Black Sea oil spill

It looks very much as though the Russians are keeping the lid closed on their own ecological disaster

Russia battles to contain Black Sea oil spill as city declares a state of emergency

A Russian Black Sea city declared a state of emergency Thursday after a burst pipeline spewed oil into the landlocked water body, with stormy weather hampering cleanup efforts

Raw Story,

31 December, 2014

The pipeline near the city of Tuapse burst late Tuesday, according to ChernomorTransneft, a subsidiary of Russia’s main oil transport company Transneft.

“The wall of the pipeline broke due to… a landslide,” the company said in a statement, adding that the rupture caused 8.4 cubic metres to leak out into the Tuapse river, which empties into the Black Sea.

Environmentalists warned however that the volume of the spill could be nearly 100 times greater than claimed by Transneft.

The oil transport company said the damaged section of the pipeline — about nine kilometres (five miles) from the Black Sea coast — was under construction by a subsidiary of oil giant Rosneft and was not yet in use by Transneft.

Rosneft also operates a major oil refinery in Tuapse.

Russia’s sea and river transport agency said a cleanup mission was launched on Wednesday afternoon, though stormy weather precluded the use of boats.

By Thursday, the local authorities declared a state of emergency in Tuapse and more than 300 workers were at the scene, according to the Krasnodar regional government website.

“There is a state of emergency for Tuapse city,” a statement on the Krasnodar regional government website said. “Work is complicated by a storm, with waves two to three metres (up to 10 feet) high,” it said.

World Wildlife Fund said Thursday that the spill already polluted 15 kilometres of the Black Sea shore, and accused Rosneft and Transneft of failing to act quickly and understating the real extent of the damage.

“According to WWF’s information regarding the surface area and characteristics of the spill, the volume of the spill could be 500 to 700 tonnes (nearly 800 cubic metres),” WWF said Thursday.

The organisation said the consequences could have been avoided if the energy company alerted local authorities about the accident immediately instead of delaying its response for many hours.

Tuapse borders the resort city of Sochi, where Russia hosted the Winter Olympic Games in February.

This is, I think, from a Ukrainian source

Экологическая катастрофа в Чёрном море: РФ скрыли огромную утечку нефти

Newsru.ua,

26 December, 2014

.

"Транснефть" и "Роснефть" с опозданием в 14 часов сообщили о разгерметизации трубопровода, приведшей к утечке нефти, и многократно занизили масштаб разлива. Как сообщает WWF России, разлив произошел около 01:30 24 декабря, а в государственные службы и СМИ информация попала лишь около 15:30 того же дня, передает "Зеркало недели".

Также советник президента "Транснефти" Игорь Демин сообщил, что в результате разгерметизации вылилось 8,4 куб. м нефти. Имеющаяся у WWF информация о площади и характере загрязнения акватории свидетельствует о том, что объем разлива на 2 порядка больше и, по предварительным оценкам, достигает 500-700 тонн.

                                

Экологическая катастрофа привела к загрязнению 15 км черноморского побережья, отмечается в сообщении.

"Действия "Роснефти" и "Транснефти" в первые часы после аварии повторяют застарелую проблему отрасли – несвоевременное оповещение соответствующих служб и занижение масштабов разлива. А это ключевые факторы, определяющие эффективность реагирования" – заявил руководитель программы по экологической политике ТЭК WWF России Алексей Книжников.

Отметим, что черноморское побережье является местом массовой зимовки водоплавающих и околоводных птиц, и нефтеразлив несет реальную угрозу их гибели.

WWF России обратился в Инженерно-технологический центр "СканЭкс" для получения оперативной спутниковой информации, чтобы уточнить масштабы загрязнения и его динамику. Государственные службы охраны природы страны такой системой до сих пор не располагают.

Ранее в Туапсе ввели режим чрезвычайной ситуации из-за разлива нефти. Ликвидацией загрязнения занимаются около 330 человек и десятки единиц техники.

"Работы в море осложняет шторм — волна сейчас достигает двух-трех метров", — заявил глава Туапсинского района Владимир Лыбанев.

Напомним, в начале декабря несколько миллионов литров нефти вылилось из трубы нефтепровода на юге Израиля, недалеко от границы с Иорданией. Труба была повреждена накануне вечером, 3 декабря, в ходе ремонтных работ в 20 км от города Эйлат. Более 80 человек были госпитализированы, так как начали испытывать проблемы с дыханием от паров нефти.

Sochi

A sad waste of resources

Sochi after the Olympics

VICE

26 March, 2014

The future of the Sochi Olympic venues is unclear.

Alexander Valov, a Russian reporter for BlogSochi, visited Sochi’s “coastal cluster” — the group of six venues, Olympic Village, and Olympic Park that was built from scratch on an undeveloped plot of land — and he took some eerie photos this week.

