Trump will use the Greenland argument to grab Canada's Northwest Passage |
Back when I was in law school there were two second-year classes taught by a beloved professor that basically every student wanted to get into. One focused on international armed conflict and the other focused on maritime law. The international armed conflict class came with a much heavier reading list, so along with a few friends of mine, we opted to register for the maritime law class, even if it was considered the least interesting class of the two.
Maritime law not only turned out to be incredibly interesting and a pleasure to study for, but it created an inside joke amongst my law school friends that we still use to this day whenever things look grim: “at least it’s not as bad as the Northwest Passage.”
The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the series of navigable maritime routes that run through Canada’s Arctic archipelago and has been a point of contention between Canada and the US for decades, with the US claiming the waters to be international while Canada — rightfully in this author’s opinion — claims the waters to be Canadian.
In 2011 when I took the class, things were already not looking great for the long-term viability of Canada’s claim to the NWP. But as my professor stressed to the class, climate change and melting sea ice meant things were going to get invariably worse for the NWP, along with Canada’s ability to maintain its Arctic sovereignty.
Hence, the inside joke. Things might not be going great in your own life, but whatever is happening, chances are it’s not as bad as what’s happening with the NWP.
Fast forward 15 years and the joke is as current and correct as ever. Except........