Clifford Krolick, research associate  New England, Canada, and Atlantic Provinces Alliance     

Many of us have heard that the Arctic is melting rapidly, actually heating 5x faster than the rest of the planet. Canadian and Russian’s since the 1960’s and 70’s commissioned the construction of 300- 600 foot tall mega reservoir hydroelectric dams within the Arctic region. Replumbing landscapes to create hydropower requires lots of heavy machinery and tons of concrete. The energy Intensity of a medium-sized dam can produce the same
amount of emissions as 46,000 vehicles a year. Cement, the second most
consumed product on Earth, accounts for a whopping five percent of global Co2
emissions. https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GRNR&u=maine&id=GALE|A469848953&v=2.1&it=r&sid=book
mark-GRNR&asid=256a5582
Scientists are intrigued and have spent years trying to understand what factors are leading to the Arctics rapid heating.  They seem to all agree that the polar and equatorial regions on our planet not only are the most sensitive to any human impacts but any human manipulation and changes in these zones could have catastrophic ecological, hydrological, and climatological effects that would reverberate throughout our planet.  For decades the major Arctic rivers that supply fresh water to the Arctic Ocean have been under strict flow regulations forced by Canadian and Russian mega reservoir hydroelectric operations.
  https://www.academia.edu/24189556/The_arctic_freshwater_system_Changes_and_impacts?email
_work_card=thumbnail
The construction of these mega dams required containing thousands of Square miles of
water.  This was no small feat and it is no small impact on a region covered by Boreal
Forests, Tundra, and Permafrost ground.  Dam operators have Continued to do this year
after year for 60 years, with cumulative effects that have been catastrophic. . I understand
that there’s the argument of scale, but the Arctic Ocean in Comparison to the Pacific and
Atlantic is much smaller so any human created flow restrictions on the major rivers feeding
this ocean will have a significant effect on the general hydrology affecting the entire Arctic
Archipelago region.  And there are thousands of dams up there in Canada with multiple
dams on numerous rivers feeding into both Hudson and James Bays
 These flow restrictions have waters confined all summer long in sea-size shallow flooded
land reservoirs literally 1000’s of sq miles. For years dam constructors routinely flooded
over forests, tundra and Permafrost grounds. But no time in recent human history have
much of the flow from these rivers been held hostage with waters pushed inlands all
summer.  Waters sit stagnant and as they gain solar radiation begin to warm.  Of course
this warming, over the years leads to decomposition with much methane and Co2
emissions but the permafrost under these heated waters is also melting and releasing more emissions. What was once an arid colder place aka the Arctic is now beginning to transform into a warmer, more humid wetter place. Recent NASA studies point out why:  (Steamy Relationships: How Atmospheric Water Vapor Supercharges Earth’s Greenhouse Effect by Alan Buis, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, February 8,
2022) https://climate.nasa.gov/ask-nasa-climate/3143/steamy-relationships-how-
atmospheric-water-vapor-supercharges-earths-greenhouse-effect/

 Only in winter the flooded miles of reservoirs are drawn back to these dams to create
electricity.   However the discharge flow rates of these waters are often 5-10 x normal river
flow .  If you combine unusually high flow rates with the warmed waters above freezing, and
add the frigid air, of the Arctic, huge amounts of Water Vapor, humidity and heat is released
as these rivers flow much of the way unfrozen toward the Hudson and James bays leading
into the Arctic Ocean.  Again, no time in recent human history have most of the major Arctic
rivers remained flowing and unfrozen in winter .   The oxygen levels in these waters
remain considerably lower because waters sat stagnant all summer. The chemical make up
of waters contain higher levels of methane and co2 are forever chemically altered.  It should
also be noted ,that scientists have determined that much of the heating going on in the
Arctic occurs in winter time. Rivers flowing in winter would certainly amplify Arctic heating.
 Some of our data goes back to temperature and precipitation studies from the 1940’s and
begins to show marked changes beginning to be documented in the 1960’s Recent U.S.
EPA ruling now suggests that dams and their reservoirs should be monitored for GHG
emissions.  They suggest that dams and reservoirs are a significant source of Green House
gas.  Each year that we permit this process in the Arctic to continue is another year to keep
warming the key climate player in North America, the Arctic.
 Hydro Quebec is an outlier and has disregarded many of Canadian regulations which
unfortunately there are few.  They care little to nothing about the fisheries or the ecological
significance of their destructive dam operations or displacing indigenous populations.   They and their Russian counterparts have been significantly heating the Arctic region for the past 60 years.Canadians by far are worst offenders and continue to pedal and greenwash their hydro energy as 100% clean & renewable energy.  We need assistance to help encourage the U.S. to no longer accept Canadian Imported electricity as all of it is hydroelectric originating in the Arctic.  Ultimately, we need organizations like yours to demand Canada to decommission these dams and let these rivers flow again naturally. 
We have an extensive body of research on large hydroelectric operations particularly located in polar and equatorial regions and would be happy to assist.  This is literally the tip of the Iceberg of damages.

