northwest passage: climate change and the arctic

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The Northwest Passage — Climate Change and the Arctic

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A short essay on the growing climate change problem and how it affects the Canadian arctic.This essay was written for a 2000-level Environmental History course available at Acadia University.Copyright (C) 2007 David TrenholmAll Rights Reserved

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Page 1: Northwest Passage: Climate Change and the Arctic

The Northwest Passage — Climate Change and the Arctic

Page 2: Northwest Passage: Climate Change and the Arctic

For decades now Earth’s scientists have been concerned over the prospect of

climate change, and the consequences it spells for the future of the planet. As time passes,

more and more data becomes available, solidifying the argument that global warming is a

natural phenomenon1, yet exacerbated and made worse by the actions of the human race.

Such an argument is the subject of heated controversy, catapulting the world into endless

debate over the credibility of this allegation. Just like a Crown prosecutor must submit his

case before a jury, and convince them of the facts beyond any reasonable doubt, the bulk

of the scientific community have been eagerly and anxiously gathering and submitting

data in an effort to further unravel the facts on global warming. The jury—composed in

this metaphor of Earth’s population—must be completely convinced that climate change

is a man-made problem, that must be solved with decisive man-made solutions, before

real solid action can be compelled. Reactions to these arguments have been varied,

however, with the largest disappointment lying at the feet of the world’s most powerful

governments, namely the United States. The U.S. should not bear the brunt of this blame,

however; many world governments, including Canada, have made it difficult to deal with

the issue of climate change. An example of this would be the recent news surrounding the

Northwest Passage, a sea-route in the Arctic Ocean that connects the Atlantic to the

Pacific Ocean. In mid-September of 2007, the European Space Agency (ESA) released

satellite photographs of the iconic arctic passage, featuring a distinct lack of ice-coverage.

“The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic,” the Agency reported, “has shrunk to its

lowest level this week since satellite measurements began nearly 30 years ago, opening

up the Northwest Passage.”2 The ESA further warns that such a drastic shrinkage serves

1 Edgerton, Lynne T. The Rising Tide. (Washington, D.C.: Natural Resources Defense Council, 1991), 4.2 European Space Agency, “Satellites witness lowest Arctic ice coverage in history,” ESA http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMYTC13J6F_Protecting_0.html (accessed November 28th, 2007)

Page 3: Northwest Passage: Climate Change and the Arctic

as a red flag, remarking that arctic sea ice might be disappearing faster than scholars

previously believed.3 The Northwest Passage could not only be easily navigable in the

summer months, but for a longer period through the year; the ice-free “season” could be

increased by anywhere from 41, to 100 days.4 This news was received differently across

the globe, from the environmentalists seeking to understand the accelerated rate of

shrinkage, to the politicians considering the possible benefits of such a development. The

arctic has been the subject of concern for many years among sea-faring nations,

specifically between Canada and the United States. The issue of sovereignty has been

hotly debated as early as 1969, when the U.S. supertanker the Manhattan traversed the

passage—without Canadian permission.5 The Manhattan incident marks the beginning of

a long-term argument between the Canadians and Americans, an argument that has yet to

be resolved. The Canadian Government believes the Northwest Passage lies within

Canadian waters, while the Americans stridently dispute this, regarding it as an

international waterway. Many nations dispute these sovereignty claims due to territorial

and economical reasons—the convenience and ease of the Northwest Passage for

shipping, and the possible oil to be found beneath arctic waters, presents an undeniable

temptation.6 But with these concerns in mind, the larger issue of the arctic environment

and its condition seems to be too easily cast aside. The ESA is correct in that arctic sea

ice reduction is a “flag”—a warning that global warming is affecting the arctic in ways

the scientific community does not quite yet understand, and that decisive action is

required to prevent further damage.

3 European Space Agency, “Satellites witness lowest Arctic ice coverage in history.”4 Barrie, Maxwell. Responding to Global Climate Change. (Downsview, Ontario: Environment Canada, 1997), 44.5 Tynan, Thomas M, “Canadian-American Relations in the Arctic: The Effect of Environmental Influences upon Territorial Claims.” The Review of Politics, 41, 3. (1979), 414.6 The Globe and Mail, “The Northwest Passage Thawed,” Page A9, February 5, 2000.

