Russia's isolation takes toll on Arctic climate science
Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic, but snowmobile excursions to see them have come to a halt since the war in Ukraine.
«We used to work with Russian permafrost scientists and hydrologists in the Barentsburg region. This doesn't happen now,» the British scientist told AFP.
«We're sad that we can't use this basis for collaboration, but we're not at all happy with the actions of the Russian government, obviously,» he said at his office at Longyearbyen University in the archipelago's capital.
Although a part of Norway, the islands have long had a strong Russian presence.
But the frequently-cited diplomatic mantra of cohabitation there — «High North, low tensions» — no longer applies.
In the Arctic, as in the rest of the world, Western and Russian researchers have cut almost all ties since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Moscow's February 2022 invasion was the final nail in the coffin of their cooperation, already in decline in recent decades amid President Vladimir Putin's more aggressive policies.
The deep freeze has significantly affected scientific research in a region warming around four times faster than the planet as a whole, and which is therefore crucial to climate studies — and where Russia plays a major role due to its vast size.
— Missing data -
«It's damaging because Russia is more than half of the Arctic,» said Rolf Rodven, executive secretary of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). ]
The exchange of data from Russia has now completely dried up.
«We do not know what's happening on the ground there and of course, what's happening there will also affect the European, US and Canadian part of the Arctic,» he said.
This deprives scientists of crucial information about permafrost —
