Summary of Barry H. Lopez's Arctic Dreams

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 I stood on the frozen ocean 20 miles off Cape Mamen, Mackenzie King Island, and looked at the moon reflected in the sea ice. The sky had no depth because of the fullness of the moon, but stars shone brightly.

#2 The Arctic was seen as an inhospitable place by the Old World, but by the Greeks it was a land of rich lacustrine soils, gentle breezes, and fecund animals. The inhabitants of Hyperborea were thought to be the oldest of the human races and to be comparable with the land itself.

#3 The North Magnetic Pole is located at 77°N 120°W, some 30 miles east of Edmund Walker Island in the southern end of the Findlay Group. The North Geomagnetic Pole, around which the earth’s magnetic field and its magnetosphere are theoretically arranged, lies about 500 miles east of the North Magnetic Pole in northern Greenland.

#4 The sun’s arctic movement is difficult to understand because our thought about it has been fixed for tens of thousands of years. We don’t think in three dimensions, and it is difficult to imagine the sun’s arctic movement because our minds have been trained to understand the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669364214

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Barry Lopez's Arctic Dreams

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I stood on the frozen ocean 20 miles off Cape Mamen, Mackenzie King Island, and looked at the moon reflected in the sea ice. The sky had no depth because of the fullness of the moon, but stars shone brightly.

#2

The Arctic was seen as an inhospitable place by the Old World, but by the Greeks it was a land of rich lacustrine soils, gentle breezes, and fecund animals. The inhabitants of Hyperborea were thought to be the oldest of the human races and to be comparable with the land itself.

#3

The North Magnetic Pole is located at 77°N 120°W, some 30 miles east of Edmund Walker Island in the southern end of the Findlay Group. The North Geomagnetic Pole, around which the earth’s magnetic field and its magnetosphere are theoretically arranged, lies about 500 miles east of the North Magnetic Pole in northern Greenland.

#4

The sun’s arctic movement is difficult to understand because our thought about it has been fixed for tens of thousands of years. We don’t think in three dimensions, and it is difficult to imagine the sun’s arctic movement because our minds have been trained to understand the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.

#5

If you could travel south along the 100th meridian, toward Mexico City, you would notice that the sun’s path is tilted. The tilt becomes more and more pronounced as you walk south. If you stood at the North Pole six months later, on December 21, the winter solstice, the middle of the polar night, you would not see a single star set.

#6

The Arctic is like the desert in that it is open, unobstructed country lit well enough by a full moon to permit travel at night. The winter darkness is only relieved by periods of twilight, which are common in the Arctic.

#7

The North is a completely different world from the South. It is a land of cold, dark winters, and endless, sunlit summers. The land seems to have run out of the stuff of life, and there are few niches for animals to occupy. But there are niches, and they are occupied by animals that are completely and comfortably at home in them.

#8

The soil is a living system that is created by erosion, fracture, and the secretion of organic acids. It is inhabited by hundreds of creatures, from nematodes to mites to springtails. The soil changes in depth and quality as you go north.

#9

The seasons are associated in our minds with the growth of vegetation. Outside of the four primary seasons, we speak of a growing season and a fallow season, when we picture the earth lying dormant. In the middle of an arctic winter, however, there is no feeling of growth.

#10

The growth of trees in the Arctic is constrained by several factors. Lack of light for photosynthesis is one, but warmth is another. Arctic trees need heat to survive, and there is a strong correlation between warmth and closeness to the ground.

#11

The animals and plants of the Arctic must adjust to a seasonal way