Climate change brings fires, floods and moths to Siberia

Best known as a vast, cold tundra, Russia's sprawling Siberia region is being transformed by climate change that has brought with it warmer temperatures, forest fires and growing swarms of hungry moth larvae.

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"This winter was the hottest in Siberia since records began 130 years ago," said Marina Makarova, the chief meteorologist at Russia's Rosgidromet weather service.

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- 'Huge moths' -

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The larvae, which are taking over larger areas of forest, strip trees of their needles and make them more susceptible to forest fires.

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- Forest fires 'doubled' -

Climate change has led the number of forest fires to "double in 10 years," said Vyacheslav Kharuk, the head of the forest monitoring laboratory at the Forest Institute in the city of Krasnoyarsk.

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