Russia: Putin wants to set up a monitoring system for thawing permafrost soil

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Tundra on the Barents Sea: Almost two thirds of the land area in Russia is permanently frozen

Photo: Igor Podgornyi / dpa

In view of the thawing permafrost in Russia, buildings should be better monitored.

The head of state Vladimir Putin ordered on Thursday.

»Millions of people live in the north of the country.

It is therefore important to set up a surveillance system in these areas, ”said the president at a meeting with the Russian ministers of the state agency Tass.

It is also about developing a system with which houses, bridges and streets, for example, can be regularly inspected.

With rising temperatures due to climate change, the permafrost soil, which has frozen to great depths, is slowly thawing.

That is why there is more and more damage to houses, roads and other infrastructure such as gas pipelines in Russia.

Russia complains that the temperature rise in the country is stronger than in other parts of the world.

The average temperature in the gigantic empire is rising 2.8 times faster than the global average, according to the latest forecast by the Ministry of the Environment.

Researchers are concerned that the soils in Siberia are thawing and that, as a result, gigantic quantities of climate-damaging methane gas, for example, are released into the atmosphere.

Almost two thirds of the land area in Russia is permanently frozen.

This phenomenon is called permafrost.

There are immense amounts of remains of plants and animals that have not yet been broken down by microbes.

These only become active when the temperatures rise and the soil softens - methane can be released during this decomposition process.

kim / dpa