Andrew Freedman
Fri, August 13, 2021
Data: CAMS/Mark Parrington; Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios
Wildfires are raging in Canada, the U.S. and Siberia, emitting carbon dioxide, soot, and other planet-warming pollutants, while also destroying homes and fouling air quality. Now new data shows just how large the fires' carbon footprint may be.
Why it matters: The wildfires in these three regions are likely to continue to burn until the onset of winter snows (some could persist through the winter as zombie fires).
Until then, they will continue to emit greenhouse gases. The Siberian fires alone are emitting as much as individual countries do in a year, according to data from the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS).
By the numbers: According to Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at CAMS, the two Canadian provinces contributing the most fire-related carbon dioxide emissions are British Columbia and Saskatchewan, while the Sakha Republic and Far Eastern Federal District of Russia are emitting the greatest amounts in Russia.
So far, the Siberian fires have emitted total emissions of about 1613.00 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent gases, which is on par with Indonesia's annual emissions in 2019, per numbers from The Rhodium Group.
It's also higher than emissions last year from Siberian fires, which was also an unusually severe fire season.
Smoke from the Siberian fires has crossed the Arctic over the North Pole and into Canada.
The World’s Biggest Fires May Reach Moscow Thanks to Putin
Anna Nemtsova
Thu, August 12, 2021
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
MOSCOW—Russia is on fire.
Massive wildfires are wiping out entire Siberian villages, killing people, emitting dangerous smoke, and destroying woods and national parks across more than 5 million hectares.
The fires, which started in May in Yakutia, are now larger than all wildfires around the planet combined, according to Greenpeace. There is no official death toll yet, but at least five people are known to have died so far.
For months, Russian authorities have been saying that the situation was under control. Finally, on Thursday, the minister of Emergency Situations, Yevgeny Zinichev, traveled to the epicenter of the disaster in Yakutia and concluded: the fires will reach Moscow, if nobody stops them.
Putinology Is to Russia What Astrology Is to Science
There are more than 3,000 miles between Moscow and Yakutia, a republic four times the size of France, located in northeastern Siberia. It is one of the coldest places on the planet in winter time. But this summer has been unusually hot, with unprecedented droughts and strong winds fueling the disaster.
On Wednesday, a local tractor driver died fighting the fire in Yakutia, which has been burning for weeks. Many locals blame the Kremlin for not doing enough to help the burning north. “Russia is a huge power. Every year it demonstrates its military power but cannot put out the fires. Or does it not want to?,” a prominent Yakutia politician, Sardana Avksentyeva, wrote in a Thursday Instagram post.
When Avksentyeva started posting photographs of wildfires on June 8, she was convinced that the special forces of the emergency ministry, known as MCHS, would handle the problem. But by Aug. 1, houses were still burning and animals were still dying as 163 fires raged around the republic.
“It seems the authorities are simply waiting for August rains to put down the fires. MCHS, are you alive?” she wrote on Instagram. “All our pleas to announce the emergency situation were left unanswered.”
Meanwhile, Moscow has been focused on upcoming parliament elections—and on persecuting the opposition. Yakutia had to fight the fires using only its own local budget. “This is a lesson to all the other Russian regions: do not wait for the center’s help, count only on yourself.”
The leader of Greenpeace Russia’s firefighting team, Grigory Kuksin, says that the government is to blame for the lack of funding to manage the disaster.
“Russia spends about 30 billion rubles on preventing fires and training regional forest firefighting teams, but the budget should be at least three times bigger,” Kuksin told The Daily Beast on Thursday.
He added: “Professional firefighters cannot appear from nowhere, they should have been trained. The aftermath of lives lost, as a result of these fires, will number thousands, since several cities are now suffering from smoke.”
Every day, Polina Pavlova, a volunteer from the devastated region of Berdigestyakh, posts emergency phone numbers, calls for volunteers, and posts photographs of her smoky village, which has been receiving hundreds of evacuated victims. Local authorities provide aid for pregnant women, little children, and others whose homes have burnt in the wildfire. “There is so much smoke, we cannot see the sun,” Pavlova posted on Facebook on Wednesday.
Earlier this week Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the deployment of more firefighting aircraft to Siberian regions, but ecologists say the government was late.
“Right now, there are about 5,000 people fighting the wildfires around one million kilometers of burning woods in Yakutia, at least 3,000 of them are local volunteers,” Bagdan Bakaleiko, a Rain TV journalist covering the crisis in Yakutia, told The Daily Beast. “Firefighters tell us that everything that has never burnt before is burning now.”
