Last summer's record high temperatures did not just bring Miami heat to Moscow. Droughts destroyed one third of the nation's grain crops, causing $1.3 billion in losses to farmers.
Around Moscow, fires smoldered unchecked in dried out peat bogs, filling the capital with woodsmoke. According to new figures, Moscow alone saw 9,000 extra deaths in August - almost a 70 percent jump in the mortality rate. Across Russia, the mortality rate jumped by more than one quarter.
According to a new survey, one third of Russians polled attributed the fires to global warming. An overwhelming majority expected a repeat of the fires next summer.
Igor Chestin, executive director of WWF Russia, has watched the change in public attitudes in a nation that relies heavily on its oil and gas exports:
"The public does not think they can do anything about it," said Chestin. "It is just something that happens, but it is not in their hands."
At the Arctic conference, Alexander Bedritsky, the Kremlin's advisor on climate change, said that temperatures in the Russian arctic had increased twice as fast as in the rest of the world.
Last week, a Norwegian trimaran, the Northern Passage, completed circling the North Pole in a single summer season. With much of the route going through Russian waters, the crew said in a statement: "Less than 10 years ago, the first steel-hulled sailboat managed to get through just one of the passages, and 100 years ago, a circumnavigation would have taken six years."
Russians Take Another Look at Global Warming | Europe | English
Around Moscow, fires smoldered unchecked in dried out peat bogs, filling the capital with woodsmoke. According to new figures, Moscow alone saw 9,000 extra deaths in August - almost a 70 percent jump in the mortality rate. Across Russia, the mortality rate jumped by more than one quarter.
According to a new survey, one third of Russians polled attributed the fires to global warming. An overwhelming majority expected a repeat of the fires next summer.
Igor Chestin, executive director of WWF Russia, has watched the change in public attitudes in a nation that relies heavily on its oil and gas exports:
"The public does not think they can do anything about it," said Chestin. "It is just something that happens, but it is not in their hands."
At the Arctic conference, Alexander Bedritsky, the Kremlin's advisor on climate change, said that temperatures in the Russian arctic had increased twice as fast as in the rest of the world.
Last week, a Norwegian trimaran, the Northern Passage, completed circling the North Pole in a single summer season. With much of the route going through Russian waters, the crew said in a statement: "Less than 10 years ago, the first steel-hulled sailboat managed to get through just one of the passages, and 100 years ago, a circumnavigation would have taken six years."
Russians Take Another Look at Global Warming | Europe | English
