Nord Stream sabotage was major environmental crime

24/08/2024 CEN_net Energy. Transport & Climate Change~, Environment, Biodiversity & Pollution~, Main~, Politics & Economy~, Science, Technology, Heritage & Architecture~ 0

RUSSIA DISMISSES GERMAN NARRATIVE ON NORD STREAM BLASTS AT UN

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that it is “clear” that the United States ordered the 2022 attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines. “It is clear that to carry out such a terrorist attack, there was a command from the very top, as they say. The very top for the West is, of course, Washington,” Lavrov told Izvestia newspaper.

The Russian comments came following German claims that the Nord Stream terror attack was carried out by Ukrainian amateurs ina small yacht.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, compared the investigation into the September 2022 destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines to “a scenario for a Hollywood blockbuster” in remarks to reporters on Aug 20, 2024.

Ambassador Polyanskiy also cast doubt on the integrity of Western investigations into the pipeline destruction, specifically questioning Germany’s handling of the case.

In 2023 Russia sought to get the U.N. Security Council to support an independent inquiry into explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

Russia, China and Brazil voted in favour of the Russian-drafted text, but it failed to get sufficient support for an inquiry.

NORD STREAM SABOTAGE WAS A MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME

Apart from the enormous economic damage inflicted on Europe’s energy supplies, the ecological impacts of the terrorist act have been significant.

Politico reported on Sept 28, 2022 that the Nord Stream disaster may be “unprecedented”, according to a senior scientist with the Clean Air Task Force. The resulting leak exceeded largest ever recorded human induced methane release – the 2015 Aliso Canyon leak of 90,000 tons of methane over months.

The scientific journal Nature in November 2023, published a detailed report the impact of the Nord Stream sabotage that said:

“It is estimated that more than 115,000 tons natural gas (methane CH4) were released over the course of six days and contributed greenhouse gas emissions comparable to approximately 15 million tons of CO2—or one third of the Danish total CO2 annual emissions, thus contributing to global warming.”

“The rupture moreover resulted in the resuspension of 250 000 metric tons of heavily contaminated sediment from deep-sea sedimentary basin for over a week, resulting in unacceptable toxicological risks towards fish and other biota in 11 km3 water in the area for more than a month.”

“The explosions took place near a known Second World War-era chemical weapons dumpsite, where 11.000 tons of chemical warfare agents (CWA) were sea-dumped in 1947, causing environmental concerns in regard to CWA release.”

Physics.Org, in March 2023 reporting on the hidden environmental dangers from the Nord Stream attack, said that “Records of 39 samples taken 20 km from the explosion site contain measurable chemical weapon agents, both arsenic and mustard gas related”.

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