Arlene Blum

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Arlene Blum
Arlene Blum 1977 003.jpg
Arlene Blum at a 1977 fundraiser in Berkeley, CA, for her 1978 climbing expedition
Born (1945-03-01) March 1, 1945 (age 79)
Davenport, Iowa, US
Education Reed College, BA
University of California, Berkeley, PhD
Occupation(s) Mountaineer, writer,
Environmental health scientist
Known forLeading first American and also all-woman ascent of Annapurna
Environmental health research
Notable workAnnapurna: A Woman's Place
Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life
Children1
Website http://www.arleneblum.com

Arlene Blum (born March 1, 1945 [1] ) is an American mountaineer, writer, and environmental health scientist. She is best known for leading the first successful American ascent of Annapurna (I), a climb that was also an all-woman ascent. She led the first all-woman ascent of Denali ("Denali Damsels" expedition), and was the first American woman to attempt Mount Everest. [2] She is Executive Director of the Green Science Policy Institution. [3]

Contents

Early life

Blum was born in Davenport, Iowa, and raised from the age of five on in Chicago by her Orthodox Jewish mother and grandparents. [1] In the early 1960s, she attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Her first climb was in Washington, where she failed to reach the summit of Mount Adams. However, she persevered, climbing throughout her college days. She was rejected from an Afghanistan expedition in 1969, with its leader writing to her, "One woman and nine men would seem to me to be unpleasant high on the open ice, not only in excretory situations but in the easy masculine companionship which is so vital a part of the joy of an expedition." [4] In 1970, she requested to join a high altitude expedition, but was told that she was welcome to come as far as the base camp to "help with the cooking." [4] However, she was able to go climbing as part of her research for her senior thesis, which was on the topic of volcanic gases on Oregon's Mount Hood. Blum was graduated from Reed in 1966 and attended MIT and UC Berkeley, where she earned a PhD in biophysical chemistry in 1971. After graduate school, Blum embarked on what she called the "endless winter" – spending more than a year climbing peaks all over the world. [5]

Major climbs

Blum was part of the first all-woman team to ascend Alaska's Denali in 1970. She was deputy leader for the ascent. [6] She participated in a 1976 expedition up Mount Everest as part of the American Bicentennial Everest Expedition, but did not reach the summit. In 1978, she organized a team of eleven women to climb the tenth highest mountain in the world, Annapurna (I) in Nepal which, until then, had been climbed by only eight people (all men). It was called American Women's Himalayan Expeditions – Annapurna. They raised money for the trip in part by selling T-shirts with the slogan "A woman's place is on top". The first summit team, comprising Vera Komarkova and Irene Miller (now Beardsley) and Sherpas Mingma Tsering and Chewang Ringjing, reached the top at 3:30 p.m. on October 15, 1978. The second summit team, Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz and Vera Watson, died during this climb. After the event, Blum wrote a book about her experience on Annapurna, called Annapurna: A Woman's Place. [7]

She led the first expedition to climb Bhrigupanth in the Indian Himalayas, leading a team of Indian and American women. She then attempted what she called the "Great Himalayan Traverse", a two-thousand-mile journey across the treacherous but beautiful peaks of the Himalayas from Bhutan to India. She crossed the Alps from Yugoslavia to France, bearing her baby Annalise on her back in a backpack. [8]

Science policy work

As a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, in the late 1970s, Blum's research contributed to the regulation of two cancer-causing chemicals used as flame retardants on children's sleepwear. [9] Blum taught at Stanford University, Wellesley College, and the University of California, Berkeley. [10]

After a long hiatus, Blum returned to science and policy work in 2006—when her daughter started college—and her memoir Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life ( ISBN   0156031167) was published. She discovered that the same Tris her research had helped remove from children's pajamas was back in California couches and baby products. [11]

In 2007 Blum co-founded the Green Science Policy Institute (GSP) [12] with the goal of bringing scientific research results into policy decisions to protect human health and the environment from toxic chemicals. As executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute, [13] Blum and her team have led several successful national and international campaigns against the use of toxic chemicals, particularly halogenated flame retardants. [14]

Blum has published articles about science policy in The New York Times , Science magazine, [15] Los Angeles Times , [16] and The Huffington Post . [17]

GSP projects

Writing and awards

Her first book, Annapurna: A Woman's Place was included in Fortune Magazine's 2005 list of "The 75 Smartest Business Books We Know" and chosen by National Geographic Adventure Magazine as one of the 100 top adventure books of all time. Her award-winning memoir, Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life tells the story of how Blum realized improbable dreams among the world's highest mountains, in the chemistry laboratory, and in public policy. [19] Both books show the hardships faced by women in male-dominated fields. [20] [21]

Blum's awards include a Purpose Prize [22] to those over 60 who are solving society's greatest problems, National Women's History Project selection as one of "100 Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet" [23] and a Gold Medal from the Society of Woman Geographers, [24] an honor previously given to only eight other women including Amelia Earhart, Margaret Mead, and Mary Leakey. Breaking Trail received an Honorable Mention from the National Outdoor Book Award in 2005. [25]

