This is a direct consequence of climate change, Siberia experiencing since January abnormally high temperatures in places. Fires continue to rage in this part of Russia. The Russian Forest Protection Air Service said on Saturday it was fighting 136 fires across 43,000 hectares, seeding clouds and using explosives.
From the size of Switzerland to that of Luxembourg
The fires have gone down in intensity this week, according to this source, but most homes are considered to be too far away and expensive to extinguish through the immense forests of Siberia. Thus, 159 fires ravaging 333,000 hectares, more than the size of Luxembourg, continue in areas where the efforts of Russian firefighters have been interrupted. Figures however in sharp decline: last week, the Service had reported more than two million hectares in flames in Russia, half the area of Switzerland.
Since mid-June, the number and the intensity of the fires have increased in the extreme North-East of Siberia and to a lesser extent in Alaska, according to the European service Copernicus on climate change. This caused the emission of 59 megatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, a record for this month since the start of measurements in 2003. Since mid-June, regions located in the Far North and beyond the Arctic Circle have recorded unprecedented temperature records. Thus the Russian meteorological services had recorded on June 20 a peak at 38 ° in Verkhoyansk, beyond the Arctic Circle, the highest temperature recorded since the beginning of the measurements at the end of the XIXth century.
Greenpeace lashes out at lack of funding
Greenpeace's forest control service in Russia, which relies on data collected by satellite, said on Saturday that a total of 9.26 million hectares, more than the area of Portugal, had been affected by fires since the beginning of the year. The environmental organization denounces the lack of funding for the forest maintenance service which cannot ensure adequate fire prevention.
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