• Climate Change

Russia Announces Comprehensive Climate Adaptation Plan

• adaptation
• Arctic
• climate change
• permafrost
• Russia
• wildfires

The Russian government last week made public its plan to adapt its economy to both mitigate against the damages caused by climate change, but also “use the advantages” of warming, according to The Guardian.

Why This Matters: Russia is not ignoring the impacts of climate change — it is one of the most impacted nations — Russia is warming 2.5 times faster than the planet as a whole, on average

• Forests

Wildfires in Siberia Force Government To Declare An Emergency

• Arctic
• climate change
• Russia
• Siberia
• state of emergency
• wildfire

Wildfires raging across Siberia this year have reached historic levels — It is estimated that the fires released 300 megatonnes of carbon dioxide in July, the most since satellite records began around two decades ago. In response, the government declared a state of emergency for five regions of Siberia — with the “acrid smoke” impacting both small settlements and “major cities in Western Siberia and the Altai region as well as the Urals such as Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg,” and even disrupting air travel. 

• Animals

One suspicious thing: Beluga in Norway thought to be a Russian spy

• beluga whale
• Norway
• Russia
• spy
• whale

Last week Norwegian fisherman spotted a beluga whale exhibiting atypical behavior and wearing a harness with the inscription “Equipment of St. Petersburg.” As the Washington Post explained, “Researchers say that the harness could have carried weapons or cameras, triggering new speculations about a sea mammal special operations program that the Russian navy is believed to […]

• Air

Coal dust causes black snow in Russia

• air pollution
• coal
• Russia

As CBS News reported, a pall of eerie black snow has covered several towns in the Siberian region of Kuzbass, which is home to 2.6 million people and one of the world’s largest coal fields. According to the Guardian and the Siberian Times, the snow is tainted with toxic black coal dust that was released into the air from open coal pits and improperly maintained factories in the region.