Smoke from Siberia Wildfires Reaches North Pole in Historic First
upstart writes:
Smoke from Siberia wildfires reaches north pole in historic first:
Smoke from raging forest fires in Siberia has reached the north pole for the first time in recorded history, as a Russian monitoring institute warned the blazes were worsening.
Devastating wildfires have ripped across Siberia with increasing regularity over the past few years, which Russia's weather officials and environmentalists have linked to climate change and an underfunded forest service.
[...] On Saturday, the US space agency Nasa said its satellite images showed wildfire smoke travelling "more than 3,000km (1,800 miles) from Yakutia to reach the north pole", calling it "a first in recorded history". It added that on 6 August most of Russia was covered in smoke.
Environmentalists blame the authorities for letting large areas burn every year under a law that allows them not to intervene if the cost of fighting fires is greater than the damage caused or if they do not affect inhabited areas.
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