Round Table 3 - Securing Canada's Arctic Environment

Canada’s North and Arctic environment are already experiencing the effects of climate change. Melting sea ice, storm surges, and changes in species’ living patterns are all apparent. As climate change occurs in Canada’s North, new issues and questions are emerging about what this means to access to natural resources, protecting threatened ecosystems, sovereignty and security, and Indigenous peoples, northern communities and their way of life.

Biodiversity, ecosystems, and cultural traditions are threatened by melting ice and warmer temperatures derived from climate change. Dramatic warming over the past century has led to significant summer sea-ice loss and permafrost thaw in the Arctic. Sea ice is now more unstable where Inuit hunters previously knew it to be safe; rising sea levels and reduction in sea ice makes coastal communities more vulnerable to storm surges and erosion; and, plant, insect and animal species are changing and adapting.

PARTICIPANTS

Moderator: Round Table III - Securing Canada's Arctic Environment Jodi White President, Public Policy Forum

Patrick Borbey Assistant Deputy Minister Indian and Northern Affairs

Terry Breese Deputy Chief of Mission, American Embassy in Ottawa

Anthony Cary British High Commissioner, Canada

Ian Church Senior Science Advisor, Executive Council Office, Yukon Government; Chairman, Canadian International Polar Year National Committee

Elizabeth Dowdeswell University of Toronto

Violet Ford Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC)

Fen Osler Hampson Chancellor’s Professor and Director, The Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University

Paul Heinbecker Distinguished Fellow, International Relations Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)

Thomas Homer-Dixon Chair, Centre for International Governance Innovation of Global Systems, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo; Professor, Centre for Environment and Business in the Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo

Robert Huebert, Ph.D. Associate Professor, University of Calgary

Robert Page Chair National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy

David Runnalls President & CEO, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

Mercedes Stephenson National Media Commentator on Defence and Security Affairs

ROUND TABLES

	Round Table 1 - Securing Canada’s Ecosystems Canada’s natural environment is at risk from climate change [more...]
	Round Table 2 - Securing Canada's Energy Economy Canada’s energy resources are central to our current and future prosperity [more…]
	Round Table 3 - Securing Canada's Arctic Environment The current and anticipated effects of climate change on our country’s Arctic environment and people are raising new issues of national security and sovereignty for Canada [more…]