The Arctic at Risk:
A Circumpolar Atlas of Environmental Concerns
The Arctic at Risk:
First indications that the region was not isolated from anthropogenic influence came more than twenty years ago with the discovery of a thick layer of winter air pollution over the Arctic. This haze, which covers a region the size of Africa, is attributed to industrial pollution emanating primarily from central Eurasia, Europe, and, to a lesser extent, eastern North America (Barrie and Bottenheim, 1991; Raatz, 1991; Shaw, 1991). That areas of Eurasia north of 60deg. are highly industrialized still surprises most people, who perceive the Arctic as a vast, white, clean wilderness inhabited by Inuit, polar bears, and whales.
With the ending of the Cold War, we have learned about pollution of the rivers of the former Soviet Union (FSU) by PCBs, DDTs, heavy metals, and viral contaminants. These pollutants contaminate the coastal regions influenced by rivers, and some also may be transported across the Arctic by ocean currents and sea ice. Intentional dumping of nuclear materials in Siberian seas (Yablokov et al., 1993) raises even more disquiet about pollution of the Arctic marine environment.
For years, Scandinavia has been concerned about transboundary pollution. Atmospheric pollutants emanating from the Kola Peninsula in present-day Russia have placed the once-pristine forests of northern Finland, Sweden, and Norway under stress. In response, Scandinavian governments initiated the process that lead to the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS). In 1991, recognizing the unique vulnerability of the Arctic to transboundary environmental pollution, the eight Arctic nations signed the AEPS. The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), established under the AEPS, has a mandate to take inventory of sources, determine transport pathways, and follow contaminants from their sources through the food chain. AMAP is also charged with producing a state-of-the-Arctic environment assessment, due in 1996.
An analysis of the documents produced for AEPS and AMAP convinced us that the magnitude of transboundary pollution and its effects on the ecosystems of the North could be elucidated by constructing maps based on currently available knowledge of contaminant concentrations in the Arctic ecosystem. Funded by the US Department of State and other foundations, we collected publications from numerous research institutions and government agencies working in the central Arctic region and used the data to compile a series of maps. The goals of this project are to illustrate the current distribution of key pollutants, identify significant data gaps, and indicate where monitoring programs are required. As AMAP collects and publishes new information, our understanding of pollutant distribution will change; therefore this presentation should be viewed as work in progress.
The pollutants focused on here--mercury, cadmium, lead, PCBs, DDTs, HCHs (hexachlorocyclohexanes)--are all priority pollutants identified by AMAP that have a fair amount of circumpolar data. However, health and environmental concerns in the Arctic extend beyond these groups of contaminants to encompass hexachlorobenzene (HCB), endrin, chlordane, dieldrin, toxaphene/polychlorinated camphenes (PCCs), dioxins, furans, oil/polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nickel, arsenic, zinc, and radionuclides, among others. For example, according to Muir et al. (in press), toxaphene is the major organochlorine pesticide observed in Canadian lake sediment samples north of 63deg.N.
Selection of species, tissues, and media used in this compilation was based primarily on regional data availability. While we focus here on contaminant levels in water and animal tissues, in order to provide a more complete picture of the environmental burden it would be useful for future studies to include data on contaminant levels in the atmosphere, precipitation (rain and snow), moss, and sediment as high-quality data become available.
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