{"id":460,"date":"2006-08-01T03:19:19","date_gmt":"2006-08-01T03:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=460"},"modified":"2018-08-21T00:03:54","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T04:03:54","slug":"tuesday-august-1-2006-defending-the-northwest-passage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=460","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday, August 1, 2006 \u2014 Defending the Northwest Passage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The North\u00adwest Pas\u00adsage seen from space.<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s like a piz\u00adza oven out there. Extreme heat and humid\u00adi\u00adty, which is thank\u00adful\u00adly expect\u00aded to break tomor\u00adrow. Hard to find any\u00adone who doubts glob\u00adal warming.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wash\u00ading\u00adton, of course, still pre\u00adtends it isn\u2019t hap\u00adpen\u00ading. But it has aggres\u00adsive\u00adly renewed its asser\u00adtions that the North\u00adwest Pas\u00adsage is not Cana\u00addi\u00adan ter\u00adri\u00adto\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal waters. Glob\u00adal warm\u00ading means the ice-bound pas\u00adsage is open\u00ading up, and will soon become eco\u00adnom\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant. Canada\u2019s claim to sov\u00ader\u00adeign\u00adty over the chan\u00adnel through its arc\u00adtic arch\u00adi\u00adpel\u00adago will even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly become the main source of con\u00adflict between the Unit\u00aded States and Cana\u00adda. [see my arti\u00adcle from last year on the relat\u00aded Hans Island controversy].<\/span><\/p>\n

So I\u2019m pleased that the CBC<\/span> Nation\u00adal News is being broad\u00adcast, this week, from an ice-break\u00ader going through the Pas\u00adsage. It will draw some pub\u00adlic atten\u00adtion to this issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the moment, we have very lit\u00adtle to effec\u00adtive\u00adly assert Cana\u00addi\u00adan sov\u00ader\u00adeign\u00adty in the arc\u00adtic arch\u00adi\u00adpel\u00adago, which is all in the sparse\u00adly inhab\u00adit\u00aded ter\u00adri\u00adto\u00adry of Nunavut. Mil\u00adi\u00adtar\u00adi\u00adly, we have noth\u00ading but CFS<\/span> Alert, at the north\u00adern tip of Ellesmere Island, and a mili\u00adtia of Inu\u00adit reservists who are armed with WWI<\/span> vin\u00adtage rifles! Alert had only five per\u00adma\u00adnent inhab\u00adi\u00adtants in the 2001 cen\u00adsus (though it qual\u00adi\u00adfied as the world\u2019s north\u00adern\u00admost set\u00adtle\u00adment). Alert is actu\u00adal\u00adly clos\u00ader to Moscow than it is to Ottawa, so it is not sur\u00adpris\u00ading that it had over two hun\u00addred per\u00adson\u00adnel sta\u00adtioned there at the height of the Cold War. Nowa\u00addays, how\u00adev\u00ader, only about 75 peo\u00adple man the mil\u00adi\u00adtary sig\u00adnals intel\u00adli\u00adgence radio receiv\u00ading facil\u00adi\u00adty, and a few more man the Envi\u00adron\u00adment Cana\u00adda weath\u00ader sta\u00adtion and the Glob\u00adal Atmos\u00adphere Watch mon\u00adi\u00adtor\u00ading facil\u00adi\u00adty. The envi\u00adron\u00adment is not many people\u2019s idea of a hol\u00adi\u00adday des\u00adti\u00adna\u00adtion. From mid-Octo\u00adber through the end of Feb\u00adru\u00adary the sun does not rise above the hori\u00adzon and there is 24-hour dark\u00adness from the end of Octo\u00adber until mid-Feb\u00adru\u00adary. The cap\u00adi\u00adtal town of Nunavut, Iqualuit, is 2,100 km to the south.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ellesmere is a huge island with a maze of colos\u00adsal, rugged moun\u00adtains and glac\u00adi\u00aders. In 1991, when a CC130<\/span> Her\u00adcules trans\u00adport crashed only 18 km (10 miles) away from the base, it took 32 hours for a res\u00adcue team to reach the sur\u00advivors over\u00adland. Yes, the ter\u00adrain is that bad. There is anoth\u00ader research sta\u00adtion, not always manned, at Eure\u00adka, and a small Inu\u00adit set\u00adtle\u00adment, Grise Fjord, on an island near the south\u00adern tip of Ellesmere. On Devon Island, there is the Haug\u00adton-MARS research sta\u00adtion which