HOW CLIMATE CHANGE BENEFITS RUSSIA

How curbing climate change can prevent Russia from becoming a superpower

Mattthew Fleischer, March 12, 2014 (LA Times)

“…[T]wo-thirds of Russia’s land mass is currently buried under permafrost. Underneath that frost lie vast stores of nickel, cobalt, copper and diamonds --not to mention oil and natural gas...Melting of permafrost will further open up previously marginal or even unworkable lands to agriculture. Melting Arctic ice will create new shipping routes along Russia’s northern coast and will open up previously inaccessible oil and gas reserves. Russia’s warming has already helped the country hit record harvests…Continued warming could conceivably allow the country to become the world’s bread basket -- and control the planet’s food supply…Of course Russia [and the rest of the world] will face harsh consequences from global warming…The only difference is, we don’t have half-a-continent’s worth of untouched natural resources buried under permafrost to compensate for the deleterious consequences of climate change…[I]t doesn’t take that much effort to see a post-global warming Russia emerging as an unchecked superpower…” click here for more

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