Nature’s Past Episode 12: Industrialization in Subarctic Environments

Scroll this
NP Logo 1x1 12 July 2016

Episode 12: Industrialization in Subarctic Environments

Download Audio

Subscribe

if_Google-Play_692176    if_Google-Play_692176    if_itunes_C_104830    if_icon-social-youtube_211929     if_073_RSS_183202   if_twitter_square_black_107068if_46-facebook_104458

Between 1920 and 1960, Canada’s northwest subarctic region experienced late-stage rapid industrialization along its large lakes. These included Lake Winnipeg, Lake Athabasca, Great Slave Lake, and Great Bear Lake. Powered by high-energy fossil fuels, the natural resources of the northwest were integrated into international commodity markets and distributed throughout the world. Whitefish from the large lakes found their way onto dinner plates in New York while uranium from Canada’s northwest fueled the world’s most destructive weapons, atomic bombs.

Professor Liza Piper joins us this month to discuss her new book The Industrial Transformation of Subarctic Canada from UBC Press. This book explores a region unfamiliar to most Canadians and how that space was transformed through industrial processes in the twentieth century. Rather than finding industrial technologies dominating the landscape of the northwest, Professor Piper found that humans used those technologies to assimilate nature.

Book Cover of Piper, Liza. "The Industrial Transformation of Subarctic Canada." Vancouver: UBC Press, 2009.

Guests:

Liza Piper

Works Cited:

Sean Kheraj, Canadian History & Environment

Piper, Liza. “The Industrial Transformation of Subarctic Canada.“ Vancouver: UBC Press, 2009.

Music Credits:

“R&R&R” by Pitx

“Hapbirmai” by Pitx

Photo Credit:

A miner hauling a car of silver radium ore, 340 feet below the surface, Eldorado Mine of Great Bear Lake. Credit: Eldorado Mining & Refining Ltd. / Library and Archives Canada / C-023983

Citation:

Kheraj, Sean. “Episode 12: Industrialization in Subarctic Environments.” Nature’s Past: Canadian Environmental History Podcast. 19 January 2010.

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy YouTube channel

Sean Kheraj

Associate Professor at York University, Department of History
Sean Kheraj is the director of the Network in Canadian History and Environment. He's an associate professor in the Department of History and associate dean of programs in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University. His research and teaching focuses on environmental and Canadian history. He is also the host and producer of Nature's Past, NiCHE's audio podcast series and he blogs at http://seankheraj.com.

1 Comment

NiCHE encourages comments and constructive discussion of our articles. We reserve the right to delete comments that fail to meet our guidelines including comments under aliases, or that contain spam, harassment, or attacks on an individual.