Destruction Of Siberian Boreal Forests Even Faster Than In Amazon Basin

"Fire is destroying Siberian forests faster than the chainsaws rip through through the Brazilian Amazon. Scientists have warned that global warming and unethical logging practices have led to a rapid rise in forest fires, with the rate at which the forests are consumed by flame spiralling out of control, from 2 million hectares burned 20 years ago to a staggering 22 million hectares last year.

To put that in context, that is an area larger than mainland Britain and almost ten times the area of forest destroyed in Brazil last year, which was one of the worst years for the Amazon rainforests on record.

Around one fifth of the world's forests grow in the taiga region which as well as being a vital habitat for threatened wildlife the huge swathe of boreal forest is considered the lungs of Europe, acting as a sink for tons of pollution that float over from the industrialised west.

Despite the scale of the problem the plight of the northern forests seems to be all but ignored by the outside world, and the Russian authorities themselves seem unwilling to invest the resources needed to control the fires."

EDIT

http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=10021&channel=0