Published 21.08.2021 Roman Girichev, an employee of RSE "Kazhydromet", took part in the volunteer program"Ecological expedition to Vilkitsky Island 2021". This is the second such expedition for Roman. Almost a month in the harsh climate of the Arctic, without the Internet and the usual benefits of civilization. Daily physical labor to clean the island and short periods of rest. The harsh north is not a novelty for a resident of Petropavlovsk, I have plenty of experience working in difficult climatic conditions. But here everything is different. The island is heavily polluted. These are scattered hundreds of barrels of spent fuel, which covered the puddles and swamps around with a film in the color of the rainbow, and engines, and shafts, bodies, equipment, remnants of cans, heavy wires, kilometers of fire hoses, household items, various parts, etc.
The international public eco-social organization "Green Arctic", together with the Russian Center for Arctic Development and the government of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, has been cleaning the Arctic islands since 2012. From 2012 to 2016, volunteers cleaned Bely Island in the Kara Sea, from 2017 to 2021 they are cleaning Vilkitsky Island, also in the Kara Sea.
This year, with the help of equipment, 2 hectares of territory were cleared, several thousand 200-and 275-liter barrels were pressed, about 100 cubic meters of fuel were poured into tanks, piles of metal were loaded into semi-capacities. All this was brought to the northern shore, for subsequent export from the island.
One of the goals of the expedition is to add the island to the list of specially protected natural territories. Red Book polar bears need to be protected, given that poachers have visited the island.
For Roman, as an employee of the Hydrometeorological Service of Kazakhstan, the experience of traveling to the island is also interesting because a weather station once worked here, which was organized in 1953. Due to difficult weather conditions, the first meteorologists were thrown here in February 1954, and on March 1, the station began work. Since 2011, the station has been operating in automatic mode, making observations of wind characteristics, temperature and humidity without human intervention. Power is provided by solar panels and a wind generator.
The work of a meteorologist in those days was accompanied by risks and difficulties every day. Going to the weather site to determine the indicators, to the lighthouse to determine the state of the sea, to the shore to determine the thickness of the ice, the employees carried weapons with them in case of a polar bear attack (in the 60s, the carbine weighed about 8 kilograms). The danger was posed by arctic foxes, many of whom were sick, frosts below 40 degrees, remoteness from civilization and the polar night. To feel cut off from civilization and do a useful job to save the planet is the biggest gift for a volunteer weather forecaster.
Roman shares his impressions: - It was interesting to find old thermometers all over the territory of the weather station. The oldest one I found was made in 1960. I also found intact thermometers preserved in 1968, 1969 and 1989, which were buried in the sand. A lot of meteorological equipment was also scattered. These are psychrometric booths, booths for recorders, and also wooden ladders to the precipitation meter and heliograph. All this, surprisingly, is very well preserved. This indicates that they did it efficiently and conscientiously. Reading various documents and memoirs of those who were on the island, and being directly there, I was immersed in that atmosphere of romance and at the same time the most difficult working and living conditions. I think the meteorologists of that time on the island did a heroic job.