Dikson is Russia’s northern most settlement. It is situated on the Kara Sea near the
mouth  of the Yenisei River. This tundra region is an Arctic desert and its climate was
cooling until  human interventions created a major warming tipping point in the
1970’s.  
 Over the next four decades, Diksons’s decadal average annual temperatures warmed
6.54  degrees Fahrenheit. This is about 8 times faster than the Earth’s average annual
rate of 2  degrees over the past 100 years.  
 My book, Arctic Blue Deserts, brought to the forefront a now viable Russian
hypotheses  for warming the climate. I believe my analysis of Arctic weather data from
NOAA’s global  climatological collection, exposes how human experimentation with the
hydrologic cycle has  caused cataclysmic irreversible turning points in the Arctic
climate. (See Figure. 1) 
 For example, Dikson’s decadal average six month winter precipitation was only 1.31
inches  from 1940 to 1949 and increased to an average of 6.74 inches during the 1960
to 2019  period. Dikson’s decadal average six month summer precipitation during these
six decades  was 7.87 inches, which is relatively unchanged from the 1950’s decadal
average of 8.09  inches. (See Tables 1 and 2)  
 Russia built seven inland sea-sized hydroelectric reservoirs between 1950 and 1980 on
the  Angara, Yenisei, Irtysh, and Ob rivers whose waters flow into the Kara Sea near the
Dikson  weather station. (See Figure 2) These reservoirs absorb and store the sun’s
energy. The warm  winter dam discharges in contact with the super cold air and
regulated winter river flows,  typically 4 to 8 times greater than natural flows are all
designed to produce an inexhaustible  supply of water vapor emissions to increase
winter humidity levels in order to warm the Arctic. 
 I have separated the weather data into pre-dam and post-dam segments, or by
tipping  points (rather abrupt permanent changes in the weather data) and then break
these sections  down into six month summer (May-October) and winter (January-April
and November December) periods. This has provided the analytical pathway to help
identify the human drivers causing the Siberian winters to now be much warmer and
wetter but usually leaving  the summer climate conditions relatively unchanged. For
example, the pre-dam Bratsk  average six month winter temperature of 5.23 degrees
Fahrenheit increased to 10.36  degrees , post dam. At Krasnoyarsk the pre-dam
average winter precipitation of 3.12 inches  almost doubled in the post-dam period to
5.70 inches. (See Tables 3-6)  
 Nature never possessed regulating faucets like the large human gates on these dams 
suppressing and storing the spring run-off. Now, that humans have disrupted the
hydrologic  cycle in the most climate sensitive region of the earth, the weather data
appears to be saying  that Arctic warming may be a major driver of global warming. 

 My Essays “The Soviet Union Is Using Water Vapor Emissions to Warm the Arctic”
and  ”The Soviet Union’s 1958 Blueprint to Increase Arctic Humidity” document the
Soviet Union’s  1950 hypotheses and its desire to weaken the Siberian High for its
national interest. 
SMK/rdw arcticbluedeserts.com Essay 1-2023 By Stephen Kasprzak 4/7/23

 Figure 1 

Figure 2

Table 1 Dikson, RS, Station No.

