Story By: Anna Guran, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio has called for action in Russia’s Siberia and the Far East as an incredible 3 million hectares of forest are consumed by flames threatening the Arctic Circle.

The area is reportedly growing by 11,000 hectares a day, and now Russian environmentalists have been joined by journalists, celebrities and the local people to demand more be done to tackle the devastation.

They have now been backed by the Hollywood actor, who wrote on his Instagram page: “From large-scale fires in Greenland, Siberia and Alaska, columns of smoke are rising that can be seen from space. The World Meteorological Organization said that these fires in a month have already emitted as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as Sweden usually ejects in a year.”

Pictures Credit: CEN

Authorities have been accused of being slow to react to the blazes, allowing the devastation to worsen, and claiming that in most cases attempts to stop the blaze would be pointless.

However those affected say that the unprecedented number of wildfires is having a devastating effect on the climate and on their health.

Currently only 100,000 hectares of the blaze are being tackled, with 2.8 million hectares only being monitored, according to the latest statement by the Russian Federal Forestry Agency.

Since that statement Pres Vladimir Putin ordered the army to get involved in trying to extinguish the flames. Footage has also been shared on social media showing some of the devastation caused by the forest fires to further increase the pressure for more to be done.

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