Russia is BURNING.
These are the screenshots from the Resource Management System of Fire Information. They are based on the analysis of low resolution photos with thermal channels (Terra/Modis, 1 km). The sites of the fire are marked. Terrible picture, right?
englishrussia.com
This shot is from 6 days ago. Does the Ural Mountains usually spontaneously combust at this time of year?
Here's a closer pic.
Imagine 10%+ or more of North America on fire. That's what this looks like.
More things that the US media should be reporting if they were worth the price of their beauticians below the fold.
Crossposted at The Progressive Electorate.com
The above two images come from a source which references the The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS). Here's some background on the organization.
FIRMS is funded by NASA and builds
on Web Fire Mapper, a web mapping interface that displays hotspots/fires detected by the MODIS Rapid Response System and delivers near real-time hotspot/fire information and monthly burned area information to international users and support fire managers around the World.
In this photo taken on Saturday, Aug. 7, 2010, a newly married couple, no name given, share a tender moment despite the deep layer of smog from wildfires covering the ancient Russian city of Ryazan, some 180 km (111 miles) southeast of Moscow. Nearly 600 separate blazes were burning nationwide Saturday, mainly across western Russia, according to the Emergencies Ministry, which said that the area affected had increased over the past 24 hours. Hundreds of forest and peat bog fires have ignited amid the country's most intense heat wave in 130 years of record-keeping. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)
seattlepi.com
How much smoke does a group of fires that large make?
This is the view from Eastern Siberia, according to nasa.gov
And that was back on August 1st. Now, reports are coming out of Russia, but the American media doesn't seem to be making a big deal of it.
Now on to a few days ago . . .
From Russia, with FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HELP!
(T)he level of CO2 in Moscow's air is more than three times higher than normal, officials say.
According to some experts, inhaling the polluted air is as dangerous as smoking several packets of cigarettes a day.
~ snip ~
Russia has announced it is banning the export of grain from 15 August to 31 December after drought and fires devastated about a fifth of its grain crop.
bbc.co.uk
Bold text added by the diarist
Why do I have to get this news from the BBC, huh, American Media? I guess you guys already used your one man made environmental disaster story for this year up on BP, did you? Because, you know, this seems like it is a pretty BIG story, and maybe a chance for a little journalism, huh?
Because pictures like this are worth a thousand words, and in my case, a lot of them are curse words.
From englishrussia.com
What you missed in yesterday's Corporate financed "news".
Foreign diplomats leave Moscow amid fires and smog
On Saturday Moscow saw its worst air pollution in 2010, with carbon monoxide levels being 6.5 times more than maximum allowable concentrations. The concentration of other poisonous substances in the city air was nine times above the norm.
Earlier in the day, the U.S. has warned Americans to "carefully consider" the risks involved in travel to parts of Russia.
en.rian.ru
Bold text added by the diarist
Poisonous air? Smoke. Flames. Disaster.
And from our media, near silence.
One more pic to help reality sink in. We need to up our reality dosage.
bbc.co.uk
Moscow doctors recommend that the elderly and toddlers should wear gauze masks outdoors
So where are the climate change deniers on this one? How will they spin this?
Not to be seen . . .
And the American media, as ever, is asleep at the wheel. Because the only thing more insidious than a lying media is one that just omits the truth all together. The American media, on the whole, save for one or two voices, is dead silent on the fact that Russia is burning, and that the conditions that lead to that sort of disaster are certainly linked to man made pollution and man made climate change.
While Russia is burning, the American media fiddles. Insanity.
You can follow me on Twitter @JesseLaGreca