The Environmental Impact of the Second World War in Canada

 The Second World is often thought of in terms of destruction: in the West and East of Europe especially, historical narratives often emphasize the weaponry and technology that crushed cities, ended the lives of millions of people, and laid waste to the environment. While the brunt of the damage was suffered by the countries on whose land the war was fought, other nations further removed from the conflict felt the impact of the war upon their lands as well, often as sources or suppliers of multiple kinds of resources. Canada was one such country: when Britain lost their remaining allies and was cut off from their usual routes of supply, Canada became one of their biggest sources of goods, materials, and natural resources. However the processes of manufacturing or extracting these supplies leveled an unparalleled impact on Canada’s environments during this time. Terrain across the country, although particularly in Ontario and Quebec at the center of Canada, was fundamentally altered to support the already high and rapidly growing demands for products and supplies. Two of Canada’s biggest contributions to the Allies lay in the manufacture of aluminum and aluminum products, and in providing hydroelectricity to power the war effort. Providing and maintaining both resulted in drastic restructuring and reshaping of the landscape: factories were necessary to manufacture goods, processing facilities were needed to prepare the materials, and power was essential to increase in order to support the needs of factories and processing facilities, all of which was facilitated by the construction of buildings and other infrastructure. The construction that created the necessary facilities had some of the most visible impacts: the Shipshaw Dams and accompanying power plant on the Saguenay River in Quebec are prime examples of the extensive alterations made both to the geography and ecology of the environment. These would be used to supply hydroelectricity to locations such as the Arvida Aluminum Complex, also located in Quebec. As Canada’s largest aluminum processing and preparation facility during the war, Arvida was also one of the largest to engage in toxic and harmful practices to produce aluminum, and in such great quantities. Aluminum plants supplied factories such as the Canadian Car & Foundry located in Ontario, which produced airplanes and other aluminum based products during the war, and in doing so added their own pollution and waste products to the mix. Though often the last point of consideration, the impacts of construction, extraction, and production involved in the manufacture of aluminum, aluminum products, and the increase of hydroelectricity caused fundamental changes to the environment in Canada, changes which were often permanent and could be quite harmful in the long term. Comparing photographs from before and after these alterations took place helps to illustrate the blunt impact of the changes made to the environment, and the sheer magnitude of the transformation that took place. The impact of the Second World War upon the environment is important to take note of in that the environment became just one of the many casualties of total war, in ways that are still apparent in and relevant to the modern age.