Explain The Role Of Climate Change In The Arctic And Climate Change

Introduction

Canada is facing a climate change as well as other parts of the world. The Arctic has been the most affected by global warming. Over the past 30 years, scientific and Native People have seen the drastic changes in the Arctic. The temperature of the arctic has increased almost double that the global rate. This has made the Arctic sea ice decline by 7.4 percent from 1978 to 2003. Moreover, the snow cover over the land has decreased 10 percent between 1972 and 2003. As a result, the glaciers and the frozen ground have started to thaw out. The global warming the world is facing is mostly caused by human beings through Greenhouse Gas emissions. The Arctic is an important part of the world because it helps to cool off the whole Northern

Oil sands are 56 percent of the crude oil production. “Oil sands are the most polluting and carbon intensive oil process on earth, draining wetlands, diverting rivers and stripping all trees and vegetation from the forest.” This process releases a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which makes the earth warmer and causes the ice on the Arctic to melt at a faster rate (figure1). The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the world and the extraction of oil sands are helping to increase this climate change. In the last 50 years, the temperature in the Western and Central Canadian Arctic has risen by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius. “This create Permafrost is less reliable; animal ranges are changing, making hunting more difficult; and sea ice loss is drawing increased interest to resources in the Arctic Ocean.” However, forbidding the extraction of oil sands or any other fossil fuels would harm the Canadian economy. 550,000 Canadians jobs depend on the oil industries, which makes crucial for these companies to still be a huge part of the Canadian economy. Moreover, Canada is the world’s sixth largest producer of natural gas and third of having natural reserves. These industries contribute 6.4 percent of Canadian GDP, which provides employment and income for Canada. For this reason, forbidding the extraction of oil sands would not be the best decision for

They have been a very effective way to transport these resources, but they can cause global warming if one of these pipelines spills oil. Crude oil contains more than 1,000 chemicals, which can harm human beings, animals and the Arctic as well. They can cause health problems or death too. If the oil spills over the surface, these chemicals would evaporate and dissolute into the air that would impact the oceans, the Arctic and other areas of the environment. This would cause the Arctic to defrost more and contaminate the animals, since the environment is contaminating by these chemicals. Furthermore, the Northern regions of Canada especially the Aboriginal communities would be the most affected because they depend on those natural resources. For them it would be difficult to obtain their food, since they would have trouble moving through the Arctic because the sea ice is melting. Their health would be at risk as well because the chemicals that the pipelines spill on the surface contaminate their food. In addition, the use of pipelines would increase deforestation because they need “71,000 kilometres of pipeline that crisscross most of our country, and approximately 1,400 kilometres of international power lines.” To obtain these large amounts of land they would need the process of deforestation. This would increase carbon dioxide that would create more heat that would affect the