Module 6: Part 1

The Arctic is a wasteland for horrible pollution layovers. It seems to me that the pollution is gravitating to the poles and the Arctic is getting the most of it. The wind is proving to be one of the major factors of this pollution. We are getting the smoke and pollution from faraway cities and is caused by tiny particles. I am so shocked from watching the videos of the after affects of this. Beginning with the contamination of the food sources so many relies on for existence.

This stems from the moms who nourish themselves with the contaminated meat from the top of the food chains to the infants born with the most strangest levels of PSB. It boggles my mind and it really hurts me to know the people who still exist from the land and the land is not being kind to them. Where do we lay the blame? There are parents who truly believe that survival is from the land and the land is not being treated right.

These videos really hit me---and I was saddened by that. I was really affected by the sole existence of the whaling that many northern tribes rely on---from Greenland through Canada to our homeland in Alaska.

How can the industrialized societies help? This is a question much further in their hands than ours. How can they help with pollution? I was very shocked that they travelled to Alaska to compare the levels of air (Alaska supposedly being the most clean) and what disappointment or reality it was to them.


Aviation is very important to the life we live in Alaska. Having been raised on an island I am aware of that vital existence. I have also been a resident in a village on our island with my initial year of teaching. Aviation brought me my groceries and the fuel we needed when the village ran out and the barge was weeks from arrival. Being an Alaskan aviator is also very unique in it’s trade. They also get paid on the jobs/work that they perform so when the weather isn’t great…they don’t fly and therefore don’t get paid.

Being a pilot of native heritage---knowing the lay of the land and the way of the winds is imminent. Native pilots have been trained at the way the weather holds onto the day or days ahead of them. Watching the winds and taking the time to really watch the tides and weather patterns that have been imbedded into them is what they hold as an asset. These are traditional ways of knowing the weather that have been bestowed on them from their elders.

When I viewed the bush pilot video- I immediately thought of my husband. He is a fisherman who watches the weather ---before a trip----and really knows the weather patterns. He also has many digital devices on his vessel to help and aide him in his career. To a bush pilot, I believe it’s important to have the proper gear to help with their manual flight and also their gear use flight. By this I mean---being able to see what is happening and what they can’t see visually but can see with the equipment.

We have seen how times are changing and how the weather patterns are changing. Like I have said before, my husband watches the weather each night and sits and wonders where the patterns are coming from.