Unusually Thick Ice Kills 1,000’s of Russian Reindeer
Mass deaths of reindeer have been reported across the Yamal Peninsula, Russia. The animals forage was locked under unusually thick ice this year. Members of a scientific expedition have called for new urgent ideas to rescue herding in the region due to an increase in periodic glaciation.
The northern tundra of eastern Russia is inhospitable at the best of times, but the conditions experienced in 2021 have been truly unprecedented, in terms of the both the intensity and sheer persistence of the cold.
“The perished reindeer were observed all around the northern tundra, among them were wild reindeer who also suffered from icing and lack of forage,” said researchers Alexandra Terekhina and Alexander Volkovitsky who work at the Arctic Research Station in Labytnangi.
The first reports of extremely cold weather on Yamal appeared in December 2020.
I reported on them, writing on Dec. 22:
Currently in Russia, an immense mass of debilitating cold is gripping 80+ percent of the 17.1 million km² transcontinental nation, cold that is only set to expand and intensify as the holiday season nears.
Temperatures across central and eastern areas have plunged more than 20C below the seasonal average as Arctic air rides anomalously-far south on the back of a weak and wavy Meridional jet stream flow.
In Russia in particular, 20C below the seasonal average is not to be taken lightly. The mercury is challenging lows of -50C (-58F) and even -60C (-76F), some of the coldest temperatures ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere.
This intense cold went on to prove persistent, too — and ended up running well into spring.
Below are the temperature anomalies for Feb, 2021, courtesy of NOAA’s Ryan Maue:
Note that the Arctic effectively migrated south this winter, and invaded the majority of Northern Hemisphere land masses.
Note also that the Arctic (which looks disproportionately large on Mercator maps) held unusually warm.
This setup is EXACTLY what we (and NASA) expect to see during prolonged bouts of reduced solar output.
Temp change between 1780 (a year of normal solar activity) and 1680 (a year within the depths of the Maunder Minimum) – NASA GISS
Alarmed Yamal herders said the extreme weather caused the formation of thick layer of ice over lichen (a small fungus, similar to moss, which the animals feed on), reports the siberiantimes.com.
The ice averaged a thickness of 3cm, which was enough to lock the feed from the reindeer as they tried to graze.
“Herders showed us that their hooves were worn out because they had to dig through ice so much,” said the researches.
Some of the peninsula’s domestic animals left traditional winter pastures to follow wild reindeer in the hope of surviving the unprecedented conditions.
But with the arrival spring –which was late this year– came the revelation that they had failed — the number of animals that died from starvation is estimated to be in the thousands, likely even the tens of thousands.
“We are clearly speaking of thousands of animals, but there is no exact number of the perished reindeer yet, because the herders are still roaming the Seyakhinskaya tundra as they try to gather the herds together.”
Perplexingly – or perhaps not given the state of modern climate science – the ecologists believe that global warming may have caused the deadly weather events–well how else would they have obtained funding…?
“Our team made several trips to study snow profiles to the north of Sabetta and in the tundra between Labytnangi and Sabetta. We studied layers of ice covering soil and vegetation, and saw that all dark lichen hilltops and slopes with little snow were also covered with ice,” said Alexander Volkovitsky, whose point evades me.
But this is the real kicker: While periodic glaciation is typical for the Yamal peninsula, the scientists believe that climate change –aka global warming– might be affecting its frequency, causing it to happen more often.
Another mass death of reindeer was reported thousands of miles south-east from Yamal on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Here, at least 300 animals died in the northwest of the peninsula because they too couldn’t get to food through layers of unusually thick snow and ice.
Several other cases were also reported this year, in Norway and Sweden.
Local authorities there shipped tonnes of forage to affected Arctic areas, and drafted programs of government support to herders.
“We’ve got to think of radically new solutions,” said Alexandra Terekhina, desperate to help the reindeer herders.
Perhaps migrating the herds south would be good start.
The prevalence of these Arctic outbreaks is only set to increase as the years roll on, as the the Grand Solar Minimum continues its intensification through Solar Cycles 25, 26 and 27.
This isn’t merely a hypotheses or theory any longer — events are playing out exactly as expected.
See more here: electroverse.net
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Mark tapley
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No matter how cold it gets it has to be the result of the Club of Rome’s global warming in order to fit the Zionist narrative. These ruminants that are able to forage on roughage and stubble, are tough animals and can survive conditions that other animals (such as horses) will quickly perish in. Sounds like the usual too little to late. As the animals became too lean at the start of the extreme cold, a little low quality hay would have been all that was necessary to keep them healthy. When I was a kid in Okla. (long time ago) we would have to go out and break trough the ice on the ponds so the cattle could drink. Of course hay was put out before the grazing was over. Salt was important too.
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