Siberia, wildfires have already destroyed an area the size of Luxembourg
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
There are at least 300 active wildfires in Siberia. And 330,000 hectares of forest have gone up in smoke — an area equal to that of Luxembourg.
Siberia, wildfires have already destroyed an area the size of Luxembourg
There are at least 300 active wildfires in Siberia. And 330,000 hectares of forest have gone up in smoke — an area equal to that of Luxembourg.
The wildfires in Siberia show no sign of abating. On the contrary, over the past few weeks they have been spreading steadily. According to the bulletin of 10 July issued by Russia's Aerial Forest Protection Service, the blazes now number no fewer than 300. And they have already devoured 330,000 hectares of forest — roughly the size of Luxembourg. This in one of the normally coldest regions on Earth, where in 1882 the temperature had plunged to -67.8 degrees Celsius.
Wildfires in Siberia released 59 million tonnes of CO2 in June.
To put this in perspective, that's three times more than Kenya, a country of 51 million people, emits in a year.
300 wildfires continue to burn across hundreds of thousands of hectares.
phys.org/news/2020-07-w…
To put this in perspective, that's three times more than Kenya, a country of 51 million people, emits in a year.
300 wildfires continue to burn across hundreds of thousands of hectares.
phys.org/news/2020-07-w…
Record temperatures in Siberia in June
Climate change is clearly contributing to the phenomenon. The region has indeed recorded extreme temperatures. On 9 June, the thermometer reached 30 degrees Celsius at Nizhnyaya Pesha — entirely unusual conditions for the area. On Saturday 20 June, in the village of Verkhoyansk — a small settlement of a thousand inhabitants in the Autonomous Republic of Sakha-Yakutia (eastern Siberia) — the mercury then climbed to 38 degrees Celsius. An all-time record for the area.
As it burns, the forest not only disappears, but also releases large quantities of CO2, thereby worsening the greenhouse effect and, consequently, climate change. It has been calculated that the wildfires in north-eastern Siberia, and to a lesser extent those occurring in Alaska, have resulted in the release into the atmosphere of 59 million tonnes of CO2.
🟠 A massive #Wildfire🔥 in the #SakhaRepublic, close to the #ArcticCircle, #Siberia, #Russia🇷🇺 12 July 2020 #Landsat-8🛰️ Full-size ➡️ flic.kr/p/2jmhHZU + flic.kr/p/2jmhJ6k #OpenData #scicomm #RemoteSensing Image is 26 kilometers wide
The wildfires have already caused the emission of 59 million tonnes of CO2
To this must be added the risks associated with accelerated thawing of the permafrost — the layer of ice considered (until now) permanent that lies, at depths of no less than a few metres, beneath the ground. And which may have been the cause of the serious accident recorded at the end of May at a fuel storage facility near the city of Norilsk.