INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
And the cause is not humans, but the interplay between the Sun and Earth
Currently, we are in a favorable period, but we will inevitably transition to an unfavorable [cold] one ..
sciences, cited his studies of Lake Baikal and historic climate epochs, warning "When the ice age comes, you will feel it immediately."His
claims stand in stark contrast to the global scientific consensus on manmade climate change and the ongoing warming trend highlighted by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an internationally accepted authority.Though Russia is warming 2.5 times as fast as the
rest of the planet, some of its scientists, RAS members and public figures regularly voice denials of climate science, sowing confusion
experience was related to skeptics
[Arctic Russian region] with a geologist who was a skeptic
When I asked him, 'What do you think about climate change?' he stood up, looked pointedly at the surrounding tundra and said, 'As a
geologist, I don't see anything here.' Well, indeed, what can a geologist, who measures everything in hundreds of thousands of years, see in
climate crisis, framing them as dwarfed by the superior forces of nature, Michael Yulkin, a climate change expert and visiting lecturer at
BY-SA 3.0)Present-day Russian TV viewers may get the impression that climate change is not an established fact
In doubt-inducing programs regularly aired by Russian state channels in the last decade, audiences are confronted with the message that the
climate debate is ongoing and that theories of imminent global cooling hold equal credibility to the consensus on human-induced warming
Perhaps the climate apocalypse exists only in the inflamed minds of people, frightened by global media and the shocking predictions of
At least, when I talk to students and to businesspeople
climate deniers do affect public opinion, pointing to the fact that survey results in Russia usually show less agreement with the
causes a cognitive explosion in their minds and they adopt the traditional, age-old Russian position of 'everything is not so
straightforward, so I don't trust anyone'."Despite the presence of climate deniers, Russia also has many scientists and institutions that
affiliated institutions, which regularly produce sound climate reports
The RAS itself has a Scientific Council on Earth Climate Issues, which kicked off a major climate conference in Moscow last week.Moreover,
the Soviet school had such renowned scientists as Mikhail Budyko, who warned that industrial activities would lead to global climate change
in the early 1970s, long before it became common knowledge worldwide.Remains of Soviet polar equipment on Hayes Island, Franz Josef
Land.Timinilya (CC BY-SA 4.0)The existence of a science-based narrative appears not to have convinced ordinary Russians of the urgency of
Though skeptics make up a minority of Russian respondents (from one-quarter to one-third), Russia ranked among the countries least worried
about climate change in a 2022 global survey, while in a 2016 poll Russia had the highest proportion of climate skeptics among 23 polled
countries.Ambiguity can also be found in Russian officials' rhetoric
from us."President Vladimir Putin has voiced mixed rhetoric on climate during his two decades in power, from famously joking in 2003 that
officials the flexibility to adapt their rhetoric to shifting political circumstances, Yulkin noted
He believes the Russian government lacks its own climate position and mostly reacts to instructions coming from the presidential
decisions, but they can serve as voices for a counter-narrative legitimizing this fossil fuel-based policy," they said.RAS did not respond