‘No Words’: California’s Devastating Dixie Fire Is Now the Third Largest in State History
The entire village of Byas-Kyuel has burnt to the ground. Flames destroyed 31 houses, and at least 400 people were evacuated to temporary shelters. Authorities promise to build new homes for the victims by October. Reporters from News.Yukt.ru compare the scene in the ruined village to an “apocalypse.” Meanwhile, the smoke has reached the republic’s capital, Yakutsk. The IQAir monitors suggest that the concentration of toxic smoke pollution in the air is 247 times the recommended norm.
Several other Russian regions are suffering from wildfires in the Urals, Far East and in the central parts of Russia. Earlier this month, wildfires spread in the national park of Republic of Mordovia, 352 miles from Moscow. This week, the fires reached Alamasovo village in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
“Until recently the Kremlin did not pay much attention to wildfires, but considered the significance of climate change,” Kuksin said. “Russian authorities should be focusing harder and spending bigger budgets on fire prevention, and training professional wood firefighters.”
Anna Nemtsova
Thu, August 12, 2021
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
MOSCOW—Russia is on fire.
Massive wildfires are wiping out entire Siberian villages, killing people, emitting dangerous smoke, and destroying woods and national parks across more than 5 million hectares.
The fires, which started in May in Yakutia, are now larger than all wildfires around the planet combined, according to Greenpeace. There is no official death toll yet, but at least five people are known to have died so far.
For months, Russian authorities have been saying that the situation was under control. Finally, on Thursday, the minister of Emergency Situations, Yevgeny Zinichev, traveled to the epicenter of the disaster in Yakutia and concluded: the fires will reach Moscow, if nobody stops them.
Putinology Is to Russia What Astrology Is to Science
There are more than 3,000 miles between Moscow and Yakutia, a republic four times the size of France, located in northeastern Siberia. It is one of the coldest places on the planet in winter time. But this summer has been unusually hot, with unprecedented droughts and strong winds fueling the disaster.
On Wednesday, a local tractor driver died fighting the fire in Yakutia, which has been burning for weeks. Many locals blame the Kremlin for not doing enough to help the burning north. “Russia is a huge power. Every year it demonstrates its military power but cannot put out the fires. Or does it not want to?,” a prominent Yakutia politician, Sardana Avksentyeva, wrote in a Thursday Instagram post.
When Avksentyeva started posting photographs of wildfires on June 8, she was convinced that the special forces of the emergency ministry, known as MCHS, would handle the problem. But by Aug. 1, houses were still burning and animals were still dying as 163 fires raged around the republic.
“It seems the authorities are simply waiting for August rains to put down the fires. MCHS, are you alive?” she wrote on Instagram. “All our pleas to announce the emergency situation were left unanswered.”
Meanwhile, Moscow has been focused on upcoming parliament elections—and on persecuting the opposition. Yakutia had to fight the fires using only its own local budget. “This is a lesson to all the other Russian regions: do not wait for the center’s help, count only on yourself.”
The leader of Greenpeace Russia’s firefighting team, Grigory Kuksin, says that the government is to blame for the lack of funding to manage the disaster.
“Russia spends about 30 billion rubles on preventing fires and training regional forest firefighting teams, but the budget should be at least three times bigger,” Kuksin told The Daily Beast on Thursday.
He added: “Professional firefighters cannot appear from nowhere, they should have been trained. The aftermath of lives lost, as a result of these fires, will number thousands, since several cities are now suffering from smoke.”
Every day, Polina Pavlova, a volunteer from the devastated region of Berdigestyakh, posts emergency phone numbers, calls for volunteers, and posts photographs of her smoky village, which has been receiving hundreds of evacuated victims. Local authorities provide aid for pregnant women, little children, and others whose homes have burnt in the wildfire. “There is so much smoke, we cannot see the sun,” Pavlova posted on Facebook on Wednesday.
Earlier this week Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the deployment of more firefighting aircraft to Siberian regions, but ecologists say the government was late.
“Right now, there are about 5,000 people fighting the wildfires around one million kilometers of burning woods in Yakutia, at least 3,000 of them are local volunteers,” Bagdan Bakaleiko, a Rain TV journalist covering the crisis in Yakutia, told The Daily Beast. “Firefighters tell us that everything that has never burnt before is burning now.”
