Microplastic rain and permafrost: the main environmental challenges in the Russian Federation

Global warming and water pollution have already affected almost all countries. Why climate change is happening and how to prevent an environmental catastrophe – we understand the new episode of the podcast “What has changed?”

Edition guests:

Stanislav Kutuzov, Ph.D. in Geography, head of the laboratory at the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, explained why an increase in the average annual temperature by even 2 °C can be fatal.

Natalya Davydova, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Director of the Institute for Environmental Projects Consulting, Head of the Russian National Junior Water Competition, member of the National Committee of the Russian Federation for the UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Program. Natalia shared what anyone can do to reduce their ecological footprint.

Maxim Platonov, Candidate of Chemical Sciences, Science Director of the No Rivers, No Hands Foundation, told where microplastics come from in rivers and whether it is possible to get rid of it.

The host of the podcast is Gosha Rudakov, multimedia producer of Trends.

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Main environmental challenges

The main environmental problems right now according to experts “What has changed?”:

• Climate change
• Air and water pollution
• Lack of drinking water
• Microplastic
• Loss of biodiversity
• Unsustainable land use
• COVID-19

The climate on Earth has always changed, explains Stanislav Kutuzov. The ecosystem of the planet is designed to maintain balance. But what is happening now is unprecedented. Thus, the concentration of carbon dioxide over 420 parts per million has become a record for the last 23 million years. Increasing CO concentration₂, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and rising water temperatures – all this speaks of the human factor in climate change.

Natalia Davydova believes COVID-19 is also an environmental problem: overcoming the interspecies barrier by the coronavirus is a sign that not everything is in order in the global ecological system. And the main challenge of the next decade, Maxim Platonov calls the lack of drinking water – according to the expert, more than 40% of the world’s population will experience this problem. According to the UN, a third of the world’s inhabitants do not already have access to safe drinking water.

What happens if the Earth warms by 2 degrees?

In September 2020, an installation called “Climatic Clock” appeared in New York. They are counting down until climate change becomes irreversible. Scientists predict that the world has about seven years to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide and prevent warming by more than 2 ° C. Stanislav Kutuzov says that at the moment the warming is about 1 °C, the Earth will warmer by another 0,5 °C in 10-15 years. The IPCC report says that a 2°C increase in temperature has a significant impact on mortality, the availability of goods (and hence price increases), and so on. Nevertheless, according to experts, the complete death of civilization is not yet threatened.

In our country, the average annual temperature is rising more than twice as fast as the world average., and 2020 in our country turned out to be the warmest year on record. This, Kutuzov says, is partly due to “Arctic warming,” a phenomenon where temperatures rise faster in polar regions than at lower latitudes. The ice sheet in the Arctic Ocean is shrinking and the water is beginning to absorb more of the sun’s heat, which contributes to higher temperatures.

Following an increase in air temperature, permafrost soils are splitting – they occupy from 60 to 65% of the territory of our country. Melting permafrost threatens to destroy buildings and infrastructure in northern regions. Stanislav explains that construction technologies were chosen taking into account the fact that permafrost will remain eternal – but now in a number of areas there has been a temperature increase of 4 ° C, and buildings in cities like Igarka or Vorkuta began to deform.

From the Volga to the Yenisei: how to clean the rivers

Maxim Platonov says that the content of microplastic particles, even in the upper reaches of the Volga, is at a high level, although there are no megacities there. Microplastics end up in rivers as a result of laundry, beauty salons, and so on, and water treatment technologies do not trap microplastic particles. Moreover, the expert claims that more than half of all garbage in the water is brought by sewage treatment plants. For example, in Voronezh the situation with microplastics is catastrophic – 400 particles per cubic meter. This is about 40 tons per year.

There are studies that confirm that microplastics are integrated into the biocenosis, changing the ability of plants to absorb carbon dioxide. Scientists have found that fish that live in water with microplastics die earlier. We do not yet know how microplastics affect the human body. In addition, 4% of the precipitation that falls worldwide is microplastics.

The guests explain that it is necessary to develop regulations in the field of production and consumption of plastic and organize educational and educational programs among the population. Maxim Platonov says that it is already possible to reduce the amount of microplastics in water by simply installing additional belt filters above the river purification system.

Who should save the environment

“According to some reports, nature needs 3 years for groundwater to become as pure as it was before man. According to other sources, we drink from 000/1 to 5/1 of a glass of water that someone has already drunk before us,” says Natalya Davydova. Environmental challenges arise both for society and for the state. According to experts, the goals of sustainable development should be at the head of the business agenda, the state and social agenda. At the state level, Decree No. 4 “On the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions” was recently signed. There is a national project “Ecology”, within the framework of which projects are being implemented to improve rivers.

It is even profitable for businesses to become “green” – using the best available technologies in production, companies pay less environmental fees.

Finally, a particular person, in order to minimize their impact on the environment, can sort waste, put meters on water taps, save electricity. Fly economy class or avoid short-haul flights altogether. The most important thing, according to the guests, is reasonable consumption.

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