Protecting the environment!

Environmentalists insist on declaring the Gulf of Mexico "dead zone".

2012-05-29T14:59:00.004-07:00

The oil industry is not the only culprit of slow destruction of the ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico. According to environmental organizations in its latest statement, the area of the Gulf of Mexico the size of Massachusetts to declare a "dead zone". The reason is the severe pollution of the Mississippi River. As environmentalists say, the level of oxygen in the water in the area just sufficient to maintain the normal life of marine animals and plants.

Therefore, recently a number of environmental organizations, including the Council for the Protection of Natural Resources, has been sued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its failure to tighten the regulation of wastewater and the conformity of the river water quality standards. In particular, the defenders called on EPA to test the water in the Gulf of Mexico to the level of nitrogen and phosphorus that stimulate excessive growth of algae that consume precious oxygen in the water. According to the Gulf Restoration Network Organization (GRN), in the Mississippi River reaches 41 percent of sewage from all American businesses, and with them - a huge amount of fertilizers and other chemicals from farms and cities across the country. Every summer, as soon as the water warms up in the Gulf, the volume of these microscopic organisms increases, thereby suppressing the development of the marine ecosystem.

At the same time, environmentalists say, and about poor water quality upstream. Thus, in the season, and Raccoon rivers in Des Moines found extremely high levels of nitrates. In order to keep the water of these rivers was suitable for drinking, requires special handling.
Matthew Roth, Director of Water Policy in the GRN, said that the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico for decades been the "national collectors," but now they need to be cleaned.The time has come when the EPA should take appropriate action.
It is worth noting that in 2008, environmentalists have appealed to the Office for Environmental Protection, calling for greater involvement in the control of pollution of the Mississippi River. However, if their application was dismissed with the statement that international water quality standards "are not an effective solution of significant water issues facing the American nation."

Wind farms can cause a localized greenhouse effect .

2012-05-29T14:57:00.001-07:00

The results of the study, which was recently conducted by a group of scientists from the University of Albany, New York, raised fears that wind farms can lead to a significant increase in the temperature of the earth. According to researchers, it may even become a serious obstacle to further development of wind energy. Researchers examined data from meteorological satellites, Nolan and Taylor received on the territory of West Texas, which are four largest U.S. wind power. They found that over the past 10 years the temperature of the earth at night has increased by 0.72 degrees Celsius, compared with areas where there are no wind turbines. (For the record, the growth rate of global warming associated with excessive fuel combustion accounts for only around 0.2 degrees Celsius over the same period).

However, the researchers say, and that before coming to any conclusions, further research is needed. In particular, the same data from weather satellites to be collected in other parts of the United States and around the world, where the installed wind power, and carefully analyzed. In addition, scientists warn that the data on such localized "greenhouse effect" should not be compared with data on global warming.
Raising the temperature of the earth in a particular area may be due to two reasons. One is the heat dissipated by the wind turbines and associated electrical transformers and switches. Another factor may be a localized warming of the warm air, which is due to operation of wind turbines is moved from the upper to the lower layers of the atmosphere.
What kind of threat is a "greenhouse effect" in a particular area? First, it is worth noting that the land on which wind turbines are installed and actively used by farmers to grow crops. Therefore, if the findings are confirmed, and the growth temperature of the earth affect the decline in yields, farmers will no longer use the land for agricultural purposes.This in turn could lead to a decrease in the production of cereals and other crops and as a consequence, the emergence of an unfavorable situation with the provision of food.

Storm clouds contribute to global warming: study.

2012-05-29T14:53:00.003-07:00

According to Pacific National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, storms can make a significant contribution to global warming, due to their ability to capture and retain warm air. So maybe in the future, environmental scientists have to radically adjust their climate models in the light of recent research.
As explained in a recent report from the representative of the Department of Energy Jiva fan, warm air helps to seal storm clouds, causing them to "peak" to climb into the upper atmosphere and capture more heat, especially at night. According to him, global climate models do not account for this effect, since in them the process of formation of storm clouds presented enough detail.

The storm clouds, which are also known as deep convective clouds, are an important part of the climatic cycle. Due to their size, they represent a large portion of solar radiation back into space. However, a recent study showed that with the warm air and the storm clouds are sucking dirt particles in it. These particles inhibit the formation of large raindrops in the cloud, and as a consequence, the "return" of water on the ground as rain.This in turn leads to a further increase in the storm clouds that absorb more water vapor, which is, as scientists believe, a major factor in regional weather systems.

The researchers looked at two different types of storm systems - the warm summer thunderstorms in the southeast of China and the cool windy frontal systems on the Great Plains of Oklahoma. Simulated on a computer, "the storm", scientists have studied in detail how to develop cloud conditions change, such as wind speed and air pollution.They found that air pollution leads to increased summer thunderstorms until a severe storm, which is evidence of a warming effect. The researchers also noted that air pollution causes increased absorption of heat by storm clouds.
According to Fan, the research findings are very important for modeling global warming, but they are calculated only on a particular day - when there are thunderstorms.

The negative impact of modern ecology to wildlife.

2012-05-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

It is not for whom no secret that the world is now a terrible environment. Poor environment is harmful to all - people, animals, and in general throughout the animal world. With the harmful emissions are no longer cope or the Amazon forest, or taiga, Siberia.To date, the environment and wildlife adversely affected by the three countries - the U.S., China and India. These countries have not signed contracts, which refers to the preservation of nature. In Russia today, too, a lot of cities where the company pollutes the air. But here at least there is a project of greening of nature.Because of the bad environment begins the mutation of animals. Along the coast of Japan found a 50-pound squid. In Mexico, there was a mutation of a kangaroo. They have to have a dog's head, and large fangs. And in the Northern Urals began to die cattle. All these mutations have a negative impact not only on animals but on humans.Air pollution causes fluorosis in animals. This is a chronic poisoning caused by air pollution fluoride. Fluoride has also been detected in water and in food animals. Among the animals fluorosis affects sheep and cattle.Pasture contamination such compounds are a few factors. This is a natural soil dust, which is observed in some areas. This gaseous and dust waste companies, as well as the burning of coal. Today's enterprises, which produce enamel, cement, aluminum and phosphoric acid, contain fluorine compounds, including hydrogen fluoride.Animals in general are experiencing stress, when the parameters of the environment is changing dramatically. Even at a low level of pollution there comes the backlash against pollution. The reaction affects the molecular genetic basis of the body, showing features of ethology and the ontogeny of the animals, as well as changes characteristic of interspecific interactions.Radiation is also a negative impact on wildlife. During the testing of nuclear weapons into the air out the fallout. Radiation affects animals just like people. Fallout fall into the food. First, precipitation fall from the soil into plants and then accumulate and are consumed in food animals. At present, little is pollution, but information about the food consumed by the radioactive elements are not enough. Modern Further research is vital.Industrial and domestic waste water are subjected to mechanical, biological and physical treatment. Substances that are contained in the wastewater, is also negatively affect wildlife.The current environment, more and more has a detrimental effect on human and animal life. It is therefore necessary to preserve nature and animals. The organization promotes the preservation of nature reserves wildlife. Rare and endangered species are protected securely. In addition, reserves tame wild animals with valuable properties.Reserves are also involved in the separation of extinct animals, thereby enrich the local fauna

Problem atmosphere.

2012-05-23T12:26:00.003-07:00

Even kids in kindergarten know that clean air is vital to us. But the modern state of the atmosphere, especially in large cities leaves much to be much better. Gas emissions of large enterprises now and then contribute to the spread is absolutely unfit for healthy living air that we breathe and our children. Save the deplorable state of the atmosphere can only greenery, but not everyone is interested to create, as they are taken away valuable space that could bring more profit.Expansion of green parks in the atmosphere will more than pure oxygen. And people will have even more space for recreation in the open. In addition to planting a variety of green plants and trees, you must also monitor the activities of all the chemical plants.Only strict control and the set limit the emission of harmful waste gas can prevent global air pollution and a sharp decline in the level of oxygen in the air.Many believe that the problem is not with respect to their environment the right way. But numerous diseases and pathology at the newly born children every day prove just the opposite.

