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> Canada, Russia, the Nordic countries, maybe Mongolia. Dunno about others, but the Internet says that Russia is worried about the warming, because it thaws th
by cyberdrunk 6y ago
> Canada, Russia, the Nordic countries, maybe Mongolia.
Dunno about others, but the Internet says that Russia is worried about the warming, because it thaws the permafrost, which makes the ground in the cold wilderness unstable, which is very dangerous for all the resource extraction and transportation (pipelines) infrastructure that they have in Siberia. Once the now-rock-solid ground starts turning into a swamp, they will have trouble keeping the infra intact.
- eloff 6y agoYes, that's likely to happen. In Canada as well. But the cost of doing that seems minor compared to the value of so much forests and cropland expanding northward.
- rbanffy 6y agoWell... If temperatures continue rising, there will be a strong push towards abandoning that infrastructure.
- eloff 6y agoAnd leave the petroleum in the ground? Not likely. Solutions will be found as long as it has enough value (unfortunately.)
- rbanffy 6y agoWe do that all the time with stuff that's costlier to extract than the market is willing to pay for it.
- eloff 6y agoThat's the eventual fate of the oil that's most costly to extract, like the Canadian tar sands. But as long as you can extract it at a profit, people will do just that.
- rbanffy 6y agoWhich is kind of a shame because, in that case, the sand result of the extraction can eventually become usable soil.
- cyberdrunk 6y agoI don't know much about agriculture, but isn't it the case that, apart from favorable climate, soil quality is another important factor here? Currently, pretty much none of Siberia is farmed, even the parts where the climate could permit it - and AFAIR that's because the soil is not conducive to farming. It's similar case in many parts of Africa. Again, please correct me if you know more about it, as my knowledge here is based on Wikipedia.
- londons_explore 6y agoIf you had to rebuild every oil pipeline to be floating on a marsh rather than anchored in permafrost, the cost would be small compared to other numbers in global economics...
- woodandsteel 6y agoNot just pipelines, but roads, foundations of buildings, storage tanks, and so on. And don't forget that oil prices are low and will get lower as the world transitions to renewable energy, so there is no money to pay for fixing all this. Putin bet the economy on fossil fuel extraction, and as a consequence Russia is basically screwed over the long run.