Smoke Blankets Eastern Siberia As Higher Temperatures Spawn Forest Fires

This image, captured by NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites on June 30, shows a pall of smoke drifting over a vast area of Siberia and wafting across Sakhalin Island and into the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean. Hundreds of fires, which have destroyed at least 37,000 acres, burned as overtaxed fire crews were unable to extinguish the blazes. Russian scientists say that rising temperatures in Siberia — much of the region has experienced temperature increases of 2 degrees C over the past half-century — are making its boreal and temperate forests more susceptible to fire. Increased logging, much of it driven by China, also plays a role as the cutting brings more people into once-inaccessible sections of the taiga.