Russia Is Burning

[filkertom]

Tragic beyond belief:

Deaths in Moscow have doubled to an average of 700 people a day as the Russian capital is engulfed by poisonous smog from wildfires and a sweltering heat wave, a top health official said Monday.

Moscow health chief Andrei Seltsovky blamed weeks of unprecedented heat and suffocating smog for the rise in mortality compared to the same time last year, Russian news agencies reported. He said city morgues were nearly overflowing, filled with 1,300 bodies, close to their capacity.

Acrid smog blanketed Moscow for a six straight day Monday, with concentrations of carbon monoxide and other poisonous substances two to three times higher than what is considered safe. Those airborne pollutants reached a record over the weekend — exceeding the safe limit by nearly seven times.

About 550 separate blazes were burning nationwide Monday, mainly across western Russia, including about 40 around Moscow, according to the Emergencies Ministry. Forest and peat bog fires have been triggered by the most intense heat wave in 130 years of record keeping.

Alexander Frolov, head of Russia's weather service, said judging by historic documents, this heat wave could be the worst in up to 1,000 years.

As is usual on Yahoo, the comments are a mix of rational voices and nuckin futbars, but there is one I thought was particularly telling:

For all the people talking crap, you may not have noticed but there is only one atmosphere on this planet. Not only is deforestation a problem for the entire planet, do you this this smoke is going to stay in one place?

Comments

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

Kudos to the quoted commenter for pointing out the obvious, and shame on those who didn't think of it themselves.

I lived in Oregon when the Chernobyl accident happened, and there was an article in the paper about how radiation began showing up in the milk from the local cows.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I can well believe it--I attended a minor scientific conference after Chernobyl (a few months after) and talked to one researcher who specialized in water plants. He used e-mail and phone to recruit colleagues around the world to survey the amount of radiation that showed up in one common --kelp I think; something with a very wide distribution. When he got of the phone he picked up his own kelp sample he'd gathered that morning and, just for grins ran a geiger counter over it. When he heard the hiss, he quit grinning.

The actual counting was done on carefully dried, ashed samples so that different water weights wouldn't throw things off--but he said he threw the rest of the kelp in the radioactive disposal.