This image was captured after IFLRY’s recent EC/GA in St. Petersburg. It shows the Neva River enveloped in smoke from nearby peat and forest fires. What we experienced in St. Petersburg was thankfully very minor in comparison to the smog that has blanketed Moscow since mid-July as a result of record-breaking temperatures. Several thousand of the city’s dwellers are believed to have died from heat and respiratory illnesses as a result of these weather conditions. The crisis is also estimated to have wiped out a third of Russia’s grain crops and caused $7-15 billion in economic losses.
 
Scientists are still studying the meteorological causes of this catastrophic heat wave. While no single weather event can be reliably attributed to climate change, there is a large body of scientific evidence to suggest that it increases heat waves’ occurrence and severity. In the last hundred years, the frequency of extremely hot days across Europe has nearly tripled. Heat waves’ length has also doubled.

Many are now wondering whether this experience will cause Russia’s government to make more aggressive efforts in combating climate change. If anything, Russia’s heat wave has dimmed prospects that northern countries will benefit from climate change thanks to longer growing seasons or fewer deaths from winter cold. Indeed, it has demonstrated the urgency of confronting climate change and the extent to which it qualifies as both an economic and human rights issue.
 
(Thanks to Ksenia from Yabloko Youth for this photo)