WWF Russia and WWF Germany presented in Gorno-Altaisk the International Open Online Course “Climate Change: Risks and Challenges”. WWF explained the causes of climate change and the peculiarities of Altai ecosystems to students of the Gorno-Altai State University and a wide audience, explained how the regions of Russia, including the Altai Republic, prepare and adapt to dangerous meteorological phenomena

The presentation of the International Open Online Course "Climate Change: Risks and Problems" and lectures on climate change in the world, Russia and in Altai were held by WWF Russia and WWF Germany on December 23 for students of Gorno-Altai State University and the general public. The experts spoke about the trends, causes of climate change in the world, Russia and the Altai Republic. Leading Russian climatologists spoke to the students:

Alexey Kokorin, Ph.D., Director of the Climate and Energy Program, WWF Russia
Grigory Yulkin, an expert on climate change, representative of the Russian delegation at the UN Convention on Climate Change.

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The International Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Climate Change: Risks and Challenges” , the presentation in Altai Republic

WWF Russia carried out a large-scale work on the collection and synthesis of scientific materials on climate change in the Primorsky Territory, the Altai Republic and the Kamchatka Territory within the framework of the project “Raising Climate Awareness in Siberia and the Far East”. The aim of the project is to raise the level of knowledge of the general public about the problem of climate change in the world.

The project is being implemented jointly with WWF Germany with the support of the German Foreign Ministry.

The lectures of the open online course are presented in a clear and simple form on the website: climate change.rf. Specialists of WWF Russia and partner organizations additionally recorded video lectures and developed materials that are posted on the WWF.RU website in the “LECTURES“ CLIMATE CHANGE IN RUSSIA ”: https://wwf.ru/what-we-do/climate-and-energy / lektsii-izmenenie-klimata . Here you can find a video lecture on trends in climate change in the Altai Republic over the past decades: https://wwf.ru/what-we-do/climate-and-energy/lektsii-izmenenie-klimata/#altay

“A rather large group of people worked on the climate course. Now the course is available to everyone, first of all, students who want to understand better how the climate system functions, how the economy works in the context of climate change, what awaits a person in the 21st century in order to correctly respond to the challenges and tasks that the next generation will solve. Knowledge is what decisions should be based on. I am glad to be one of the first to take this course. I wish all course participants have fun too. Good luck! " - says Grigory Yulkin, an expert on climate change and greenhouse gas emissions reduction.

During a lecture at GASU, climatologists examined the problem of climate change from all sides - physical, economic and social. They talked about trends and forecasts in the field of climate change for Russia as a whole, the Arctic, the Barents Sea region, the Far East. Special attention will be paid to forecasts of changes in Gorny Altai, which are possible if the climate continues to change as rapidly. Similar lectures were also held in December in Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

On the eve of the lecture, climatologists answered the questions of the journalists of Gorno-Altaysk.

“The climate on Earth has always changed. In the distant geological eras, when dinosaurs lived, the Earth was 10 degrees warmer, and later a series of ice ages began. And so every hundred thousand years. If you look at the scale of many thousands of years, then we are now in a warm period, but we are heading for the next ice age. What happened in the last 50-100 years? A man intervened and intensified the greenhouse effect by burning coal, oil products, and gas. The effect increased by literally 1.5 degrees, and the climate system moved towards warming, but swayed even more.Even academician Alexander Obukhov 30 years ago said that the climate would not be so much warmer as "more nervous." And we see it: the weather changes more often, there are stormier winds, the difference in seasons is greater - sometimes the spring is sharp and stormy, sometimes it is slow, floods are frequent, and in the south there are droughts. All this is understandable for climatologists, but it is not in school geography textbooks. Therefore, WWF Russia, together with the Northern Arctic Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University prepared the first course on climate change in Russia,” says Alexei Kokorin, Director of the Climate and Energy Program at WWF Russia.

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Press conference of A. Kokorin and G. Yulkin and recording of an interview on the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company

Climate change is one of the most serious global problems, very urgent for Russia. In recent decades, both natural conditions and the usual way of life of people have changed. Over the past 20 years, the number of dangerous meteorological events in Russia has doubled, the temperature rise is observed about 2.5 times more than the global average, and in the 21st century these trends will continue and intensify.

The international massive online course "Climate Change: Risks and Challenges" was developed by experts from the German Climate Consortium and WWF Germany. Later, employees of the Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov, Association "National Arctic Scientific and Educational Consortium".

WWF Climate Program: https://wwf.ru/what-we-do/climate-and-energy/
About Alexey Kokorin: https://wwf.ru/about/people/aleksey-olegovich-kokorin/

For additional information please contact

Tatiana Ivanitskaya

Altai-Sayan ecoregional press-officer

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Alexey Kokorin

Climate and Energy programme Director