Feds Ask: How Do We Extract Resources From A Melting Arctic?

From MERX, where governments post their RFPs and Qs:

The Department of Transport, Strategic Policy and Innovation Directorate, is responsible for ensuring a safe, efficient and reliable transportation system in Canada's northern regions. The
Directorate is responsible for managing the Northern Transportation Adaptation Initiative to support research and development activities to design, develop, and implement innovative technologies, tools, and best practices; improve and enhance knowledge and understanding of the impacts of climate change on the northern transportation system; improve the resiliency and adaptability of both existing and future northern transportation infrastructure and operations to climate change; and encourage the development of northern expertise. The Directorate works collaboratively with provincial and territorial governments, academia, and private industry to ensure that limited northern resources are maximized and that the knowledge, best practices and adaptive solutions gained from this initiative benefit Canada's North.

Climate change is occurring throughout the North and it is starting to affect the safety and integrity of northern transportation infrastructure and operations. In particular, climate change is having an impact on roads and airport runways built on permafrost, coastal infrastructure, and the safety of Arctic marine vessels and operations. These impacted transportation infrastructures and operations are often necessary to ensure that quality of life is sustained and that economic development may continue. Building on existing research, the Northern Transportation Adaptation Initiative will work with field experts to ensure that the safety and integrity of the northern transportation system is maintained.

So, the approach to climate change expressed here is that we should buttress our northern infrastructure so as to squeeze a few more drops out of  the place before everything sinks into the melting permafrost.

All Those "Gates"

...and yet the ice still melts, and the Permafrost line still recedes:

ScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2010) — The southern limit of permanently frozen ground, or permafrost, is now 130 kilometers further north than it was 50 years ago in the James Bay region, according to two researchers from the Department of Biology at Université Laval.

Read Deltoid to comprehend the full craptacularity of the U.K. Press on this issue (they make the National Post look almost slightly less craptacular); read RC for an evaluation of the various "gates". Short version: they mostly involve typos. And just in case someone brings it up, the two researchers above conclude:

While climate change is the most probable explanation for this phenomenon, the lack of long term climatic data for the area makes it impossible for the researchers to officially confirm this. Professor Payette notes, however, that the average annual temperature of the northern sites he has studied for over 20 years has increased by 2 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, In More Important News

A commercial vessel travels the Northwest Passage for the first time. Though the MV Camilla Desgagnes is a super ice-class vessel, not "one cube of ice" was seen on the journey.

...which has got Gen. Walt Natynczyk a little bit worried.

Gwyn Dyer On AGW Geo-Politics: We Should Give The Yankees All The Water They Need

A terrific, if grim, piece by Gwyn Dyer in this week's Embassy Magazine. My favorite bit:

"...the Americans are losing large chunks of agricultural production. They're going to have to evacuate parts of coastline. There are parts where you can't get insurance already.

"So they're going to be moving people around. And they're going to be very short of water. They're already short of water everywhere west of the Mississippi. They have built very large cities in effectively desert. I mean, even now it's really a desert, 40 million people. This is not a good plan.

"And they're going to need the water. And when they get seriously crippled by this, I don't think they're going to take no for an answer from Canada if it doesn't want to sell its water.

"In fact, I would go this far: We need to start selling the Americans water in the near future as soon as they want it and are willing to pay some nominal price for it because you want to put this exchange on a commercial basis before it becomes a strategic issue. And there are ways of doing it that don't harm us.

"But you sell them water now or soon they'll kick the door in. And actually, I would show them where the door is because they'd be right, they'd be within their rights. You cannot let your neighbours go short when you have a surplus. But there are ways of doing this that don't hurt our interests.

Also interesting are the comments re getting access to Canadian climate scientists. Short version: the gov wouldn't let him. He doesn't mention the arctic, however, which strikes me as an oversight. There are huge possibilities for armed conflict up there as the ice melts.

Compared To This, Afghanistan Is A Side-Show

PARIS -- The fast-warming Arctic could be plunged into "armed conflict" unless the U.S. takes the lead in resolving rival claims by the U.S., Canada, Russia, Denmark and Norway over a region that could create billions of dollars in new wealth as the ice cap melts, according to new analysis.

Which is why I 100% support Tory efforts to "bulk up" our military and surveillance capabilities in the North, and why it is especially tragic that we are pissing away $1,000,000s that could be used for this effort in the deserts of Central Asia.

Here is the original article. In it, author Scott G Borgerson minces no words when describing "The Coming Anarchy":

The situation is especially dangerous because there are currently no overarching political or legal structures that can provide for the orderly development of the region or mediate political disagreements over Arctic resources or sea-lanes. The Arctic has always been frozen; as ice turns to water, it is not clear which rules should apply. The rapid melt is also rekindling numerous interstate rivalries and attracting energy-hungry newcomers, such as China, to the region. The Arctic powers are fast approaching diplomatic gridlock, and that could eventually lead to the sort of armed brinkmanship that plagues other territories, such as the desolate but resource-rich Spratly Islands, where multiple states claim sovereignty but no clear picture of ownership exists.

[...]

Until such a solution is found, the Arctic countries are likely to unilaterally grab as much territory as possible and exert sovereign control over opening sea-lanes wherever they can.

While it is certainly possible to maintain that the Afghanistan mission is in Canada's national interest, the arguments tend to be indirect and circuitous: we must maintain our alliances and so forth. The argument for keeping the Russkie's grubby mitts off Baffin Island, for example, is much more direct.

But we can't do that if our guys are running around in circles outside of Kandahar.