Personal Beginnings - The Changing Arctic Environment: The Arctic Messenger - page 7

events over the last 40 years that have contributed to our present knowledge about the Arc-
tic's general health and the Arctic's role as part ofthe global ecosystem. Ihave concentrated
on the physical, chemical and toxicological parts of the story that mark the beginnings of
the environmental and their associated human health problems now coming to pass in the
Arctic. Until the recent advent of climate warming, there was a general perception that
threats to the Arctic environment are largely the result of human activity within the Arc-
tic (such as hydrocarbon exploration and production). This is not the whole story and this
topic will concentrate instead on the insidious impacts experienced in the Arctic resulting
from human activities located at much lower latitudes.
Perhaps an analogy of the Arctic tale as being a theatre tragedy in three acts would
help clarify this. The physical, chemical and toxicological parts of the story are the actors
who star in Act One. In Act Two, they are still present on the stage of life and are progress-
ively eroding the well-being of the marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecology of the Arctic
as well as the cultural survival of its indigenous peoples. In Act Three, we - the audience
- make our entrance. We have been shifting guiltily in our seats throughout Act Two as we
recognize our destructive roles as paymasters to the Act One cast. We also come to realize
that we are also being drawn into an unhappy destiny because the Arctic interacts with the
physical, chemical and biological elements of our own lower-latitude ecosystems. Not only
do we have a moral responsibility to change our ways, but it is also in our own interests to
do so and we will examine the adequacy of our circumpolar and global political responses.
To continue the analogy, this topic deals with Acts One and Three. The wildlife and indi-
genous cultural aspects of Act Two are equally as important, but they are completely out-
side my area of expertise. You will find here the barest Act Two threads necessary to con-
nect the first and last acts. It remains the work of other writers to do justice to the subjects
of Act Two.
If you have been irretrievably lost in my meandering excuses, suffice it to say that
the general framework I have chosen to follow is to describe our growing understanding of
Arctic change, the Arctic environmental interconnections with ecosystems elsewhere and