Page 4: Northwest Passage: Climate Change and the Arctic

One the prominent roots of the arctic warming problem lies with global warming,

or climate change. With a report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change (IPCC) in 1990, the “greenhouse effect” that we all attribute to climate change

was recognized as a natural phenomenon. Pollution, however, was also recognized as a

serious contributor to the greenhouse effect, and in doing so the issue of climate change

that is being dealt with today.7 The burning of fossil fuels and deforestation (both

practices nearly synonymous with modern industry) has played a large part in

contributing to heightened CO2 levels in Earth’s atmosphere. Synthetic chemicals known

as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are also well known to be highly destructive to the

atmosphere—CFCs are veritable ozone killers, surviving for over 100 years in the earth’s

stratosphere before breaking down.8 Both the heightened presence of CO2 and CFCs has

made a noticeable impact on global temperatures, and in particular in the extreme north

and south latitudes of the Earth. By the end of 21st century, the average temperature in the

arctic is expected to rise by as much as 10°C 9—the greatest amount of warming felt

when compared to the middle latitudes; nearly two to three times greater. 10 The warmer

the temperatures in the arctic, the greater the difficulty in reforming sea-ice. Normally

reflecting the sun’s warmth, the disappearance of sea ice allows the dark ocean below to

absorb its heat, resulting in increased water temperature.11 The warmer the water, the

more difficult it is to restore normal ice-coverage—a cycle that can be difficult to break.

7 Edgerton, 4.8 Edgerton, 9.9 Canada-European Union Symposium. Report of the Canada-European Union Symposium: Environmental Assessment, Climate Change Research and Policy Implications in the Arctic. (Ottawa: Canadian Polar Commission, 2004), 10.10 Dowdeswell, J. A. “Glaciers in the High Arctic and Recent Environmental Change.” Philosophical Transactions: Physical Sciences and Engineering, 352, 1699. (1995), 321.11 Science Daily, “Northwest Passage Opens: Arctic Sea Ice Reaches New Low,” ScienceDaily http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070914095358.htm (accessed November 29th, 2007)

Page 5: Northwest Passage: Climate Change and the Arctic

The reduction of sea ice not only translates into warmer temperatures, but damage to

marine life that depend on the existence of the ice. Pal Prestrud of Norway’s Centre for

International Climate and Environmental Research, claims that the loss of ice will

negatively impact marine productivity throughout the region; the vertical mixing of warm

and cold currents draws valuable nutrients upwards towards the warmer waters, near the

ice, where biological production occurs.12 Without the ice, very little of this is possible.

This biological production is important to many species in the sea, and the land, and its

disruption through insufficient ice coverage could be significant. While this effect on

animal species seems more indirect, the melting of arctic ice has the potential to be much

worse. Many species of birds and mammals depend on the existence of sea ice, such as

the iconic polar bear, which uses the ice to hunt for seal. The disappearance of ice

translates into a shortage in food, which directly puts the species at risk.13 There are

already arctic species at risk due to ice shrinkage, and with the deteriorating condition of

sea ice still in its infancy, there is still quite a bit of damage yet to be done.

The human-related consequences are also worth looking at, specifically how

melting sea ice, and melting glacial ice, will affect the globe. Lynne Edgerton, in her

book for the Natural Resources Defense Council, discusses what problems melting ice in

the north and south latitudes could cause. Titled The Rising Tide, Edgerton introduces the

issue of global warming, how it contributes to the melting of polar ice, and how this

melting has the potential to cause significant problems across the globe, from landmass

erosion to loss of human life.14 Current estimates of sea-level rise by 2100 have varied

over the years, starting from unusually high estimates in the early 1980s. As the years go

12 Canada-European Union Symposium, 19.13 Canada-European Union Symposium, 19.14 Edgerton, 24.

Page 6: Northwest Passage: Climate Change and the Arctic

by, and as more scientific data becomes available, those estimates have dropped (from as

high as 350 centimetres in 1983, to as low as 30 centimetres in 1992). These estimates

have changed, and will most likely change again in the future, but the present “ best

average” sea-level rise by 2100 is a little over half a metre, or 66 centimetres, with a high

and low estimate of 110 centimetres and 30 centimetres, respectively.15 In the past century

alone there has been a sea-level increase of 10-20 centimetres16, and with the rapid

reduction of arctic sea ice coverage, as witnessed by ESA satellites, it is very possible

there will be significant modifications to present sea-level estimates. A steadily rising sea

will create many problems for human populations around the globe. The worst scenario,

and indeed, the most apparent when discussing the issue, is world-wide flooding, and

destruction of coastal human settlements—a sea-level rise of half a metre, for example,

does not simply translate into half a metre of land-loss. A 30-centimetre rise in sea levels

could account for as little as 1.5 metres to 30 metres of land-loss, depending on the

coastline (where it slopes gradually or not).17 Further erosion might lead to landslides as

well, causing untold problems for land development. Sea-level rise also threatens

important ecological areas around the world. One example would be wetlands, which

provide an important function—acting as “sponges” they absorb floodwater and high

tides, protecting settlements further inland. Wetlands are also considered to be filters for a

variety of pollutants, from heavy metals to radioisotopes.18 Edgerton states that coastal

scientists believe that a rapid rise in sea levels might annihilate “50 to 80 percent of the

nation’s wetlands by the year 2100.”19 Sea level rises could seriously impact national

