Climate risk planning for floods and droughts with a hint of Noah and Joseph

A team of researchers investigated the impact on health from floods and droughts between 2010 – 2020. Flooding can be caused by heavy rainfall, storm surges, tsunamis, snow and ice melt or damage to water infrastructure. Health impacts include injuries from flooding including collapsed buildings, floating objects, toxic water with increased pathogens. Regular flooding can…

Understanding rain, snow and cyclones across the Barents Sea

[Ed. Alexander Kislov and his team are some of Russia’s leading climate scientists] Interest in the effect of warming temperatures in the Arctic continues to grow, with researchers studying a range of impacts such as reduced sea ice, animal migration, flora changes and overall adaptation. However building an overall picture takes multiple projects and multiple…

Siberian trees are telling the humans it’s too hot !

Increases in sea ice melt, permafrost melt and wildfires are observed whilst Siberian temperatures continue to escalate beyond previous records, for example 38°C last year inside the Arctic Circle. To understand the changes, researchers looked at proxy records. Historically in the Siberian Arctic they have mostly included low-resolution pollen records and laminated lake sediments. They…

An unusually windy, high salt diet of the Arctic Ocean

An international collaboration with Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Russian Academy of Sciences monitored the causes, impacts of circulation and sea ice decline in the Arctic Ocean between 2000 – 2019. Sea ice decline, and atmospheric warming affect the distribution of fresh and saline water with the changing currents. The researchers created simulations…

Fair weather friends across Russian climate zones

Zolotrylin et al assessed the impact of climate change on Russians’ well-being in the face of increasing climate extremes. They measured the average daily temperatures, the characteristics of heat and cold waves, and precipitation over the period 1991–2013 across the country. The results show the significant increase of extreme weather events in Russia in comparison…

Between two extremes: temperature shocks and violence in Russia

Whilst global climate science states that an increase in frequency of extremely hot or cold days is one of the most challenging impacts of climate change, the impact of extreme temperature on human health remains understudied (IPCC, 2018). Researchers based at IOS, Leibniz and NOVA SBE, Portugal examined social costs of climate change in Russia,…