Ways of solving environmental problems.

2012-05-23T12:23:00.002-07:00

There are three main areas in which we break the ecosystem of the planet. Burning petroleum products while working a large number of internal combustion engines and power stations, we throw in an atmosphere of combustion gases, primarily carbon dioxide. Huge piles of unprocessed waste, which itself does not decompose, take a lot of space, pollute soil and water, some of it gets into the seas and oceans. Finally, in the mining open pit, quarry, we give a lifeless state of the vast territory.These major problems, respectively, and identified those areas in which is a struggle for the preservation of the environment. First of all, hope to solve the problems associated with the development of energy efficient technologies and bringing up the level of industrial capacity environmentally friendly sources of energy. Development of electric vehicles, expansion of public electric will gradually clear the air of cities. For its part, car companies are working to reduce fuel consumption. We are actively developing electronic systems to control movement, which can minimize the waste of fuel. Solar panels and wind turbines should be reduced, and eventually even reduced to zero, the burning of fuel in thermal power plants that now produce the lion's share of Energy in the world. Moreover, these energy sources are good because they can - in theory - be used everywhere, so with time to drop out the need to build power transmission lines and trunk pipelines. Using these sources in the industry until the question of the future, but it is the first development of residential complexes with a fully self-contained, environmentally sound manner.Any attempt to re-use waste or waste-free processing it is very valuable. Especially considering the fact that much of the garbage, these things are quite useful, discarded simply because they are replaced by new ones. All that can be recycled, recycled to do - this is now the main slogan. First, we further reduce consumption of resources, and secondly, rid the planet of junk. Therefore, there is a whole design direction for the creation of interior items, household items - a light bulb, teapots, furniture, and even entire houses. The aim - to bring to people's minds the idea: do not rush to throw the old thing, showing the share of imagination, you can give it a second life.Of course, the trash is only a small part of the problem. To give more waste industry.Waste treatment plants in special garbage collector can be obtained from an analogue of natural gas, which can be used instead of fuel.All of these areas, despite notable successes in recent years, solve only part of the problem. There is still an unresolved issue remains pereabotka plastic and rubber. A huge number of whole tires creates garbage mountains around the major European capitals. A proportion of legikh plastics packages, bottles and packaging by weight up to 30% of all waste. Great hopes are pinned on biotechnology, which would like to believe they will either recycle the debris, or somehow integrate them into the environment.

Environment and Energy.

2012-05-23T12:20:00.003-07:00

In today's world people to achieve the necessary degree of comfort to him, spends more and more energy. We can not imagine my life without refrigerators, electric heaters (kettles, microwave ovens), dishwashers and washing machines, computers, and in the summer - without air conditioning. Now, instead of Power is a seasonal peak energy consumption, as it did 20 years ago - two: winter and summer. And, in conversations at the state level on the transition to energy-saving technologies in the home there is little change. None of us are not ready to abandon the now familiar things, which really must be confessed, make our lives easier, safer and more comfortable.However, due to the fact that technology is constantly evolving, manufacturers of energy-consuming products offer new and enhanced instruments, the number of people enjoying the benefits of civilization, has been steadily growing. As energy consumption increases and, above all, energy.Recent developments in Japan's nuclear power has once again made the world think about the safest ways to generate electricity. Thus, in Bavaria, where about 60% of the electricity produced at nuclear power plants, it was decided to gradually phase-out of electricity produced at nuclear power plants, so that by 2020 fully switch to alternative sources.Therefore, energy, especially engineers and designers say something like this: We do our best to ensure that our plants were the most environmentally friendly. We do so in accordance with the current development of science and technology in this field. But the needs of humanity's energy is growing faster than the development of environmentally sound technologies generate electricity.It is clear that the production of energy through the power of wind, sunlight and heat the earth more environmentally friendly than the energy produced from thermal and nuclear power plants. However, it is more expensive, but at the same time, the less stable. If we consider the same Bavaria, there is hard to find places with a strong constant winds, such as in Holland, sunny days a year, far less than in Cyprus, and on the surface does not leave any geothermal sources. Thus, in parallel with the transition to alternative energy, humanity must find ways to meet their needs through energy efficiency. Thus, simple replacement of fluorescent lighting to LED saves 50 to 90% of the electricity consumed for lighting. Plus go full cost of disposal of mercury-containing fluorescent lamps. But high-quality LED lighting is now so expensive that at the current price for electricity the payback period in Russia amounts to about two years.Of course, replacing a light bulb, ordinary citizens do not save much. But the competent government policy, including in the formation of economic incentive for implementing energy-saving technologies at home and at work will reduce the demand for electricity in our society and, therefore, move at least a step towards a cleaner environment.

Ecology - a comprehensive science!

2012-05-23T12:17:00.002-07:00

Ecology - a complex science. Speaking in a nutshell, it examines the relationship between the animate and inanimate nature. Wildlife - are living organisms (plants, animals, fungi, viruses) and their community. Inanimate nature - it is the habitat in which all living things (including people) there. Two Greek word "oikos" (house) and "logos" (the science) are the name of science "ecology" - means the science of the house. For a man - a residential building, for animals - forest, field, mountain, for the fish - sea, lakes and rivers. For all together - a whole planet. Shared accommodation is sometimes like a fight for survival in space and time in natural and artificially modified human conditions. Ecology is designed to explore all the intricacies of the process of co-existence of individual residents of our great "utility" of the apartment and the impact on each other.Life on Earth is in full swing everywhere. Flora and fauna exists not for itself, it depends on its environment (climate, soil, water and air temperatures). In the long process of historical development of plants and animals have learned to adapt to existing environmental conditions.Many people mistakenly believe that ecology studies the issues related only to the environment. This occurred because of an incorrect interpretation of the implications of thoughtless human influence on the environment.In fact, the environment affects a much larger range of issues. So what matters is studying ecology?A. By nature environment in which organisms live. Highlights - is the climate and natural resources. Natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, the collapse) often lead to a breach of customary life, turning everything around.Two. Mutual existence of living organisms and their communities in the world among themselves. Violation of the settled nature of the equilibrium between the different living organisms (plants and herbivores feeding on them, herbivores and predators).Three. Man's relation to nature is also the subject of study. Occurring in the nature of the changes due to human intervention (deforestation, construction of dams, construction of industrial plants ...). This violates the nature of nature, pollute the surrounding world, which has a negative effect on all life, including in humans.The main target of scientific research ecologists - nature itself. Environmentalists are watching what is happening not only in the field, leaving the expedition, but also in the stationary (laboratory) conditions. Long-term observations are accompanied by conducting laboratory experiments, followed by the extension of scientific theories to explain the phenomena occurring.Only by studying all the issues in the complex, you can get a full picture of what is happening, to be able to predict the course of further development.Only in recent time, mankind has been thinking about the importance of environmental issues. Due to the results produced by research, you can try to anticipate and learn how to prevent a devastating impact of negative factors. Environmental literacy is relevant to modern people.

Urban environmental problems.

2012-05-23T12:15:00.001-07:00

Today's mega-cities - a center of trade and industry. Increasingly, citizens criticized large companies for polluting the environment, but in fact they harm - this is only part of the chain of the environmental problems that have long been settled in large cities.Initially, large industrial enterprises were built on the periphery of cities, but the expansion of residential areas has led to what people have to live side by side with the often injurious productions. Emissions of chemicals in the urban sky citizens make life unbearable. At best, people feel an unpleasant smell, and at worst - feel unwell due to poisoning of the body. Even if the company is not located in close proximity to residential neighborhoods, it's still poison the environment for several kilometers around. Emissions from the huge pipes of factories picked up by wind and rain cover in the form of the next areas. Wastewater, which often have a poisonous yellow, rushing small streams to large rivers, into the soil.Another environmental problem in cities are the exhaust gases of millions of cars that are daily in the many kilometers of traffic jams. Environmentally friendly cars who travel on an environmentally friendly fuel - now rather distant prospect, despite the high level of science in modern society. Change to bicycles and public transport cities residents do not want, and, hence, this problem does not lose its relevance for a long time. Exhaust gases in the degree of harmful impact on the environment ahead of the mills and factories. Harmful volatile substances in their composition have an adverse impact not only on the human body, but also to plants and animals, the city band. Affects the respiratory tract, reduced the required level of oxygen in the blood. Hydrocarbons in the exhaust gas can cause headaches, which have become familiar to urban dwellers.Considerable damage to the cities causing landfills. Tons of waste instead of processed, are delivered to the overcrowded landfills, or people have to breathe the smell of garbage piles, from the comfort of their own households. A terrible smell and crowds of rats - it's not the most terrible consequences uncollected garbage. Quite often, discarded wastes which contain toxic substances and therefore require special disposal.Build refineries are too expensive, easier to allocate new space for landfills and "enjoy" the new garbage mountain peaks that grow in the short term. The trees are cut down, giving way to high-rise buildings and large shopping centers, reducing the flow of air into the lungs of citizens.The modern city is being blackened lungs with patients with a dense cap of smog over the heads of its inhabitants. Key environmental issues are added washing machines in urban ponds, picnics in the parks, which make the already sparse green areas in the smaller versions of urban landfills.Mindless consumerism and the environment leads to a slow self-destruction of urban residents, which will last you as long as people do not realize the importance of solving existing environmental problems.

Spring show who, where garbage !

2012-05-23T12:02:00.001-07:00

That's the first rays of the sun delight citizens, is becoming warmer, the snow begins to melt, but at the same time opening up unflattering pictures, such as piles of garbageaccumulating all winter.
The snow hid incivility of some townspeople hid discarded cigarette butts and packs of cigarettes, could not see thousands of empty bottles of beer, almost could not see and the motley pack, the fact that the sale of plastic bags by itself may not ill, but that thatmost of these packages is happening in the future, how much extra waste is produced, I've written previously about possible solutions in this area, I think, is once again raise the subject.
Need packaging, which can be easily processed by Mother Nature

The use of fertilizers has led to mass deaths of flamingos!

2012-05-07T06:54:00.002-07:00

Active use of fertilizers in agriculture on the banks of lakes in Tanzania has led to the fact that the water began to multiply rapidly cyanobacteria. Poisonous substance, which they emit, caused a massive loss of even a flamingo.
Hezron Nong Emmanuel (Hezron Emmanuel Nonga) from the Norwegian School of Veterinary Research decided to find out the cause of mass deaths of flamingos dwarf (Phoeniconaias minor Geoffroy), which takes place the last few years in the lakes of Tanzania, the agency says Kazakh-Grain. Researchers conducted a study of Lake Victoria in the north-west of the country and several small lakes in the north, including Lake Manyara. They found an excessive amount of water in the cyanobacteria that produce Microcystin - a toxic substance, deleterious effect on fish and other inhabitants of the lake. Researchers concluded that the abundance of cyanobacteria caused by runoff into the lake a large number of nitrogen fertilizers - on the shores of these lakes are settlements and agricultural land. Moreover, according to Nong, the economic activity in these areas no one was watching, and the amount of fertilizer that is used in the fields, not limited.
To find out why flamingos are dying, the researchers conducted an analysis of their organs and tissues. They found elevated levels of microcystin (a substance that is isolated cyanobacteria in the course of their life) in the liver of these birds. According to Nong probably the food chain Microcystin ingested flamingos, causing their death.Microcystin in large quantities is toxic to many animals, including fish. This substance causes liver necrosis, which leads to death, the IA-Kazakh grain.

Russia was buried under the waste !

2012-05-07T06:52:00.001-07:00

Of the four billion rubles received by the federal budget in 2010 in fines for environmental damage, the elimination of harm in the country spent 35 million However, even today, the MEP can not precisely delineate the extent of the disaster.
Only it is estimated (no piles of inventory, of course, did not hold), in Russia, 90 billion tons of stored waste - domestic and industrial. And these 90 billion - only a small part of an inheritance that we leave each year and leave thousands of factories. Many have long disappeared from the directories of existing enterprises, and now exist solely as an environmentally hazardous pockets on the map. These centers, in an uncertain estimate of profile ministries, thousands of them. 194-m objects in the Ministry of Natural Resources (again, in the eyes) was given the status of "hot spots". Owners can not (they were lost during the privatization of leapfrog) willing to pay for someone else's mismanagement - even more so.
Deputy head of state regulation in the field of waste treatment and elimination of the accumulated damage to the department of public policy and regulation in the field of environmental protection and ecological security of the Russian Federation Ministry of Natural Resources Burkanov Olga offers to distribute responsibility for the abandoned territory between the executive authorities. If the land on which is piled a dangerous object that is included in the federal jurisdiction - the money spends the Russian budget, if it is in the ownership of the subject - the subject, and if the municipality - local governments.
This model is described at a meeting of an official in the Public Chamber and present it together with the draft federal law "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation (in terms of regulation of compensation (eliminate) harm to the environment, including those associated with past economic activity)." In addition to the separation of powers document (in the near future it is planned to submit to the Government Code) requires maintenance of the state registry of such areas, the creation of public-private partnerships and tax incentives for businesses, which (who knows how to do) with his flock billion in a project to improve the does not belong to them woods and ponds.
Alas, neither the report nor after, responding to criticism, Burkanov not explain how the "poor" would get the money for municipal landfills and eliminating their restoration, not told what to do if part of the natural complex will be subordinated to the Federal Executive, and the other - subject. Do not mention Burkanov and that the same registry, which it presents as a guide innovation, in fact, is there since 2002, but over the years replenished only once. This reminded ekokontrolya head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor), Natalia Sokolova, who, in spite of departmental affiliation, took a surprisingly aggressive stance.
"We have to take us to the law. We must rid the country of waste. Necessary. A clear way - she specified. - Where are we going to export them and how to neutralize or recycle? The country has 389 companies on the disposal. Of these, more than half - complexessort. processing complexes Really no more than 60 (including 40 combustion plants). "
According to Sokolova, Russia processed a maximum of 3.5% of municipal solid waste (MSW), while, for example, in the U.S. - about 30%, while in Europe - more than 25%.But in 1399 the country runs a legal placement of solid waste facilities and seven thousand "authorized" landfills - permitted by local authorities, but in fact uncontrolled.The main flow of garbage buried in landfills unauthorized, of which only statistics Rosprirodnadzor, we have about 22.5 thousand It is about 50 thousand hectares, entirely covered with waste. And they are not talking about is not found dumps, do absolutely nowhere.
"Without solving the problem of infrastructure, we will not solve any problem of the elimination of accumulated environmental harm, or minimizing the problem of newly generated waste, nor the problem of runoff treatment facilities," - said Sokolov, he immediately turned his attention to another bill that has already been adopted in first reading in the DG. It is "On the economic revitalization of waste management."
"Without incentives and guarantees no infrastructure investment will not, - said speaking. - Contracts are for one year on the basis of competitions held by the investor and do not give any guarantee that this object is constructed, the year he wins the competition for its operation. Also benefits Tax on profits and property are no more benefits there - no land tax or lease payment. As there are no guarantees on tariffs, which are reviewed each year. "
The bill in its original version of their thought. He also suggested the creation (or rather, the restoration of the abolished) established environmental funds and a ban on the disposal of certain wastes in 2030 as a potentially recycled. However, according to Sokolova, "all these rules were rejected by the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and the Ministry of Regional Development - ten pages left almost bare text. Only thing left there, - the introduction of financial responsibility of the manufacturer (importer) for the disposal of products."
The idea is that since January 1, 2010 the first waste is not prohibited to place only at the sites included in the special register of the MEP. But the Ministry of Natural Resources simply do not maintain this registry. Therefore, 96.5% of waste in the Russian Federation are located, and nobody knows where. Rosprirodnadzor has recently initiated the formation of an interactive map of unauthorized dumps - worked on the basis of environmental hot line calls, which operate for four years, inspectors raid the territorial services and signals from the volunteers. This card may appear in the free Internet access in the next year.
"Why Rosprirodnadzor is in part of waste management is currently implementing such works is because the waste - this is still a minimum, to get you started, and that at least can be fixed - explained Sokolov. - Unfortunately, the water bodies is almost unknown, and on Air Basin, in principle, we can not track violations - only if we take the technical documentation and a purely mathematical way to calculate how much hazardous substances were released into the air. "
Just waste Rosprirodnadzor also distinguished by the degree of importance. And engaged in basic, everyday. "Because the waste industry, we have more or less reliable statistics on domestic and no accountability, no payments - Sokolov recognized. - Here's the play we are now trying to fill."
"But we have to understand - she added - that even on legal sites for placement of solid waste in compliance with applicable regulations and operating rules, can be placed and industrial waste is the third, fourth and fifth classes of risk, and construction waste, and in February of this year - and even medical waste, Class B (ie, an extremely dangerous - "Rosbalt"). "
It is assumed that such waste should be disposed of at special facilities, but according to Sokolova, these facilities in the country - one. In the end, until the Ministry of Natural Resources are developing legislation to eliminate the "lessons of environmental harm," across the country grow new centers ekoopasnosti. And all of these centers together the federal budget is spending 35 million rubles per year (regions, which receive 80% of the paid fines, costs not much more). Although trials with companies violators losses are estimated in the billions.
Sergei Simak, Judge OP RF, described as "flawed" the very structure of the Ministry of nature protection legislation, "from which it will continue to grow handicap law enforcement." "Solving the problem just yesterday, we program a situation where the problems of today are tomorrow's problems" - he warned, and, alternatively, advised to think about the creation of the institute of environmental liability insurance industrialists."Only a small number of objects is now subject to compulsory insurance - have Simak. - Must be conceptually raise the question of expanding the range of objects." However, Olga Burkanov, representing the House Natural Resources, snapped back that you should start small.
If only all started.

Deforestation can keep wild animals without a home !

2012-05-07T06:49:00.003-07:00

On the border with China, there are two mighty rivers Amur and Ussuri River, which created one of the most amazing places where nature exists in its original form.However, as the reporter found out Tom Barton, the offensive captains of industry puts its future in jeopardy.
Tiger named Deep time for dinner. He was picked up starving to death, when he was only six months. He is now 19 years old, has a pair of platinum artificial teeth. This Siberian tiger is one of the endangered species, writes the news agency Kazakhstan-Grain.
Tom Barton, a correspondent: Forests in the region - home to several rare species of big cats. However, they are also full of loggers, sawmills and poachers who earn good here and because of that same leopards and tigers were on the verge of extinction.
Ludmila takes care of the tigers, bears, reindeer ... Yes, perhaps on each wounded beast who falls for her at the center. In addition, it is closely monitoring poaching and forestry, which affects the habitats of animals, about which she cares.
Ludmila Kruglov, Center for Wildlife Rehabilitation: Tigers need a very large area to survive. At one point, can not get along a lot of individuals. A forestry discourages animals they hunt, and the Tigers have to leave.
Hence, the problem boils down to that endless Russian forests disappearing in strong mill industry. This new timber-processing plant located in the Far East, absorbs up to 800,000 cubic meters of timber per year. And the production is expanding.
But in the factory of the forest are not worried, because, they said, workers - are responsible loggers.
Volodymyr Liashenko, timber-processing plant "Arkaim": Wood-renewable resource.Unlike coal or oil. We plant trees to replace those cut down, so that future generations have enough to spare.
But environmentalists see the big picture in a completely different light. According to them, credible reports of rampant deforestation does not exist. And they warn that Russia's forests are not as endless as the timber barons think.
Denis Smirnov, Amur branch of WWF: As soon as we start talking about the fact that the pristine forests had very little power and industrialists are beginning to get angry. They argue that human rights organizations are trying to close their businesses.
However, there are those who are trying to rebuild cut forests. Employees of this project, local authorities are collected and sifted pine seeds, grow them from the young trees and plant them. But they acknowledge that it is not keeping pace with deforestation.
Ivan Denisov, head of the local project woodland: In a normal year we have been able to restore the carved wood. But if a forest fire happens, and we ten years'll manage. That is, we are doomed to failure.
In Lyuty no problems. He brought food. But his relatives somewhere in the wild forest, soon may be no escape.

Environmentalists and members of Fisheries strengthen control !

2012-05-06T11:28:00.002-07:00

After the abnormal cold weather, which held down the region, there was a threat of mass death of fish. Because of the thick layer of ice at the mouths of the Volga River has decreased dramatically the oxygen content. Situation is aggravated by poachers who are not averse to any, even the most barbaric ways of poaching.Rod, stuck in the snow - it's a landmark. Below, a half-meter layer of ice - network.Poaching. Catch in these areas such tackle - is prohibited by law. But the "dragnet thrown", it seems, is not afraid of punishment.To catch a poacher in the act is difficult. Most often, the inspector simply pulls the network. To catch them you can only for professionals - in the presence of licenses.Since January, the entire water area of the Saratov Volga is divided into sections, which are distributed among fishers. Many of them are now ready to help the department of Fisheries in the fight against poachers."If I have poachers appeared on my site, I'll clean them myself from this reservoir. They are dark, like a spider climbs - weave a web, as well, and they" - said the fisherman, hunter Yuri Rossoshanskij.Those who are caught "for themselves," law-abiding anglers, tired to leave your spoon in the poaching network. Most often, they are - the main informants inspectors."As for the fans, to date, no limits, nor on the number of fish, or in places not. That is, any citizen can go, put the rods 10, as it should, and catch", - said Head of Fisheries at inter-district of the Saratov region, Alexander Butov.A network - just not supposed to. Inspectors were very interested in the tackle. This so-called "fine-meshed grid" that is prohibited on the Volga, but allowed in the stores.Moreover, the people behind the counter know what they sell.Big fish in such a network will not get - is too narrow. Actually, poachers, and it is not necessary. For them, it is important to the quality and quantity. Small fish, which caught the gills, it is not going anywhere, more at times. It was she interested in poaching. The account runs into tens of kilograms. The network pays the cost of 300 rubles, almost instantly.In the early spring on the Volga, in the snowy wilderness. However, beneath the ice in this region, experts say, the fish every year more and more. But now it is changing species composition, and poaching is, though not major, but a significant factor."Less valuable species of fish such as roach, crucian carp, in large numbers, but more valuable species - bream, perch, pike - there are fewer" - Julius says euro Chizhov.Of course, to make reports on all offenders - is unrealistic. Therefore, each "neutralized" a network with more live fish for inspectors - already a success.

Discovered a new oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico !

2012-05-06T11:25:00.003-07:00

Oil stain was found in the center of the Gulf of Mexico drilling platforms near theNetherlands-British company Royal Dutch Shell. As reported by the company on Wednesday, the remediation has already entered a special purifying vessel. In order tomonitor the situation involved aircraft.

In a statement the company says that the cause of the oil slick, which measuresapproximately 16 by 1.6 kilometers, are still unknown, but they are not connected with the objects of Shell in the region.

"Information that the cause of the oil film could be located in this area of our wells in the fields of" Mars "and" Ursa ", no. However, as a precautionary measure we decided tocall the purifying vessel," - said in a statement.

Shell reported the incident to a specialized service in the United States Coast Guard, is engaged in monitoring the oil leakage. Representatives of the Service does not comment on the situation, ITAR-TASS reported.

By the rivers of England fishermen have unusual !

2012-05-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

In the UK, Yorkshire appeared on the river the whole brigade of unusual fishing, nets and nets they are trying to catch all the fish and crayfish in the river. What do they do it? In fact, these fishermen are poachers, on the contrary their purpose is to rescue the inhabitants of the river of death. Over the past few years in the UK observed a very mild winter and lack of rain in the spring.

Such a climate hello to what is now threatened by the most powerful rivers drying up in the last 100 years. And that is why environmentalists and their volunteers have thrown all their energies to this extraordinary fishing, if you do not take any action does not, the river fauna will die in standing water or be easy prey for predatory birds and animals.
Living in England relate differently to the actions of environmentalists on the river Yorkshire, some believe that everything must take its course, and nature itself to cope with this problem without human intervention. Specialist Agency for the Environment and Fisheries Pat O'Brien says that the river is a unique reservoir Yorkshire and refers to her as a fishery is unacceptable, we can not risk the wild populations of fish and crayfish, as to restore it then it will be impossible. Monitoring of climate in recent times suggests that the warm winter and lack of rain in the spring are the result of global climate change. And if people's actions have led to a deterioration of living conditions of animals in their natural environment, mankind must make every effort to save their life in vitro. All the inhabitants of the river water during shallowing Yorkshire will be placed in special containers, said Pat O'Brien.

Appeared on the Angara River 10-mile oil slick!

2012-05-06T11:17:00.003-07:00

Because of the illegal tapping of oil mills one of the Irkutsk region in the Angara River fell about 2 tons of oil, formed a slick 10 kilometers long, which goes to the three settlements in the region, said Wednesday at a local State Emergency.

The report on the oil slick has received about 19.00 (14.00 GMT). "According to some data, found a spot about ten miles long, the estimated mass of spilled diesel fuel - two tons," - said in a statement.
In connection with the incident was halted withdrawals Cheremkhovo district, located downstream of the Angara River and provides drinking water to cool the city Cheremkhovo (55 000 inhabitants), Svirsky (14 thousand 300 inhabitants) and the village Mikhaylovka (7000 500 inhabitants), RIA "Novosti" .
Meanwhile, as has been found and eliminated the illegal tie-in pipeline, which was made at the plant Rosrezerva "Baikal" in Usolye-Siberian. At the present time, "the expiration of oil dropped."To place a group of emergency rescue workers went to the booms and 300 kilograms of sorbent. In place of the departed as director of the Angarsk branch "Vostoknefteprovod."
The situation is under control of the Irkutsk Region Governor Dmitry Mezentsev. "The question on the water supply of a water carrier for the population. Informing the public is done through the control of the company. Heating of the population is in normal mode.Threats to life of the population there, "- the report says.

Current environmental problems and their solutions !

2012-05-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

To date, the environment of our planet is in a state of acute crisis.

The rapid progress of science and technology on the one hand allowed to meet all the needs of human society, but on the other hand - has worsened the conditions of its existence.Constantly increasing the influence of civilization on the environment is rapidly approaching a global environmental catastrophe. It should be emphasized that many scientists believe this disaster could happen much sooner than would happen crisis due to lack of a fossil resource.All scientific progress can not prevent an ecological catastrophe, as the artificial system can not replace the natural biocomponent environment and, therefore, does not settle, and processes occurring in the biosphere.Among the most pressing environmental issues are important:- The disappearance of many thousands of species of animals and plants;- The world's oceans are less and less able to regulate the natural processes;- The widespread reduction of forest cover;- The total air pollution, lack of clean air;- The appearance of holes in the ozone layer, which protects all life on Earth from deadly cosmic rays;- Reducing the stock of minerals.Solve this problem should be as soon as possible, and exclusively by the world community, because all the scientific nature of the problem can not be solved by only one individual States.Attempt to unite on an international scale has been made in the early XX century, when in November 1913 in Switzerland held its first international meeting concerning environmental issues. The conference was attended by representatives of 18 largest world countries.Today, cooperation between states to a new level: the development and joint programs, the conclusion of international conventions on protection of nature. Intensified as the activities of many well-known non-governmental organizations involved in the protection of the environment: Greenpeace and the Green Cross and Green Crescent, which develop a program to address the issue of the holes in the ozone layer of the Earth.Nevertheless, one can observe that international cooperation in the field of ecology is far from perfect.In the very near future, advanced countries should move to a gradual program of reasonable restrictions on the use of natural resources. This is accomplished by dropping the population from excessive wealth. The funds released as a result of the project, go to the expense of development of environmental technologies.The next step is the formation of ecological thinking through the mass of environmental education. Formed as a result of a new culture of human behavior lay the groundwork of human connection with the natural environment, and will form the basis of peaceful coexistence.

Global Issues.

2012-04-26T12:50:00.001-07:00

There are many global challenges posed by new inventions of mankind. Undoubtedly, new and advanced technologies make it possible to develop in the world of science.With these technologies we use every day - petrol for the car, release harmful environmental exhaust, plastic shopping bags are not recyclable and can degrade the land, and lots of other things. Of course, this is not the most important and decisive invention. In addition to contamination of the soil is disturbed dizbalans air and polluted oceans, water, potable, becomes smaller. Most wars occur, based on the conflict on the ownership of certain types of minerals on the territory of any country. People can no longer do without the use of oil and other petroleum products, which significantly damages the environment.The person making the various discoveries, more and more interfere in the economy of the biosphere, in which there is our life. Exposing this part of the world's pollution, we are risking their own lives, the future of our children, which is more likely that if we did not, so they will catch the consequences of chemical pollution. Among the pollutants - gases and aerosol, significantly spoiling the environment.In addition, increasing the mass fraction of carbon dioxide in the air. Because of this, there is the likelihood of global warming, as has long been informed of our environmentalists. Has an adverse effect and the release of oil into the ocean. This disrupts the natural exchange between the hydrosphere and atmosphere.On the pollution effect and the presence of CHP, also emitting sulfur dioxide fumes.Pollute the atmosphere, not only industry but also transportation. Transport - a necessary part of human life, convenient means of transportation that is available anywhere. It is much easier life to citizens, especially considering that the place of residence and work in different cities.All of these inventions has both pluses and minuses, is often more important. It is our duty - to develop the science of "green" methods - to invent a substance is more friendly for the environment - for example, natural gasoline without the harmful exhaust gases, bio-cosmetics, in the end use for the purchase of goods is not new plastic bags, and bags made of cloth.Introducing some small, even the most inconspicuous contribution, but unite in the great power that we can restore the ecology of our planet and give life to the clean atmosphere of the set of all generations.

Problem atmosphere .

2012-04-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

Even kids in kindergarten know that clean air is vital to us.

But the modern state of the atmosphere, especially in large cities leaves much to be much better. Gas emissions of large enterprises now and then contribute to the spread is absolutely unfit for healthy living air that we breathe and our children. Save the deplorable state of the atmosphere can only greenery, but not everyone is interested to create, as they are taken away valuable space that could bring more profit.Expansion of green parks in the atmosphere will more than pure oxygen. And people will have even more space for recreation in the open. In addition to planting a variety of green plants and trees, you must also monitor the activities of all the chemical plants. Only strict control and the set limit the emission of harmful waste gas can prevent global air pollution and a sharp decline in the level of oxygen in the air.Many believe that the problem is not with respect to their environment the right way. But numerous diseases and pathology at the newly born children every day prove just the opposite.

Landslides .

2012-04-24T03:32:00.001-07:00

Landslides - is sliding displacement of masses of rock down the slope arising from the imbalance caused by various reasons (washing away of rocks by water, the weakening of their strength due to weathering or waterlogged sediments and groundwater, systematic shocks and irrational human activities, etc.) . Landslides can be on all slopes with a slope of 20 ° or more at any time of year. They differ not only by the rate of displacement of rocks (slow, medium and fast), but also its size. Slow rate of displacement of rocks a few tens of centimeters per year, medium - a few meters per hour or a day of fast-and tens of kilometers per hour or more. By rapid shifts are landslides, streams, when the solid material is mixed with water, and snow and snow-rock avalanches. It should be emphasized that only fast landslides can cause accidents with fatalities.For example, in 1911 in the Pamirs in Russia a strong earthquake (M == 7.4) caused a huge landslide. Slid about 2.5 billion m3 of loose material. Usoy village was swamped with its 54 inhabitants. A landslide blocked the valley of the river. Murghab and formed a landslide lake that flooded village Száraz. The height of this natural dam reached 300 m, maximum depth of the lake, 284 m, length-53 miles.The most effective protection against landslides is their warning. From the complex of preventive measures should be mentioned the collection and diversion of surface water, artificial transformation of the relief (in the zone of possible separation of land reduces the load on the slopes), fixing the slope using piling and construction of retaining walls.Anyone can take the following precautions:leave the danger zone;to inform authorities about the signs of approaching debris flow;in hazardous locations to move with great care;precautions are taken, leaving the first few pebbles in a dangerous cliff to see if there are already signs of impending debris flow;learn about the existence of specific plans to protect people, in order to be ready to participate in their implementation.rural individual moves, the periodic rolls up to 10 meters, so do not get down into the bed of streams after passing through the shaft of debris - may be followed by another shaft.

Shiveluch volcano threw a column of ash to a height of 9.5 kilometers!

2012-04-24T03:01:00.002-07:00

On Tuesday, April 17, Kamchatka was a powerful eruption of ash from Shiveluch volcano. The height of the column was 9.5 kilometers, RIA "Novosti" representative of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

The eruption occurred on Monday at 21:59 Moscow time.

"What happened was the release of the most powerful since the beginning of the year" -a spokesman said.

Threats to local residents is not a natural phenomenon, but it poses a threat to aviation.As a result, emissions of ash in the dome of the volcano formed a deep cleft in the 30meters.

Shiveluch volcano - the most northerly of the active volcanoes of Kamchatka. Diameter at the base of the volcano - 45-50 kilometers, the total area of not less than 1,300 squaremeters.

Consisting of Old Shiveluch stratovolcano, the old basin - a caldera - a diameter of 9kilometers and the active crater of Young Shiveluch, which produces the emission of hotlava and clouds of gas and ash. The height of the volcano 3283 meters, the highest pointof the active part - 2.8 kilometers above sea level. Age over 60,000 years.

The history of Greenpeace !

2012-04-24T02:58:00.001-07:00

In 1971 a small group of activists inspired by the dream of a clean world without war and violence, set sail on a small fishing boat from the Canadian city of Vancouver. Activists of the anti-war movement, the future founders of Greenpeace, believed that even a few people can do a lot for your planet.

The ship went to the small island of Amchitka, Alaska, near which the U.S. government was going to conduct underground nuclear tests. The organizers picked a concise but expressive title for his team - Green + Peace = Greenpeace. On board there was no room, so the name written together.
The protests of environmentalists forced the U.S. government to stop testing at Amchitka near the end of 1971. The island became a bird sanctuary.
Greenpeace activists were inspired by his victory, and decided to fight against nuclear weapons testing worldwide. The next rally was held in 1975 near the Mururoa atoll in the South Pacific, where France conducted atmospheric nuclear tests. The action was conducted by David Maktegart, which in 1979 became head of Greenpeace International. Thanks to the actions of Greenpeace France has also stopped its tests.
In the 1970s, Greenpeace spent a lot of campaigning against commercial whaling. The first expedition set out from Greenpeace Canadian city of Vancouver to hold a protest rally outside the Soviet whaling ships. Greenpeace activists maneuvered in small inflatable boats between the ships and animals, which were sent to harpoons, covering the Giants with their bodies. For the first time in the history of the whaling industry, whalers faced opposition against their cruel fishing. Greenpeace protest went on a similar tactic to Icelandic, Spanish and Japanese whale hunters. In 1982, Greenpeace has made consideration of the International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whaling, which in 1986 entered into force. In 1994, the area of the Antarctic seas was declared a whale sanctuary.
In 1985, the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior» («Rainbow Warrior») conducted the evacuation of Rongelap atoll residents Pacific. More than 95% of the population of the atoll suffered from radioactive contamination after the atomic bomb on American ground.The crew of "Rainbow Warrior" was planning soon to make a protest against the trial, which was going to hold France at Mururoa Atoll. Agents of the French secret service blew up the ship before the action. Greenpeace photographer Fernando died Pereira.
In the 1990s, Greenpeace drew attention to the problem of air pollution and ozone depletion. The scientific evidence that ozone is destroyed hydrocarbon groups of CFC's and HFC's, ignored by politicians and big industrial magnates. Greenpeace held shares in the factories known firms in that emit hydrocarbons. In 1992 at the initiative of Greenpeace, German scientists have developed technology Greenfreeze, which can be used in the production of environmental friendly cooling machines. In 2000, Coca-Cola used a similar installation at the Sydney Olympics.
In 1996, Greenpeace launched a campaign against genetically modified foods.Commenced action against imports of genetically modified soybeans to Europe from the United States, against the cultivation of genetically modified maize in many countries around the world. In 1999 the Government of the European Union has established a moratorium on the import and cultivation of genetically modified crops.
Today, Greenpeace - is a major international environmental organization that has over 2, 5 million supporters worldwide. Greenpeace representation exist in over 40 countries worldwide.
In the Soviet Union, Greenpeace appeared in the '80s. In March 1989 in the USSR, a double album under the name "Greenpeace. Breakthrough »(Greenpeace Breakthrough), which participated in the recording of U2, Eurythmics, REM, INXS, SHADE, Bryan Ferry, and other musicians. The album was sold more than 3 million copies, and became not only the lottery record of Western musicians, published in the USSR, but also the first album, which appeared in the Soviet Union and around the world simultaneously. According to David Maktegarta, one of the founders of Greenpeace, this album is presented not only the best rock musicians of the world, but the idea that, in spite of the border, people are banding together to fight for a clean and peaceful Earth.
During the first hours after the plate has been sold half a million copies. By May 15, 1989 the total number of albums sold has reached one million.
Three-minute promotional video was filmed Greenpeace album with Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics. In Moscow, about the music album release press conference, together with western musicians. Proceeds from album sales were aimed at the establishment of Greenpeace offices in Moscow and Kiev, as well as to support projects for environmental protection in the USSR.
In July 1989, at a press conference on board the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior" Alexey Yablokov (then chairman of the Committee on Environmental Protection of the USSR), officially announced the separation of Greenpeace in the USSR, "the first independent organization in the Soviet Union."
In 1992 he formed Greenpeace Russia.

Chernobyl 25 years on: a poisoned landscape

2012-04-04T12:08:00.000-07:00

Yuri Tatarchuk has a disconcerting way of demonstrating Chernobyl's grim radioactive legacy. An official guide at the wrecked nuclear powerplant, he waves his radiation counter at a group of abandoned Soviet army vehicles that were used in the battle to clean up the contamination created by the reactor explosion in 1986.

"Some of these trucks are quite clean, but some of them not," he announces. A sweep of his counter reveals only a few clicks from their doors and roofs. Then he passes the device over one vehicle's tracks. A sudden angry chatter reveals significant levels of radiation.

"Wheels and tracks pick contamination from the soil," he tells the group that has gathered round him. "There is still plenty of radioactive isotopes – caesium, strontium, even some plutonium – in the ground and we cannot get rid of them." Twenty-five years on, Chernobyl remains a poisoned landscape.

Set among lakes, sandy soil and forests on steppe lands north of Kiev, Chernobyl achieved global notoriety in 1986 when technicians carried out an experiment aimed at testing backup electrical supplies to one of the plant's four reactors. The flow of water – used as a coolant to carry away the mighty heat of the reactor core – was raised and lowered.

After a few minutes, there was a sudden jump in reactor power. Ten seconds later the core was blown apart by a massive explosion.

Without a containment vessel, the reactor's deadly radioactive contents were borne high into the air by the heat of the core's burning graphite and spread over much of Europe , triggering an international panic.

In the blast's immediate aftermath, 31 plant operators and firemen died – they were not told the reactor was the cause of the blaze or that radiation levels were lethal – while thousands more people, living on land that is now in Ukraine and Belarus, received doses that undoubtedly shortened their lives, although scientists still dispute the death toll. The World Health Organisation puts it at 4,000; Greenpeace says 200,000.

Significant levels of radioactive caesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium isotopes still pollute the ground. In one zone, dubbed the Red Forest, it reached levels 20 times higher than the contamination at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and remains highly dangerous.

The Chernobyl explosion was the world's worst nuclear accident and is the only one classified as level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. Next month will mark the 25th anniversary of the blast, a birthday that has acquired a dramatic resonance following the Fukushima reactor fires in Japan, which have resurrected global fears that nuclear mayhem could afflict the planet again – though it should be noted that the accident there measured only 5 on the nuclear event scale.

Chernobyl clearly has much to tell us about the dangers of nuclear power. Hence the recent soaring interest in the plant which, bizarrely, has become a popular tourist destination for foreign visitors to Ukraine.My coach trip last Thursday from Kiev was a sellout – with the 25-strong party including 15 members of the German, US, Russian, Dutch and British media. Television crews fought to interview the few baffled punters on the bus about the forthcoming anniversary, while other journalists simply interviewed each other. Your correspondent was cross-examined for Russian TV about the safety of nuclear power as he stood in front of the radioactive ruins of reactor no 4.

It was an extraordinary affair led by the ebullient Tatarchuk, a chunky, cheerful Ukrainian wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan "Hard Rock Café – Chernobyl". Sites on our strange tour included the buried village of Kopachi, a close-up look at reactor number 4 itself, a very quick drive through the Red Forest, and an exploration of the abandoned city of Pripyat. Radiation counters were handed out, and if these started to chatter too quickly – usually if we wandered off paths and on to open soil – we were told to make a detour. It was startlingly casual and, in the end, highly unsettling.

The Ukrainian steppe is still frost-burned and the trees leafless at this time of year. There are no buds on branches and little hint of greenery, a combination that only enhances the eerie desolation inside the 30km exclusion zone around the reactor. This land has seen harrowing times. It was occupied by German troops and most communities have memorials to the Soviet soldiers who liberated them – including the village of Kopachi inside the zone. In fact, Kopachi's memorial is just about all that is left of the place, thanks to Chernobyl.

"Kopachi was very badly contaminated and so it was decided to bury it, house by house," says Tatarchuk. "It seemed a good idea at the time, but it wasn't. The digging only pushed radioactive material deeper into the soil and closer to the water table, so that contamination spread even further." It transpires that devastating errors like these were common.

The only other evidence of Kopachi's existence is the primary school near the memorial. Its windows have rotted and the front door hangs on a single hinge. It is also clear that it was abandoned in haste.Schoolbooks, jotters, sheets of music and road safety leaflets litter the hall floor while a single doll – its face blackened and cracked – lies on a cot inside one classroom.

Equally disturbing is the vast artificial lake built near the main plant, which was used to provide water coolant for its four reactors. The lake is frozen now, but while Chernobyl's reactors were operating its water was warm all year round. Lichen blossomed, so a fish farm was built to populate the lake with catfish that ate the lichen and kept the waters clear.

After the reactor explosion, the lake was showered with radioactive debris which sank to the bottom. Today water has to be pumped constantly from the nearby river Pripyat to stop the lake evaporating in summer and exposing its toxic sediments, which would dry out and be spread by the wind.

However, it is Pripyat that provides the most disturbing evidence of the events of 25 years ago. The city was built to house the families of workers who manned the vast reactor complex at Chernobyl. Four reactors had been built by 1986 and two more were under construction.This was to be the biggest nuclear power complex in Europe. Fifty thousand people had homes here.

Reactor no 4 blew up in the early hours of 26 April, but no one told the people of Pripyat. All that day, children were allowed to play outside, despite the plume of radioactive material emerging from the reactor a few kilometres away.

Of course, there were rumours of a fire, but people had been indoctrinated to believe a reactor accident was impossible – until a fleet of buses arrived at 2pm the next day, 36 hours after the explosion, and Pripyat's people were shipped off to camps and resettlement centres. At the time, they were told they would be allowed back to their homes within three days, but in the end they were never allowed to return.

For an hour, our group wandered round Pripyat, stepping over broken glass and lumps of wood and stone, with the constant chirrup of our radiation counters providing warnings if we strayed too far. Everywhere nature can be seen to be taking back its territory. Trees have erupted through the thick concrete steps of Pripyat's central plaza, while the surrounding woods – which now provide homes for healthy populations of wolves, deer and boar – have spread over every piece of open ground.

Inside the city, books are littered over the grimy floors of the main library while outside, a Ferris wheel – set up to celebrate May Day that year – is slowly rusting.

How many people received fatal doses of radiation in those 36 hours of exposure remains a matter of dispute. Although cheery for most of the trip, Yuri's anger about the fate of the people of Pripyat at the hands of Ukraine's former Soviet masters became all too clear: "People were told that they had received a radiation dose of no more than 25 rems, enough to cause only minor illness. But that just was not true. They must have got hundreds of rems, fatal doses.

"It was criminal. People should have been given proper diagnoses and proper treatment. They got nothing. At least 5,000 people were badly affected at the time, while women who were pregnant were simply told to have abortions. It was a cruel time."

Today workers are allowed to live in the village of Chernobyl, but for no more than four days at a time. With all four reactors at the plant closed down, they are helping to decontaminate the land within the exclusion zone and to decommission the plant's first three undamaged reactors. As to reactor no 4, the concrete sarcophagus that hides its wrecked, exposed, radioactive core is now crumbling and work has started on a replacement – although Ukraine has made it clear that it will need international assistance to ensure the project's successful completion.

This is a nation which will have to bear the consequences of the world's worst nuclear accident for a long time to come.

As to the comparison between Fukushima and Chernobyl, Tatarchuk is emphatic: "No, it is not as bad in Japan as it was here, not by a long way. But there are lots of similarities. Basically, we had high radiation and no information in 1986, and that seems to be going on once more. That is the pattern when these things happen."

