NWT gas emissions rising
Greenhouse gasses rising 2.7 times the rate of the rest of Canada

by Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 28/98) - Though the North only counts for 0.5 per cent of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, that pollution is growing fast.

In 1992, the North released 1.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. But by 1995, we were producing almost 2.3 million tonnes, an increase of 27 per cent, or almost three times the national rate.

"The NWT can't come up with any response until we know how we fit into the national picture (and strategy for reduction)," Jim Sparling, the air quality program co-ordinator with the federal Environmental Protection Service, said at a public meeting in Yellowknife this week.

Sparling said he expects the trend to have continued since 1995. "We're still underdeveloped, so it takes energy for that. And there's the cold temperatures up here."

Under the international agreement signed in Kyoto last year, Canada will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by six per cent by 2010, and carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas.

Scientists predict the doubling of emissions, which trap solar radiation, could result in melting permafrost, more northerly tree lines and a longer ice-free shipping season.

Over the past 100 years, the NWT temperature has risen about one and a half degrees in the Mackenzie Valley -- three times the global average -- but a small number of skeptical researchers say the increase may be the result of natural variations in the sun's output, rather then industrial activity.