15 Nesje, Atle and Dahl, Svein Olaf. Glaciers and Environmental Change. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 172.16 Canada-European Union Symposium, 10.17 Edgerton, 25.18 Edgerton, 29.19 Edgerton, 30.

Page 7: Northwest Passage: Climate Change and the Arctic

water and sewer management, waste disposal, coastal infrastructures such as roads and

bridges. A 70-centimetre rise could flood coastal areas, destroying roads and

settlements.20 Such a rise could also threaten freshwater sources near the coast as sea-

water presses further inland, threatening marine and local wildlife.21 It is quite apparent,

then, that the opening of the Northwest Passage heralds more than international trade, and

sovereignty-disputes. If anything, it is a reminder to the world that action is needed to

combat global warming, before these estimates become facts.

As previously mentioned, the sovereignty issues in the Arctic Ocean, specifically

the Northwest Passage, have been a hot topic for debate between sea-faring nations. This

argument has been fought between Canada and the United States for decades, with action

taken by the Canadian government to ensure their arctic sovereignty dating back to

before the 20th century.22 Canadians, then, have made some effort over the century to

expand their territory north, and more than one Prime Minister has considered it an

important issue to their nation. The United States, however, takes issue with a Canadian-

owned Northwest Passage, for several reasons. Citing it as an “international waterway”,

the United States have, on several occasions, sent watercraft through the Northwest

Passage without Canadian permission, with one such incident being the supertanker

Manhattan in 1969.23 The Manhattan navigated through the Passage twice, in an effort to

determine the viability of shipping tankers through the arctic.24 The Canadian

Government was alarmed for two reasons: one, that the action constituted a threat to

Canadian sovereignty, and two; that if a tanker were to strike a rogue iceberg, the

20 Edgerton, 35.21 Edgerton, 28.22 Tynan, Thomas M., 404.23 Tynan, Thomas M., 414.24 Tynan, Thomas M., 414.

Page 8: Northwest Passage: Climate Change and the Arctic

ecological ramifications would be significant, and would undoubtedly be felt by the

Canadian North—a comfortable distance away from the United States.25 A Liberian

tanker running aground in Nova Scotia, which ignited a firestorm in the media over the

Manhattan expeditions, further compounded these concerns. It did not take long for the

Canadian Parliament to draft legislation protecting the Northwest Passage, both from a

territorial and ecological perspective.26 The Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act and

the Territorial Sea and Fishing Zones Act of 1970 would grant Canada more control over

the Northwest Passage in a number of ways. The Pollution Prevention Act established

guidelines over what type of vessel might navigate the arctic passage, while also

requiring the owner to provide insurance in the event of an ecological disaster. The

Fishing Zones Act set up a number of territorial “gates” through the passage, which

would give the Canadian Government more control in observing passing traffic.27 It took

several years for the legislation to be ratified in Parliament, and even after it was in place,

its enforcement was largely voluntary. Such actions proved to be more of a political

statement than anything, reasserting Canada’s vested interest in the north, and

specifically, the Northwest Passage. Despite such policies, the United States refused to

acknowledge Canada’s sovereignty over the Passage, and continues to do so. In 2006, the

United State’s current Ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins, ardently stated that the

Northwest Passage is in international waters, a claim he has made several times.28

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper continues to strongly oppose this assertion,

launching a plethora of campaigns to reassert Canadian sovereignty in the north, going as

25 Tynan, Thomas M., 414.26 Tynan, Thomas M., 415.27 Tynan, Thomas M., 417.28 Washington Post, “Dispute over NW Passage Revived,” Page A18, November 6, 2006.

Page 9: Northwest Passage: Climate Change and the Arctic

far as blatantly referring to the Northwest Passage as “Canadian Internal Waters”29 The

concern over this debate is how the end-result will affect the arctic environment. If the

Passage is recognized as an international waterway, will naval-shipping throughout the

region increase? Without question, it raises the risk of ecological disasters, such as oil-

spills, and might further impact the already sensitive condition of many northern

ecosystems. With the Northwest Passage in Canadian control, certain guidelines, like the

Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, might assist in safeguarding the arctic

environment. Even with the recent opening of the iconic arctic passage, there is no

solution in sight to this territorial dispute, rendering the environmental future of the north

unknown.

