Dennis, Moscow: what does climate change mean to you?

Last night in Moscow

My last night night in Moscow we do something we'd been a little disappointed to have avoided so far. We drink vodka. Lots of it. I manage to interview two more people, both in their mid-twenties, before I am completely inebriated. Tanya works for a cosmetics company in a swanky office next to a contemporary art gallery and has the most sparkling smile in Moscow. Dennis works at a cool young TV station that shows mainly cartoons for teenagers, of the Southpark ilk.

Tanya, Emma & Dennis

Tanya isn't familiar with the term climate change as related to global warming is and admits that when she first heard about the Climate Stories project, she thought we were documenting how the weather changed through the regions we're visiting. Having clarified that we're referring to the global environmental problem, she confides she hasn't really thought about it much. She is a massive animal lover though and worries about what impact it will have on wildlife. She is disturbed by the idea that climate change may wipe out up to 50% of all species by the end of the century.

Dennis, Vova, Emma, Tanya & Will

Dennis carries that slightly distant air about him that deeply creative people often do but he is immediately likable. I'm surprised to learn that he is a teetotal, non-smoking vegetarian, which must surely be a rarity in Russia. He is concerned about climate change and thinks that it's everyone's job to fix the problem. He thinks it will take a natural disaster to make people in Russia wake up to the reality of the issue. I tell him this is not a Russian state of mind but a human one and remind him that the US became a lot more concerned about global warming after hurricane Katrina. He high fives me at the end of the interview and I leave Moscow with more hope for the future than I arrived with.

More Moscow Minds

Unfortunately I am a complete idiot, somehow managing to delete the video recordings most of my Moscow interviews and some later ones too. I have some notes but I'm really kicking myself for relying so heavily on what I should have known would prove to be unreliable technology.

My last day in Moscow is spent running around the city interviewing to three people, all a generation above the group of young people I first spoke to. I speak to Boris at Focus Media, a public health and social development foundation, and Olga and Lyobov at the Agency for Social Information. I hugely appreciate the time all of them have taken to speak to me. At their offices I get the impression there is always more work to be done.

Boris, like me, used to work for a national agency on climate change issues and has the tired, defeated look that I wish I saw less commonly in older environmentalists. His English isn't perfect (though obviously much better than my Russian!) but he has prepared a statement, which he reads to me. He says that global anthropomorphic climate change is happening right before our eyes and that the potential impacts are frightening. He compares the human race to a greedy crowd of rabbits that destroys itself through over-consumption of natural resources. It's difficult to disagree with him.

Olga seems shy but my interviewing technique is far from polished, which probably doesn't help. She knows climate change is a problem for Russia and wishes her contemporaries took it more seriously. She says her teenage son and his friends are much more aware of environmental issues than her generation. I am also informed that the vodka in Russia is much better in the countryside than the city.

Lyobov has twinkling eyes and a bubbly personality. Like Olga she is modest about her ability to provide an interesting interview but goes on to be absolutely fascinating. She worries about the Russian attitude to the environment in general. She is angry that any areas of natural beauty in the country are spoiled by her littering countrymen. She thinks Russia needs more awareness raising on climate change but remains optimistic about the future.

These three are all deeply concerned about climate change. They tell me that they are taking action in their lives but that the majority of Russian people are not. This sounds little different to a conversation I could have with most educated, middle-class people of their generation in the UK. Caring about the environment, and more specifically tackling climate change, may not be in the forefront of everyone's mind but there are clearly not so few people who are willing to ignore the evidence of climate change that now appears plain to all but a few dwindling 'flat earthers'.

PS Today is Blog Action Day, an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Get involved.

From Russia with love

On 13 September 2009 I sit down to lunch in Uglich, near Moscow, with six twenty-something Muscovites, who have agreed to speak to me about their thoughts and feelings on climate change. They are clever, funny, politically aware and, well, cool. As is befitting of a society with so recent a history of state propaganda, they are suspicious of what the media has to offer.

Someone says they think climate change is a big problem for Russia but this is contentious and someone else thinks the country has more pressing issues. Another proposes it might improve the nation's situation, with better weather conditions. According to a recent report from the World Bank Russia has more to lose than most countries from climate change.

Tanya, Lola, Will, Fedya, Shev, Emma & Julia

I'm told that people care more about it in Western Europe and North America than here and that this is because these countries don't have real problems to worry about. One girl likens this to the story of her friend, who on her return to Russia after several years in the US, was shocked to discover a general lack of concern about cholesterol.

One of the group believes climate change to be a natural process, that the human role is exaggerated and we overestimate the significance of the time in which we now live. Another thinks it might be little more than a money making exercise, likening the green industry to the producers of flu vaccinations, whom she believes have exploited the current swine flu panic for profit. Bearing in mind that the richest companies are still those in the business of extracting oil and that most people who work in the environment sector do so for low wages or even for free, I'm not sure this accusation is fair.

