Altai State University opened the V annual international seminar "Siberia in the era of global challenges ..."

The seminar, organized for the first time in a remote format on the Zoom platform, brought together researchers from Moscow, Tyumen, Tomsk, Khanty-Mansiysk, Nadym, Novosibirsk, and Ust-Kamenogorsk.

This scientific forum, included in the plan of key events of Tomsk and Altai State Universities for 2020, is aimed at developing an understanding of the mutual influence and interdependence of the Arctic and more southern Siberian territories in the face of modern global environmental challenges. Its work is organized in the following areas:

6. 1. Modeling and forecasting the state and variability of the atmosphere and climate in Siberia and the Arctic.
7. 2. Hydrology and water resources of Siberia and the Arctic in conditions of climate change.
8. 3. Aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems of Siberia and the Arctic: current state and dynamics.
9. 4. Health of the population and the quality of the environment in Siberia and the Arctic.
10. 5. Social and economic problems of Siberia and the Arctic regions associated with climate change.

The seminar participants were given the opportunity to consider and discuss the relationship between environmental and climatic processes in the study area. The event will attempt to synthesize the most general recommendations regarding the development of adaptive strategies for sustainable development of a territory with a special ecosystem, economic landscape and socio-cultural environment.

Young researchers take an active part in the program of the two-day seminar, and in general more than 30 reports will be presented. Terry V. Callaghan, a British scientist, professor at the University of Sheffield (Great Britain), Head of the International Network for Terrestrial Research and Monitoring in the Arctic - INTERACT, Professor of the Department of Botany at TSU BI, Co-chairman of the International Academic Council of TSU, was awarded the Nobel Prize as a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

SecNet is an open community of educational institutions, research organizations, scientific groups and individual scientists, united by a common goal of promoting sustainable development of the northern and polar regions by accumulating comprehensive experience and integrated knowledge about man and the Siberian environment and using them to understand and predict socially significant changes and prevention of negative consequences of anthropogenic impact. Altai State University has been a member of this international consortium from the very beginning to understand and predict socially significant changes in Siberia in a global context.

Within the framework of the seminar, it is planned to discuss the global challenges that humanity faces in the context of climate transformation. For example, the report “The Global Climate Threat and the Russian Economy: In Search of a Special Path, May 2020”, which was already presented at the forum, states that “the coronavirus crisis and the catastrophe in the world oil market, which played out in March this year, on the one hand shifted the focus of public attention from global climate issues to protecting human health and lives. On the other hand, they showed by example the scale and reality of the concept of "global threat" and the ability of mankind, individual countries or even people to adequately respond to it. Suddenly it turned out that "black swans" exist, and unlikely events occur and form a new reality".

“Over the past fifteen hundred years, mankind has not yet known such an increase in the temperature of the Earth's surface, which is observed today. The established reason for these processes is an increase in the greenhouse effect due to an increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere due to human activities (primarily, the use of fossil fuels in the energy sector). This causal relationship is the subject of consensus among climate scientists around the world, including Russia”, emphasizes seminar coordinator, Associate Professor of the Department of Physical Geography and Geographic Information Systems of the Institute of Geography of Altai State University, Candidate of Geographical Sciences Natalia Kharlamova.

“The global climate threat for Russia is even more urgent than for many other countries - in the country over the past 40 years, the climate has been warming 2.5 times faster than the global average (and in the Russian part of the Arctic is 4.5 times faster). Climate change in Russia is already posing a threat to human health and life, provoking forced migration, threatening food security and posing a threat to infrastructure", the report on the specifics of the climate in the Russian Federation for 2019 notes.

Within the framework of the seminar, which ends on October 9, at Altai State University with the adoption of a memorandum, scientists plan to discuss issues of climate change, temperature rise, increased frequency of adverse weather events, shift of climatic zones and the degree of influence of this process on human health and life, food security, natural ecosystems , durability of buildings and structures, sustainability of transport infrastructure, consumption of heat and electricity, etc.

The conference participants developed a plan of joint action with the Government of Altai Krai on all issues of the conference. Much attention in the plan is paid to the issues of climate change and the preservation of human health in the era of global climatic and economic changes.