Norilsk’s crimson rivers: What the West can learn from Russia’s Arctic disaster

Norilsk’s crimson rivers: What the West can learn from Russia’s Arctic disaster

When the Ambarnaya River in northern Russia turned a shade of red in late May 2020, it was an unmistakable sign of an environmental disaster. In the industrial city of Norilsk, located above the Arctic Circle, more than 21,000 tonnes of diesel fuel leaked from a storage tank at Power Plant No. 3, operated by a subsidiary of mining giant Norilsk Nickel. The fuel spread into nearby rivers, wetlands and permafrost. Investigators later linked the sp…