Word: islanded
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...rugged island has the climate of the Pacific Northwest, but without the flannel charm: freezing cold in the winter and damp in the summer, it is more suitable for salmon than people. Yet, today, flights to Sakhalin book up weeks in advance. Prices in the capital city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk are outlandishly high - $18 for a whiskey - and visitors (who usually come voluntarily now, unlike in Chekhov's time) have their pick of nightspots every bit as over-the-top as those found in Moscow...
...along with enough natural gas to power Tokyo - which, actually, is where most of it will be going. Sakhalin Energy (SE), an international consortium led by Shell and the Russia's state-owned Gazprom, is spending $20 billion to mine the waters around Sakhalin; one executive says the island could eventually become as important to the industry as the Gulf of Mexico. SE is finishing a pair of underground 500-mile pipelines down the spine of the island that will deliver oil and natural gas to the one of the biggest liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals in the world, from...
...island's residents would agree. The energy projects have been raised environmental concerns over potential damage to the habitats of the endangered Western grey whale and the streams where salmon come to spawn. Dmitry Lisitsyn, an intense geologist who has emerged as the voice of Sakhalin's environmental community, also fears that the pipelines could rupture in the event of an earthquake - Sakhalin is seismically unstable -causing a catastrophic underground oil spill. "This project is too large for such a small island," he warns. (SE says that it has responded to environmental objections, including earthquake risks...
...Then, there's the sense among many ordinary Sakhaliners that they're being cut out of the wealth being generated by the oil and natural gas on their island. The oil boom has driven up prices for everything from housing and food to transport - a five-minute taxi ride from the airport can break $20. Expat oil executives can pay without a problem, but locals struggle. "It's something crazy how high prices have gotten here," says Lisitsyn, speaking over the shouts of happy couples outside the cramped $745-a-month single room office his organization occupies upstairs from...
...Moscow keeps more than nine tenths of the 6% royalty that SE pays on oil and natural gas pumped from Sakhalin, leaving just crumbs for the islanders. Pensioners live off vegetables they grow themselves, and it's not uncommon to see bundled old women by the side of the street selling carrots, while new SUVs pass them by. And, despite all that natural gas, Sakhaliners still use coal to heat their homes - although the government may transform the island's infrastructure to use gas in the future. "People think Moscow uses the island to squeeze out all of our natural...