Planet North

As you look back into our history, let’s say, several hundred years, you’ll see a change of interest of the North in general. The North was always important to the world in those years, when crossing the Atlantic Ocean meant reaching India from the other side. The world was a lot smaller back then and when lost explorers finally figured out that an entire continent lay in the way of the route to the rich Orient, interest in the North plummeted.

Only crazy adventurers claiming the rights to be the first to reach the poles or climb atop mountain peaks dared say the North still offered a Northwest Passage to the Orient. Everyone thought dealing with treacherous icepacks and subzero climates was a thing of the past when the Panama Canal was built. The trains crisscrossed North America easily and eventually over time the North was lost to history as being too expensive and too risky for business.

As the 20th century rolled along, a more sinister interest of our backyard’s appeal revealed the intense fear of nuclear annihilation from the red menaces of the Soviet Union and China. A web of radar stations proved useless against low-flying Russian aircrafts, as one was actually shot down after a frantic radio call from a store manager. This according to an Elder, who likes to tell stories like that to me.

So, the fight for the North continued when the introduction of satellites and long-range missiles. They could be launched by some guy with a red phone in his hand and a gun pointed to his head until the order to back down was given by another guy in a suit. Those were days that made everyone nervous.

When large deposits of resources were found, big bucks concentrated focus not into our communities, but rather, into the large pockets of resource-hungry nations that won’t take no for an answer. Once again the North is under the magnifying glass and, of all things, what is bad for the planet is good for us. Take global warming, for example.

The Northwest Passage would be free of ice and the route would pass through our neighbour’s islands in Nunavut, then southwest on to the spicy nations, thus making Panama obsolete. The South will swelter in the heat while we will tough out the mild winter season. Life as we know it will change. Our resources will make their way to the industrial Asian markets, one way or another. So cash in while we can, I say. This may be perceived as a ruthless way to get rich, but riches can be made when done the right way. And need we be ruthless – not at all.

When you add care to a product, the price increases – just think of those polished apples. The same holds true for large resource development. When handled with care and loving, that mine doesn’t look so bad after all, when you look at it from a different angle and use a caring approach.

Now, it’s the 21st century, and people can’t stop yapping on about global meltdown and drowning cities. We were warned about this by Al Gore. Remember him? Who cares who warned us, we just want a way to take advantage of it all and make a buck or two. Maybe one day, the true North will cost a lot more than free.