Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic

"Traditionally thought of as the last great unspoiled territory on Earth, the Arctic is in reality home to some of the most contaminated people and animals on the planet. Los Angeles Times environmental reporter Marla Cone traveled across the Far North, from Greenland to the Aleutian Islands, to find out why the Arctic is toxic." What she discovered was shocking: Tons of dangerous chemicals and pesticides from North America, Europe, and Asia are being carried to the Arctic by northbound winds and waves, and amplified in the ocean's food web. As a result, Inuit women who eat seal and whale meat have far higher concentrations of PCBs and mercury in their breast milk than women who live in the most industrialized areas of the world, and they pass these poisons to their infants, leaving them susceptible to disease. Also affected, polar bears near the North Pole are increasingly born with skewed sex hormones and suppressed immune systems. Cone reports with an insider's eye on the dangers of pollution to native peoples and ecosystems, how Arctic cultures are adapting to this pollution, and what solutions will prevent the crisis from getting worse.