Global Warming

Global Warming, Drought Drying Up Siberian Rivers, Cutting Off Far North

Global warming combined with the most serious drought in more than 30 years has led both to massive forest fires throughout Russia east of the Urals and to an abnormal drop in the water levels of major rivers, putting a halt to most river traffic and thus leaving many in the far north without the supplies they will need for the coming winter.

The hardest hit of the rivers is the Lena, 77 percent of whose route crosses through the rapidly melting permafrost; and the hardest hit of the regions are the northernmost portions of the Sakha Republic, many of which are beyond any rail or highway and depend on the river.

In Yakutsk, the republic capital, the water level of the Lena has fallen two and a half meters, leaving many vessels stranded in the mud and killing off the fish on which residents depend. As a result, Russian experts say, villages and towns will have to be supplied by air or be put at risk of depopulation.

If the river fleet dies, it is likely that almost all of those who moved into the region in Soviet and post-Soviet times will leave and the remaining population of indigenous peoples will be forced to return to a life of subsistence. If that occurs, a large part of what is shown as Russia on the map won’t be Russian at all.