Energy policy in the 21^st century is being rewritten, repurposed and redirected almost weekly. Fundamental changes in the ways we drive the economies of the world are underway. A lifestyle predicated on limitless supplies of energy-dense fossil fuels suddenly poses questions for which there are not yet answers. A growing consensus about the extent of the problem fractures the moment people turn their minds to solutions.

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In a warming global climate, some of the most dramatic changes are happening in the coldest reaches of the country. In Canada’s Arctic the ice cap is retreating, coasts are eroding, the permafrost is becoming impermanent with disastrous consequence for the communities built on shifting grounds. At the same time, resources once sealed in a frozen landscape are attracting the attention of developers. 

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Very few Canadians can appreciate the scale of looming global water difficulties — virtually every population centre of any size in the country sits beside a lake or river of seemingly inexhaustible proportions. Yet the use of Canadian water requires calm consideration now, before decisions are forced upon us by urgent political demand or natural crisis. Water is essential, and the water resource is therefore a social opportunity.

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