The Copenhagen Summit made climate changes topical in news. Interesting, but Yakutsk and I felt this fever as well. A couple weeks ago five western journalists arrived in Yakutsk to make reportages about the affects of global warming in Yakutsk. In the summer I helped two photographers Mathias Braschler & Monika Fischer, who searched persons with tumbledown houses for portraits to show in Copenhagen, and Jonathan Watts, a Beijin-based The Guardian correspondent.
Recently I have received similar requests from western journalists. The last one was from the Swedish Aftonbladet newspaper reporter. He asked the following questions and got my replies.
- I know this question seems awkward, but do you see any consequences of global warming in Yakutsk?
- As Jonathan Watts concluded, it depends on whom you ask about climate changes. Right. If you ask the Yakutsk Permafrost Institute experts, they will say that they didn’t record any evidence of the happening changes in local permafrost. If you ask local biologists, they will give a positive answer like “Yes, we noted, for instance, the migration of species and insects from south.”
- Someone said that houses in Yakutsk is actually sinking; some have sunk to their windows. Is that correct?
- There are a few wooden houses sunk as you described. But you will be disappointed. The reason of such building state is not global warming. It is because they were built directly on ground, not on concrete piles. Buildings give warmth, and frozen ground under starts being melted. If they are built on concrete piles and freezing systems are used, they stand okey. Right, till 60s local constructors didn’t use pile, because such technology wasn’t invented at that time.
Btw, this summer a few photographers and a Guardian reporter visited Yakutsk and asked the same questions to a deputy chief of the Permafrost Institute. They’ve heard such an answer and that wasn’t what they wanted to hear. However, they took photos of those sunk houses and presumed what could happen to buildings, if the global warming will gain ground here.
Similar Posts:
- Yakutsk Permafrost Institute: Why did climate changes not affect permafrost in Yakutia?
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