Arlene Blum is the founder of the annual Berkeley Himalayan Fair and the Burma Village Assistance Project. She serves on the boards of the Society for the Preservation of Afghan Archeology; ISET, an organization dedicated to solving climate, water and disaster problems in South Asia; and the advisory boards for Project REED which builds libraries in Asia, Environmental Building News, and the Plastic Pollution Coalition. [26]

Blum was the winner of the Sierra Club's Francis P. Farquhar Mountaineering Award for 1982. [27]

On April 7, 2012, the American Alpine Club inducted Blum into its Hall of Mountaineering Excellence at an award ceremony in Golden, Colorado. [28]

Quotes

Personal life

Blum lives and works in Berkeley, California. She has a daughter, Annalise Blum, a 2010 graduate of Stanford University in environmental engineering. In 2017 Annalise earned a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at Tufts University. [31] In March, 2023, Annalise was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science in the U.S. Department of the Interior. [32]

Related Research Articles

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Annapurna is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the 10th highest mountain in the world at 8,091 metres (26,545 ft) above sea level and is well known for the difficulty and danger involved in its ascent.

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References

  1. 1 2 Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life, page 344 Chapter 24
  2. 1 2 Blum, Arlene. Personal Interview. December 5, 2009.
  3. ↑ "Our People - Green Science Policy Institute". greensciencepolicy.org. Retrieved April 26, 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Climb Every Mountain".
  5. ↑ Blum, Arlene. "Endless Winter". Arlene Blum. Retrieved April 26, 2024.
  6. ↑ Osius, Alison (June 27, 2022). "Arlene Blum: What I've Learned". Climbing. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
  7. ↑ Blum, Arlene, Annapurna: A Woman's Place (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1980) ISBN   0-87156-236-7
  8. ↑ "Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life". Arlene Blum. Retrieved April 26, 2024.
  9. ↑ CPSC Bans TRIS-Treated Children's Garments Archived March 20, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ "Arlene Blum". California Museum. May 6, 2024. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  11. ↑ The New York Times: Chemical Suspected in Cancer Is in Baby Products
  12. ↑ Green Science Policy Institute (GSP)
  13. ↑ "Dr. Arlene Blum, Founder & Executive Director, Green Science Policy Institute". North Carolina State University Toxicology Program. November 27, 2023. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
  14. ↑ "Arlene Blum". Harvard School of Public Health: Hoffman Program on Chemicals and Health. July 13, 2015. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
  15. ↑ Blum, Arlene (November 19, 2006). "Chemical Burns". The New York Times. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
  16. ↑ Blum, Arlene (October 17, 2008). "Midnight's legacy". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
  17. ↑ Blum, Arlene (August 16, 2007). "Killer Couch Chemicals". HuffPost. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
  18. ↑ Blum, Arlene. "Our Mission and Goals." Archived April 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Green Science Policy Institute. December 8, 2010
  19. ↑ Blum, Arlene; foreword by Maurice Herzog (1998). Annapurna, a woman's place (20th anniversary ed.). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN   1-57805-022-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ↑ Morris, Holly (October 2, 2005). "'Breaking Trail': Cliff Notes". ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  21. ↑ Cortén, Dick (June 17, 2007). "Out of the lab to the top of the world; Berkeley biophysicist relishes first ascents". Berkeley Graduate Division. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  22. ↑ Purpose Prize
  23. ↑ "Honorees: 2010 National Women's History Month". Women's History Month. National Women's History Project. 2010. Archived from the original on June 24, 2011. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
  24. ↑ Society of Woman Geographers
  25. ↑ Watters, Ron. "2005 Winners of the National Outdoor Book Awards". National Outdoor Book Awards. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  26. ↑ Blum, Arlene. "About Arlene Blum." Arlene Blum. December 8, 2010
  27. ↑ Sierra Club Awards – List by Award
  28. ↑ Osius, Alison (April 11, 2012). "Beautiful minds: Blum, Reichardt, Kendall, Molenaar in Mountaineering Hall of Fame". Rock and Ice. Archived from the original on April 12, 2012. Retrieved April 11, 2012.
  29. 1 2 "Winners and Fellows: Arlene Blum." Encore Careers: The Purpose Prize. December 8, 2010
  30. ↑ Cole, Bryan Gunnar; Whelan, Jon J. (2015). Stink! (documentary). USA: Net Return Entertainment. 30:00 minutes in. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
  31. ↑ "PDF | Characterizing streamflow variability: distributions, trends, and ecological impacts | ID: 7m01bz11n | Tufts Digital Library". dl.tufts.edu. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  32. ↑ "Interior Department Welcomes New Biden-Harris Appointees". www.doi.gov. March 13, 2023. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
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