40378$BRK1


(CALM) network has collected data on long-term changes in ac-
tive-layer thickness. Now, increasing attention is being given to
the decay of organic matter held within the upper layers of perma-
frost and the associated release of carbon and methane. For exam-
ple, the Northern Circumpolar Soil Carbon Database estimates that
1672 billion metric tons of carbon exists in the upper layers of
permafrost. This could produce 6000 billion metric tons of CO2,
or twice the amount of CO2 currently in the atmosphere. In northern
Alaska, the expansion of thaw lakes between 1974 and 2000 in-
creased methane emissions, an even more potent greenhouse gas,
by 58%. The obvious lesson is that the thaw of near-surface perma-
frost will be an important accelerator of global warming in the high
latitudes.

Chapter seven, A Hazy Shade of Winter, discusses the soot,
transported into the Arctic, that results from fire in the boreal forests
and from industrial pollution in northern Eurasia. Some argue that
soot may be the next most important contributor to global warming
after CO2 because it darkens snow and enhances melt. Twelve
papers are discussed by Bjørnœs and Prestrud but the results are
inconclusive; it appears that arctic soot concentrations in the atmo-
sphere and on the snow peaked in the 1960s. They conclude that
the contribution of soot to arctic warming is limited. One wonders
why this topic warranted a separate chapter.

The final two chapters are For Better or for Worse and South-
ern Invasion. They refer, respectively, to human life in the Arctic
(chapter eight) and changes in terrestrial ecosystems (chapter nine).
As such, climate lessons are not really applicable. The chapters
discuss reindeer herding, fish stocks, transportation issues, the
greening of the tundra as seen from space, the northward movement
of the tree line, and the life cycles of lemmings and arctic fox.

The text is not without criticism. For example, the criteria for
paper selection are unclear and the broader literature that gives
appropriate background is sometimes lacking. Some chapters, such
as those on sea ice and thawing permafrost, are far more important
than others. Some chapters exaggerate the ‘lessons’ that can be
learnt and are overly dramatic as regards possible impacts. The
‘Nordic’ component of the Arctic is overemphasized at the expense
of the North American Arctic. Insufficient attention is paid to Ant-
arctica as regards the global climate system.

Almost certainly, this monograph will have a short shelf life;
this is because the text will be quickly overshadowed by newer
research. Nevertheless, it throws light on some major climate-
related concerns of high latitudes. Those interested in polar regions
and global climate change will find this monograph an easy read
that is well illustrated with simple and effective diagrams and pho-
tographs.

HUGH FRENCH

Professor Emeritus, University of Ottawa
10945 Marti Lane
North Saanich, British Columbia V8L 6B3
Canada

CIRCUMPOLAR HEALTH ATLAS. By Senior Editor T. Kue
Young and Associate Editors Rajiv Rawat, Winfried Dall-

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-45.1.154

154 / ARCTIC, ANTARCTIC, AND ALPINE RESEARCH

mann, Susan Chatwood, and Peter Bjerregaard. Toronto,
Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press, 2012. vii, ix
� 190 pp., maps, color and black-and-white illustrations,
bibliography, credits. $75.00 (hardcover). ISBN 978-1-
4426-4456-4.

The Circumpolar Health Atlas is a highly accessible and at-
tractive work. The size and design of the book adds to both its
visual appeal and easy access of information. It is approximately
20 cm high by 25 cm wide and is thus easily handled. At only 190
pages, it is not heavy when it comes to weight, but in terms of
information it is very solid. Upon opening it, one sees two pages
at once, with a useful and eye-catching combination of illustrations
and text. The editors claim to have tried to appeal particularly to
the non-academic reader. By eliminating footnotes and avoiding
jargon it will undoubtedly succeed in this. However, it still manages
to be both scholarly and erudite. It is rare that a work can be of
use to both the academic and general reader. An example of such
a work, complementary to this one, is the ARCTIC HUMAN DEVELOP-
MENT REPORT (Einarsson et al., 2004), and the ATLAS also falls
squarely into this category. In their preface, the editors note that
working on the ATLAS has been a ‘‘labour of love.’’ This is un-
doubtedly the key to the fact that they have succeeded in producing
a book that, in their words, is (they hope) ‘‘not just a scientific
book, but also a work of art!’’

