The terrible death-smog that had blanketed Moscow and was killing hundreds of people a day has now lifted, hooray! Once again the Russian Orthodox God (“Rasputin”) has stopped the suffering of his people, if by “his people” you mean the people who live in Moscow, which is pretty much what the Russian government means by it. Sure, the fires that caused the smog are still raging in the countryside and everything, but who lives in the country? Nobody, that’s who. In fact, big chunks of rural western Russia are mostly uninhabited anyway, because they’re all still radioactive from the Chernobyl disaster, so those parts can just burn and it won’t hurt anybody, right?
Or maybe not, according to the extreme greenies at Greenpeace Russia, who are too busy dealing with this situation to chain themselves to whaling vessels:
Russia’s state forestry service, Roslesozashchita, admitted in a statement posted on its website Wednesday that, as of Aug. 6, there were 28 forest fires covering about 270 hectares burning in the Bryansk region alone, which is considered the most radioactively contaminated part of Russia.
“We’re not talking about a repeat of the Chernobyl catastrophe, but the danger is not insignificant either,” says Vladimir Chuprov, head of Greenpeace Russia’s energy program. “The worst scenario is the continuing spread of radioactive particles through the area. The danger is first of all to firefighters and local people, but the contamination can spread with smoke to new areas.”
Russian authorities are responding in “Russian Authorities Classic” style, by saying that everything is OK. And Putin even personally dumped some water on fires in a forest, somewhere, out of an airplane! But still, the crisis has taken its toll on the Russian leadership’s popularity, with Putin’s approval levels dropping to 47 percent. Remember, you can level all the Muslim cities you want and Russia will love you forever, but don’t let the country’s precious radioactive forests be harmed, or just over half of the electorate will turn on you. [CSM]
Photo from Flickr user Timm Suess!
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Once again you people have to bring me in to any issue where mother nature gets a little radiation on her dress.
In Soviet Union, forest kills you.
What the *hell* is that in the pic’s foreground?!
computers don’t need forests, they don’t need whales, they’re just waiting for us carbon-based losers to kill ourselves off so they can begin the celebration of the silicon-based ascendency.
and i’ll drink to that.
In soviet Russia, fire burns YOU! And then it nukes you from atmosphere, just to be sure.
270 hectares burning
That’s a lot?
Does that create a larger carbon footprint than my grill on “Cantonese Rib Night” or smaller because when considering carbon footprints I need their impact expressed in terms of what my grill produces, else I am unable to accurately calibrate my outrage…
There’s only one person who can save Russia. Quick, somebody find the five kids with the power to control air, earth, fire, water, and heart. Wait, heart, what the fuck? That’s ridiculous!
Ratings should bounce back up when the pictures of Putin shirtlessly fighting the fire come out.
How many Bothans died to put up that statue?
Actually Putin was peeing out the airplane on journalist… bare-chested.
[re=636753]Autochthon[/re]: Indeed! Where’d you git that pichur at, Ken?
Shorter [re=636747]Chernobyl Soup[/re]: “I did not have nuclear relations with that woman, Miss Nature.”
Eh, that’s nothing — last year half of California burned. So much, in fact, that the state legislature is still stoned.
[re=636767]Zorg[/re]: The set from “Battlefield Earth”?
The video from Russia’s Greenpeace is an eerie, pink Moscow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgAE6Da3mao
“Once again the Russian Orthodox God (“Rasputin”)”
Actually, the Russian Orthodox God’s name is Putin.
[re=636753]Autochthon[/re] and [re=636767]Zorg[/re]: it is a monument to the disaster. See the link at the bottom of the post, that says “Photo from” and has a link?
This sounds like a job for Aqua Buddha!
[re=636794]Josh Fruhlinger[/re]: That’s quite a monument — it appears to be a pair of hands cupping the reactor while getting zapped by a lightning bolt coming from a — um — a satellite dish with a microphone lying in it.
Where are the dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark, they shoot bees at you?
Put the fires out with the warm, blood-smeared bodies of Chechin children…
Just wait until they turn on the Brain Scorcher.
[re=636783]Terry[/re]: “Putin” is Rasputin’s nickname. Yes, they are one and the same. No, he never died; he just went bald.
If only the Russians could manipulate plate tectonics or change the Earth’s orbit so that their country moved closer to the Equator. then those Chinese and Pakistanis could dry out and the monsoons would put out the fires.
Maybe if the Israeli’s nuked Iran?
What are they waiting for? Just detonate another nuke and stop the fires!
Rush’s cigar habit is still the bigger threat.
It’s scary enough to make you Roslesozashchita in your pants.
Москвы – Где же ты?
Вы делаете нам серый, когда небо синее
Москвы, в небе
Сохраняет погоды глаз на тебя сегодня вечером
It’s the entrance to the Morlock underground, obvs…
[re=636794]Josh Fruhlinger[/re]: Now we do, bitch.
Well, Putin was wearing his shirt but even dressed, he knows how to put out a fire.
To speed up the process of firefighting across Central Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin got behind the controls of an amphibious water bomber Beriev Be-200 plane. http://www.newslook.com/videos/240402-raw-video-putin-fights-wildfires-with-water-bomber?autoplay=true
[re=637076]ejreed[/re]: Now THAT’S a Real American Hero!
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