Justin Trudeau: ‘Climate Change’ Makes Canada Easier for Russia to Attack

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described “climate change” as a threat to Canadian national security during a press conference on Friday in Cold Lake, Alberta, alleging that global warming increases Russian military “accessibility” to Canada’s Arctic north.

Trudeau was joined by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as they delivered remarks on what they both described as the dangers of “climate change” to the “security” of Canada, the United States, and Europe.

Canadian military personnel, Trudeau claimed, must change their methods of operation to deal with changing terrain due to “climate change,” which he described as a “risk multiplier” amplifying the likelihood of armed conflict around the world.

He remarked:

Yesterday, Secretary General Stoltenberg and I visited Cambridge Bay in Nunavut. We toured a north warning system site and the Canadian High Arctic Research Station. We spent a lot of time with Inuit community leaders.

We heard about the ways global warning is changing the Arctic environment, and changing the very terrain on which our Canadian Armed Forces operate. 

It is clear to researchers, military experts, and both the Secretary General and I that climate change is a risk multiplier. Not only are wildfires and floods increasing aid demands on the CAF, but globally, climate change is raising the risk of conflict. We need to take action to address its impacts on national and international security.

Stoltenberg used “climate change” as a substitute for claims of anthropogenic global warming, which he alleged is melting Arctic ice. He remarked, “Climate change is making the High North more important, because the ice is melting, and it becomes more accessible both for economic activity and for military activity.”

“Security challenges in the High North are exaggerated by climate change,” Stoltenberg added. “Climate change will require us to transform — fundamentally — our approach to security and defense.”

Trudeau echoed Stoltenberg’s claims that “climate change” makes Canada and Europe more accessible to military threats from Russia:

I think we understand that a number of factors are going into putting the Arctic in play as a security concern. 

It has been to all of our credit that over the past many decades we have been able to work with partners and adversaries, including Russia, to keep militarization of the Arctic to a minimum, but the context is changing now for two reasons.

Obviously climate change is creating greater accessibility to the Arctic and bringing with it real concerns and challenges around that. 

“Climate change” was mentioned 11 times in total by both Trudeau and Stoltenberg across the half-hour press conference.