Forest fires: Siberian smoke reaches the North Pole | This is the first time in documented history

The forest fires that have hit Siberia continue to worsen, Russian officials say, as smoke has reached the North Pole, according to NASA. Russian scientists point out that the current fires are a consequence of the global increase in temperatures.

In the Yakutia region, a vast sparsely populated area of ​​northern Siberia, the situation “continues to worsen with an increasing trend in the number and area of ​​forest fires,” Russian meteorological agency Rosguidromet said on Monday. its website.

According to this organization, more than 3.4 million hectares of forests have been burned, even in “difficult and remote” places. “Thick smoke is spreading throughout the vast area,” he said.

The US space agency NASA for its part reported that the smoke from the fires in Yakutia had “crossed more than 3000 km to reach the North Pole, which seems to be the first in documented history”.

NASA claims that “dense, acrid smoke from the forest fires covered most of Russia on July 6,” photographed by satellites.

During a visit to Yakutia in late July, firefighters and local authorities told AFP news agency they lacked men, equipment and other resources to deal with the scale of the fires. . Environmentalists are questioning Russia’s forest fire suppression policy, including a 2015 government decree that allows local authorities to ignore fires if the cost of putting them out exceeds estimated damage.

According to Alexei Yaroshenko, environmental specialist at Greenpeace Russia, fires have already devastated 14.96 million hectares in this country since January 1, the worst year after 2012.

UN climate experts (IPCC) released a report on Monday in which they claim that humanity is “unquestionably” responsible for climate change and has no choice but to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. greenhouse, if it wants to limit the damage.