The Canada-US Environmental Relationship
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200506000213 |
| Published date | 01 June 2005 |
| Date | 01 June 2005 |
| Author | Alan M. Schwartz |
| Subject Matter | Across the Border |
Alan
M. Schwartz
The Canada-US
environmental
relationship
Calm
waters but slow
sailing
Toxic
substances in the Great Lakes are causing concerns for
human
health
and have shown minimal improvement in the last decade. Degraded air
quality in
urban
areas along the border leads to air pollution alerts. New
species
introduced in terrestrial and aquatic environments are creating sig-
nificant
ecosystem changes. All these problems spill across the Canada-US
border, leading to potential disputes. However, at the present time there is
an unexpectedly smooth, well-functioning, bilateral environmental rela-
tionship with virtually none of the acrimony that marked the Great Lakes
pollution disputes of the
1970s,
the acid rain controversy of the 1980s, or
the
Pacific
Salmon
conflict
of the 1990s. That does not, however, mean it is
a
time of significant environmental improvement.
The
long-standing North American concern for cross-border environ-
mental issues makes sense when one looks even briefly at the shared geog-
raphy
of these two countries that leaves them environmentally exposed to
one another. They share the world's longest international border (approxi-
mately
8,000
km when the Alaskan border with Yukon and British
Columbia
is included) and four sea boundaries. They also share the world's
longest
international fresh water boundary, which
runs
2,700 km
through
the St. Lawrence River-Great Lakes region in eastern North America, a
region
that,
for the most
part,
is heavily populated and industrialized.
Alan
M.
Schwartz
is professor
of
environmental
studies
at St.
Lawrence
University.
I International journal |
Spring
2005
| 437 |
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