Arctic ice roads in jeopardy

by time news
Transport by truck, which represents 98% of the supply of the Gahcho Kué mine, in the Northwest Territories (NWT), costs infinitely less than that by air. Staff Photographer/Reuters Connect

DECRYPTION – Global warming threatens the ice roads, these routes essential to the economy of the Far North.

Montréal

The immense white desert stretches as far as the eye can see, 300 kilometers north of the capital of the Northwest Territories (NWT), Yellowknife. An icy blizzard swept through the cabin of a truck stop, where truckers warmed up near an old stove. It is from this road junction, located a few kilometers from the Gahcho Kué diamond mine, that the drivers will take their trucks on the nearby ice roads.

These frozen tracks, whose thickness is at least one meter, extend in the Canadian Arctic for approximately 8000 to 10,000 kilometers. Met near the truck stop, Kyle, an extreme trucker, pockets “$10,000 per month”more than five times the minimum wage to ferry goods from Yellowknife to Gahcho Kué.

An abnormal melting of the ice roads

The ice roads are essential to the survival of the mining economy of the Far North. The NWT diamond industry exports $2 billion worth of stones each year. It accounts for about 30%…

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