Russia Is Burning!

Climate change denialists around the world have been dealt a fatal blow as the Russian government signals a change of attitude about man-made global warming. As 6 weeks of drought and record breaking high temperatures sweep across Russia, wildfires have engulfed 14 regions and destroyed thousands of homes. Twenty-five percent of the Russian grain crop has reportedly been destroyed and record prices for wheat have doubled in a single week.

According to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev: “practically everything is burning. The weather is anomalously hot.” “What’s happening with the planet’s climate right now needs to be a wake-up call to all of us, meaning all heads of state, all heads of social organizations, in order to take a more energetic approach to countering the global changes to the climate.”  (Time magazine  August 2010)

This is an amazing change of attitude for a major head of state and signals a shift in policy for Russia that may lead to a new era of cooperation to reduce CO2 gas emissions from fossil fuel burning. Russia, as one of the world’s largest exporters of oil and gas, has steadfastly denied that man-made global warming and human caused climate change exists.

Histon and Impington residents who tune into Freeview’s Russia Today TV channel have seen the devastation for themselves.  Moscow remains choked with smoke from burning wildfires throughout the region.  Temperatures rose to record highs last week at 38C and are expected to rise to over 40C today and throughout the month of August.  In many areas the ground itself is on fire as peat bogs which have been dried by the heat self-ignite. The live TV scenes look like a Hollywood-style horror film.

Scientists have been warning of such events for years.  Weather extremes, both hot and cold, are predicted to become more numerous and more severe as climate change grips the planet. Extreme drought and wildfires as well as torrential rains and flooding are to be expected in nearly every region of the earth. The latter can be seen in daily TV reports of the devastation in Pakistan where rainfall in a single day exceeded the previous monthly record set in 1956. Agriculture will become less and less reliable as the weather becomes more freakish and the resultant food shortages will drive prices to unprecedented levels bringing mass starvation to many populations. That, in turn, will cause extreme conflict as a massive wave of desperate human climate refugees seek new homes. 

Climate change is largely caused by human activity that has dramatically increased the amount of green house gases like CO2 and methane in the earth’s atmosphere, This traps natural sunlight and gradually increases the planet’s temperature. Ironically, the Copenhagen Climate conference in December 2009 failed to agree on an international plan of action to reduce green house gas emissions, in part, due to the opposition of Russia. The theft of private e-mails from the University of East Anglia and the subsequent turmoil of ‘climate gate’ allegations was also linked to Russian agents. 

For years scientists have pointed out that as the world’s temperature increases ‘tipping points’ will be reached.  These include intense wild fires and the destruction of peat bogs – both of which release massive amounts of additional CO2 into the atmosphere.  That extra CO2 increases the pace of global temperature rise which leads to more fires, and so on.  This quickly surpasses the ability of humans to control climate and leads us into a future that is very bleak. 

This summer we are seeing what the future may be like, and it is not pleasant.  This is our wake-up call, too. The ‘precautionary principle’ says we must act now, not tomorrow or next year, to cut CO2 emissions.  The technology to do this has existed for at least the past 25 years, if not longer.  Insulate your home. Consider installing solar panels to generate electricity and hot water.  Drive and fly less.  Support efforts to build a low carbon economy. Don’t sit back and think that someone else will do this for you. 

A vision of our ‘hellish’ future has unfolded before our eyes. We must act now to prevent it from happening. We have the means but do we have the will?  Failure is not an option.