Two of the concerns that represent areas where we might have some leverage in our up-coming negotiations with ‘Trump Country’ are also essential factors in Canada’s crucial decarbonization program. These are Arctic security and energy security – areas in which we are already behind schedule in targets pertaining to the 2015 Paris agreement.
Climate change is
causing greater and more rapid temperature increases in the Arctic. The reason is simple. Ice and snow are
white and therefore reflect a lot of the incoming sunlight. After an initial
warming and melting of the snow and ice, the white surface gets replaced with a
darker surface of the open ocean, which absorbs more sunlight, thus leading to
additional local warming.
Parts of the coastline are ice-free for
longer periods and the ‘Northwest Passage’ is navigable for several weeks very
year. This could enable the shipment of supplies which now must be flown in,
lowering the now-horrendous cost of food, but also makes the mineral-rich area
more vulnerable.
Compounding all the climate-related
problems in the Arctic is the fact that per person carbon emissions are much
higher there because of the widespread use of fossil fuels for heating and
generation of electricity.
A network of small modular nuclear reactors
would solve a lot of problems.
