Sanctions on Russia Deprive the West of Climate Data

The “New York Times” has revealed that Western scientists are deprived of crucial data on climate change due to sanctions on Russia, which restrict communication.

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The sanctions and communication bans make it impossible for Western scientists to monitor the melting ice in the Arctic, where temperatures are rising four times faster than the global average.

The newspaper noted that “the flow of data between Western and Russian scientists has been reduced to a minimum due to sanctions and other restrictions imposed by the West.”

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Italian scientist Alessandro Longhi, who studies permafrost, told the newspaper, “It may be impossible to understand how the Arctic is changing without Russia.”

Recent studies show that without information from Russian research stations, many of which have been marginalized from the main Arctic monitoring network, Western scientists’ understanding of changes there is shifting towards North America and Europe.

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Scientists studying wildlife in the region have also seen several projects fail. Norwegian scientist Paul Aspholm, who has been in regular contact with his Russian colleagues for nearly 30 years, said that after the start of the military operation in Ukraine, he was ordered to stop all communication with Russian researchers.

He ironically remarked, “Now we have the ice curtain.”

European countries such as Finland and Norway have also called on their universities to freeze relations with Russian institutions and suspend ongoing projects.