stud\u00adies the 20km-wide Haughton mete\u00ador impact crater and takes advan\u00adtage of the harsh envi\u00adron\u00adment for var\u00adi\u00adous exper\u00adi\u00adments by SETI<\/span> and the Mars Soci\u00adety, and such odd\u00adi\u00adties as the Arthur Clarke Mars Green\u00adhouse. There are only ten peo\u00adple who are there for any length of time, and a hand\u00adful of Inu\u00adit high school stu\u00addents who are hired to keep them from killing them\u00adselves. How\u00adev\u00ader, this is on the wrong side of the island to mon\u00adi\u00adtor the Pas\u00adsage. There was once a plan to cre\u00adate a set\u00adtle\u00adment on Ellef Rignes Island, near the North Mag\u00adnet\u00adic Pole, but the plan was aban\u00addoned, and there is noth\u00ading there now but a robot\u00adic unit.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only inhab\u00adit\u00aded place along the Pas\u00adsage is Res\u00adolute [Qausuit\u00adtuq (pop.215)]. It is well placed, at the nar\u00adrow\u00adest point in the pas\u00adsage, and rough\u00adly in the mid\u00addle. But there is absolute\u00adly noth\u00ading at either the west\u00adern or east\u00adern entrances to the passage.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are entire\u00adly depen\u00addent on satel\u00adlite obser\u00adva\u00adtion to mon\u00adi\u00adtor traf\u00adfic through the pas\u00adsage, and that is use\u00adless for sub\u00admarines. The U.S. has made a point of thumb\u00ading it\u2019s nose at the Cana\u00addi\u00adan gov\u00adern\u00adment, by run\u00adning subs through with\u00adout ask\u00ading per\u00admis\u00adsion. The Rus\u00adsians have also poked around secret\u00adly. As the arc\u00adtic ice pack melts, marine tech\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy advances, oil prices rise, and the pas\u00adsage becomes more viable, there will be increas\u00ading pres\u00adsure from Wash\u00ading\u00adton and oth\u00ader world powers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The present admin\u00adis\u00adtra\u00adtion has promised to beef up the Inu\u00adit mili\u00adtia, and to posi\u00adtion a train\u00ading cen\u00adtre for it in Res\u00adolute, but this is hard\u00adly ade\u00adquate. We need to build mon\u00adi\u00adtor\u00ading facil\u00adi\u00adties at both ends of the pas\u00adsage, and to estab\u00adlish a much greater mil\u00adi\u00adtary and sci\u00aden\u00adtif\u00adic pres\u00adence in the entire 1.9 mil\u00adlion square km of Nunavut.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are present\u00adly bogged down in an expen\u00adsive oper\u00ada\u00adtion in Afghanistan, which has become more and more under the thumb of the U.S. mil\u00adi\u00adtary, and has ceased to have any\u00adthing to do either with hunt\u00ading down Al Kai\u00adda, or estab\u00adlish\u00ading viable civ\u00adil soci\u00adety in that coun\u00adty. I am fair\u00adly con\u00advinced that George W. Bush has been com\u00admit\u00adted, from the very start, to sab\u00ado\u00adtag\u00ading any seri\u00adous effort to revenge 9\/11 or catch Bin Laden. Since help\u00ading the Afghan peo\u00adple, and hunt\u00ading down Bin Laden were the rea\u00adsons that Cana\u00addi\u00adans sup\u00adport\u00aded (over\u00adwhelm\u00ading\u00adly) our pres\u00adence there, I think it time we said \u201cshit, or get off the pot\u201d to Wash\u00ading\u00adton. Our mil\u00adi\u00adtary resources would be bet\u00adter employed defend\u00ading our North than run\u00adning around in a dis\u00adas\u00adtrous, Amer\u00adi\u00adcan-man\u00adaged gueril\u00adla war among trib\u00adal drug lords.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s like a piz\u00adza oven out there. Extreme heat and humid\u00adi\u00adty, which is thank\u00adful\u00adly expect\u00aded to break tomor\u00adrow. Hard to find any\u00adone who doubts glob\u00adal warm\u00ading. Wash\u00ading\u00adton, of course, still pre\u00adtends it isn\u2019t hap\u00adpen\u00ading. But it has aggres\u00adsive\u00adly renewed its asser\u00adtions that \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-au-blog-2006"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=460"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9455,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions\/9455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}