|
|
Article: Icy Northwest Passage feels heat of change // Oil, gas discoveries jar Eskimo lifestyle
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- August 12, 1990
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
|
All along its rugged course, the Northwest Passage, the
legendary polar route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, is
undergoing profound and wrenching change.
Oil drilling, mining, gas exploration, strategic military
operations, tourism, shipping and other industries are steadily
invading the arctic.
"The effect on native populations has been a confusing mix of
benefits and drawbacks, including increased income and in many cases
the drastic alteration of age-old cultures," John Bockstoce writes in
the current National Geographic.
An arctic ethnographer and explorer, Bockstoce is one of the few
seamen to traverse the Northwest Passage. Time and again, ice jammed
between arctic ...