Vanguard Magazine

A R C T I C B Y PA U L I N E B A U D U greening and shifting boreal tree line due to intensifying boreal wildfires- ocean acidification, and increased precipitation. Climate change is increasingly being recognized as a threat (or risk)-multipli- er, as its effects interact with and have the potential to exacerbate pre-existing threats and other drivers of instability to contribute to security risks. In an effort to advance Canada's awareness of these risks, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service recently published an analysis outlining how climate change compounds and ac- celerates other security issues. In the Canadian Arctic in particular, beyond threats to landscapes and ecosys- tems, climate and environmental impacts converge with evolving strategic and secu- rity realities, posing a threat to human and national security. Climate impacts in the Canadian Arctic threaten human and national security Human-security risks 28 APRIL/MAY 2023 www.vanguardcanada.com Building a safer North: CLIMATE SECURITY RISKS, GAPS, AND OPPORTUNITIES OF THE CANADIAN ARCTIC "WHAT HAPPENS IN THE NORTH IMPACTS THE WORLD, AND WHEN YOU LOOK AT SECURITY ISSUES AND CLIMATE CHANGE, THE WORLD IS PAYING ATTENTION MORE THAN EVER," recently noted Canadian Governor-General Mary Simon at an event at the Arktikum Science Centre in Rovaniemi, on February 9th, 2023. H er comments reflected the profound and ongoing ef- fects that Russia's re-inva- sion of Ukraine in February 2022 has had on Arctic secu- rity, leading to a renewed global focus on the region – a focus which, in Canada, fur- ther intensified recently with the Chinese spy balloon incident acting as a reminder of the role that the Canadian Arctic plays in continental defense. Governor-General Simon's remarks also mirror how intercon- nected climate and security realities are, in a region where freezing geopolitics inter- act with thawing landscapes. In the Canadian Arctic, which is warm- ing at least three times as fast as the rest of the globe, the physical impacts of climate change include permafrost thaw, decreas- ing snow cover, reducing summer sea ice, and sea-level rise leading to coastal ero- sion and flooding (in the Beaufort Sea, sea level has been rising by almost an inch a year over the last two decades) . Climate change also contributes to changes in Ca- nadian Arctic ecosystems -such as tundra

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