RANVIR S. NAYAR: Remote locations on the northern fringes of the planet seem to be taking turns in making global headlines. Last year, several Russian villages in Siberia that had perhaps never even made it to newspapers in Moscow were ruling news agendas across the world, as unprecedented fires burned down vast tracts of forest. And, last week, Lytton — a tiny town in northwest Canada — made headlines as it registered the country’s highest-ever temperature, a searing 49.6 degrees Celsius. Soon enough, the entire region was engulfed in flames, forcing residents to flee, just like their Siberian counterparts.

It is not just Canada that has been on the boil, but also the US, where roads have melted and residents in New York were told not to use their air conditioners or other high-energy equipment in order to prevent a collapse of the power grid. Meanwhile, Moscow has reported its own highest ever June temperature, while Arctic Circle temperatures reached the unprecedented level of 30 degrees Celsius.

The intensity and location of this heatwave may have been surprising, but scientists have been warning for decades that climate change is happening and will only worsen each year if humans do not drastically minimize the damaging impacts their activities have on the global environment.

Scientists are now warning that heatwaves that set new records each year could be a reality by the turn of the century. The only way for us to escape that catastrophe is by dramatically changing the way we deal with nature. Some say that, without any human influence on climate change — i.e., carbon dioxide emissions — the heatwaves burning the region may have only occurred once every 10,000 years. However, currently they can occur every 15 years, and this number has been falling dramatically over the past four decades in the face of rising emissions.

After decades of dogged resistance, some global political leaders seem to have acknowledged this harsh truth. Notably, US President Joe Biden last week said that climate change was driving the “dangerous confluence of extreme heat and prolonged drought.” This is already a sharp improvement on his predecessor, who until January set the policies of the world’s largest per capita polluter by actually weakening environmental regulations and encouraging mining, drilling and manufacturing companies to carry on as they pleased.

Fortunately, he has been cast aside by American voters. But neither Biden nor his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau, or any other major leaders in the Arctic region, have taken any of the actions that need to be taken immediately to roll back carbon dioxide emissions.

In 2015, at the Paris Climate Change Conference, global leaders set themselves an ambitious, but highly vague, target of curbing the rise in global temperatures, and left it up to each nation to come up with its own action plan. The agreement included several milestones. Unfortunately, each of those milestones has been missed by almost every nation, resulting in a spike in carbon dioxide emissions.

And countries in the Arctic region have done precious little to cut the amount of drilling for oil and gas carried out in the region, causing monumental pollution. Canada and its Prime Minister Trudeau present themselves as flag bearers for the environment at most forums, but when it comes to the extremely controversial activity of extracting oil from tar sands — one of the least efficient and most polluting ways to extract hydrocarbons — Trudeau has allowed his political limitations to get the better of his environmentalist instincts. As a result, Canada continues to produce oil from tar sands, with one of its provinces, Alberta, home to the world’s third-largest proven reserves of 170 billion barrels. But extraction here has already been classified as the world’s most destructive oil field. Lured by the riches this has showered on Alberta, numerous other

Canadian provinces are pushing to expand their own production, at a severe cost to the environment as well as Canada’s image as an ecologically sensitive country.

But Canada is hardly the only country guilty of putting money before reason. In January, the US under Donald Trump auctioned off sites for oil extraction in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which could have a severe impact not just on the rare wildlife and other biodiversity in this Alaskan region, but could also play havoc with climate change. Fortunately, Biden last month suspended the leases, but his administration will be under tremendous pressure from the oil companies, which could potentially sue the government, and local elected officials, most of them Republicans, who dismiss climate change as a hoax even in this day and age.

Norway is another country that is at the forefront of the battle to preserve our environment. It is one of the larger oil producers, with about 2 million barrels per day in 2020. Most of Norway’s oil comes from the North Sea and its production has been rising.

Bordering Norway, Russia is one of the world’s largest producers of oil and gas. A lot of its resources come from the Arctic region and its share has been rising. The Russian Ministry of Energy says the region accounted for 11.8 percent of the country’s total output in 2007, rising to 17.6 percent in 2017. It is expected to make up 26 percent by 2035.

The temptation of raiding the Arctic is huge for political leaders and oil companies alike. According to the US Geological Survey, the Arctic Circle holds about 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered gas and 13 percent of its oil. As costs related to older oil fields rise and as regional leaders seek new ways to fill their coffers, this temptation will not go away easily.

But the lust for lucre has already proven to be too great, not just for these countries but the entire globe. The cost will only keep increasing each year. Short-termism has already cost the planet a lot; now business and political leaders need to move away from it and see the priceless benefits of saving the environment.

Author: Ranvir S. Nayar is managing editor of Media India Group, a global platform based in Europe and India, which encompasses publishing, communication, and consultation services.