🇨🇦 Nearly ice free Arctic to increase shipping traffic

ah four just immortalized in folk songs poetry and popular history the Northwest Passage is fascinated Canadians for centuries once explorers and adventurers now shipping lines and cruise ship passengers all have sought the Northwest Passage until 2007 Canada's Arctic was ice bound all year but rising temperatures are melting sea ice at an alarming rate leaving open water for at least part of each year since then cargo and passenger ships from Europe the US Canada even China have sailed through here traffic is expected to double by 2020 the Arctic is an incredibly large remote and extreme region it's a hazardous place to navigate at the best of times and the remoteness means that there's no search-and-rescue capacity located anywhere close to the Northwest Passage other concerns are environmental an oil spill in these now pristine waters would be devastating to fish and wildlife that local people need for survival the rules governing shipping have to change say experts putting the rules in place that benefit communities and protect wildlife it includes regulations on the discharge of pollutants like gray water and sewage and includes phasing out or banning some of the most toxic fuels like heavy fuel oil it it also includes restraints on emissions and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from shipping thousands of years the indigenous people of the north the Inuit have roamed the ice water and land thanks to land claims agreements they now have a real say in how the Northwest Passage will be developed as well as tough environmental standards the people of the north are demanding a share of economic benefits and jobs that may come once international shipping begins using the passage regularly because we don't have ports along our coastline we need to have resources available for you need to get the Davis skill so that they're able to take part in the kind of industry and I think that there's an opportunity there that in the knowledge and expertise of the land can be used temperatures in the north are rising faster than anywhere else now even recreational sailors from far away can come here and find an ice-free Northwest Passage that has eluded so many for so long Daniel Locke al-jazeera Cambridge Bay in Canada's north