Black snow has been spotted in a coal mining region in Russia. The Kemerovo area in southwest Siberia has undergone a gothic makeover, with videos and photos shared on social media showing jet-black flakes transforming the landscape. While the phenomenon may look eerily beautiful, it’s indicative of a coal mining industry that has very little in the way of regulation, according to environmental protesters. “It’s harder to find white snow than black snow during the winter,” Vladimir Slivyak, a member of the Ecodefense environmental group, told The Guardian. “There is a lot of coal dust in the air all the time. When snow falls, it just becomes visible. You can’t see it the rest of the year, but it is still there.” Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over Show all 29 1 /29 Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over Kalamazoo Gazette/AP Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over AP Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over AP Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over Ice covers the Lake Michigan shoreline Getty Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over A harbor light is covered by snow and ice AP Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over Temperatures dropped to -20 degrees F (-29C) AFP/Getty Images Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over Steam rising off the frozen lake Rex Features Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over Marius Radoi keeps his balance as he walks on the edge of Lake Michigan's shore line AFP/Getty Images Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over Ice forms along the shore AP Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over Ducks rest in Lake Michigan AFP/Getty Images Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over A young boy tosses a chunck of snow into Lake Michigan AP Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over AFP/Getty Images Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over AP Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over REUTERS Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over EPA Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over AP Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over Frank Lettiere's eyebrows and eye lashes are frozen after walking along Lake Michigan's ice covered shoreline AFP/Getty Images Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over AP Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over EPA Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over AFP/Getty Images Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over A man tosses hot water into the freezing cold air EPA Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over AFP/Getty Images Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over AP Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over A man tosses hot water into the freezing cold air EPA Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over EPA Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over AFP/Getty Images Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over Getty Images Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over AP Spectacular photos of Lake Michigan frozen over AP There are multiple open coal pits in the Kuznetsk Basin, the epicentre of Russia’s coal industry, and activists claim the pollution from them is impacting on locals’ health and wellbeing. Life expectancy is three-four years lower for the region’s 2.6 million inhabitants compared to the national average, while rates of cancer, TB meningitis and child cerebral palsy are also higher. ✕ Snow 'painted white' in Russian coal-mining town Deputy governor of the Kuznetsk Basin Andrei Panov has said the region’s black snow could originate from coal-burning factories, vehicles and unspecified businesses. Recommended Photos of Hawaii in the snow illustrate just how cold it is in the US The latest black flurries follow an incident in December when officials in Kemorovo were accused of painting snow white to conceal soot and ash. Footage shared by the Moscow Times showed a woman’s hands coated in white paint after she touched a snow bank outside a municipal recreation centre in Mysky. The head of the town apologised and ordered the paint’s removal in response to public outcry.<doc-sep>#Russia is a country of outstanding natural beauty and diversity. But the sheer lack of environmental regulations is a devastating effect for residents in #Kuzbass, where last night there was BLACK SNOW. pic.twitter.com/zMiEWBJbnh — Khodorkovsky Center (@mbk_center) February 14, 2019 For residents of several towns in Siberia, it is not uncommon to find their streets and rooftops covered in eerie black snow during the winter months. The towns are located in the region of Kuzzbass, home to one of the world’s largest coal fields. According to The Guardian, the snow is coated with toxic black coal dust released into the air from open coal pits, owing to lack of proper maintenance of the nearby factories. This year too, videos and pictures from the Kemerovo area showed jet-black flakes falling from the skies and tainting the landscape. Play It snowed black snow a few days ago in Russia. pic.twitter.com/nhtbSZ4C5Y — 🇷🇺Only In Russia 🇷🇺 (@CrazyinRussia) February 14, 2019 According to environmental activists, the dust coating the snow contains toxic metals, including arsenic and mercury. It has also had negative consequences on the region’s population, with life expectancy being three to four years lower than Russia’s national average. Tuberculosis, cancer and cerebral palsy rates are also above the national average in Kuzzbass. Vladimir Slivyak, a member of the non-profit environmental action group Ecodefense said it is harder to find white snow than black snow during the winter. “There is a lot of coal dust in the air all the time,” he said. “When snow falls, it just becomes visible. You can’t see it the rest of the year, but it is still there.”<doc-sep>Toxic, black snow has turned part of a coal-mining region in Siberia into a post-apocalyptic landscape. Residents in three Russian cities have been tweeting images and videos showing cars, streets and buildings covered in gross-looking, black snow. Authorities have attributed the black snow to coal-processing plants in the area. The director of one of the plants told The Siberian Times that a shield meant to prevent coal powder from escaping has failed, resulting in the soot-colored snow. FOOTBALL FIELD-SIZED ASTEROID SET FOR EARTH FLYBY "It’s harder to find white snow than black snow during the winter,” Vladimir Slivyak, a member of the non-profit environmental group Ecodefense, told The Guardian. "There is a lot of coal dust in the air all the time. When snow falls, it just becomes visible. You can’t see it the rest of the year, but it is still there." According to the U.K.-based news site, dust from the coal plants contains a range of heavy metals, including arsenic and mercury, which represents a health hazard and environmental threat. STUNNING X-RAYS GIVE RARE GLIMPSE OF LONDON ZOO'S 18,000 ANIMALS Local residents blame the coal plants and a lack of regulation. "No cleansing systems, all the waste, dust and dirt, coal lay in the area. Our children and us are breathing it. It's just a nightmare," said one, according to The Siberian Times. Another commented: "The government bans smoking in public. But let us inhale coal dust all together and let it reside in our lungs." