Clean Arctic volunteers begin mission on Novaya Zemlya

MOSCOW, September 3. /TASS/. Five volunteers began cleaning from scrap metal the Yuzhny Island on the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, the Clean Arctic project’s press center reported on Thursday. "The biggest impressions are from the striking contrast between the alien fascinating Mars-style landscapes and the ruining evidences of people. The Arctic is in fact littered with scrap metal. <…> It is a high time to have it cleaned. This is why the Clean Arctic program is a very positive initiative. The amount of work to be done is endless, in Malye Karmakuly we are the first to do the job. We hope other caring and brave enthusiasts will follow suit," the press center quoted a volunteer, Vladimir Privalov, as saying. The expedition participants will stay at Russia’s oldest weather station Malye Karmakuly. They are expected to collect up to 300 tonnes of waste before November. Vladimir Privalov stresses, the amount of waste on Novaya Zemlya is huge, and the five volunteers will have to work real hard to meet the estimated results. The Clean Arctic project plans to organize cleaning in Russia’s every Arctic region. Certain works have been done in the Krasnoyarsk, Yamalo-Nenets and Arkhangelsk Regions, in Yakutia. Volunteers have collected hundreds of tonnes of scrap metal for further processing. The Clean Arctic project’s authors are Captain of the 50 Let Pobedy nuclear-powered Arctic class icebreaker Dmitry Lobusov an d Gennady Antokhin, Captain on FESCO’s ships from 1982 to 2012. In early June, Captain Lobuzov suggested organizing a "big Arctic cleanup," hoping the joint effort would clean the Arctic territories from accumulated scrap metal and fuel. The program, presented at the Public Chamber on July 5, has been widely supported, including by the president’s ecology envoy Sergei Ivanov, the nature watchdog Rosprirodnadzor, volunteer and public organizations, scientific community and by the Arctic regions’ governors. Photo by Denis Kozhevnikov/TASS Read more