RSM00020674  
 Temperature Data from NOAA Record of Climatological
Observation  Decadal Average Annual Temperature Fahrenheit (F) 
 Pre-Mega Dams Post-Mega Dams 
1936-1939 14.24 1970-1979 9.91 
1940-1949 14.13 1980-1989 11.87 
1950-1959 11.82 1990-1999 11.69  

1960-1969 9.69 2000-2009 12.85 
 2010-2019 16.45 
 2020-2022 17.40 
 In the 1970’s, a major turning point occurred in Dikson’s decadal average annual
temperatures as they cooled 4.44 degrees Fahrenheit in the prior three decades
from14.13 to  9.69 degrees. Then, over the next four decades, the decadal

The attempt to weaken the Siberian High was revealed in the United States via a March 
3,1958 article by William J. Perkins entitled “Soviets Plan Reversing Rivers, Melting Arctic to 
Warm Siberia” which appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 
“The vast arid, cold steppes of eastern Siberia are the home of a vast high
pressure system of intense cold air, called the Siberian High. Western scientists 
believe that if Russia is able to alter the character of the ground over  which
this high pressure system is located, the character of the air mass  itself will
change.  
Russia officially appears to share this view. In outlining, last August, a 
project now believed to be underway to divert the flow of two great 
Siberian rivers from the Arctic Ocean to form a vast inland sea among the 
arid steppes of central Asia, Moscow radio boasted: “Astonishing
 climatic changes would occur. . . evaporation (from the inland sea)
 would increase and with it the humidity of the air. The extremes of 
yearly and daily temperature characteristics of these would be greatly 
modified. The rivers that would be diverted under the Russian plan 
announced that August were the Ob and Yenisei.” (emphasis by S. Kasprzak) 
 The Siberian High is associated with extreme low humidity and little snow from 
September until April. Right where this key weather system forms, Russia built a
series  of “vast inland seas” between 1950 and 1980, five were on the Angara River and
Yenisei  in total; one on the Ob and another on the Irtysh, a tributary of the Ob.  
According to NASA, “Increasing water vapor leads to warmer temperature, 
which causes more water vapor to be absorbed into the air. Warming and water 
absorption increase in a spiraling cycle.” 
These seven reservoirs, the Irkutsh, Bratsk, Ust-Ilmsky, Krasnoyarsk, Sayano
Shushenskaya, Novosibirsk and Bukhtarma hydroelectric reservoirs are also mega 
human-made water vaporizers, which did not go unnoticed by the Siberians. The rapid 
increase in humidity levels and air temperatures were noted in a September 14, 1975 
Miami Herald article by John Dornberg entitled, Huge man-made lakes warming up 
Siberia:…“Ten years after its completion… the Bratsk dam and others like it along the 
Angara have warmed up central Siberia by at least 10 degrees” and “In effect, what
 the Russians have done in their drive to industrialize Siberia and exploit its
 enormous wealth of raw materials is to create inland oceans which account for
 more rain, more humidity, less seasonal fluctuation in temperature and more
 frequent change in the weather.” Emphasis by S. Kasprzak) 
It took less than 20 years for the Soviets to successfully test their hypothesis on  how to
force the warming of Siberia with colossal surface water storage and water  vapor
emissions. It is my hypothesis that even a reduction of global carbon emissions  to net
zero will have minimal impact, if any, on strengthening the Siberian High and  reducing
Arctic humidity and temperatures fueled by these “vast inland seas”. 
SMK/rdw arcticbluedeserts.com Essay 3-2023 by Stephan Kasprzak April 7, 2023

 The Soviet Union announced its plan in 1950 to use evaporation from its proposed  mega reservoir hydroelectric power schemes to increase the humidity of central Siberia  and melt Arctic coastal sea ice. An example of Soviet intentions from a credible source:  “For each step outlined here the computations have been made and verified; how  much electric power can be produced; how great the evaporation will be; how  many calories will be transmitted to the atmosphere in one area and taken to  another to change the climate of the Arctic and the desert.” By William Mandel  from California Eagle ( Los Angeles, California) 2 February 1950 Thursday.  

 William Mandel highlighted his above statement in bold print to emphasize the  Soviet research and hypothesis “to change the climate of the Arctic”. The building of  the colossal hydroelectric reservoirs was the experiment. The rapid increase in the  precipitation and temperatures of central Siberia and the melting and disappearance of  Kara Sea ice that coincides with the proliferation of these mega dams is worthy  evidence that confirms the Soviet Arctic warming hypothesis outlined by Mandel.  

 The editor of the California Eagle highlighted in bold print Mandel’s credentials.  

