Explain:
I recently read a book called Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber. Steingraber, a cancer survivor herself, examines cancer clusters across the country and links them to sources of industrial pollution. The book was an eye opener to me. The connections the author makes helped strengthen my understanding of how decisions made on industrial and national levels affect entire populations that are seemingly unconnected to the source itself. This module showed me that these connections are even more stretched than I had imagined.
I hadn't thought about the global air currents and layers work like currents and layers in the ocean. I experienced a flash of understanding when I read that air masses move from warm to cold areas. This I had understood in local areas to understand weather patterns, but hadn't thought about it on a global level where air moves from the tropics to the temperate areas to the arctic and antarctic regions.
This helped me understand how industrial pollutants, including the POPs discussed on the Contaminants of the Arctic Food Chain, have made their way to disturbing concentrations in the artic, an area so far from the source of the pollution itself.
It troubles me that an area that is so unpopulated, and responsible for so little pollution, experiences more than their fair share of the results. This pattern, unfortunately is not unique to the arctic.
I am not going to discuss the tragedy of the commons right now, but it is an extremely interesting concept that explains why human populations have a pretty terrible track record when it comes to protecting resources in the commons (the history of logging, fishing, trapping fur, mining, climate change, etc.).
Extend:
While I'm not going to spend time on the tragedy of the commons here, I am going to explore the concept with my Alaska Studies class this week. We have been looking at America's early interest in Alaska in the years immediately following the purchase from Russia.
America literally did nothing in Alaska for more than ten years following the purchase. It wasn't until significant gold deposits were discovered that Americans in the lower 48 developed true interest. As miners moved north, life in the North changed. Some of those changes were for the better. Others were for the worse.
It's hard to evaluate the decisions made in the past without a decent understanding of the commons.
Examining the historical impact of these events can help frame a discussion of events happening today. Recent elections in Alaska had three major party candidates advocating for opening ANWR and for building a natural gas pipeline in the name of economic growth. Is it worth it? Are there alternatives to burning fossil fuels and adding the the level of toxic pollutants in the atmosphere?
Evaluate:
I am enjoying taking this course because it brings together two areas of knowledge I have - knowledge gained in my pre-Alaska life, and knowledge gained in my recent Alaska life. Every so often I realize how I have a habit of compartmentalizing those two areas of learning. The connections that arise at random times (like the connection of why pollutants accumulate in the arctic) help integrate my areas of knowledge.
I am wonder whether other people notice this type of learning. The application of learning (past and present) is what I find so valuable that I am taking from this class.
Three Colleagues:
I visited Explore Alaska With Alison. She made a small comment about flash freezing food and it reminded me of an article I'd just read in Wired discussing the very topic (ie - of freezing tissue - the article itself is about preserving human tissue samples for future research). Clarence Birdseye, the man associated with inventing the first viable flash-freezing methods, was inspired by the way Eskimos (the article is no more specific that this) preserved their foods in the arctic - using extremely cold temperatures, ice, and wind.
I also visited Doug's Explore Alaska Blog after receiving the words of high praise from Clay. I was perusing his ring of fire photo tour and couldn't help notice the bicycle propped up in a few shots. Having just completed my first bike tour (Portland to San Francisco) this summer, his photographs reminded me of the one of the best ways to learn about a region I have yet experienced. It also makes you question your sanity when you fear the signs stating that you are leaving the tsunami danger zones (it can only mean one thing - another climb is approaching).
Blog number three for the week: Let's Explore Alaska and Get Connected by Kevin. Reading others' comments made me think about a question one person brought up. He or she mentioned that the wind always seems to be blowing in Barrow. And we have a saying here in Tununak that they only time it's calm is when the wind stops blowing. So with all that movement of air, why is it that pollutant heavy air gets hung up over the arctic? What exactly counts as circulation?
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