Scientists have been watching the gradual melting of sea ice in the North for

decades, estimating future loss of ice, and subsequent rises in sea level. Satellite imagery

from the European Space Agency, however, surprised many of them—the degree of ice

reduction discovered was unprecedented in recorded history, leaving many around the

world reflecting on the possible ramifications. Global warming has the potential to affect

the polar regions of the Earth far more gravely than the more populated areas of the

planet, making it difficult for many to comprehend these changes. The effect of warming

in the arctic, however, can be quite significant, impacting human life in direct and

indirect ways; an increase in sea levels can easily destroy human coastal settlements

around the world, make those unaffected more vulnerable to storms and floods, destroy

coastal infrastructure such as bridges and roads, and even reduce the availability of

drinking water. And while media coverage and international panels have been reasserting

29 VanderKlippe, Nathan, “Northwest Passage gets political name change,” The Ottawa Citizen http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=6d4815ac-4fdb-4cf3-a8a6-4225a8bd08df&k=73925 (accessed November 29th, 2007).

Page 10: Northwest Passage: Climate Change and the Arctic

the dangers of global warming, government response has been disappointing. Concerning

the opening up the Northwest Passage, the content of territorial disputes have largely

been over shipping access and economic development (namely arctic oil and diamond

deposits), and not the environmental issues. It seems as though the governments and

institutions involved in these disputes are missing the point of a navigable Northwest

Passage, misinterpreting such a development for future economic prosperity, while it

could very well spell accelerated ecological disaster. These developments surface in a

time where new data has been made available from the space probe, the Venus Express.

The probe, studying the planet Venus, paints an unsettling future for the planet Earth.

Venus, a planet that is described as a “furnace”, devoid of any surface water (having been

boiled away years ago), was quite similar to Earth.30 Both planets share the same amount

of carbon, but while Earth’s stores most of it beneath the surface, Venus’ carbon became

trapped within its atmosphere—Andrew Ingersoll, of California’s Institute of Technology,

dubbed it a “runaway greenhouse effect”.31 The same could theoretically occur on Earth

over the long-term, should global warming be allowed to spiral out of control. An open

Northwest Passage is an indicator, a warning that economic change is a necessity. The

Venus Express gives humans a rare glimpse into a possible future, which should be

motivation enough for world governments to initiate decisive, effective change. Whether

or not that will occur remains to be seen, and until then the future of the arctic will

remain uncertain.

David William

30 CBC News, “Runaway greenhouse effect turned Venus into oven, scientists say,” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/11/28/tech-venus-climate.html (accessed November 29th, 2007)31 CBC News, “Runaway greenhouse effect turned Venus into oven, scientists say.”

Page 11: Northwest Passage: Climate Change and the Arctic

Bibliography

Barrie, Maxwell. Responding to Global Climate Change. Downsview, Ontario: Environment Canada, 1997.

Canada-European Union Symposium. Report of the Canada-European Union Symposium: Environmental Assessment, Climate Change Research and Policy Implications in the Arctic. Ottawa: Canadian Polar Commission, 2004.

CBC News, “Runaway greenhouse effect turned Venus into oven, scientists say,” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/11/28/tech-venus-climate.html

Dowdeswell, J. A. “Glaciers in the High Arctic and Recent Environmental Change.” Philosophical Transactions: Physical Sciences and Engineering, 352, 1699. (1995), 321-334.

Edgerton, Lynne T. The Rising Tide. Washington, D.C.: Natural Resources Defense Council, 1991.

European Space Agency, “Satellites witness lowest Arctic ice coverage in history,” ESA http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMYTC13J6F_Protecting_0.html

Globe and Mail, The, “The Northwest Passage Thawed,” February 5, 2000.

Nesje, Atle and Dahl, Svein Olaf. Glaciers and Environmental Change. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Science Daily, “Northwest Passage Opens: Arctic Sea Ice Reaches New Low,” ScienceDaily http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070914095358.htm

Tynan, Thomas M, “Canadian-American Relations in the Arctic: The Effect of Environmental Influences upon Territorial Claims.” The Review of Politics, 41, 3. (1979), 402-427.

VanderKlippe, Nathan, “Northwest Passage gets political name change,” The Ottawa Citizen http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=6d4815ac-4fdb-4cf3-a8a6-4225a8bd08df&k=73925

Washington Post, “Dispute over NW Passage Revived,” November 6, 2006.