MOSCOW, August 14. /TASS/. Volunteers of the Clean Arctic public environmental project took a flight from Moscow heading for Cape Chelyuskin in the Arctic. They will be cleaning up the accumulated environmental damage and will participate in field scientific research and practical training, the project's press service said.

"This year, our project has received a grant from the Presidential Foundation for Nature. This allows us not only to organize the territory cleanup, but also to conduct in-depth scientific research. Clean Arctic has been preparing the ground for such expeditions for several years: we have repaired the volunteer campus, practiced the technology for cleaning and removing accumulated damage. In fact, this expedition to [Cape] Chelyuskin begins a big and comprehensive work to restore the cape's ecosystems and to develop the cape into an important center for scientific research," the press service quoted the Clean Arctic public environmental project's leader Andrey Nagibin as saying.

The expedition to Eurasia's northernmost mainland point is organized for the first time. The group of more than 20 people features volunteers as well as scientific specialists, museum experts, and Hero of Russia, Cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, plus winners of the Icebreaker of Knowledge international competition.

Cape Chelyuskin is a unique natural indicator where Arctic tundra and polar deserts alternate. It is home to the Red Data Book animals, including the polar bear. The cape's exclusive feature is that it is located on the watershed of the Kara Sea and the Laptev Sea, which makes it a key object for studying the global climate.

"We plan to try to assess the spatial picture of pollution: concentrations of pollutants, the degree of ecosystem disturbance. Pollutants get accumulated in organisms: mosses, lichens, and further - along the trophic chain. The highest concentrations are naturally observed in the polar bear, the highest predator. An additional factor is behavioral: animals demonstrate interest in abandoned structures, which creates a risk of direct contact with remnants of fuels and lubricants. The elimination and purification contribute to cutting these risk factors, and trigger the process of cleaning trophic chains," said Danila Bardashov, a researcher at the Dokuchaev Soil Institute, an expert of the Lomonosov Moscow State University's Geography Department.

The expedition will be different from other similar missions due to the plans to preserve historical artifacts. Cape Chelyuskin keeps a huge amount of Soviet-era machinery and equipment. Now, specialists have a chance to separate ordinary scrap metal from items having certain cultural and historical value. The group features specialists of the Arctic Museum Exhibition Center in St. Petersburg. Their task is to separate from a pile of scrap metal valuable exhibits of heavy machinery - the equipment that in the past was used in development of the Russian North.

About the project

The Clean Arctic Public Environmental Project has been cleaning the northern territories since 2021. The volunteers focus on objects, left since the USSR times. Waste removal is a complex technological work, where the movement teams work carefully minding the Arctic nature. Over all seasons, the project's almost 10,000 volunteers have collected 22,000 tons of waste and cleaned 1,100 hectares of land. The project's general partner is the Rosatom State Corporation, and TASS is the general information partner.