Renewable energy is not a popular option here and someone espouses that frustratingly common myth that wind generators don't 'payback' the energy used to create them I can't help myself but interjecting to correct them. Nuclear is a significant energy source here and oil is cheap in Russia. They all tell me they think the oil will run out though.

Julia, Tanya, Fedya & Will

The group agree that weather patterns have noticeably changed in recent years and that this is a common topic of discussion amongst the people they know. They say there is no longer a need to wear the heavy winter clothes of previous years but that they do not know whether this is a long term trend or a short term blip, acknowledging the difference between climate and weather.

What I have not come across in this interview is general apathy, or the refutation that climate change is happening at all. This group leave me with the sense that climate change is more of a current issue in Russia than it might initally appear, as born out by their government's recent major u-turn in their policy. I have only just scratched the surface of Russian psychology but I can already see that it may be more difficult for my British brain to decode than I had bargained for.

Live simply and trust one another

According to the charming Azerbaijani Namik (pictured - far right), who we interviewed on the train from Moscow to Kazan, Lenin once said: "Live more simply and see how people will come closer to you". It's a lovely phrase and one I'd like to think is true.

We've been in Russia for nearly a week now and have interviewed about ten people so far. We had prepared ourself for a certain amount of hostility to my climate change questions - or at least apathy - yet we have found anything but. There has been curiosity, thoughtfulness and debate. They also think that most other Russians don't think about the issue but this has not been my experience. Despite some protests to the contrary, everyone I've spoken to so far has had a well developed opinion and most of them have been concerned and taking practical action.

We have noticed something odd about the Russian nature. We are constantly warned by extraordinarily friendly people that their countrymen are not to be trusted. We suspect this is a result of years of being encouraged to inform on one another during Soviet times and perhaps a feeling that the country's worst recent turmoils have been wrought from within.

Whatever the cause We'd like to suggest that they should fear less. From the eight burly Russians (pictured above) on their way to their military school reunion who plied us with Cognac and compliments on the Moscow-Kazan train to the lovely Tartar Alina (pictured) in Kazan, who stopped to ask us if we needed help in an internet cafe and ended up giving us a free personal guided tour, we have been shown nothing but kindness. Perhaps this is because we have shed most of our belongings and are living more simply but we'd like to think that Russians deserve more credit than they give one another.

Small towns, big fun

So we arrived in Moscow and immediately left again. We were whisked out of the city on a road trip with the lovely Fedya and Tanya, with whom we are staying. Four of their wonderful friends came along too.

We visited lots of churches. Now before you start yawning, churches in Russia are a totally different kettle of fish from European ones. They look like delicious confectionary for a start. The ones in Sergiev Posad were particularly impressive.

We stayed in an awesome old Soviet hotel in Uglich, which has to be seen to be believed. We were warned not to park our cars outside because the people coming out of the disco in the same building might vandalise the car and we were lulled to sleep by the sound of techno. It was very cheap.



I spoke to the six yound Muscovites about climate change the following morning over breakfast. I'll write more about what they said later but in general the debate here is clearly far more advanced than I had been led to believe. I have been hugely encouraged by the conversations I've had so far.

I'm pleased to say that my first suspicions of Russia have been confirmed and I think we're going to have some good memories from this part of our trip.

The way to go

As our Polish train approaches Moscow, the scenery looks quite different from the rolling English countryside I wrote about in the last post. It's a lot flatter for a start. The buildings are commonly made of wood. I must admit, I'm a bit in love with Russia after only two hours.

It feels good to be here at last; a day later than planned. Less than twenty four hours into our trip and our first significant* blunder made itself known. As we were about to board our train for Moscow at Warsaw, we realised something odd: the train was to make a stop in Minsk, Belarus. We don't have visas for Belarus. In fact we had specifically chosen this particular train, on the advice of Seat 61, because it did not go through Belarus. The train had other ideas.

So we disembark at the Polish border town of Biala Podlaska. A kindly taxi driver shows us the embassy, followed by the bank where we need to pay for our visas the following morning, and then to a nearby hostel. The entire journey, he is telling us all sorts of useful information. Unfortunately he's telling us this in Polish and he doesn't seem to understand that we don't speak the language. In fact his response to our puzzled looks and shrugs is to talk louder and faster. For reference, if this happens to you, you shouldn't pay 50 Zlotys for a taxi from the station, 10 is more than enough.

It all worked out ok though and we got back on the train and even ended up in a better carriage. A big thank you to Marcin in Warsaw, whom I met at the Do Lectures last weekend. He helped us do battle with re-booking our reservation at the ticket counter.

Strangely enough, had we not made a complete pig's ear of it all, the section of our trip from London to Moscow would have been comparable in price and time to flying. Unless you fork out a small fortune to fly directly, you must stopover in Copenhagen. We've seen so much already and the trip has only just begun. Despite our best efforts to sabotage ourselves, or perhaps because of it, we're having a great time already.

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*I did also walk into the gentlemen's toilets in Brussels Midi, startling a small urinating boy. No (more) Manneken-pis jokes please!