Thawing, Collapsing Permafrost Costing Russian Energy Companies Billions Annually -

[hatrack]

MOSCOW — Thawing permafrost caused by global warming is costing Russian energy firms billions of dollars annually in damage control and shrinking Russia's territory, Greenpeace warned in a new study Friday. According to the report by the environmental watchdog, up to 55 billion roubles (1.9 billion dollars) a year is spent on repairs to infrastructure and pipelines damaged by changes in the permafrost in western Siberia.

"For Russia, the biggest threat of the permafrost melt is to oil and gas company infrastructure," said Vladimir Chuprov, who heads Greenpeace's energy programme in Russia.

He said that the group had consulted with experts at gas giant Gazprom in writing its report, which detailed the destruction to infrastructure such as pipelines caused by rising temperatures and resulting melt water. "These are people who see what is happening and are already feeling the economic consequences of it," he told reporters in Moscow.

Russia's main raw export industries are spread across the Siberian permafrost, which makes up over 60 percent of its territory and includes 20 cities and several hundred thousand people. The permafrost thaw has accelerated in recent years and Russia is now shrinking by 30 square kilometres (12 square miles) per year as icey territory disappears from the coastline, one of the authors of the report, Oleg Anisimov, warned.

EDIT

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iesjZnrOaRl4RApFHjQohNZUyWrg

[NickB79]

1. Yet oddly enough, Russia is a hotbed for global warming denialism. NT

[sudopod]

2. Funny how having an economy largely based around fossil fuel extraction

can do that. :p

[sudopod]

3. K n R

because no one can claim that Russia doesn't exist, though bits of it may be obscured by Putin's menacing brow.

[pscot]

4. Luckily, Russian population

is shrinking faster than the Russian coastline.

[Hekate]

5. Alaska is also largely permafrost isn't it? A few years ago I read that untold amounts of greenhouse

... gases are locked up in the frozen vegetation from eons past, to be released when this stuff thaws out and decays. No, no linky, just memory.

Hekate

[Javaman]

6. Yayyyyy!!! here comes the methane!!! Yayyyyy!!! nt