Yet another flood hits the Irkutsk region, forcing over 1,000 people to evacuate
Following mass flooding in the Irkutsk region that displaced tens of thousands of people in late June and early July, yet another flood has hit six districts in the area. According to the local branch of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry, 357 homes are now underwater, and 1,076 people have been forced to evacuate.
The most recent wave of flooding, like its predecessor, was triggered by unusually heavy rains, and meteorologists expect high levels of precipitation to continue in the Irkutsk region in the coming days. As early as July 1, in the midst of the previous flood, scientists from Irkutsk State University published a statement linking the excess rain to “observed global and regional climate change” and predicting similar extreme weather events in both the short and the long term.
This summer’s environmental disasters in Russia
- Russia in flames Almost five million acres of forest are on fire in Siberia and Russia’s Far East. Smoke has spread over six of the country’s time zones.
- ‘We didn't panic. They fooled us.’ ‘Meduza’ reports from Tulun, the city hardest hit by unprecedented flooding in the Irkutsk region
- ‘Black Snowballs’ An essay by Nadezhda Tolokonnikova on the ecological crisis in her hometown that inspired Pussy Riot's new music video
The climate crisis in Russia
Scientists have warned that the climate crisis could cause widespread social collapse within the lifetimes of current generations. Russia’s own Environmental Ministry warned last year that disastrous environmental events are already taking lives in Russia at an escalating rate. Nonetheless, Russia currently occupies fourth place in global rankings of greenhouse gas emissions, and its government has left that position unchanged while repressing climate activism.