‘No Words’: California’s Devastating Dixie Fire Is Now the Third Largest in State History
The entire village of Byas-Kyuel has burnt to the ground. Flames destroyed 31 houses, and at least 400 people were evacuated to temporary shelters. Authorities promise to build new homes for the victims by October. Reporters from News.Yukt.ru compare the scene in the ruined village to an “apocalypse.” Meanwhile, the smoke has reached the republic’s capital, Yakutsk. The IQAir monitors suggest that the concentration of toxic smoke pollution in the air is 247 times the recommended norm.
Several other Russian regions are suffering from wildfires in the Urals, Far East and in the central parts of Russia. Earlier this month, wildfires spread in the national park of Republic of Mordovia, 352 miles from Moscow. This week, the fires reached Alamasovo village in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
“Until recently the Kremlin did not pay much attention to wildfires, but considered the significance of climate change,” Kuksin said. “Russian authorities should be focusing harder and spending bigger budgets on fire prevention, and training professional wood firefighters.”
Forest Service maxed out as wildfires break across US West
EUGENE GARCIA and DAISY NGUYEN
Thu, August 12, 2021
WESTWOOD, Calif. (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service said Friday it's operating in crisis mode, fully deploying firefighters and maxing out its support system as wildfires continue to break out across the U.S. West, threatening thousands of homes and entire towns.
The roughly 21,000 federal firefighters working on the ground is more than double the number of firefighters sent to contain forest fires at this time a year ago, and the agency is facing “critical resources limitations,” said Anthony Scardina, a deputy forester for the agency's Pacific Southwest region.
An estimated 6,170 firefighters alone are battling the Dixie Fire in Northern California, the largest of 100 large fires burning in 14 states, with dozens more burning in western Canada.
The fire began a month ago and has destroyed more than 1,000 homes, businesses and other structures, much of it in the small town of Greenville in the northern Sierra Nevada.
The fire had ravaged more than 800 square miles (well over 2,000 square kilometers) — an area larger than the city of London — and continued to threaten more than a dozen rural and forest communities.
Containment lines for the fire held overnight, but it was just 31% surrounded. Gusty and erratic winds were threatening to spread the fire to Westwood, a lumber town of 1,700. Lightning could spark new blazes even as crews try to surround a number of other forest fires ignited by lightning last month.
"Mother nature just kind of keeps throwing us obstacles our way," said Edwin Zuniga, a spokesman with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, working together with the Forest Service to tamp out the blaze.
Meanwhile, firefighters and residents were scrambling to save hundreds of homes as flames advance across the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana.
The blaze was still burning near the tribal headquarters town of Lame Deer, where a mandatory evacuation remained in place and a second fire was threatening from the opposite direction.
Smoke from the blazes grew so thick Friday morning that the health clinic in Lame Deer was shut down after its air filters could not keep up with the pollution, Northern Cheyenne Tribe spokesperson Angel Becker said.
Smoke drove air pollution levels to unhealthy or very unhealthy levels in portions of Montana, Idaho, Oregon Washington and Northern California, according to Environmental Protection Agency air quality monitoring.
An air quality alert covering seven Montana counties warned of extremely high levels of small pollution particles found in smoke, which can cause lung issues and other health problems if inhaled.
The fires near Lame Deer combined have burned 275 square miles (710 square kilometers) this week, so far sparing homes but causing extensive damage to pasture lands that ranchers depend on to feed their cows and horses.
Gusts and low humidity were creating extremely dangerous conditions as flames devoured brush, short grass and timber, fire officials said.
Hot, dry weather with strong afternoon winds also propelled several fires in Washington state, and similar weather was expected into the weekend, fire officials said.
In southeastern Oregon, two new wildfires started by lightning Thursday near the California border were spreading through juniper trees, sagebrush and evergreen trees.
Gov. Kate Brown declared an emergency for one of the fires to mobilize crews and other resources to the area of ranches, rural subdivisions and RV parks about 14 miles (23 kilometers) from the small town of Lakeview.
The blaze grew from a lightning strike to 11 square miles (28 square kilometers) in less than 24 hours, said Tamara Schmidt, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman.
Authorities Thursday evening ordered the evacuation of an RV park that stood in the path of the Oregon's Patton Meadow Fire.
The fires are near the area torched Oregon's Bootleg Fire which started July 6 and burned an area more than half the size of Rhode Island before crews gained the upper hand. The fire is not yet fully contained and was the nation’s largest until being eclipsed by the Dixie Fire.
Triple-digit temperatures and bone-dry conditions in Oregon, enduring a third day of extreme heat, could increase fire risks through the weekend.
Climate change has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.
