Sixteen years ago, on this day, July 30th, 2010,
Dimitry Medvedev “practically everything is burning” https://www.americansecurityproject.org/dmitri-medvedev-gets-it-why-dont-we/
…. But what you probably missed, is that the fires have been fed by drought and heat, prompting even Russia’s President Dmitri Medvedev to note the link between climate change and national security.
According to Time:
on July 30, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced that in 14 regions of the country, “practically everything is burning. The weather is anomalously hot.” Then, as TV cameras zoomed in on the perspiration shining on his forehead, Medvedev announced, “What’s happening with the planet’s climate right now needs to be a wake-up call to all of us, meaning all heads of state, all heads of social organizations, in order to take a more energetic approach to countering the global changes to the climate.”
As Time goes on to note, that’s a far cry from a Russian President who has been skeptical of climate change in the past–but not entirely so. Readers of this blog know, for example, that Medvedev convened a meeting of his national security council earlier this year to discuss the risks of climate change.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 390ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was that Soviet scientists were switched on to the possibility of climate change – did some of the early key work on it. It was mentioned in Soviet Weekly (terrible tabloid). Trouble is, there was always the sneaking (and wrong) idea that a warmer world would mean more growing of crops in the tundra etc.
The specific context was in 2010 we were having what now counts as a relatively mild summer. Now is the key word in that sentence.
What I think we can learn from this – the Fafocene has begun.
What happened next – nobody learned anything and everyone and everything is going to die a quite nasty death. So it goes.
xxx
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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References
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You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
If you want to get involved, let me know.
If you want to invite me on your podcast, that would boost my ego and probably improve the currently pitiful hit-rate on this site (the two are not-unrelated).
Also on this day:
July 30, 1968 – the UN says yes to an environment conference
July 30, 1979 – scientists warn US Senators about synfuels and carbon dioxide build-up
July 30, 1979 – synfuels would be sinful…
July 30, 1989 – UK Conservative politician warns “we have at most 25 years to take action.”