In trying to gauge the effects of climate change, many are looking to the top of the world. Experts believe the Arctic is already showing significant signs of change due to warmer temperatures, with sea ice and permafrost melting rapidly.It's thought these changes may be affecting the health of the local population. Moscow correspondent Scott Bevan travelled to the city of Arkhangelsk in north-west Russia for this report.
In the village of Kyanda, just a stone's throw from the White Sea, Alexander Romanovsky has observed how the changing climate is also changing who and what lives in the environment around him. The ground beneath his feet would have once been covered in white and frozen at this time of year, but not now. The shorter winters and warmer weather are allowing in creatures that Alexander Romanovsky says wouldn't have stood a chance this far north before.
FISHERMAN: In the past three years or so, ticks have appeared. We didn't have them before, but they've been gradually spreading here.
What can be barely seen in the fields is having a big impact in the Centre for Infectious Diseases in the regional clinic hospital in the city of Arkhangelsk. Doctors say in the past four years there's been a leap in the number of patients with tick-borne diseases, such as encephalitis.
ELENA LOESNIKOVA, CENTRE FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES : It's been gradually rising - 10 cases; 15, 20 annually. This year, there were 47 cases. In recent years, there's been no fatal cases, but this year one patient died due to severe tick-borne encephalitis.
SCOTT BEVAN: The World Health Organisation is now spearheading a study in Russia's north as part of a wider international project looking at the effects of climate change on public health.
ELENA YURASOVA, WHO PROJECT COORDINATOR: I think it's the first study of this type in the Russian Federation.