 “EDITOR’S NOTE: Mr. Mandel is a recognized authority on the Soviet Union.  He is now writing a study of the Soviet Arctic for Vilhjalmur Stefansson’s,  Encyclopedia Arctica. He recently completed a survey of Soviet postwar Far  Eastern policy for the Institute of Pacific Relations, which also commissioned his  first book, “The Soviet Far East and Central Asia.” Another book, “A Guide to the  Soviet Union,” has been used in many universities. In 1947, as senior fellow in  Slavic Studies at the Hoover Institute, Stanford University, he compiled “An  Encyclopedia of the U.S.S.R.” During the war, he was the United Press’ expert on  Russia.”  

 What is ironic about this 1950 newspaper article is it “is the story behind Soviet  Foreign Minister Vishinsky’s stunning declaration to the United Nations”…”that Russia  was razing mountains, irrigating deserts; cutting through the jungle and tundra in places  where human footprints had not been seen for thousands of years”…”in order to  change the climate of the Arctic and the deserts”.  

 The Russians have successfully used summer and early fall solar absorption by the  ice free reservoirs and water vapor emissions from the reservoirs’s warm winter  hypolimnial discharges into rivers, to force the warming of central Siberia and the  Arctic.  

SMK/rdw arcticbluedeserts.com Essay 2-2023 by Stephen Kasprzak April 6, 2023

Carbon dioxide emissions are the driving force behind the Earth’s Greenhouse Effect. However, there are untold stories how Hydro-Quebec’s and Russia’s human produced water vapor emissions are not only the catalyst but also the supercharger of an unprecedented Arctic Greenhouse Effect.
The Soviet Union announced its hypothesis in 1950 to use evaporation from its proposed mega reservoir hydroelectric power schemes in the watershed of the Kara Sea to increase the humidity of central Siberia and melt the Kara’s sea ice.
An example of Soviet intentions from a credible source: “For each step outlined here the computations have been made and verified; how much electric power can be produced; how great the evaporation will be; how many calories will be transmitted to the atmosphere in one area and taken to another to change the climate of the Arctic and the desert.” By William Mandel from California Eagle ( Los Angeles, California) 2 February 1950 Thursday.
Seventy years ago the Russians hypothesized that the cumulative impact of water vapor emissions from artificial Lakes, 200 to 300 miles long, would cause human produced warming in the very arid Arctic region. According to NASA, “…increasing water vapor leads to warmer temperatures, which causes more water vapor to be absorbed into the air. Warming and water absorption increase in a spiraling cycle.”
The merit of these Russian hypotheses was fully supported by a September 14, 1975, Miami Herald article by John Dornberg entitled, Huge man-made lakes warming up Siberia. “Ten years after its completion… the Bratsk dam and others like it along the Angara River have warmed up central Siberia by at least 10 degrees Fahrenheit.”
Since 1975, more mega dams have been built in the Kara’s watershed on the Angara,Yenisei, Ob and Irtysh Rivers and this has greatly intensified the Arctic Greenhouse Effect in central Siberia and the adjacent Arctic Seas. For example, “The Kara Sea has experienced the most dramatic boost in air temperatures over the last 20 years. Since 1998, the average temperatures in the area have increased by as much as 9 degrees Fahrenheit” (Staalensen, 2018).
Between 1980 to 2020, the amount of August sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk by 1,000,000 square miles according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado Boulder. About one third of the Arctic’s reduction in sea ice occurred in the Kara Sea’s 340,000 square miles alone. SMK/rdw Page 1 September 28, 2022

