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Posted on Sun, Aug. 05, 2007
Green living: Russian officials are putting upbeat spin on global warming
By ALASTAIR GEE
Cox News Service
"Global climate change means “we’ll spend less on fur coats,” Russian President Vladimir Putin quipped in 2003.
But increasingly, Russia’s official stand on global warming seems to be: Why worry?
While global concerns about climate change conjure images of melting ice caps, submerged cities and massive droughts, some Russian experts are hailing global warming as the answer to Russia’s prayers.
As the long and dreary Russian winters become balmier, billions of dollars will be saved on heating and there will be fewer cases of depression, says Vladimir Klimenko, a professor at the Moscow Energy Institute, whose lab is funded by the state-run oil and gas company.
Agriculture ravaged by the cold and 70 years of Soviet collectivization will blossom, and watermelons could grow in Moscow, he said.
In the land of frozen tundra and winters that drag on into June, politicians and scientists are welcoming climate change as a panacea, not a harbinger of environmental apocalypse.
“For our great northern country, I don’t today see any imminent problems for the next 100 years at least,” said Konstantin Pulikovsky, who heads up Russia’s environmental regulatory agency.
The upbeat assessment comes as Russia is bolstered by massive oil and gas wealth. It has led to calls for the Kremlin to abandon the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty mandating the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, which Russia approved in 2004. While the United States signed the treaty, the Bush administration has not submitted it to Congress for ratification.
Critics, however, say the “good for Russia” argument ignores key problems.
“Because of drought, we’ll lose a major part of the most productive soil of Russia,” said Vladimir Chuprov, head of the energy department at Greenpeace Russia. “As a result, Russia will receive millions of climate migrants — farmers that can’t work anymore.”
Melting permafrost could destroy Russian cities above the Arctic Circle. Icebergs that break off from arctic ice sheets because of higher temperatures will make it difficult to exploit oil and gas reserves. And any money saved on winter heaters could be needed for air conditioners if summers heat up.
“We think Russia will lose more than it gains, like the whole planet,” Chuprov said.
Meanwhile, the Russian parliament is debating whether global warming exists.
Russia is not the only northern nation to consider the benefits of warming. The United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway, along with Russia, are haggling over rights to the resource-rich Arctic, which may soon be free of ice.
Some economists predict that summer tourism will increase in Scandinavia as countries such as Spain and Italy become too hot.
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Is this good for the country?
In an April survey of 1,600 people by Russian state polling agency VTsIOM, 18 percent said they thought climate change would benefit Russia, while 59 percent said it would not.
In Siberia, 29 percent said the changes would be positive.
Of course, you have the obligatory Greenpeace lefty wacko treehugging p*ssy who has to chime in, but he offers nothing but specious arguments.
Green living: Russian officials are putting upbeat spin on global warming
By ALASTAIR GEE
Cox News Service
"Global climate change means “we’ll spend less on fur coats,” Russian President Vladimir Putin quipped in 2003.
But increasingly, Russia’s official stand on global warming seems to be: Why worry?
While global concerns about climate change conjure images of melting ice caps, submerged cities and massive droughts, some Russian experts are hailing global warming as the answer to Russia’s prayers.
As the long and dreary Russian winters become balmier, billions of dollars will be saved on heating and there will be fewer cases of depression, says Vladimir Klimenko, a professor at the Moscow Energy Institute, whose lab is funded by the state-run oil and gas company.
Agriculture ravaged by the cold and 70 years of Soviet collectivization will blossom, and watermelons could grow in Moscow, he said.
In the land of frozen tundra and winters that drag on into June, politicians and scientists are welcoming climate change as a panacea, not a harbinger of environmental apocalypse.
“For our great northern country, I don’t today see any imminent problems for the next 100 years at least,” said Konstantin Pulikovsky, who heads up Russia’s environmental regulatory agency.
The upbeat assessment comes as Russia is bolstered by massive oil and gas wealth. It has led to calls for the Kremlin to abandon the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty mandating the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, which Russia approved in 2004. While the United States signed the treaty, the Bush administration has not submitted it to Congress for ratification.
Critics, however, say the “good for Russia” argument ignores key problems.
“Because of drought, we’ll lose a major part of the most productive soil of Russia,” said Vladimir Chuprov, head of the energy department at Greenpeace Russia. “As a result, Russia will receive millions of climate migrants — farmers that can’t work anymore.”
Melting permafrost could destroy Russian cities above the Arctic Circle. Icebergs that break off from arctic ice sheets because of higher temperatures will make it difficult to exploit oil and gas reserves. And any money saved on winter heaters could be needed for air conditioners if summers heat up.
“We think Russia will lose more than it gains, like the whole planet,” Chuprov said.
Meanwhile, the Russian parliament is debating whether global warming exists.
Russia is not the only northern nation to consider the benefits of warming. The United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway, along with Russia, are haggling over rights to the resource-rich Arctic, which may soon be free of ice.
Some economists predict that summer tourism will increase in Scandinavia as countries such as Spain and Italy become too hot.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is this good for the country?
In an April survey of 1,600 people by Russian state polling agency VTsIOM, 18 percent said they thought climate change would benefit Russia, while 59 percent said it would not.
In Siberia, 29 percent said the changes would be positive.
Of course, you have the obligatory Greenpeace lefty wacko treehugging p*ssy who has to chime in, but he offers nothing but specious arguments.