He called the area around the Olympic Village “Dead City.”

The photos are a reminder that much of what was built for the Olympics has no long-term use.

While a few arenas and other buildings have plans going forward — the media center is being turned into a mall! — the Russian government is still behind schedule on post-Olympics planning.

Valov’s photos, which we’re republishing with his permission, should serve as a warning for what could become of the “coastal cluster.”

To see the photos GO HERE

The Olympics: It's hot in Sochi

Global Warming Is Melting Sochi

It's hot in Sochi, the dystopian home of the Winter Games.

Motherboard,

13 February, 2014

It's hot in Sochi, the dystopian home of the Winter Games. Temperatures hit a balmy 61˚ F on the slopes today, presenting the Olympic media establishment with the most obvious quip in sports news history: this weather's better suited for the summer games. The warmth is ruining the halfpipe, slushing up the snow, and sending athletes into the shade in bouts of rage.

Human-fueled climate change is almost definitely helping to crank up the heat. Researchers at Russia's Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics synthesized 32 different climate models that included temperature data for the Sochi region, and uncovered a distinct warming trend. According to their projections, by the end of the century, annual average temperatures will surpass 16 ˚C, or 60.8 ˚F—the same as the anomolous, scorching temps causing so much discussion today.

"In this region the yearly mean air temperature increase amounts from 1.9 ˚C to 2.5 ˚C," they write. That's a potential rise of over 4˚F. That's on average—we'll likely be seeing February days hotter than this more regularly as a result, too—and it's probably enough to wipe out Sochi's already flimsy Winter Olympics viability for good in the future. In some regions, like the mountains where Sochi's slopestyle sports are held, the rise in temperatures are more acute: "The largest surface air temperature increase by 2.6 ˚C for the selected scenario is obtained in the north-eastern and south-eastern area of this region."

Sochi's mountains will feel the heat most of all, but the fact is that temperatures are rising across the board. Slushy, short-sleeved mountain sports in the middle of February are apt to become more common.

"The fact is that this is part of a larger pattern," climatologist Michael Mann writes me in an email about Sochi's heat, "one in which we are breaking records for all time warmth at nearly three times the rate we would expect from chance alone so far this decade."

Indeed, according to Russian climate data for the region stored at Climatebase.ru, the average temperature during the period from 1940-1960 was 14˚C. Since 2000, that's risen to 14.3˚C. According to a temperature record that goes back to 1898, the average temperature in February was 6˚C, or 42˚ F. Today, the mercury is in the low 60s. 

An Olympic hopeful nordic skiier, Taylor Fletcher, described the conditions on his course to the Denver Post: “There’s a section that’s brown,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s snow or mud. If they keep salting it, it’s going to be nasty.” Meanwhile, the slushy halfpipe notoriously led to a torrent of complaints from athletes, and an unusual number of wipeouts between jumps.  

Brian Ries      
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The first American, 23, from Cali, is up now in the ‪#Sochi half pipe. AND HE'S DOWN.

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“It’s not even slushy—it’s mushy and it’s very hard to ski on,” another American skiier, Bill Demong, told the Washington Post of the conditions on his event. “There’s no structure to the snow, and the person who can float the best wins.” 

Organizers aren't surprised by the heat; in fact, they planned on it. After Sochi saw a hotter-than-average winter last year, officials hauled in an extra 500,000 tons of snow and stored it on the slopes, just in case. You can see the profound non-snowiness of Sochi in these NASA satellite images.  

Given the Russian climate models' projections for the region, we can only expect that white to continue to give way to red.

Again, you can't attribute these late-spring skiing conditions arriving in February directly to global warming, but climate scientists say they fit the trends they've been predicting for years. Many like to compare global warming's propensity to increase the chance we'll see extreme weather conditions to loading the dice.

"So did this roll of double sixes result from the loading of the dice?" Mann writes. "Well, we can never prove that. But it is certainly consistent with the larger pattern of record heat in recent years, which collectively we can attribute to human-caused climate change."

See also - 

Winter Olympics in Sochi are offering summer temperatures, challenging conditions

Sochi - the snow is melting

Of course they can use huge amounts of power and water to make snow, but the fact is that while America is seeing Arctic conditions and Britain is seeing biblical droughts temperatures on the snow slopes of Sochi are at 6C (43 F) and forecast to reach 11C or more (51F) over the coming days.

Don't mention the elephant in the room!

Winter Olympics 2014: 'Garbage' course is dangerous as snow melts away, however IOC allay fears despite temperatures set to increase in Sochi

the Independent,

11 February, 2014

The organisers of the Winter Olympics are facing mounting criticism over the state of the ski runs at Rosa Khutor as mild temperatures are creating mushy conditions – to the increasing irritation of competitors.

