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https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/08/05/siberia-feels-the-brunt-of-climate-change-as-wildfires-rage-a74704>
"Yakutia, which has a border with the Arctic Ocean and sits atop permafrost on
a territory nearly five times the size of France, is a canary in the coal mine
for the global climate crisis, says Fyodorov.
The region has seen its annual average temperature warm by 3 degrees Celsius
since the beginning of the 20th century — 2 degrees more than the average for
the planet — and this summer saw several days with record heat of 39 degrees
Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit).
While it is difficult to link individual fires directly to climate change,
global heating makes blazes more likely as harsher and longer droughts dry out
regions to create ideal fire conditions, experts say.
And with this summer Yakutia's driest in 150 years, according to local
officials, the region became a tinderbox that has seen wildfires tear through
more than 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of its swampy taiga forest.
"The current fires are beating every record," Alexander Isayev, a wildfire
expert at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Yakutsk, told AFP.
With over a month left in Siberia's annual wildfire season, officials have
rushed to calm the blazes, sending in the military and seeding clouds to
produce rain.
But in Yakutia — a region of just under 1 million people — the bulk of the work
has fallen to thousands of weary firefighters and local volunteers, working
with thin resources."
Via Robert Sanscartier.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