Human enhanced Arctic solar absorption and evaporation
The very cold natural water cycles of the Canadian and Russian rivers have been replaced by human regulated and unnaturally warmer water cycles, intensifying both solar absorption and water vapor emissions.
The new presence and extraordinary volume of fall and winter water vapor emissions from Canadian and Russian hydroelectric reservoirs have supercharged regional humidity levels and this has led to warmer temperatures, which causes more unprecedented evaporation and water vapor emissions.
Scientists call this Arctic Amplification or “positive feedback loops” and this has radically altered the natural and delicate balance between regional evaporation and precipitation rates.
Hydro-Quebec has built cascading mega dams over a 900 mile long continental section starting from the mouth of the LaGrande River entering Hudson Bay, extending eastward through Quebec to Newfoundland and Labrador and ending at the entrance of the Churchill River on the Labrador Sea. They include the 4th, 11th, and 12th largest in the world by volume and two others which are the 5th and 13th largest by surface area.
Russia has radically altered the natural water cycles between the Yensei-Angara and Ob-Irtysh Rivers and the Kara Sea by building a series of 8 major hydroelectric reservoirs. Three of them are the 2nd, 9th, and 10th largest in the world by surface area and four others are the 2nd, 9th, 13th, and 14th largest by volume.
During summer, solar energy is absorbed by these artificial lakes warming their waters. By early fall, the large temperature differences between the cold air and warmer water surfaces in reservoirs and downstream rivers provide exceptional conditions for high evaporation rates to release copious water vapor emissions. These emissions release the stored heat of the waters until the reservoir surfaces freeze over. In addition to this source of water vapor, there are hundreds of miles of the downstream river waters that never freeze over throughout the winter due to the winter flow discharges releasing deep warm reservoir waters through the hydro turbines. The regulated warm dam discharges are typically 5 to 10 times the volume of natural winter river flows.
Fall and winter evaporation are supercharging Arctic Greenhouse Effect
It is my hypothesis that the fall and winter water vapor releases from the downstream warmed rivers may exceed the reservoir emissions prior to icing over and thus are also a major driving contributor supercharging the Arctic’s Greenhouse Effect

 For example, “ the Krasnoyarsk Dam significantly influences the local climate; normally the river would freeze over in the bitterly-cold Siberian winter, but because the dam releases unfrozen water year round, the river never freezes in the 200 kilometer (120 Mi) to 300 kilometer (190 Mi.) stretch of river downstream from the dam. In winter, the frigid air interacts with warm river water to produce fog, which shrouds Krasnoyarsk and other downstream area.” (Pacific Environment 2013 and Gotlib 1996)
Hydro-Quebec and Siberian artificial lakes and their warm outflow releases experience some of the highest evaporation rates in the world.
These reservoirs and the Great Lakes both experience a similar annual loss of about two feet of water annually through evaporation. A high percentage of this 2 foot loss of lake elevation occurs in the cold seasons.
“This is because evaporation is not directly driven by warm air temperatures but instead by warm water temperatures (Lenters, 2004). More specifically high evaporation requires three factors : 1) a large temperature difference between water and air (i.e. warm water and cold air), 2) low relative humidity, 3) high wind speeds. If all three ingredients are present, as often occurs in the fall and winter, evaporation rates for the Great Lakes can get as high as 0.4 to 0.5 inches a day. To put the number in perspective, a 1-day loss of 0.5 inches of water from the total surface area of the Great Lakes (94,250 square miles) represents a volumetric flow rate of 20 Niagara Falls”. (Lenters, 2011)
If a “volumetric flow rate of 20 Niagara Falls” can occur from the surface area of the Great Lakes 94,250 square mile, then how great is the annual volume of water vapor emissions from the 1,000,000 square miles of the Arctic’s coastal seas that are now ice free each year?
Throughout the winter, long sections of the downstream unfrozen rivers warmed by the hypolimnial deep dam releases, continually contaminate the atmosphere with great volumes of water vapor emissions. Never before in geologic history have rivers openly flowed through the frigid Arctic winter exposing vast surface areas of now unfrozen water to such full combinations of evaporative forces.
This human produced warming is a powerful contributor to earlier ice out and later freeze up dates in James and Hudson Bays, Arctic Ocean and its Kara Sea.
Many in the scientific community hypothesize that the increase in the average annual global temperature of about two degrees Fahrenheit over the past 100 years is the major driver of increased Arctic water vapor emissions. For example, in February 8, 2022, Alan Buis, of NASA’ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, wrote the following in Steamy

 Relationships: How Atmospheric Water Vapor Supercharges Earth’s Greenhouse Effect:
“Increased water vapor doesn’t cause human-produced global warming. Instead, it’s a consequence of it. Increased water vapor in the atmosphere supercharges the warming caused by other greenhouse gases. It works like this: as greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane increase, Earth’s temperature rises in response. This increases evaporation from both water and land areas. Because warmer air holds more moisture, its concentration of water vapor increases. The water vapor then absorbs heat radiated from Earth and prevents it from escaping out to space. This further warms the atmosphere, resulting in even more water vapor in the atmosphere. This is what scientists call a ‘positive feedback loop’. Scientists estimate this effect more than doubles the warming that would happen due to increasing carbon dioxide alone.”
The Buis hypothesis may be flawed because it does not take into account how the human produced water vapor emissions from Hydro-Quebec and Russian colossal artificial lakes in this very arid region have first created and then intensified the Arctic’s Greenhouse Effect.
We need to measure Arctic regional precipitation and humidity levels post-dam and compare them to pre-dam data. We also need to quantify the evaporation rates from the following:
1. James and Hudson Bays and Kara Sea.
2. Hydro-Quebec and Russian Reservoirs and and their regulated warm hypolimnial winter discharges.
3. The long sections of ice free downstream rivers which are warmed by the hypolimnial deep dam releases.
Until we quantify and understand the impacts of water vapor emissions (footprints ) from these regional hydroelectric reservoirs on the Arctic’s Greenhouse Effect, our efforts to mediate the Global Greenhouse Effect shall be greatly handicapped.