Temperatures in the mountains rose to 6C on Tuesday – warmer than Glasgow or Aviemore, Britain’s largest ski resort – and are forecast to climb even higher later this week. The organisers have begun distributing their reserves of stockpiled snow but denied that conditions were a problem. Yet it has become a common theme among the athletes.

The final practice run for this morning’s women’s downhill was cancelled and frantic repairs were required on the half-pipe course before competition could proceed, with chemicals used to ensure the snow stayed frozen.

The state of the half-pipe course has been an issue since day one of the Games as mild temperatures have led to soft, slushy snow. “It’s a little dangerous,” said Hannah Teter, the American who has won medals at the last two Games. “I’ve seen more people fall than I saw all season. It’s dangerous because it’s crappy.”

The Americans were noticeably critical, with Danny Davis calling the half-pipe course “garbage”. “It’s a bummer to show up to an event like the Olympics and not have the quality of the half-pipe match the quality of the riders,” he said.

An Australian coach described the half-pipe course as “very shit”. The freestyle skiers joined in, with a number of the slopestyle finalists complaining about the mushy conditions on their course.

The International Olympic Committee and the organisers sought to play down the problems. An IOC spokesperson pointed out that no events have been cancelled but, with 11 days of skiing and snowboarding remaining and the forecast being for temperatures of up to 11C in the mountains by the end of the week, they face an anxious few days. It has not snowed in the mountains since before the Games.

“The next few days will be a little warm, but not unbearable,” said an IOC spokesperson. “There is always a problem when it is a little bit warmer. There is no problem at all with the half-pipe, it is just that these are dynamic, living fields of play. It is a little warm and that is causing one or two problems, but things are running to schedule.”

The organisers made conflicting statements. Dmitry Chernyshenko, chief executive of Sochi 2014, denied that any of the 700,000 cubic metres of snow stockpiled last year have been used, saying: “We don’t need it.”

But Aleksandra Kosterina, director of communication for Sochi 2014, said extra snow had been spread on the slopes. “I cannot tell you how much,” she said. “I mean I don’t know the specifics but I know that we did. We had very warm temperatures last year and we managed to have all of the events that were planned, more than 22 international events.

“We had one competition when the athletes actually enjoyed the weather by the sea and some of them ventured to swim, the weather was so great for everyone.”

In fact, this time last year, a snowboard and freestyle skiing World Cup, doubling as a test event, was cancelled “due to the lack of snow and continuous warm and rainy weather conditions”.

The Games will not run out of snow, such is the amount stockpiled, but as well as denying the athletes conditions appropriate with competing in an Olympics, the pinnacle of their career, it underlines the folly of building this ski resort from scratch at huge cost in an area of the Caucasus Mountains that lacks regular snowfall. With a total bill of $51bn (£31bn) this is the most expensive Olympics ever – the new road the organisers had to build to satisfy the International Olympic Committee cost $8bn alone. It runs alongside a long-existing road to the mountains.

The route up to the Extreme Park and the Alpine Centre, the venues for the skiing events, is dotted with military lookout posts. The camouflage covering of white sheets, and the soldiers’ white overalls, look incongruous among the swathes of brown, broken ground – the snow is limited to patches and its presence has reduced noticeably over the last few days.

It is not the first Games to suffer such problems – four years ago in Vancouver, the organisers had to ship in huge quantities by truck and helicopter from the Rockies before the Games began.

How is Sochi making its snow? With lots of power, a little prayer

Sochi's secret

Sochi's shocking secret: It's absolutely beautiful

WHILE the world continues to hone in on security issues and half-finished facilities, here's something you might like to know about Winter Olympics host city Sochi.

News.com

4 February, 2014

It's actually incredibly beautiful, especially up in the mountains, where the bulk of Australia's athletes will compete.

Sochi is Russia's southernmost and warmest city, and the unsnowy surrounds of the coastal Olympic venues have left an unflattering impression.

Just 50km inland, the landscape is entirely different. This is where the bulk of the $50 billion budget has been spent, and it shows. Almost $10 billion was spent on road and rail access to the existing mountain town of Krasnaya Polyana, which means "Red Glade" in Russian.

The train route and highway end a couple of kilometres down the road at the entirely new $2.6 billion resort Rosa Khutor.

Styled like a 19th century German spa town, Rosa Khutor is a little lego/gingerbread house-like. But the buses run on time, everything works and the riverside walk is alive with joggers and tourists.

Rosa Khutor occupies every inch of available space in the narrow river valley. Source: NewsComAu

Rosa Khutor might not be the real Russia, or even the real Sochi, but it is really pleasant. And this is just one of many towns which have sprung up along the new highway.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has attracted criticism for everything from the environmental impacts of the Sochi Olympics to the manner in which building contracts were dished out to some of his favourite billionaires.

