by Rachel Cernansky Energy / Energy Police
January 30, 2012
If you travel to Nunavut, a territory in Canada that stretches from the mainland to nearly the North Pole, you can encounter—because it’s so remote and has so few roads—caribou herds migrating freely that are among the biggest in the world. Between 65,000 and 400,000 animals or more live there. Just over 30,000 people live in Nunavut as well, which is about the size of Western Europe and home to Alert, the northernmost permanently-inhabited place in the world. But if the environment up there can be considered pristine now, it may not be for long.
A story from Yale Environment 360 explains how the Canadian government “has made it clear that Arctic mining will be one of the cornerstones of the country’s economic future.”
It is encouraging mining companies to exploit the deposits of gold, silver, zinc, diamonds, uranium and other minerals and metals found in abundance in the vast areas of the enormous Nunavut Territory, as well as the Yukon and Northwest Territories.
Link: http://www.treehugger.com/energy-policy/french-company-pushes-uranium-mine-canadian-arctic-wilderness.html
read more… (press release download pdf)