Not Gone With The Wind

Explain

The atmosphere connects all of Earth's cultures because it is in constant motion and air moves from one area to another. Just like water, air is turbulent. Air is always trying to achieve a perfect balance, but because of gravity and because of the fact that gases can be compressed, lower elevations have higher atmospheric pressure. The temperature, volume, and pressure of air are some of the thermodynamic principles that affect the movement of air in our atmosphere. Jet Streams such as the Sub Tropical and Polar Front are visible in the movement of cloud patterns in this satellite image I saved from Google Earth. In the troposphere, the lowest atmospheric level where all weather occurs, warm air moving over cool air forms cirrus and stratus clouds which indicate a warm front and the formation of cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds indicate cold fronts. These cloud formations help us track air movements around the globe. Computer models developed through western scientific processes are good at showing large scale weather occurrences. Native Alaskan peoples have other ways of knowing about and predicting local weather changes on a smaller scale necessary for fishing, boating and hunting in their specific region or geographical area. Using scientific instruments in conjunction with Native knowledge of local weather patterns is one reason why Native Alaskans can excel at being small aircraft pilots in Alaska.

Extend

The Arctic is far away from any major industry, but weather systems can and do carry particles thousands of miles from their source. It seems fair to expect that since the majority of Alaska is so pristine, unpopulated and unindustrialized, that there would be little or no pollution here. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Everybody lives downstream of someone else, and in the case of Alaska, our air is "downstream" from a lot of industrialized areas. Once contaminants get in the cold Arctic regions, the cold air goes down and stays down for days or weeks. The lack of sunlight in darker seasons also contributes to slowing the movement of air out of the area. Scientists with NASA and other groups are working to find out how pollution gets to the Arctic and what areas it is coming from. Some of the effects of the persistent organic pollutants that have arrived here via the atmosphere have begun to have a big effect on animals and people who consume them as they infiltrate the food chain. The Polar Bear has higher PCB levels than any other Arctic Species. Polar Bears are at the top of the

food chain, and can consume one ton of seal blubber in a year. Stored in the fat supply of the seals are PCB and mercury. Heavy metal and PCB accumulate in fat, so when an animal has been storing toxin in their fat supply and then they begin relying on that fat for energy, the toxin is released into the blood. Animals also easily pass these types of toxins on to their young through their fat-rich milk supply. It would be interesting to see exactly how

high levels would be in polar bear milk for example, but I couldn't find any research on this. I imagine it would be more than difficult to get that type of sample. I did read multiple studies about human breast milk studies that were quite alarming though. Krista Nickerson CNM said in an article on MedScape online that "Researchers have estimated that maternal PCB/dioxin body burden decreases by as much as 20%-70% during 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding. Thus over the course of her childbearing years, a mother will transfer more PCB's to her first child, with decreasing amounts to her subsequent children." She also said that "Consumption of freshwater sports fish conveys a higher level of PCB's in breast milk." Another very interesting article was written by Marla Cone and I believe it was taken from her book Silent Spring: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic. She said, "Perched atop the Arctic Food Chain, the people of the Far North face an impossible choice: abandoning their traditional foods, or ingesting the rest of the world's poisons with every bite." She also told about Greenlandic Inuit who eat traditional foods such as beluga whale. These people were involved in a Canadian study of breast milk contaminant levels. The levels of PCB and mercury were 20-50 times higher in the samples from the Inuit group than from those from the Urban areas of Europe and the U.S. This information presents harrowing choices such as not eating traditional foods, or not breastfeeding. In Marla Cone's article, Inuit rights activist Ingman Egede said, "Our foods do more than nourish our bodies. When many things in our lives are changing, our foods remain the same. They make us feel the same as they have for generations. When I eat Inuit foods, I know who I am."

Evaluate

From the brown Arctic Haze that can be seen hanging over the mountains in this NASA photo to the persistent pollutants that have become a part of the food chain, the atmosphere has brought a lot more than weather to Alaskans. Although most of the state is not connected to the rest of the world by road systems, the atmosphere has connected Native Alaskan cultures with whatever else happens to be blowing in the wind in other parts of the world.