Cooperate or Perish

Russia owns a huge share of the permafrost land on Earth. 

And Russia also has the most permafrost researchers and scientists on Earth. They have vast knowledge and information about the current permafrost situation near the North Pole. But currently, scientists elsewhere in the world cannot communicate with Russian scientists due to the Russia-Ukraine war. It means we cannot get accurate data of how much methane is flowing out from the North Pole and other information that scientists need. Satellites can help - but that is not enough. 

"Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish.” 

This is what António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations said to over 100 world leaders at the first official plenary of the UN Climate Change Conference in 2022.

I think that we all should focus less on fighting against other humans and instead fight against climate change caused by human activities. The world should put more effort into something else for our future which is more important than fighting each other. I think we should all cooperate and share ideas with other countries to be able to communicate about things happening around the world. But I know that is hard. 

But we have hopes. Even though there is war going on in the world, there are individuals working to fight climate change. The Russian geologist Sergey Zimov is one of the scientists working to fight permafrost in Russia. He has created Pleistocene Park which is reintroducing large herbivores to the depleted Mammoth steppe to help restore the Ice Age ecosystem and prevent permafrost thaw.

Even if we cannot communicate with the people who are working to combat climate change around the world due to political reasons, we can still hope that somewhere in the world people are working to fight climate change. And in the future we can all work together.