According to Natural Resources Canada, Canada has 243,042 km of coastline - way more than any other country in the world. The entry goes on to explain that "coastline" is in fact a lower number than "shoreline", because in some cases the measurement of "coastline" may skip over certain small bays whereas "shoreline" gives the more accurate measurement.
According to Wikipedia, Canada has 202,080 km. of coastline and the country with the next largest amount, Indonesia, has only 54,716 km. Anyway, regardless of who or how it is measured, clearly Canada is way ahead on this resource.
This may be the one natural resource that we have in the most abundance in comparison to the other countries of the world. Canada also has more surface area of water than any other country, and is obviously the second largest country of all.
The reason Canada's coastline is so long is first of all because of the large number of islands in the far north as well as the fact that we border on three oceans, not to mention the vast coastline of Hudson Bay.
Anyway, ever since I became aware of this strange phenomenon, I have been thinking that it would be interesting if someone would figure out how we could take advantage of this asset. I must admit I have thought about it a little and haven't come up with anything.
It would stand to reason that we could run a lot of tidal power stations - although a lot of the coastline is frozen over for a large part of the year. Offshore wind generators would be another thing. Maybe fish farms? These are the obvious suggestions. What about innovations?
Another related characteristic: The huge amount of salt water contained within the borders of Canada. Canada's internal marine waters are vastly larger than any other country's.
This needs to be further considered.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)