MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. The Russian Security Council and the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Nature (VOOP) intend to compose an objective picture of possible disasters related to climate change, permafrost thawing and methane emissions, VOOP Chairman Vyacheslav Fetisov told TASS.

"It is necessary to involve both the scientific community and regional organizations, structures, and governments in a public discussion. We need, first of all, to make an objective picture of what is happening in order to understand precisely, not in words and declarations, not with wringing of hands, when and where this catastrophe awaits us. <...> We need to make a strictly scientific and objective picture to the maximum extent possible. And on this basis, to determine the planning horizons and possibilities for resolving the issues. We have initiated such a strategy together with the Security Council, and I hope that we will be able to calculate all the risks and understand where our advantages lie. And then we can act," Fetisov said.

According to him, there are two main problems. The climate is indeed warming; the Arctic is warming faster than the global average. The permafrost is melting, the soil is subsiding, the piles on which homes, businesses, fuel storage facilities, and pipelines stand in the Arctic Circle are subsiding. "So, there is increasingly growing fear of future large man-made disasters in this regard. And where it will 'go off' next time is very hard to predict," he believes.

The second danger is purely natural, Fetisov pointed out. A huge amount of methane has accumulated under the ice cover. This is greenhouse gas. As the permafrost melts, it will be released, thus accelerating the greenhouse effect, leading to global warming. And it will be a self-sustaining process, but no one knows how it will end, the VOOP head warned.

"And this is also a topic that requires not superficial monitoring, but a serious, in-depth study. Today we must take a reasonable approach to everything related to the Arctic and permafrost and how it can affect everything that is happening on the planet. These are colossal territories with colossal hidden dangers, which today require the utmost attention and the utmost focus on how we can now calculate all these risks. This is a huge challenge not only for us, Russia, but also for the entire globe, and we, VOOP, are ready to invite scientists from all over the world and try to launch this topic," Fetisov concluded.