June 25, 2002

In today’s world, questioning hydropower energy as being “clean”, “green” and
“renewable” is regarded by many in control of climate science as environmental
blasphemy. Yet, when you look at all freshwater flow on Earth, the thousands of dams
and especially the mega dam projects, “…have commandeered almost 60% of that
variability” (https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-03-03/water). Can we commit to such a
change in the hydrologic cycle and not expect the climate to change?
Especially concerning are the mega hydro dam projects that have proliferated on large
rivers in Canada and Russia since the 1960’s. These dams must be included in climate
change discussions. Their expanding presence has closely coincided with the rather
abrupt, unprecedented and intensified increases in temperature and weather events in
Eurasia and North America. The flow regulation of these dams seizes the icy spring
runoff and then stores the stagnated water in inland sea sized reservoirs. The
impounded water is heated by the summer sun and then released during the long
winter.
In the fall and winter before the dams existed, the rivers were locked in ice. Now,
thanks to the warmer deep reservoir releases, their heat pollution is released
downstream over great distances. This has never happened before so abruptly in the
history of the Arctic. Thanks to the warmer reservoir water releases, a fully frozen Arctic
hydrosphere in the cold months no longer exists. To what degree are the present rapid
sea ice and permafrost melting fueled by this human forced thermal pollution?

Water vapor is the strongest greenhouse gas, stronger than even CO2. Now without
precedent, it has been unleashed by the dams upon the Arctic. Especially in the cold
dry months, evaporation in the fall from the water surfaces of these reservoirs and in
the winter, the ever flowing rivers downstream of the hydro turbine discharges are
releasing this most powerful of greenhouse gases. Extreme evaporation rates occur
when super cold dry air is in contact with the exposed warmed discharges. Air and
water temperature differences by as much as 60 to 70 degrees are common in the cold
months. The high winds that often occur across Arctic regions in the fall and winter
increase the evaporation rate further.
Is water vapor emitted from these hydropower projects carried by air currents for
thousands of miles, warming regions like Greenland and the Arctic Ocean? What
about the cascading mega hydro projects in central Siberia? Can they weaken
dominant cold season weather systems in the Northern Hemisphere, like the Siberian
High?
Another worrisome question is to what degree are hydro dams crippling marine life and
its power to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere and oceans? Before the rivers were
dammed, the spring meltwater flowed to the ocean in a powerful freshwater current,
transporting nutrients and young marine life throughout the coastal seas and supplying
the energy to mix and oxygenate saltwater and freshwater layers. North Atlantic
marine plants and animals have adapted their life cycles over many millennia to the
long established timing, flow energy, and volume of this cold spring high flow. The
increasing numbers of huge dams have reduced nutrient delivery and robbed the
energy of the river flows emptying into the Labrador Sea, Hudson Bay, the Gulf of St.
Lawrence and the Gulf of Maine. Diatoms, the super plankton with their unique
efficiency to process and permanently sequester CO2, are a biological engine that can
help cool this planet and drive a healthy marine ecosystem. To what degree these
dams are harming marine diatom populations is a key climate change question.

These questions about the role these dams are playing with climate change and the
demise of marine life must be included along with fossil fuel impacts. Many human
lives and the survival of entire species may depend on our understanding and response
to the climate havoc these dams are generating.

Roger Wheeler

Email: friendsofsebago@yahoo.com

We measure carbon footprints of fossil fuel power plants but we don’t measure the evaporation rates of hydroelectric resevoirs or their water vapor (humidity) footprints.

