EMERGENCY - The fires that are ravaging Siberia are a danger for the entire planet!

The fires of unprecedented proportions, are likely to accelerate the melting of Arctic glaciers

Triggered by lightning often, huge forest fires have regularly crossed the immensity of Siberia, but the level achieved this year is outstanding and raises concern about the impact on the environment and global warming, due to carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and fine powders. And it's a disaster, according to environmentalists, will help speed up the melting of Arctic glaciers.

The fires going on for days. But Monday more than 3.2 million hectares were prey to the flames, especially in the regions of Yakutia, the vast Russian region in northeastern Siberia, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk. The flames are favored by high temperatures, with maximum above 30 degrees Celsius, and are supported by strong winds that the fire autoproduce same. The acrid smoke now reached not only small villages but also the major cities of Western Siberia, in the region of Altai and the Urals as well as in Chelyabinsk and Ecaterinburg, often causing problems for air traffic.

Sunday, the smoke reached the neighboring Kazakhstan, where a "concentration of pollutants exceeds the norm" was recorded in several cities, including Nur-Sultan capital, according to the Kazakh Meteorological Service.

Apart from the concern for the health of the local population, environmentalists warn that the fires may accelerate global warming. "Forest fires in the eastern part of the country have long since stopped being a local problem," said Greenpeace, in its Russian edition, in a statement. "It has become an ecological disaster with consequences for the entire country."

According to the environmental organization, this year have burned nearly 12 million hectares, with significant CO2 emissions, whose ability to be absorbed and reduced his time by the reduction in forests caused by fires. "And there is the further problem of soot falling on ice or snow melting on encouraging because, darkening the surface, it reduces the reflectivity and traps more heat," says the World Meteorological Organization in a statement.

Some scientists have published satellite images from NASA show that the clouds of smoke that reach the Arctic areas. The expert of Greenpeace Russia Grigory Kuksin said that soot and ashes accelerate the melting of Arctic ice and permafrost - permanently frozen layer that has begun to thaw - releasing gases that reinforce global warming. The phenomenon is affecting many Arctic regions, such as Alaska and Greenland. According to the World Meteorological Organization, the Arctic fires only in June have produced an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide to the total emitted from Sweden in a year.