.jpg?ext=.jpg)
“With the Ukraine conflict, worldwide collaborations with Russia on Arctic analysis and governance have been strained or damaged off. This lack of important cooperation is compromising efforts to confront mounting environmental dangers within the Arctic, from shrinking sea ice to air pollution.”
“Biologist Eric Regehr and his colleagues on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service started finding out polar bears from the American facet of the Chukchi Sea, which stretches from Alaska to Russia, in 2008. However because the area warmed, and the more and more skinny spring sea ice off the Alaskan Coast made helicopter landings unsafe, he knew he would wish to seek out one other base from which to survey the well being and dimension of the inhabitants.
Russia’s distant Wrangel Island made a perfect different: a big proportion of Chukchi Sea polar bears take refuge right here through the summer season, and the Russian Federation had, in 2000, signed an settlement with the U.S. to guard this inhabitants. Collaborating within the subject, Russian and American scientists have been finally capable of verify, in 2016, that the inhabitants of three,000 animals seemed to be faring nicely, regardless of the quickly receding sea ice and Indigenous subsistence looking.
After a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19, Regehr, now with the College of Washington, was desirous to return to his analysis on Wrangel. However when Russia invaded Ukraine final February, his plans abruptly modified. So did these of nearly each authorities, college, institute, and nonprofit scientist working with Russian colleagues. All of the sudden, practically each worldwide collaborative effort with Russia within the Arctic — from polar bear and whale research to analysis on business fishing, permafrost thaw, sea-ice retreat, peatland ecology, and wildfires — was on maintain.”
Ed Struzik experiences for Yale Atmosphere 360 February 7, 2023.
