Siberia and the Arctic Burn, Too
It wasn’t just the Southern Hemisphere facing weird fires. The Northern Hemisphere got in on the action, including the far north. Siberia and points above the Arctic Circle also had a record fire season after a winter that wasn’t and freakish spring and summer heat. We’re talking 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) in Siberia freakish.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before but the fires released a record amount of carbon dioxide. They also were made up to 600 times more likely (not a typo) by climate change. In addition to fires, the tundra also decided to explode due to a likely massive methane belch. The unprecedented changes happening in the Arctic right now might feel remote, but the impacts on the atmosphere can’t be overstated nor can the ways in which the shifts affect the people who do live there. A major report released in December put it in terms that are extreme for scientists, noting the Arctic is “warmer, less frozen, and biologically changed in ways that are scarcely imaginable even a generation ago.”
