Grinnellians huddle for warmth in the Rosenfield Courtyard watching environmental-themed images projected onto the Ice Wall on Tuesday evening. The Ice Wall was part of "Critical Issues for the Arctic," a Rosenfield symposium, which focused on the effects of global climate change and adaptation in northern communities. The three-day long symposium, sponsored jointly by the Rosenfield and Environmental Studies Programs, featured experts on Arctic issues from the US, Canada and Russia. For more symposium coverage, see page 3.

Ben Brewer

When most people think of issues of global warming and its impact on the arctic, they usual focus on a narrow set of environmental consequences. This week's "Critical Issues for the Arctic" Rosenfield symposium seeks to expose some of the numerous other issues involved.

The approximately 75 people in attendance at Tuesday night's lecture expected to hear about Arctic indigenous peoples. Instead, they were surprised to hear a talk by Jeffrey Chiarenzelli about the dangers of formerly used defense sites, or "FUDS." Chiarenzelli's lecture was bumped up after travel delays prevented the originally scheduled talk on the Arctic's Inuit populations. The talk was part of the past week's Rosenfield Symposium on Arctic issues.

According to Chiarenzelli, a professor of geology at St. Lawrence University, these abandoned facilities create many hazards to both the environment and human and animal lives, including leftover wires, landfills, and a water supply contaminated by PCBs and heavy metals. There are currently around 9,000 FUDS in the United States, and at the present level of government funding they will take over 80 years to restore.

Chiarenzelli's lecture focused on the Gambell and Northeast Cape facilities, which were both built on Alaska's St. Lawrence Island during the Cold War. After walking the audience through the basics of FUDS (with the use of an Elmer Fudd cartoon), Chiarenzelli explained the challenges he has faced in proving environmental hazards posed by the facilities, describing his work with environmental forensics as a "whodunit with chemicals."

The presentation revealed the complexity of an issue--global warming and the corresponding melting of the Arctic ice cap--too often reduced to the extinction of polar bears. While the constant addressing of issues such as global warming at a place like Grinnell seem like preaching to the choir, this week's arctic symposium didn't preach to the choir--it taught the choir a few new songs.

"We just want [them] cleaned up and put back to natural condition," Chiarenzelli said of the FUDS. His words seemed to summarize not only the issues relating to FUDS, but also the major problem of global climate change--that humankind needs to learn to clean up its own mess.