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In December, authorities tried to hide toxic snow by covering it with white paint, the Moscow Times reports. A report from Ecodefense noted in 2015 that life expectancy in the region is about three times shorter than the Russian national average, while cases of tuberculosis and other disorders are double the nation's average.<doc-sep>It's been snowing in Siberia. But instead of waking to a white winter wonderland, residents in Russia's coal basin are living through a dark, industrial nightmare. Three separate cities within the coal-mining region of Kemerovo in southwest Siberia have been blanketed in a thick, black deluge of toxic snow, polluted by ever-present coal dust that pervades the atmosphere – and now the surface, too. "There is a lot of coal dust in the air all the time," Vladimir Slivyak, the co-chair of Russian environmental advocacy group Ecodefense, told The Guardian. "When snow falls, it just becomes visible. You can't see it the rest of the year, but it is still there." In grim scenes uploaded to social networks and described as "post-apocalyptic" by Russian media, Siberian residents in the cities of Prokopyevsk, Kiselyovsk, and Leninsk-Kuznetsky have shared images of their soiled, shadowy landscape – prompting at least one Twitter user to ask, "Is this what snow looks like in hell?" Even more bizarrely, in an alleged cover-up of how bad the problem is, footage on YouTube from December reveals a snow slide painted with white paint outside a recreation centre in the town of Mysky, in an apparent attempt to conceal the grimy black snowpack underneath. Those responsible for painting over the black snow have reportedly been reprimanded, and the paint was ordered to be removed – but the coal dust responsible for the black snow in the first place can't be remedied quite so easily. The Kuznetsk Basin, covering an area of approximately 70,000 square kilometres (27,000 square miles), is one of the largest coal mining areas in the world, responsible for about 60 percent of Russia's total coal production, much of which is exported. But for local cities living in the dusty shadow of open-pit mines, preparation plants, and coal stockpiles, there's a huge environmental price to be paid for the proximity. (Khodorkovsky Center/Twitter) "We have inherited a difficult ecological situation from the previous times," said Kemerovo's governor, Sergei Tsivilev. "Open-pit coal mines have moved to the cities." According to activists, the knock-on effects on health are devastating, with life expectancy in the Kuzbass region up to four years lower than Russia's national average, while disease rates creep higher than elsewhere. (voilok/Instagram) Russian prosecutors are now said to be investigating whether pollution standards have been breached, amid opposition from coal interests. The director of the Prokopyevskaya coal plant claims the black snow was the result of a broken shield at the facility, which exposed coal powder to the atmosphere – but has also said emissions inevitably escape, and "we can't tackle coal dust in the streets". The deputy governor of the Kemerovo region, Andrei Panov, has also suggested the problem isn't just the coal industry, indicating car exhausts contribute to pollution as well. But critics and political opponents say the lack of environmental protections in Siberia is a long-standing, systemic issue, not a recent development tied to any isolated failures. #Russia is a country of outstanding natural beauty and diversity. But the sheer lack of environmental regulations is a devastating effect for residents in #Kuzbass, where last night there was BLACK SNOW. pic.twitter.com/zMiEWBJbnh — Khodorkovsky Center (@mbk_center) February 14, 2019 "No cleansing systems, all the waste, dust and dirt, coal lay in the area," one resident wrote on social media. "Our children and us are breathing it. It's just a nightmare." According to Slivyak, in the absence of any robust environmental standards being enforced locally, the best approach to solving the problem could be a foreign boycott of Siberian coal, urging Russian authorities to take pollution seriously. (temirtau.city/Instagram) But with Russia's enormous coal industry (150,000 miners across almost 130 coal deposits) currently in the midst of a commercial mining boom, it seems unlikely domestic decision-makers would be keen to apply the brakes. Meanwhile, as the debate rages on, in Siberia the snow continues to fall.<doc-sep>
Image credit: @MetAlertIreland/Twitter The presence of soot and coal dust in the air has reportedly resulted in black snowfall in Russia’s Siberia. The black snow was first spotted at a coal mining region around Kemerovo area in southwest Siberia. Black Snow Falls in Russia Worried residents of a coalmining region in Siberia have been posting videos and photos today showing entire streets and districts covered in toxic black snow that critics say highlight a man-made ecological catastrophe. #metalertireland pic.twitter.com/8uriBjcMfW — ☀Metalert Ireland☀ (@MetAlertIreland) February 15, 2019 At one glance it looked like the area just underwent a Gothic makeover. Shortly after, videos and photos of the same began being shared rapidly on social media, depicting how the jet-black flakes had transformed the landscape. While the black snow made for an eerily beautiful spectacle of a winter wonderland, it served as an ugly reminder of how the coal mining industry can harm the environment and pose serious health hazards. It also indicates that very little regulation exists in the coal mining industry, something that the green crusaders have been trying to highlight for long. Vladimir Slivyak, a member of the Ecodefense environmental group, said in a report by The Guardian: “It’s harder to find white snow than black during winters." He added: “There is a lot of coal dust in the air all the time. When snow falls, it just becomes visible. You can’t see it the rest of the year, but it is still there.” Notably, there are several open coal pits in Kuznetsk Basin, the central point of Russia’s coal industry; activists say the pollutants emitted by them are impacting the health and wellbeing of the locals. The life expectancy of the residents of the area is at least three-four years lesser than the national average. Additionally, the incidence of cancer, TB meningitis, and child cerebral palsy is also high among the 2.6 million inhabitants of the area. Andrei Panov, Deputy Governor, Kuznetsk Basin, said the black snow may have originated from coal-burning factories, vehicles, or other unspecified businesses. Interestingly, in December last year, Kemorovo officials were accused of painting the snow white to conceal the presence of soot and ash in it. A video shared by Moscow Times showed a woman’s hands getting coated in white paint after she touched snow collected outside Mysky’s municipal recreation centre. Following a huge public outcry over this, the head of the town apologised and directed concerned authorities to remove the paint.