Although the book is called a ‘‘Health Atlas,’’ it is also a
mine of general information concerning the arctic and polar regions.
It is divided into five sections plus a useful bibliography and credits.
The first section is entitled ‘‘The Circumpolar World’’ with four
subsections: (1) Introduction; (2) Lands and Seas; (3) Changing
Climate; and (4) Plants and Animals. This provides a general over-
view of the geography of the Arctic. The second section concerns
‘‘Circumpolar Peoples’’ with chapters on: (1) Cultures and Lan-
guage; (2) Origins and Prehistory; (3) History and Politics; (4)
Population and Settlements; and (5) Society and Economy. This
focuses on the human dimension—the cultures and languages of
the people who inhabit the circumpolar Arctic, as well as their
social and economic conditions. The third through fifth sections
address the main focus of the book. Section three is on ‘‘Health
Status’’ and has chapters on specific diseases and their context.
These are: (1) General Health; (2) Children and Youth; (3) Repro-
ductive Health; (4) Infectious Diseases; (5) Cancer; (6) Cardiovas-
cular Diseases; (7) Diabetes and Obesity; (8) Injuries and Violence;
and (9) Mental Health and Suicide. Section four is on ‘‘Health
Determinants’’ and considers: (1) General Susceptibility; (2) Cold
and Dark; (3) Living Conditions; (4) Environmental Quality; (5)
Nutrition and Physical Activity; and (6) Smoking, Alcohol, and
Substance Use. The fifth and final section, ‘‘Health Systems,’’
considers: (1) Governance and Organization; (2) Financing and
Expenditure; (3) Programs and Services; and (4) Education and
Research.

The aim and focus of the book is stated clearly and concisely
on the first page of the introduction: ‘‘This is an atlas about the
health of the diverse populations who inhabit the circumpolar re-
gions in the northern hemisphere. As an atlas, it uses maps, charts,
tables, and images to describe and explain visually the major health
patterns and related issues’’ (p. 2). On this page also, a number of



basic facts concerning the ‘‘north’’ are given. Thus, for example,
there is an inset table with a glossary of ‘‘northern terms.’’ In
particular, four key terms are explained. These are: Arctic, Polar,
Boreal, and Nordic. These are terms that are in constant use by
those undertaking research in the Arctic. However, the definitions
given here are clear and concise and it is always nice to be reminded
that the word ‘‘Arctic’’ comes from the Greek arktos, for bear,
referring to the constellation Ursa Major. The North Star, or Polaris,
in Ursa Major, is directly above the North Pole. As well as very
clearly laid-out text which gives a number of basic explanations
and definitions of key concepts, these first two pages of the book
also contain a map of the circumpolar world, a picture of the Aurora
Borealis in the night sky, and a picture which illustrates ‘‘finding
north in the night sky.’’

This pattern is followed in the rest of the book and each page
is pleasing to the eye. The numerous maps are excellent, and range
from a fine reproduction of the Gerardus Mercator map of the
Arctic from 1595 (p. 55) to many maps of specific and general
arctic and northerly regions. Mercator’s map is the first printed map
of the northern hemisphere and, for its time, appears astonishingly
accurate. Other illustrations throughout the book are lavish and of
high quality, and cover an extremely wide range of subjects. They
all provide further amplification of the text. Thus, for example, the
section on ‘‘History and Politics’’ describes the Russian conquest
of Siberia in the late 1500s by Yermak Timofeevich who has been
called the ‘‘Christopher Columbus of Russia’’ for his conquest and
annexation of Siberia. As well as providing Russia with Siberia’s
natural resources, this opened the Pacific coast to Russia and led
to the ‘‘discovery’’ of the Bering Strait separating Asia from North
America. The text describing this event is illustrated by an oil
painting by Vasily Ivanovich from 1895 depicting Yermak’s con-
quest of Siberia. Here we are also reminded that in 1867, Czar
Alexander II sold Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million
(p. 59), an example of one of many facts presented in an apposite
manner.

Although focusing on current issues of health, the ATLAS in-
cludes much historical information that provides an excellent per-
spective to present-day concerns. Covering so much ground, how-
ever, it is perhaps inevitable that there will be points that ‘‘experts’’
in a particular field might feel are given only superficial coverage.
Thus, at the beginning of the section on ‘‘History and Politics’’
on page 51, there is some text and a heading entitled ‘‘The Vikings
Cometh.’’ There is also a table (continued on the following pages)
entitled: ‘‘Major historical events in circumpolar countries and their
northern regions’’ with a timeline of events in Greenland, Iceland,
the Faroes, Fennoscandia, and Russia from just before the 10th
century through to the present. Here this reviewer found what might
be termed a tiny item of what may uncharitably be called dross
amongst the general gold of the book.