More than 6,000 square miles (almost 16,000 square kilometers) have been burned in the U.S. so far this year. That's well ahead of the amount burned by this point last year, but below the 10-year average, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Parts of Europe also are burning, including in Greece, where where a massive wildfire has decimated forests and torched homes, and was still smoldering 10 days after it started.
___
Nguyen reported from Oakland, Calif. Matthew Brown in Billings, Mont., Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco and Gillian Flaccus in Portland contributed to this report.
EUGENE GARCIA and DAISY NGUYEN
Thu, August 12, 2021
WESTWOOD, Calif. (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service said Friday it's operating in crisis mode, fully deploying firefighters and maxing out its support system as wildfires continue to break out across the U.S. West, threatening thousands of homes and entire towns.
The roughly 21,000 federal firefighters working on the ground is more than double the number of firefighters sent to contain forest fires at this time a year ago, and the agency is facing “critical resources limitations,” said Anthony Scardina, a deputy forester for the agency's Pacific Southwest region.
An estimated 6,170 firefighters alone are battling the Dixie Fire in Northern California, the largest of 100 large fires burning in 14 states, with dozens more burning in western Canada.
The fire began a month ago and has destroyed more than 1,000 homes, businesses and other structures, much of it in the small town of Greenville in the northern Sierra Nevada.
The fire had ravaged more than 800 square miles (well over 2,000 square kilometers) — an area larger than the city of London — and continued to threaten more than a dozen rural and forest communities.
Containment lines for the fire held overnight, but it was just 31% surrounded. Gusty and erratic winds were threatening to spread the fire to Westwood, a lumber town of 1,700. Lightning could spark new blazes even as crews try to surround a number of other forest fires ignited by lightning last month.
"Mother nature just kind of keeps throwing us obstacles our way," said Edwin Zuniga, a spokesman with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, working together with the Forest Service to tamp out the blaze.
Meanwhile, firefighters and residents were scrambling to save hundreds of homes as flames advance across the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana.
The blaze was still burning near the tribal headquarters town of Lame Deer, where a mandatory evacuation remained in place and a second fire was threatening from the opposite direction.
Smoke from the blazes grew so thick Friday morning that the health clinic in Lame Deer was shut down after its air filters could not keep up with the pollution, Northern Cheyenne Tribe spokesperson Angel Becker said.
Smoke drove air pollution levels to unhealthy or very unhealthy levels in portions of Montana, Idaho, Oregon Washington and Northern California, according to Environmental Protection Agency air quality monitoring.
An air quality alert covering seven Montana counties warned of extremely high levels of small pollution particles found in smoke, which can cause lung issues and other health problems if inhaled.
The fires near Lame Deer combined have burned 275 square miles (710 square kilometers) this week, so far sparing homes but causing extensive damage to pasture lands that ranchers depend on to feed their cows and horses.
Gusts and low humidity were creating extremely dangerous conditions as flames devoured brush, short grass and timber, fire officials said.
Hot, dry weather with strong afternoon winds also propelled several fires in Washington state, and similar weather was expected into the weekend, fire officials said.
In southeastern Oregon, two new wildfires started by lightning Thursday near the California border were spreading through juniper trees, sagebrush and evergreen trees.
Gov. Kate Brown declared an emergency for one of the fires to mobilize crews and other resources to the area of ranches, rural subdivisions and RV parks about 14 miles (23 kilometers) from the small town of Lakeview.
The blaze grew from a lightning strike to 11 square miles (28 square kilometers) in less than 24 hours, said Tamara Schmidt, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman.
Authorities Thursday evening ordered the evacuation of an RV park that stood in the path of the Oregon's Patton Meadow Fire.
The fires are near the area torched Oregon's Bootleg Fire which started July 6 and burned an area more than half the size of Rhode Island before crews gained the upper hand. The fire is not yet fully contained and was the nation’s largest until being eclipsed by the Dixie Fire.
Triple-digit temperatures and bone-dry conditions in Oregon, enduring a third day of extreme heat, could increase fire risks through the weekend.
Climate change has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.
More than 6,000 square miles (almost 16,000 square kilometers) have been burned in the U.S. so far this year. That's well ahead of the amount burned by this point last year, but below the 10-year average, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Parts of Europe also are burning, including in Greece, where where a massive wildfire has decimated forests and torched homes, and was still smoldering 10 days after it started.
___
Nguyen reported from Oakland, Calif. Matthew Brown in Billings, Mont., Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco and Gillian Flaccus in Portland contributed to this report.
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