One region alone - Yakutia - has 5 million tons scrap metal dumped in polar regions, an ugly Soviet legacy.
Locals blamed a mining company for attempting to hide what they called an 'ecological tragedy.'
After hitting 100 degrees Wednesday, Portland’s light-rail trains are operating at slower speeds amid concern that the heat will cause tracks to expand and risk a derailment. In exchange for the slow service, inspectors are not checking riders for tickets.
Japan was filled with scenes of desperation a day after an 8.9-magnitude quake, as survivors called for help and rescuers looked for people buried in rubble.
Authorities on the Greek Island of Crete say ongoing torrential rains have led to severe flooding that has turned roads into rivers, uprooted trees, damaged hundreds of homes and businesses and swept cars out to sea.
Emergency response officials say the worst damage occurred east of the island's capital, Iraklion, in small towns and villages, where schools were closed, and residents were advised to stay indoors.
The lengthy wildfire season follows a record-hot Arctic summer. People living in Yakutsk are waking up to heavy smog brought from the wildfires raging to the west, east and north; struggling to breathe and with head, eye and throat aches.
With Russia on Covid-19 lockdown, 77 houses were burned down in Novosibirsk and Kemerovo regions.
This time weather experts think the blackout was caused by smoke from wildfires mixing with heavy rain clouds.
Abnormally hot May weather resembles midsummer with air temperatures as high as +35C.
Wildfires on permafrost are ravaging Yakutia - or the Sakha Republic - the largest and coldest entity of the Russian Federation. The scale is mesmerizing. There are some 300 separate fires, now covering 12,140 square kilometers - but only around half of these are being tackled, because they pose a threat to people. The rest are burning unchecked.
The blaze was the fourth such incident in the last one month, as Delhi’s landfills are catching fire due to heavy build up of methane between the layers of millions of tonnes of garbage and high temperatures the city. Local residents said small fires keep erupting in the huge mountain of waste, but they have not seen such a massive one that broke out on Tuesday night.
Father missing under snow; more than 200 people continue search and rescue at -23C, snowstorm and bleak light of polar night.
Flood on Seyba River at gold mining facility leads to major emergency after accident near Shchetinkino village.
A mass die off of fish and invertebrates has been reported in the Sea of Okhotsk, west of Kamchatka. Dozens of surfers reported symptoms including including poor eyesight, fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, skin rashes and head and throat aches.
The stormy wind at 30 metres per second rose in Chita in the afternoon on Wednesday 13 May.
Blame for pollution is focused on failure of coal plant to filter emissions.
Bears in the Far East of Russia have become extremely aggressive searching for food. Experts say the number of bear attacks on humans this year is 'unprecedented.'
Some 5.4 million hectares of land are ablaze across Russia, mostly in Siberia and the country's far east. Water sprayed by planes to fight the fires is ‘now as expensive as Champagne’.
Boy was mauled to death, his sister managed to escape and raised alarm.
Some 784,931 hectares of wildfires are raging on permafrost zones including the Arctic in Yakutia - officially Sakha Republic - and the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region, causing possibly irreparable damage to the tundra. Other infernos are sweeping through boreal forests which are known as the lungs of the Northern Hemisphere.
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