conference are going up in smoke as freakish fires rage out of control in Siberia. These fires have emitted more carbon dioxide in two months than in any complete fire season since records began, and more than all of Scandinavia. Half of the fires are in peatlands, which can burn for extended periods of time given enough heat, which the Siberian fires have in abundance. [photo: NASA] The amount of carbon stored in northern peatlands was recently determined to be double what was previously estimated. Russian scientists say 6.7 million acres of remote wildlands are burning across six regions. Greenpeace puts the estimate at 3.3hectares or about 8 million acres. Smoke from the fires have reached eastern Washington state.
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| fire in Krasnoyarsk, credit Greenpeace |
Some of the fires were caused naturally, including so called "zombie" fires where last year's smoldering fires in peat bogs have reached the surface and reignited. Russian authorities are working to extinguish some of the fires, but only a tiny fraction of those burning out of control. About 45% of Russia's forests are in zones where fires are allowed to burnout. A recent update on the Russian forest service website said personnel were fighting 129 active fires. Nevertheless this years fires seem to be less serious than the 2012 fire season in which over 40 million acres of forest were burned.