Climate change heats up Arctic geopolitics

MONTREAL (AFP) – Global warming has the United States and Canada scrambling to overhaul their strategies for controlling North America’s vast Arctic, as sea passage grows easier and natural gas resources beckon.

Ice melt in Canada’s Great North already allows boat traffic in the Northwest Passage, long the definition of a difficult route between the Atlantic and Pacific through the Arctic, which cuts the sea travel distance between Europe and Asia by a third.


This tortuous route however should be open almost half of the year by around 2035. That could foster cooperation, or turbocharge turf squabbles between Canada and the United States, whose claim on the Arctic is its state of Alaska.

There is already a history of rivalry between the two generally friendly neighbors over the passage.

AFP