Northern Exposures: Examining the environmental history of northern contaminants

Northern Canada is not quite the pristine environment � an unspoiled alternative to industrial regions � that people often assume it to be.  Resource development and military facilities have produced countless local sites of toxic contamination.  And over the last sixty years the atmosphere has imported a blend of nasty substances � everything from radioactive fallout to persistent organic pollutants.  These continue to pose multiple challenges: of understanding, cleanup, and, for Aboriginal peoples, the need to respond to the fact that their food, including walrus, seals, and caribou, may contain these contaminants.

I'm part of a small group of environmental historians interested in the history, culture and politics of toxic contaminants in northern Canada.  We're beginning a substantial research project � to be known as "Northern Exposures" � on these contaminants: tracing their historical sources and movements, and how scientists, policy-makers, and northerners have responded over time to their presence.  Our team is led by Arn Keeling of Memorial University, and includes John Sandlos, also of Memorial, Liza Piper of the University of Alberta, Lianne Leddy of Wilfrid Laurier University, and Matt Farish of the University of Toronto.  And we're excited to announce that we've received generous funding for the next five years from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

In my part of the project I'll be examining the science and politics of transboundary contaminants, tracing the historical formation of scientific knowledge and policy relating to the movement of contaminants into the circumpolar north.  I'm especially interested in understanding the implications of mobility in environmental history: of substances, knowledge, and power.  And I'm looking forward to five years of collaboration with a group of outstanding scholars!