for recreation; All good things.