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CALGARY—The head of the Royal Canadian Navy says Canada needs to bolster its military presence in the Arctic to prepare for a boom in human and economic activity resulting largely from climate change.
Global warming is thought to be occurring faster in the North than anywhere else. The gradual disappearance of sea ice is opening up commercial shipping as well as previously inaccessible areas rich with oil, natural gas and mineral resources.
“From a naval perspective, climate change probably means there will be more open water, so the Arctic Ocean will really emerge as the Arctic Ocean,” Vice-Admiral Paul Maddison, Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, said in a recent interview.
“It also means . . . that the circumpolar route will probably open to international shipping from Asia to Europe sometime in this century — probably a lot earlier than most people predicted a few years ago,” he said.
“I know that major shipping companies are planning now to be able to have ships that are first-year ice capable sailing out of Singapore and over the pole into Rotterdam.
“That’s a game changer in my view . . . a shorter distance so less time, less money.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been vocal about asserting Canada’s sovereignty in the region. As part of the government’s national shipbuilding strategy, new icebreakers and Arctic off-shore patrol ships are on order. Maddison said the first patrol ship is expected in 2015.
He would like to see even more resources put into improving the navy’s surveillance abilities in the North.
“I definitely see room for more investment in surveillance capacity, persistent surveillance capacity in the Arctic . . . to provide a more real-time operating picture of what’s going on.”
For the rest of this article, please go to the Toronto Star website: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1133884–climate-change-boosts-need-for-bigger-presence-in-arctic-says-head-of-canadian-navy