[IAmEveryone]

No, it’s that “Temperatures exceeded 38C in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk on 20 June, the highest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic circle.“ (https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53415297)

Logging just doesn’t make any sense. Satellite imaging is pretty much constant now, so it wouldn’t be possible to burn the areas you logged before someone snapped a photo.

Siberia also has something like two-and-half roads, even less going to China. You can stop illegal logging, or at least observe it in its entirety, by asking some bored senior to count trucks passing by outside.

[wahern]

Last year, at least, there seemed to have been alot of buzz about illegal logging:

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/09/05/russians-blame-sib...

https://www.dw.com/en/russias-forests-threatened-by-illegal-...

And before:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/11/151110-timbe...