By Oleg Yegorov
Wall of water kills scores in Russia (click here)
With average annual temperatures (click here) rising in Russia twice as fast as elsewhere in the world, the country will face serious challenges, including natural disasters and economic losses.
Russia is getting warmer, and not in a good way, say officials at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. A recently-released government report on the state of the environment (link in Russian) says: “The pace of temperature increase in Russia is faster than the average on Earth in the period 1976-2017; the average annual temperature in the world rose by 0.18°C in a decade, while in Russia the same index was 0.45°C.”
In other words, global warming is real everywhere, but it’s happening faster in Russia. Why?
Not so cold anymore
“This is common in northern countries, namely Russia and Canada,” said Vladimir Chuprov, the head of the energy program at Greenpeace Russia, in an interview. “All countries in the North feel the consequences of global warming quicker than those in equatorial or tropical regions because their permafrost layers are slowly melting.”
Winters in Russia (and Canada) used to be far harsher a half a century ago, with average temperatures since decreasing to -40°C to -50°C each year, said Chuprov. Though zones with cold extremes remain, today the general picture has changed: the average temperature in winter rarely falls below -30°C....
