The Siberian Wildfires

Have you heard about the Siberian wildfires? As Bill McKibben wrote in the New Yorker, “As feedback loops go, this one’s pretty simple: heat and drought lead to fire, and when you burn a forest you pour a lot of carbon into the atmosphere.” This area of northern Russia, much of it above the Arctic Circle, has had unusually hot weather both last year and this year, with the hottest temperatures on record, topping 100 degrees Farhenheit north of the Arctic Circle!  The hot temperatures, along with dry weather, is melting the permafrost, warming the Arctic Ocean, and resulting in widespread wildfires. Melting permafrost releases methane, and results in less ice, less snow, so heat from the sun warms the earth and ocean, bringing more hot temperatures, more fires, and more pollution. According to Bill McKibben, the heat and fires have “released more polluting gases into the Earth’s atmosphere than in any other month in 18 years of data collection.”

According to the New York Times: “The Arctic is warming at least two and a half times faster than the global average rate. Soils in the region are drier than before. Wildfires are spreading across a large swath. In June, fires released 59 million metric tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide, greater than all the carbon emissions produced by Norway, an oil-producing country, in a year.” You can read more: the Siberian wildfires (New York Times, July 7, 2020)

The fact that this region is experiencing such unusually high temperatures is a result of global climate change, caused by increased carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. And as this area warms up, it not only increases global climate change, it also causes changes in global weather patterns, including more intense weather in other parts of the world. Read more about this connection at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/15/climate-change-made-siberian-heatwave-600-times-more-likely-study?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_News_Feed&fbclid=IwAR3W4c6XJJiiojviUtm6TLnALbvWCsXWAVE1lpmYUNnZKSmSlyAxXBkIX44  Climate change made Siberian heatwave 600 times more likely – study “Human fingerprint on record temperatures ‘has rarely, if ever, been clearer’, says the report.”

So, even though Siberia is far away, and not in the news too much, the heat and release of polluting gases will still affect the rest of the world.  Another reason to work hard for ZERO EMISSIONS as soon as possible!

Submitted by Susan Hodges