The Norse settlements in Greenland are here said to have died
out in the 14th to 15th centuries ‘‘with the onset of the Little Ice
Age.’’ This unfortunately sounds a lot like the standard chestnut
regarding the Norse in Greenland: ‘‘It got cold and they died.’’
Continuing on this topic, the text also states, ‘‘The onset of the
Little Ice Age around 1450–1500 likely put tremendous stress on
what was still a medieval European farming-based society.’’ In

BOOK REVIEWS / 155

actual fact the situation was, of course, far more complex (e.g.
Ogilvie et al., 2009). In contrast to this generality, in the table the
oddly precise fact is given that in AD 1001 Leif Ericsson (sic) made
a landfall on Baffin, albeit with a question mark. Nevertheless, this
is a useful table for a very general overview of a history of arctic
exploration. Accompanying the first page of this table there is a
series of excellent photographs showing, for example, what this
reviewer would take to be petroglyphs from Finnmark in Norway,
which have been dated between 4200 BC and AD 200. The caption
says ‘‘pteroglyphs’’ but presumably that is a typographical error
(doubtless the only one in the book). Other photographs show tools
and house remains from a variety of northern cultures, from Early
Dorset to Old Bering Sea. A sixth photograph on this page shows
a view from the reconstructed Norse house at the settlement at
L’Anse aux Meadows on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland.

Although an excellent introduction to the Arctic in general,
the main part of the ATLAS is, of course, concerned with health. It
takes an extremely broad view of the topic and considers not just
obvious aspects such as infectious diseases and mental health but
also the effects of injuries and violence; nutrition and physical
activity; health in the home with regard to the effects of smoking,
drinking and substance abuse; and the quality of the general envi-
ronment, in particular the effects of contaminants in the Arctic.
Residents of arctic regions share many common situations, such
as light summer nights and long, dark, cold winters. In particular,
a cold climatic regime may pose significant health risks for those
who live under it. Cold in itself may aggravate the symptoms of
chronic diseases, and excess winter mortality is a well-reported
phenomenon throughout the world (p. 128). Cold injuries can arise
from the cooling of body tissues, causing frostbite or hypothermia.
A further effect of the cold is the increased prevalence of depressive
symptoms and negative mood states in winter that affect some
people. This is referred to as SAD, or ‘‘Seasonal Affective Dis-
order.’’

Across the circumpolar Arctic, other aspects such as living
conditions and governance vary widely between the nations, and
indeed between different regions. Thus the northern regions in Fen-
noscandia generally score more positively in a variety of health
indicators than the northern regions of North America and Russia.
Also, within each country in Fennoscandia, the ‘‘north-south’’ dis-
parity is less marked. Thus the general health of the Sámi is far
better than indigenous peoples in Alaska, northern Canada, Green-
land, and Arctic Russia (p. 133). The association between socio-
economic status and health has been observed for a long time, but
historical factors also cause great differences between the well-
being of different arctic nations. Exactly what constitutes good
health is complex, but a commonly used indicator in international
comparisons is life expectancy at birth. Also used is the United
Nations Human Development Programme index (HDI). This com-
bines statistical measures of health, education, and the general stan-
dard of living. In 2010, Norway, the United States, Canada, and
Sweden ranked within the top 10, and Iceland, Finland, and Den-
mark within the top 20, while Russia ranked 65th (p. 88).

The CIRCUMPOLAR HEALTH ATLAS is unusual in that it could
sit on one’s coffee table to be dipped into when one felt the need
to gaze at a pleasing arctic image or map, or to be surprised by a



fact that one did not know before. However, it would be equally
at home in a middle or high school, on a college curriculum, and,
not least, on a scholarly bookshelf as a useful reference work. It
is to be recommended for all these possibilities and more.

References Cited
Einarsson, N., Nymand Larsen, J., Nilsson, A., and Young, O. R. (eds.),

2004: Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR). Akureyri: Ste-
fansson Arctic Institute.

Ogilvie, A. E. J., Woollett, J. M., Smiarowski, K., Arneborg, J., Troels-
tra, S., Pálsdóttir, A., and McGovern, T. H., 2009: Seals and sea ice
in medieval Greenland. Journal of the North Atlantic, 2: 60–80.

ASTRID E. J. OGILVIE
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research
University of Colorado
CB 450
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0450
U.S.A.

156 / ARCTIC, ANTARCTIC, AND ALPINE RESEARCH