Is Climate Change in the Arctic a disaster or an opportunity for Canada’s North? (Essay Sample)

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CLIMATE CHANGE IN ARCTIC:
DISASTER OR OPPORTUNITY FOR CANADA’S NORTH?
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Background
Change is key to understanding political, economic, social, cultural and, more recently, environmental developments. Contextualized, understanding change in given systems helps inform not only management processes but, more important, response and, should needs arise, mitigation measures. Understandably, climate change has come front and center of global discussions in more recent years. Informed by a variety of political, economic, social, cultural and, of course, physical environment opportunities and challenges, climate change is perhaps world’s most pressing issue. The approach to climate change remains, however, largely intermittent, driven primarily by passing expressions of climate change (e.g. natural disasters, rising temperatures, and disappearing species), not by consistent – and concerted – efforts for understanding, let alone proper management. The complexity of climate change is perhaps best captured in Canada’s North.
For half a century, Canada’s North has been experiencing dramatic ecological shifts. Triggered by climate change effects, human and natural habitats are under growing existential threats in Canada’s vast most northern territories. From a conventional perspective, undergoing changes in Canada’s North represent challenges only to all stakeholders, particularly wild and marine life, experiencing such changes.