The Coming War With Canada

And we can thank global warming for the chance to right one of the great accidents of history--that Canada didn't end up as part of the Union. This according to a new report by the Oxford Research Group on the threat to international security posed by climate change:

Climate change-related issues also have the potential to cause international legal disputes as the world map is redrawn. As coastlines retreat due to erosion and flooding, then maritime borders and the associated exclusive economic zones might also have to change, as a country's ocean territory is legally determined by its land territory. Another possibility is that the evacuation or even physical disappearance of low-lying small island states - such as Tuvalu in the South Pacific - could result in challenges to sovereignty as the current qualifications defining the existence of a state include a permanent population and a defined territory.

Further disputes might also be expected as ice melting opens up viable shipping routes through the Arctic - for example the Northwest Passage, where there are already military tensions between Canada and the United States.

Yes, those simmering military tensions in the Beaufort Sea may erupt into unrestrained conflict at any moment. And in case this analysis doesn't entice you to read the report in its entirety, the authors have conveniently boiled down their assessment of the situation into this simple flow chart: