I’m in Resolute, Nunavut, Canada,
the last stop on my Arctic voyage.
It is one of the most northern and coldest inhabited places in the world,
and the only reason I'm allowed to film here right now
is because we have someone on polar bear watch.
There is some evidence of prehistoric settlement here,
but this town didn’t exist until 1947,
when the US and Canada built a weather station here,
and it wasn’t populated until 1953,
when the government of Canada forcibly resettled Inuit from Northern Quebec here
as part of a power play in the Cold War.
The High Arctic relocation is a dark chapter in Canada’s history,
and the stories of those who were moved into appalling conditions,
are tales best told by people who were there, not some British tourist.
There are links in the description for context,
and I strongly recommend you watch them.
But what I can talk about is why the 1950s Canadian government
thought it was worth uprooting people from their homes
and moving them this far north.
The North Pole, and most of the Arctic Ocean, are international waters.
There’s no land below the ice,
so they’re treated the same as the Atlantic or Pacific.
But unlike countries further south,
where it’s easy to say where your coastline ends and the sea begins,
up here in the north it’s a little bit more complicated.
In the fifties, there was an open legal question:
if no one lived on these northern islands,
if they’re not even habitable,
could they really be part of Canada?
Particularly when the United States is sending hundreds of soldiers up here
to stake a claim, to shore up the defense against Soviet Russia.
The shortest route from Russia to America for aircraft carrying nuclear bombs,
and later, for intercontinental ballistic missiles,
was over the North Pole.
Over here.
Over Resolute.
And while the Canadian government were happy to co-operate with America,
they were not about to risk being pushed out.
The government's solution, back then:
move some people who they think don’t matter,
and make it clear to the world:
this is Canadian territory.
Look.
Canadians live here.
The repercussions from that still go on today,
and so does the argument about sovereignty up here:
just for different reasons.
Because while the Cold War has ended,
and missiles will hopefully not be flying over the North Pole any time soon,
there is now a very different question.
Climate change means that the Northwest Passage,
the once legendary sea route through the north of Canada,
is now theoretically open for shipping a few months a year.
The north of Canada is not just frozen ice that goes all the way to the pole,
and most of the maps you see are really misleading.
This here is one of a cluster of islands,
nowhere near as big as they look on most maps,
and if there’s no ice between them, it’s a shortcut.
The Arctic is now a possible route between Europe and the west coast of America,
instead of going through the Panama Canal:
and that cuts over 4000 miles off the journey.
And the first cruise ship has already gone through:
by the time you watch this, it will have gone through.
And it's not an old icebreaker with a hundred people on it like I’m travelling on,
but a massive cruise ship with thousands of people,
eight restaurants, and a casino.
Like it or not, this town, this space here:
this is part of a tourist route now.
Now, Canada says some of the Northwest Passage is part of their territorial waters,
almost like a big, wide river.
Anyone going through should be cleared with them,
be subject to Canadian law, and perhaps in future,
they should pay a tax.
The US and Europe?
They say it’s international waters and they can do whatever they want.
And the consequences could be serious:
if this does become a major shipping route,
then sooner or later there’s going to be a major shipping accident,
particularly if climate change brings unpredictable storms to the ocean here.
The idea of more oil being spilled in the Arctic is worrying a lot of people.
In a few decades, as the ice melts, more channels open,
and drilling for oil and gas becomes possible,
our next international battles,
political or otherwise, might be for the Arctic:
not just about who owns it, but for its entire future.
Hi, I'm Chris Hadfield, this is...
I'm Tom Scott!
This is Tom Scott, we're here in the Arctic.
That's it from Generator Arctic!
That's all!
Thank you very much!
It's been an incredible experience, thanks for coming along,
and go the web site that's written, you can see all the details.
And go see their show, Massey Hall, November 12th...
November 12th in Toronto!
Chris, there's the camera, take it, go for it!
Take it, submerge it, go!
Hey, it's not so bad!