In the summer of 2010, record-high temperatures hit Moscow. At first it was j

In the summer of 2010, record-high temperatures hit Moscow. At first it was just another heat wave , but the scorching heat that started in late June continued through mid-August. Western Russia was so hot and dry in early August that 300 or 400 new fires were starting every day. Millions of acres of forest burned. So did thousands of homes. Crops withered. Day after day Moscow was bathed in seemingly endless smoke . The elderly and those with impaired respiratory systems struggled to breathe. The death rate climbed as heat stress and smoke took their toll. The average July temperature in Moscow was a scarcely believable 14 degrees Fahrenheit above the norm . Twice during the heat wave, the Moscow temperature exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit, a level Muscovites had never before experienced. Watching the heat wave play out over a seven-week period on the TV evening news , with the thousands of fires and the smoke everywhere, was like watching a horror film that had no end. Russia’s 140 million people were in shock , traumatized by what was happening to them and their country.
   The most intense heat in Russia’s 130 years of record keeping was taking a heavy economic toll. The loss of standing forests and the projected cost of their restoration totaled some $ 300 billion. Thousands of farmers faced bankruptcy. Russia’s grain harvest shrank from nearly 100 million tons to scarcely 60 million tons as crops withered. Recently the world’s number three wheat exporter, Russia banned grain exports in a desperate move to rein in soaring domestic food prices. Between mid-June and mid-August, the world price of wheat climbed 60 percent. Prolonged drought and the worst heat wave in Russian history were boosting food prices worldwide.