Jonathan Turk

Author Jon Turk holds a chemistry PhD, but discovered soon after achieving it, that the chemistry lab was not for him – he longed for a life of adventure and wild places.

So instead, he wrote text books and went on adventures, hoping to write adventure books.

With this in mind, he and a Soviet friend planned a three thousand mile kayak trip along the Arctic Rim from Japan to Alaska. While they were along the coast of Kamchatka, a huge storm blew up and forced them to land near the indigenous Koryak village of Vyvenka. The inhabitants believed he had been forced there by Mollynnaut, a elderly woman shaman of the tribe.

Jon and Mollynnaut formed an unusual bond, and Jon returned to the village four more times in later years. On his second trip, Mollynnaut took Jon on an expedition to the other side, where with the help of her raven spiritual guide, he was healed of a pelvic injury suffered in an avalanche.

I enjoyed this view of a fast-fading native culture, which had come to rely on ships and supplies from the Russian Soviet. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Koryaks were left to fend on their own without their traditional means to support themselves as the reindeer had almost disappeared from the land.

The spiritual side of the story was also interesting, but less so. Spiritual growth can come in many forms and the author found both physical healing and emotional acceptance of a later devastating incident. Nevertheless, it is not my path.

I would recommend it to those with an interest in indigenous people and their indigenous shamanic beliefs.… (meer)

Esta revisión se escribió en respuesta a la continua necesidad de libros más cortos para complementar las diversas ediciones de los exitosos textos de ciencias ambientales de tapa dura. Los dos textos comparten la misma estrategia. El enfoque central es la elucidación de principios, no la defensa de políticas políticas específicas. Temas principales, como la relación entre la calidad ambiental y la condición humana, la naturaleza de los problemas ambientales, las incertidumbres en la predicción de las futuras tendencias, la interacción entre las soluciones sociales y técnicas, el papel del sistema legal en la gestión ambiental.… (meer)