Major C02 Event

An area of Siberian Taiga roughly the size of Rumenia has turned into ashes smoke and C02 so far this summer (no link and it's in Italian anyway). Most of the fires were set by arsonists. It appears that the main aim is to harvest timber without cutting through underbrush (see also Indonesia). Referring to other latitudes, I have stressed the fact that trees grow back and resequester carbon. I fear that this doesn't happen so fast in Siberia which is rather cold and has short growing seasons.

An out of date image shows smoke covering most of lake Baikal which is very large and very long from North to South.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/rjw88/siberfire.jpg[/IMG]

Original Caption Released with Image:

During the 2003 fire season, blazes in the taiga forests of Eastern Siberia were part of a vast network of fires across Siberia and the Russian Far East, northeast China and northern Mongolia. Fires in Eastern Siberia have been increasing in recent years, and the 2003 spring and summer seasons are the most extensive recorded in over 100 years. Overall, the Russian Federation experienced a record-setting fire year, with over 55 million acres burnt by early August, according to the Global Fire Monitoring Center . These data products from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) illustrate the extent and height of smoke from numerous fires in the Lake Baikal region on June 11, 2003.

There is no way to police Siberia which is also rather large. However, the timber trade could, in principle, be regulated if there were any respect for the rule of law in Russia or China (the destination). Of course it is more realistic to hope that reforestation will be accelerated by fertilization with flying pig guano.