Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point

by Subhankar Banerjee

"One of the great strengths of  Arctic Voices  is that it shows how Alaska and the Arctic are tied to the places where most of us live. In this impassioned book, Banerjee shows a situation so serious that it has created a movement, where 'voices of resistance are gathering, are getting louder and louder.' May his heartfelt efforts magnify them. The climate changes that are coming have hit soon and hard in the Arctic, and their consequences may be starkest there."–Ian Frazier,  The New York Review of Books A pristine environment of ecological richness and biodiversity. Home to generations of indigenous people for thousands of years. The location of vast quantities of oil, natural gas and coal. Largely uninhabited and long at the margins of global affairs, in the last decade Arctic Alaska has quickly become the most contested land in recent US history. 

World-renowned photographer, writer, and activist Subhankar Banerjee brings together first-person narratives from more than thirty prominent activists, writers, and researchers who address issues of climate change, resource war, and human rights with stunning urgency and groundbreaking research. From Gwich'in activist Sarah James's impassioned appeal, "We Are the Ones Who Have Everything to Lose," during the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen in 2009 to an original piece by acclaimed historian Dan O'Neill about his recent trips to the Yukon Flats fish camps,  Arctic Voices  is a window into a remarkable region.

Other contributors include Seth Kantner, Velma Wallis, Nick Jans, Debbie Miller, Andri Snaer Magnason, George Schaller, George Archibald, Cindy Shogan, and Peter Matthiessen.

Genres: Environment, Nonfiction, Nature, Ecology

560 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding book with wonderful photos and a terrible, tragic story of how the Actic is being destroyed. A reminder of the number of countries in which the Arctic lies, this book - unilike many books about the Arctic = is not about the explorers but about the people who live there now! And the animals, birds, fish currently living there. And the history of the lies and deception as the oll/gas industry and the government try (and often succeed) in taking and harming the land and environment. I especially enjoyed hearing from the eloquent inhabitants who are fighting these interests every day. Ineed this vast land is NOT barren!. Highly recommended.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point is a wake-up call to the dire threats facing the Arctic due to the exploitation of the area’s natural resources. As the world-renowned environmentalist, Subhankar Banerjee, states in his introduction to this lengthy tome: “through [the over 30] stories, in this volume…we talk about big animals, big migrations, big hunting, big land, big rivers, big ocean, and big sky; and also about the big coal, big oil, big warming, big spills, big pollution, big legislations, and big lawsuits. And we talk about small things, too…” It comes as no surprise that Banerjee, who specifically became a US citizen so that he could have a legitimate say regarding conservation issues in the US, has focused this volume largely on Arctic Alaska, although the developing problems and risks described have bearing on the whole of the Arctic, as, indeed, they have on the rest of the world. Other areas in the Arctic that are specifically covered are the Nunavut, Northwell and Yukon Territories in the Canadian Arctic, as well as Siberia, Greenland, Svalband, and Iceland. The text is supplemented by two full-color photo inserts, containing drawings as well as photos, portraying the beauty of this magnificent landscape that was left untarnished by humankind for so many centuries prior to the depredations brought by modern exploitative practices, which are also pictured here.

Arctic Voices, therefore, reflects, in all its somberness, the seriousness of the situation on a global scale, with all its potentially devastating impact relating to both pollution and climate change. But yet there is joy in this work, too, as the native inhabitants of these lands recount their experiences at first hand of living harmoniously with the wildlife that peopled these vast expanses of ice long before any human set foot there. Telling the story of both the people and the organizations that are set on protecting this natural wilderness from commercial greed, Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point exhibits the strength that lies at the core of humankind when the major motivation of our behavior is not mere lust for power and avariciousness.

Indeed, it is the wish of Banerjee that the power of the voices that fill this volume should not only resonate across the miles of physical space involved, but also across the intellectual caverns that so often exist at corporate level. If strength lies in numbers, the wide-ranging nature of the multiplicity of contributors to the volume should be capable of arousing a global consciousness and awareness that there is still sufficient energy and will to activate the policymakers and the governments involved to contribute to the sustainable evolution of this planet, before nature itself rebels, and the very continued existence of mankind itself is threatened. The spirit of this work is exemplary in its brave commitment to maintaining the rightful balance on this Earth of ours—let us all learn, and be moved, by it.
 

[Shimamoto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ho difficoltà a parlarvi di questo tipo di letteratura perché so che, non essendo un libro conosciuto, verrà ignorato o sottovalutato.
Cosa che non dovrebbe succedere, e vi spiego perché. L'Artico, è vero, si trova a centinaia di migliaia di chilometri da noi, ma questa distanza viene colmata dal legame che tutti noi abbiamo con questa regione del mondo. Gli effetti di ogni nostra azione si riflettono nell'Artico con doppia intensità, e capirete che in molti casi le conseguenze sono catastrofiche.
Inquinamento, scioglimento dei ghiacci, ma anche disastri ecologici di piattaforme petrolifere, come il caso Exxon Valdez del 1989. E ancora, perdita culturale e di identità, perdita di biodiversità, di quelle popolazioni che vivono da migliaia e migliaia di anni in quelle terre.
Stiamo sconvolgendo il loro mondo, e nemmeno ce ne rendiamo conto.

"Sarebbe più sano dare a un neonato immondizia piuttosto del latte materno", la frase che più mi ha segnata. La presenza di DDT, mercurio, inquinanti organici persistenti e altro stanno avvelenando i fegati degli animali di cui si nutrono queste persone. I governi non sanno neanche più cosa consigliare: nutrirsi di cibo importato, molto meno nutriente e costoso, o di cibo locale ma avvelenato? Le operazioni di estrazione di petrolio, le trivelle per intenderci, fanno scappare la fauna autoctona, non lasciando più cibo per le popolazioni native. I riversamenti in mare di petrolio non si possono pulire, perché d'estate il ghiaccio si scioglie e in inverno si riforma, rimanendo intrappolato e uccidendo pesci e mammiferi marini.
La caccia alle balene o ai caribou non è solo ricerca di sostentamento, ma fa parte dell'identità dei popoli. Lo sconvolgimento delle attività tradizionali porta a fenomeni sociali come alcolismo, violenza domestica, suicidi e depressione.
Tutto questo accade sotto i nostri occhi ma viene costantemente ignorato. È ora di dire basta.

[Salem · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was published in 2012, and the essays and other content are at least seven years old. That time had passed but not much progress has been made protecting the Arctic makes this a challenging read. But it is also beautiful and compelling, and well worth the time, particularly if you don’t know the north country firsthand.

[AL · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few interesting passages and stories, but it's mostly a boring preachy book about climate change.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of writings by a wide variety of people who care about the arctic and its future.