404 



Soviet scientists have indicated that about 70 % of their Arctic 

 coastline has been severely damaged by acid precipitation (figure 4) 

 placing both the native populations and inhabitants of the numerous 

 Russian towns and cities under severe health risks. The source of the 

 acid precipitation is the intense industrialization of eastern Europe 

 and Asia as well as from the Russian Arctic itself. Figure 4 also 

 depicts the path of one pulse of air pollution stemming from eastern 

 Europe and moving 10,000 km northwards across Scandinavia, across 

 the North Pole to Alaska where it swung around and headed 

 eastwards towards Canada. It is thought that the elevated Brooks 

 Range in Alaska serves as a barrier to the long range transport of this 

 Arctic air pollution. However, because of the pathways of the winds, 

 which tend to spiral into the north polar region in winter, a thick lens 

 of haze builds up within the Arctic air mass. Because of 

 meteorological conditions, the haze does not fall out until the spring 

 when the Arctic region warms. However, the exact location of the 

 fallout is not known. It is possible that the bulk of the air pollution 

 falls into the oceans on the periphery of the Arctic air mass where 

 warmer air allows for large scale precipitation (figure 5) (G. Shaw, 

 pers. comm. 1992). If this is the case, then a large portion of the 

 fallout may occur exactly within the prime Arctic fishing grounds 

 (figure 6) where more than 10% of the world's fish are caught 

 annually. 



Figure 7 shows the probability of sea ice moving into and 

 melting in the shaded regions. The sea ice that melts in the Beaufort 

 Sea comes mainly from the east and north. Pollutants carried by 

 winds across the Arctic basin may be dropped on the sea ice, and 

 then transported with the ice when it drifts toward the coast. 

 Particles on and within the ice wiU be released to the surrounding 

 water when the ice floes break up and melt, potentially adding more 

 pollutants to the nearshore areas. 



A future problem developing in the Arctic region is the rising 

 concentration of chlorine monoxide at high levels in the atmosphere 

 (figure 8). Elevated chlorine monoxide level are considered to be a 

 precursor to stratospheric ozone depletion. Should this occur, then a 

 very large population within Europe, native populations and delicate 

 ecosystems in the Arctic would be in danger. 



Figure 9 depicts the serious poUution threat to the Arctic in the 

 form of radioactive fallout, and potential leakage from shallow water 

 dumping of nuclear waste including nuclear reactors and an unknown 

 quantity of containers. To date most of the information suggests that 

 major dumping has taken place during the last forty years in both the 

 Kara and Barents Seas. A close up of the Barents Sea (figure 10) 



