Russia's doomed anyway

 There's a piece in the current New York Review of Books that anyone with an interest in geopolitics should see. In "A Hotter Russia," Sophie Pinkham reviews Klimat: Russia in the Age of Climate Change by Thane Gustafson. 

Gustafson's argument is that Russia is pretty much on the rocks, regardless of whether it wins its current war in Ukraine or not. Moscow has seen itself as a "winner" in the case of global warming. It will gain year-around shipping in the Arctic, and have access to more agricultural land...or so the Kremlin thinks.

The kicker? This may not be the case. Global warming is hitting Russia hard. Its forests are declining, its permafrost is melting, and its landscape is turning into mud and desert. 

None of which is good for the West, of course. We'll be suffering, too. But it is an intriguing argument, and the idea that Russia, as Russia, might cease to exist before 2030, is both fascinating and alarming.




A Siberian Winter, c. 2032

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