“Water vapor is Earth’s most abundant greenhouse gas. It’s responsible for about half of Earth’s greenhouse effect– the process that occurs when gases in Earth’s atmosphere trap the Sun’s heat,” and “some people mistakenly believe water vapors are are the main driver of Earth’s current warming. But, increased water vapor doesn’t cause human-produced global warming. Instead, it’s a consequence of it. Increased water vapor in the atmosphere supercharges the warming caused by other greenhouse gases. It works like this: as greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane increase, Earth’s temperature rises in response. This increases evaporation from both water and land areas. Because warmer air holds more moisture, its concentration of water vapor increases. The water vapor then absorbs heat radiated from Earth and prevents it from escaping out to space. This further warms the atmosphere, resulting in even more water vapor in the atmosphere. This is what scientists call a ‘positive feedback loop’. Scientists estimate this effect more than doubles the warming that would happen due to increasing carbon dioxide alone.” (Steamy Relationships: How Atmospheric Water Vapor Supercharges Earth’s Greenhouse Effect by Alan Buis, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, February 8, 2022)

It is my opinion that this hypothesis is seriously flawed because it does not take into account the increased water vapor from the proliferation of large and mega hydroelectric reservoirs in the subarctic and Arctic regions. For example, fourteen years after Russia built the 280 mile long Vilyuy Hydroelectric Reservoir in Siberia, “the average annual temperature at Chernyvsky has risen from 17 to 19 degrees Fahrenheit, ” Boris A. Bedvedev said “and now the summer temperatures are cooler and season longer, influenced by the 33 percent increase in humidity, from the huge reservoir, the engineer said.”

(Environmental Change Tied to Soviet Dam published in the Jackson Sun of March 26, 1981)

The Vilyuy Reservoir’s water vapor emissions forced a cataclysmic regional climate change. It is my hypothesis that the cumulative impact of multiple thermal water vapor footprints from large Canadian and Russian human vaporizing reservoirs forcing climate change in the Arctic. The proliferation of reservoirs has supercharged the arctics humidity levels and that has led to warmer temperatures which causes more evaporation and water vapor to be absorbed into the atmosphere. These dams are causing human produced Arctic and global warming and we need to measure their evaporation rates and thermal and water vapor footprints.

— Stephen Kasprzak April 4, 2022

By Stephen Kaspryzak, March 31, 2022

The attempt to change the Siberian climate was first revealed in the United States via a March 3,1958 article by William J. Perkins entitled “Soviets Plan Reversing Rivers, Melting Arctic to Warm Siberia” which appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

“The vast arid, cold steppes of eastern Siberia is the home of a vast high-pressure system of intense cold air, called the Siberian High. Western scientists believe that if Russia is able to alter the character of the ground over which this high pressure system is located, the character of the air mass itself will change”. 

“Russia officially appears to share this view. In outlining, last August, a project now believed to be underway to divert the flow of two great Siberian rivers from the Arctic Ocean to form a vast inland sea among the arid steppes of central Asia, Moscow radio boasted: “Astonishing climatic changes would occur. . . evaporation (from the inland sea) would increase and with it the humidity of the air. The extremes of yearly and daily temperature characteristics of these would be greatly modified.” 

The rivers that would be diverted under the Russian plan announced that August were the Ob and Yenisei.

The Siberian High is associated with extreme low humidity and little snow from September until April. Right where this key weather system forms, Russia built a series of four “vast inland seas” between 1956 and 1967, two were on the Angara River, a tributary to the Yenisei; one on the Ob and another on the Irtysk, a tributary of the Ob.

According to NASA, “Increasing water vapor leads to warmer temperature, which causes more water vapor to be absorbed into the air. Warming and water absorption increase in a spiraling cycle.”

These four hydroelectric reservoirs, equivalent to vast inland seas, are not only generating electricity 24/7 but they are colossal human-made water vaporizers, which did not go unnoticed by the Siberians. The rapid increase in humidity levels and air temperatures were noted in a September 14, 1975 Miami Herald article by John Dornberg entitled, “Huge man-made lakes warming up Siberia:”…“Ten years after its completion… the Bratsk dam and others like it along the Angara have warmed up central Siberia by at least 10 degrees” and “In effect, what the Russians have done in their drive to industrialize Siberia and exploit its enormous wealth of raw materials is to create inland oceans which account for more rain, more humidity, less seasonal fluctuation in temperature and more frequent change in the weather.”

It took less than 20 years for the Soviets to successfully test their hypothesis on how to warm up Siberia. It is my hypothesis that even a reduction of global carbon emissions to net zero will have minimal impact, if any, on strengthening the Siberian High and reducing Arctic humidity and global warming fueled by these colossal water vaporizers. 

There is real hope to counter the gloom and doom predictions of climate change but we must be willing to fight this battle on all fronts. We must keep our foot to the pedal in the race to reduce and eliminate fossil fuel burning, but this effort will be in vain unless the mega and large dam impacts are addressed and necessary action is taken.
Throughout the geologic history of the Arctic Ocean and surrounding continents any natural change in the hydrologic cycle has resulted in climate change in snow and ice covered regions with global implications.
Now, in the blink of a geologic era eye, over the last 60 years, a proliferation of dams began operating on northern rivers flowing toward subarctic and Arctic seas.
The accelerated warming of these northern regions and coastal seas clearly coincides with the growing number of dams and their flow regulation. This has led to a rapid decline in the natural refrigeration mechanisms of climate cooling sea ice and permafrost.
Mega hydropower dams on subarctic and Arctic rivers have in a matter of a few years altered the sensitive hydrologic cycle. For example, “To meet the demand for electricity during cold weather, dams and diversions have increased the winter flow on the La Grande River by eight times (from 18,000 to 141,000 cubic feet per second) in order to store water for the following winter and have eradicated the spring flow (flow reduced from 176,000 to 53,000 cubic feet per second).” (Harper 1992; McCully 1996).
The dams seize and store the spring freshet run-off in inland sea sized reservoirs where the waters are heated by solar radiation all summer. The necessary flow regulation in the frigid subarctic and Arctic winter temperatures requires the warmer reservoir waters to be released all during the cold months so the rivers do not freeze up and compromise dam operations. The resulting heat pollution from these dams and energy losses to coastal currents affects temperatures and ocean currents thousands of miles distant. All spheres of the earth, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the geosphere, and the biosphere are directly affected by the presence and flow regulation of these dams.
Over 50 years ago one scientist, the late Hans Neu, a Canadian government oceanographer, warned his fellow citizens and the Canadian government that the continued build up of large dams across Canada and Russia would impact sea ice, ocean currents, the climate, and devastate marine fisheries.
We are now witnessing the accelerating reality of Hans Neu’s warnings. Although Neu during his lifetime was ignored and silenced by government regulators, politicians, and the hydro industry, he gave us the guiding foundation to build upon for a fuller understanding of the colossal impacts of these dams and what must be done to stop their destruction.
The attachment is a sample collection of quotes from Hans Neu’s scientific papers and excerpts from newspaper articles covering his work that explain why these dams are not clean energy. The conclusion of Neu’s 1964 study on the Gulf of St. Lawrence flow patterns is provided last. The fact that this 1964 study remained unpublished for six years while the Daniel Johnson Dam and Mega Manicougan Reservoir were completed and the continued ignoring and silencing of scientists pleading for intensive study of the global impacts of these dams may one day be recognized as one of the greatest environmental crimes that man has imposed upon the earth.
References Gulf of St. Lawrence Workshop, Bedford Institute 1968
“Biologists plan watchdog role when environment menaced”, The Province , January 8, 1973 page six. Canadian Press
Bruce Little “Dams stop nature’s ways of mighty rivers” Calgary Herald , February 25, 1974 page 39
HJA Neu, Discussion of Environmental Consequences, Hydrological Sciences Bulletin XXI, 3, September 9, 1976, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
Hans Neu, Man-Made Storage of Water Resources—A Liability to the Ocean Environment? Part 1, Marine Pollution Journal, Volume 13, No 1, pages 7-12, 1982
Hans Neu, Man-Made Storage of Water Resources—A Liability to the Ocean Environment? Part 2, Marine Pollution Journal, Volume 13, No 1, pages44-47, 1982
Hans Neu, Salinity-Structure, Temperature-Distribution and Transport Mechanism in the St. Lawrence Estuary, National Research Council, Division of Mechanical Engineering, May 1964 (unpublished manuscript)

McCully, Patrick, Silenced Rivers, The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams ,1994
Harper, P.P. 1992. “La Grande Riviere: A Subarctic River and a Hydroelectric Megaproject”, The Rivers Handbook; Hydrological and Ecological Principles, Blackwell Scientific Publications