"Russia's record hot summer of forest fires and resulting air pollution has left the reputations of its politicians badly scorched. Public anger is mounting at state neglect that allowed the fires to spread and at a cover-up of the number of resultant deaths from heatstroke."
As archetypal as a scene from Grimm's tales, the 580-square-mile Bialowieza Forest, said to be the last remaining stand of primeval forest in all of Europe, is being logged.
"A unique collection of European fruit and berry crops could be destroyed after a court in Russia gave permission today for land at a research institute in St. Petersburg to be turned into a housing estate."
"Russian emergency workers have increased forest patrols in a western region previously contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, trying to prevent wildfires from spreading harmful radiation, officials said Wednesday."
"The daily mortality rate in Moscow has doubled and morgues are overflowing amid an acrid smog caused by the worst heatwave in Russia's thousand-year history, officials said Monday."
"Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill asked Russians to pray for rain on Sunday as wildfires raged across the European parts of the vast country, sweltering since June in an unprecedented heat wave."
"The UK and continental Europe could be gripped by more frequent cold winters in the future as a result of low solar activity, say researchers. ... But they added that the phenomenon only affected a limited region and would not alter the overall global warming trend."
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