The war in Ukraine has consequences around the world. Besides the terrible crimes in the Ukraine, it also caused the energy crisis in Europe.

According to The Guardian, with the start of the war, the European Union and other countries began to sanction Russia for its crimes in Ukraine. A factor for the energy crisis in Europe are Russian sanctions on the amount of delivered gas. 

A survey of 45 students, which was published on Schoology from Oct. 19 to Oct. 22, showed that 47% of surveyed students are concerned about the war in the Ukraine. 

The inflation and rising gas prices make that a prevalent concern for people living in the U.S.; 80% of surveyed students think high gas prices are caused by the war in the Ukraine and 38% of students think their families have issues with the high gas prices. 

Germany is one example of a European country heavily impacted by the current energy crisis. According to Reuters, 32% of Germany’s gas is supplied by Russian pipelines.

“[In an energy crisis] you have three major elements: Price of energy, security, referring to a country’s ability to provide it … and sustainability,” Justin DeMoss, AP Human Geography and sociology teacher, said.

That is what many countries in Europe are now struggling with, but Russia has not stopped the supply of gas to Europe completely.

“There is also the need to bring foreign dollars [and] euros into the Russian economy,” Demoss said. “Europeans are consumers, which means that’s an economic influence back over Russia as well.”

Russia gets the money for gas from European countries. If Russia doesn’t get this money anymore, they will face consequences.

According to the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG), Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 are the two pipelines which connect Russia with Germany. 

“Anytime you deal with pipelines, you have questions of how environmentally sound they are going to be, long term and short term,” DeMoss said. “How does it affect the environment in that area? Long term, what happens to an aging pipeline? Pipelines by nature are connecting to different economies or multiple economies. So you’re now talking about aiding the flow of energy but also tying multiple countries together in a bond that can’t easily be done.”

DeMoss doesn’t want to speculate about the leaks they have just spotted in the Nord Stream pipelines, but he believes it could be an environmental problem.

“This is going to be a bigger deal in Europe because I perceive Europeans as being a bit more environmentally conscious than the average American and so, I thought about this as another example of pipeline failure.”

DeMoss doesn’t think that the war between Russia and Ukraine is ending anytime soon. 

“It seems like both groups seem very dug in, [and] that neither is making huge amounts of progress. I don’t see enough pressure from other world powers to make it stop quickly at this point”

 Many around the world are speculating how Europe will deal with the coming winter. In Switzerland, according to SRF, Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, which is the German-speaking public broadcast service in Switzerland, there is a debate about turning off the street lights at night. According to NDR, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, part of the German public broadcasting network, they are thinking about providing warm rooms for the people, just in case. These are just a few ways European countries plan to cope with the crisis. 

It seems that Europe is anticipating a difficult winter and that there is no end in sight for the Russia-Ukraine conflict.