Through out the world, climate warming is enhancing fires, and fires are enhancing climate warming. According the Union of Concerned Scientists, as the climate continues to heat, “ moisture and precipitation levels change, with wet areas becoming wetter and dry areas becoming drier. Higher spring and summer temperatures and earlier spring snow-melt typically cause soils to be drier for longer, increasing the likelihood of drought and a longer wildfire season.” They note that these dry conditions increase the intensity of fire and longer burn times.
The Siberian Times reports on a horrific and large outbreak of fires throughout the Siberian region. These fires are threatening the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline and has caused the Irkutsk Oil Company to suspend supplies of oil.
'The situation with the fires in Irkutsk region and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) remains difficult,' he said. 'There are six wildfires less than in five kilometres from the ESPO facilities. Fires were as close as 300 metres from key pipeline facilities, he said.
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Alexey Yaroshenko, head of forest department of Greenpeace Russia, warned: 'The scale of the wildfires in Eastern Siberia can be compared with the catastrophe of 2010 in European Russia and the Urals.
'Our estimates are approximate. Perhaps more than 1.7 million hectares are burning, since some of the largest fires are completely hidden under strong smoke.
'For the second half of September, such a catastrophe in Siberia is unprecedented. It is associated not only with the inefficiency of the system of protection of forests from fires, but also with the climate change.
The view of Yaraktinskoye field before and after wildfiresClick here to see the wildfires that “officially” do not exist. The pictures show the fires in Irkutsk region, with one claim that locals have been subjected to smoke fumes for as long as six months from blazes that, per the Siberian Times, officially were not burning.
'From the air we see that the taiga is burning over an area that is measured in hundreds, thousands of hectares. And in official reports the picture is quite different. The data is clearly underestimated. We are trying to film everything we see on camera.'
In a evocative despatch on 22 September, he wrote: 'This is called the edge of the fire ... no end of it in sight ... we have examined Kirensky, Katangsky and Ust-Kutsky districts, forests are burning, and we have not seen any piece of equipment, not a single person who would put out the fire.'