Corruption, nepotism and environmental vandalism have become virtual bywords for these Olympics, along with the threat of terrorism.

Even these men in black can manage a smile. Source: NewsComAu

For all this, one thing is often forgotten. The largest, snowiest nation on Earth now has a winter playground to rival the Alps.

As many as 35 new ski lifts have been built in the ski resorts dotted around Krasnaya Polyana, all of them swift and modern and often audacious in the way they head directly up near-vertical slopes.

While the city of Sochi is a landscape of green rolling hills, the Caucasus mountains are a terrain of majestic alpine spires and magnificent birch forests.

Amid this landscape, about halfway up the mountain at Rosa Khutor, is the athletes' village. No such facility has ever been constructed in such a grand setting.

To stand there on a windless blue Russian winter day is to stand in one of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth.

And it’s not just the mountains which are beautiful. Source: NewsComAu

Australian moguls skier Taylah O'Neill was so taken with the athletes' village that she described it as like a scene out of The Wizard of Oz.

"It's like nowhere I've ever been before," O'Neill said. "It kind of reminded me of the yellow brick road because you just kept following the road up and up and it kept taking you to more places."

The Australian Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman said "It's a glorious setting, all brand new, of course, sitting high on a ridge and looking out over a magnificent valley, with pristine, fresh snow."

The athletes' village is situated directly adjacent to the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, where snowboarding and freestyle skiing events will be conducted.

Many of the courses funnel down into one huge amphitheatre for spectators - a design feature which should make for a fantastic atmosphere.

Mountain crews were hard at work on the courses yesterday, pushing mounds of snow around to construct jumps and other course features on the ski cross and slopestyle courses.

Pushing white powder is perfectly acceptable behaviour in these parts. Source: NewsComAu

Australian snowboarder Torah Bright yesterday attacked the course designers, declaring them below the standard of "the best in the business".

Bright may be right, just as other critics of these Olympics almost certainly have valid points.

But here's another truth. The setting for mountain events at these Olympics could be the most spectacular ever seen at any Summer or Winter Games.

Amid the relentless negativity, not everything in Sochi is a disaster. Far from it, in fact.

Terrorist threat to Winter Olympics

We ignore international trends at our peril,

Things are getting very ugly in Kiev, Ukraine.

This morning there was this report on Radio NZ (an interview with Tom Barton who also works for RT). I could find no replication anywhere in the world media until I came across this from Israeli Homeland Security – which I would never choose as a reliable source.

I am deeply puzzled why this was covered by Radio NZ (unless it is the time zone) or why they should depart from the herd by including this item. There was nothing in their 'print' version.

If true it would have the fingerprints of Prince Bandar Bush all over it. He has already threatened Putin.

Chechen Islamic terrorists threaten February 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi,

Islamic rebels threaten to attack the winter Olympics next year, according to HLS News Wire.

iHLS,

26 January, 2013

On Wednesday Doku Umarov, a leading Chechen Islamic rebel, issued a call to Islamist militants throughout the North Caucasus to begin and plan for attacks to disrupt the February 2014 Winter Olympics which will be held in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The Russian government views the games the same way China did during the 2008 Summer Olympics — as an opportunity to show Russia’s economic and technological achievements. Putin’s government will spend a total of $51 billion on the games, making them the most expensive Winter Games in history.

Umarov called on Islamic militants in the region to “do their utmost to derail” the games, which he described as “satanic dances on the bones of our ancestors.”

“We have the obligation to use all means to prevent this,” he said in a video posted on a rebel Web site on Wednesday.

Epoch Times reports that this is a reversal for Umarov, who last year urged his fighters to avoid civilian targets because Russians in Moscow were taking to the streets en masse to protest against Putin.

Security experts in Russia and other regions said that securing the games from acts of terrorism would be a daunting task. Violent Islamic insurgency has been on-going across the North Caucasus mountains overlooking Sochi.

Initially, the Islamic insurgency was confined to Chechnya, but after Russia, in two rounds of war in the 1990s, brutally suppressed the rebellion, the militants have shifted their base of operations to Dagestan. Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent six months last year in Dagestan.

The Epoch Times quotes the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee as saying that ensuring security at the games is “the responsibility of the state” and will be its priority.

“We are confident that the games will be safe and comfortable for all as guaranteed by the Russian state,” the committee said.

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said in a statement on Wednesday that it is working to eliminate threats at all international sporting events in the country including the Olympics.

Officials said that they aim “to identify and avert various threats, including those of terrorism.”

This is Putin's latest statement on the Sochi Olympics

Meanwhile in Kiev

Rioters beat up police