The record-breaking heat wave that has engulfed Russia since mid-June is not a prelude to a global environmental catastrophe, an environmental expert said on Wednesday.
"Deviations in different regions are due to the general instability of the climate system," Mikhail Kabanov said. "There is a constant rearrangement of this system, and as a result there can be different anomalies, including extreme ones."
"There has been... a warming before, and then it has been cold again," he said. "Such fluctuations of climate happen all the time."
Scientists have yet to determine to what extent these fluctuations have been deformed by the "anthropogenic factor," he said.
Kabanov said that this year's "scenario" is unlikely to repeat itself in the next few years.
Russia has been gripped by the worst heat wave in its modern history. Wildfires continue to rage across much of central Russia as the country experiences temperatures of up to and above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
NOVOSIBIRSK, August 11 (RIA Novosti)
