Business interrupted: remote resources and environmental knowledge flows in times of global crisis (Alcan and Greenland 1940–1945)

Abstract

This article examines the process through which the Aluminium Company of Canada (Alcan) obtained information regarding the Greenlandic cryolite industry during World War 2 in order to explore the ways in which distance affects the circulation of environmental knowledge for resource extraction in times of crisis. It argues that the war forced Alcan to radically alter its means of acquiring information about the Greenlandic operations. The information eventually acquired about the nature of the cryolite mine revealed the environmental and logistical challenges of doing business in the Arctic, and encouraged the company to seek synthetic alternatives to the scarce natural resource it obtained from the region.