Global warming to boost economic power of cities in the 'New North' which can unlock natural resources

By Niall Firth

Global warming will make cities in northern countries like Canada and Scandinavia the next big global economic powers, a senior academic has predicted.
Rising temperatures will mean that previously frozen natural resources like gas, oil and water will be unlocked just as the rest of the world is facing dramatic shortages.
Professor Laurence Smith, a UCLA professor of geography and of earth and space sciences, claims that sparsely populated parts of world like the northern US, Greenland and Russia will become 'migration magnets' as people flock to the new centres of global power
‘In many ways, the New North is well positioned for the coming century even as its unique ecosystem is threatened by the linked forces of hydrocarbon development and amplified climate change,’ writes Professor Smith in a new book about the effects of climate change.