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Earth

Editorial: Canada faces the wrong way on climate change

19 December 2006

The great white north is disappearing. Projections presented this month to the American Geophysical Union suggest that by 2040 the Arctic Ocean will be largely ice-free in summer. If current trends continue, the Earth’s northern regions will be utterly transformed in less than two generations. For polar bears, the habitat they rely on is collapsing; for the indigenous people, so is a way of life.

If there is one nation that should be acutely aware of how damaging climate change could be it is Canada. Its northern wilderness has been romanticised in literature, has inspired great art, and remains a…

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