MANILA, June 1 — Climate Change Commissioner Heherson T. Alvarez warned the public that our rich marine resources will be destroyed if the nuclear submarines continue to be disabled under the Arctic waters.
“We call on to the international community to help lift out the Russian nuclear submarines that were disabled at the bottom of the Baltic and Kara seas to prevent these vessels from leaking its poisonous substances,” Alvarez appeals.
Alvarez cited a study presented by Vice Admiral Nikolay Mikheev, who served as the former deputy commander in Chief of the Russian Federation Navy, entitled “The World Ocean’s Security is a guarantee of the sustainable development of the Earth’s civilization.”
Also a member of the institute’s board, Mikheev presented this study during the Ocean Security Institute (OSI) Conference in Lima, Peru in December 2014.
Citing the study, the former Senator Alvarez says that the gyres generated from the North Atlantic Sea Route flows down to Asia through the Alaska and California currents, transporting the radioactive waste to the Philippine territory.
Seven nuclear submarines, several of which had been immobilized since the 1960s and in 2007 to 2008, are still under water. Vessels are named K-278 or Komsomolets, K-159, K-27, K-8, K-219, Thresher and Scorpion, which the Russian Navy sent on an expedition to test their scientific prowess.
“The gyres from the north containing the contaminated parts are carried to the South China Sea downwards, affecting our pristine Tubbataha Reefs, idyllic beaches, and all the marine life in the country,” he says.
The Philippines is the third largest biodiversity hotspot in the world. An estimated 10,000 species or about one-fifth of all known species can be found in its territorial waters along with more than 400 reef-building coral species.
In the next 20 years and more, more marine life will be endangered if the vessels are not lifted out immediately at the current rate the submarines are degrading, he added.
“Two of the seven sunken nuclear submarines are giving off poisonous substances,” says Alvarez. “But if these vessels are not lifted out immediately, the entire international community will be in danger,” he adds.
The estimated cost to perform the retrieval operation is around 600 million euros. But Alvarez says that this is a small price to pay if the entire world can avoid if the radioactive waste leakage is prevented.
“The price that the world has to pay for the forthcoming devastation will be tripled if the international leaders do not take action now. Let us not cast a glum cloud over the futures of our great grandchildren,” Alvarez concludes. (PNA)
FPV/PR/EBP