Sources of pollution

2012-03-12T08:47:00.001-07:00

Industry.The main anthropogenic factors in the development of the ecological crisis in Ukraine are primarily large industrial complexes - voracious consumers of raw materials, energy, water, air, land and space at the same time powerful sources of virtually all types of pollution (mechanical, chemical, physical, and biochemical). They are concentrated around the mineral deposits, major cities and bodies of water: in the Donetsk region, the Central Dnieper, Krivoi Rog, Carpathian, Kerch, Mariupol, most regional centers. Among these objects, hazardous environmental pollutants are the metallurgical, chemical, petrochemical and engineering plants, quarries and processing plants, some of the military enterprise.In recent years Ukraine has been thrown into the atmosphere more than 100 million tons of harmful substances.Metallurgy and Energy - the major air pollutants - an annual yield, respectively, 35 and 32% of all pollution from stationary sources. Centers of industry and energy, and therefore, the centers of air pollution - a city of Makeyevka, Mariupol, Communard, Khartsyzsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk. Metallurgical enterprises are equipped with pollution control equipment only 30-50%. With few exceptions, this equipment is outdated or no is that it is not valid.The main polluters of the environment with heavy metals, particularly arsenic and lead, as well as sulfuric and nitric acids - non-ferrous metallurgy. This plant "Ukrtsink" in Konstantinovka, Dnieper Mercury Plant in Zaporozhye, Nikitovsky mercury plant and other enterprises of ferrous metallurgy - the main water pollutants are phenols, petroleum, sulfates.The main pollutants of the environment also belongs to the chemical industry, whose objects are thrown into the air sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and other harmful substances. The biggest chemical industry enterprises located in the Carpathian region (Novorozdolsky sulfur plant, Kalush potash group), in the Donbass, in Sivash (in Krasnoperekopsk), Odessa, Sumy, Rivne (enterprise association "Nitrogen"). They pollute the environment is very dangerous toxicants - phosgene, vinyl chloride, hydrogen chloride, phenol, ammonia. Cause great harm to the nature of the chemical companies that produce pesticides (in Pervomaisk, Kalush, Mariupol, Dneprodzerzhinsk), synthetic products (business associations, "Man-made fiber," "Dneproshina", "Ukrnaftohim" etc.).The sad fact is that almost all chemical plants use outdated equipment, violate the boundaries of sanitary protection zones do not have sewage treatment plants, or have, but it is not effective.In the industry of Ukraine is the largest machine-building complex. For its development have developed quite favorable: the powerful metallurgical base, dense transportation network, large amounts of machinery and equipment, highly qualified personnel.Ukrainian machine-building plants produce a variety of products - from household appliances to sophisticated modern machines: equipment for nuclear power plants, space technology, turbine aircraft, which have no analogues in the world. The highest concentration of machine-building industry is characteristic of Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Krivoy Rog, Kramatorsk, Mariupol, Donetsk.Engineering industry has a diversified structure (heavy metals, electronics, transport engineering, instrument-making, machine tools, etc.), and each branch has its own ecological characteristics of the composition and quantity of waste, toxic contaminants, the mode of their emissions into the atmosphere and with wastewater.Like other industries, mechanical engineering tends to be areas of industry, concentrated in the cities and "producing" large amounts of waste, polluting air, water and soil. Thus, only one in Dnepropetrovsk production association "Dneprotyazhmash" annually throws into the Dnieper 2365.2 thousand m3 of polluted runoff, plant rolls - 250 thousand m3. In Zaporozhye emissions Dnieper Electrode Plant is 35% citywide, with 80% of them contain carcinogenic substances of the first class of danger. More than 50% of all emissions to the atmosphere of this city makes software "Zaporizhstal" (more than 150 tons of pollutants annually). Electrical plants in the Ukraine for more than a hundred works, many of them (as well as instrument-and radio-electronic) built over the past decade, but some of these plants (Odessa "Agroagregati," Nicholas "Mikondi" metal-Chernivtsi, Dnepropetrovsk, "Southern Machine-Building" etc.), gas and water treatment facilities or broken or ineffective.To apply environmentally harmful and cement industries. The biggest problems it creates in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions, contaminating the environment with dust, sulfuric anhydride, and nitrogen oxides. It is in those industries worst environmental activities are carried out, for example, the concentration of dust in their emissions by 5-10 times greater than the MAC. Contaminated with sewage is discharged into the rivers each year thousands of tons of organic matter, sediment, salts and other harmful compounds.Great harm to the topography, land, groundwater mining causes. In the region of the Donets Basin, in the triangle of Donetsk-Lugansk-Rubezhnoe, where are concentrated the most dirty, in terms of ecology, industry, mining, power generation facilities, military establishments, began the degradation of ecosystems, local landscapes. In Lisichansk Rubezhnyi-industrial area, for example, contaminated not only the surface but also underground water over an area of 120 km2. A 1417 waste heaps are constantly poison the atmosphere of harmful gases, selecting, in addition, thousands of hectares of fertile soil. In Samara the river with the Western Donbass mines cleared each year about 20 million m3 of highly mine water and about 60 million m3 of the same water from the mines of the Central Donbass. Salinity of water in rivers Ingul, Samara, Ingulets more natural background of 10 or more times. Only in the regions Ingulets Krivbass reset annually about 100 million m3 of wastewater. These rivers are polluted with heavy metals and radioactive substances (they come from the area of deposits of uranium ore at Yellow Waters.On the hydrological regime also significantly affects the dust pollution from the quarrying of building materials (limestone, sand, granite, labradorite) in Zhitomir, Vinnitsa, Dnepropetrovsk, Kirovograd areas.
Energy.Heavily polluting energy facilities, particularly power plants and power plant. By absorbing a huge amount of oil, gas and coal, they emit millions of cubic meters of harmful gases, aerosols and soot, hundreds of hectares of land clutter slag and ash.In Ukraine, thermal power plants produce approximately 55-60% of electricity (about 37.6 MW), almost all of them are located in cities and are the largest among all energy companies polluting the environment. The main components of the pollutant - solid fuel combustion products (fly ash), sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen. Total emissions of energy companies reach 2.3-2.5 million tons / year.The rest of the energy produce hydro and nuclear power. The largest hydroelectric power are concentrated on the Dnieper (Kiev, Kanev, Kremenchug, Dneprodzerzhinsk, Zaporizhzhya, Kakhovskaya). HPS are considered environmentally friendly. And in the process of creating a cascade of reservoirs on the Dnieper River was flooded about 7 km2 of beautiful fertile flood plains. During the period of its existence turned into the reservoir storage of waste and pollution from nearby regions. Now for the construction of hydropower stations and a reservoir flooded 100 hectares of coastal land, is much reduced intensity of self-purification of the Dnieper, on a regular basis is "blooming" of water, fish productivity and decreases, respectively - the performance of fisheries.When we nervously greeted "ladder" on the Dnieper hydropower. Even such an outstanding artist, as Alexander Dovzhenko, voted for Kakhovske sea, seeing in it a new birth of aesthetics, and yet another victory over the nature of the Shrew. It took a mere decade, to be sure: the victory, was given a great price, is fraught with the bitterness of defeat ... (VA Yavorivsky, Ukrainian writer and public figure).Ecologically unreasonable accommodation can be called on Ukrainian territory five nuclear power plants (14 units) - Chornobyl, Rivne, Khmelnytsky, Zaporizhzhya and South. Not only is the threat of new nuclear power plant accidents, but also adds a very complex problem of nuclear waste disposal in the near future (after the establishment of a resource set) the elimination and disposal of nuclear power plants themselves. This is a difficult, dangerous and expensive process.Objects of potential nuclear and radiation safety in Ukraine.Military activity has been and remains a source of danger to the environment. The military-industrial complex (MIC) consumes a huge amount of mineral raw materials and energy needed to manufacture military equipment. The army and navy burned in the engines of planes, tanks, vehicles, ships, boilers, military bases and units of the enormous amounts of fuel. The area of land for landfills, the shooting range. Hunting farms for higher ranks, training centers exceeds 100 hectares. For the maintenance of the army, navy, defense enterprises spent a considerable part of the national budget of Ukraine. Cause great harm to the nature of tests of various types of weapons, as well as conduct maneuvers and exercises.In Ukraine, the density of the location of military targets - military bases, camps, arsenals, ammunition depots, storage of fuels and lubricants and rocket fuel, air and ground polygons, tank ranges, landfills and hazardous waste disposal sites, as well as the former silos, etc. . - Very high. Many of these objects constitute a real and potential danger to the public and the environment, polluting the environment of chemicals, including heavy metals, increasing the background radiation, causing degradation of natural systems. There are cases referred to the negative impact of pollution on public health facilities (eg, near Pervomaysk Mykolaiv region). Treatment facilities at military factories and facilities, locations of military units mainly or completely absent, or their condition is unsatisfactory.Especially threatening situation is connected with the processing components of rocket fuel, which Ukraine has accumulated more than 20 tons of rocket fuel stores have no special means of neutralization of vapors (very toxic), its components, the life of reservoirs to store expired. To run the program of destruction and disposal of rocket fuel needed multi-million dollar cost that today our country can not afford. The military leadership, ignoring the serious environmental problems associated with the activity of the MIC, while trying to hide the real situation, hiding behind a veil of secrecy and preventing access to military facilities experts-ecologists.In the worst situation now in coastal areas, especially in Crimea. Here for decades military installations and ships polluted waters of the Black Sea. For example, in the Sevastopol Bay the concentration of oil to 180 times the MCL. Experts say that the ships and the shore of the Black Sea Fleet's day is thrown into the sea for more than nine thousand m3 of untreated sewage.Threat to the environment constitute a violation of the rules of military units of storage of fuels and lubricants (POL) and the operation of their transportation. As a result, losses, leaks and spills of petroleum products for a long time (sometimes decades) around military bases and airfields for miles around the contaminated surface and ground water.These abnormalities cause the appearance of the wells, ponds and rivers, "reserves" of oil and even toxicants and carcinogens - chromium, cadmium, lead, benzpyrene.Examples include the area of the park in the White Church of Alexandria, the city and Uzin Vasilkov (Kiev region), Dubno (Rovno region), the Great steeper (Poltava region), Lakeside (Zhytomyr region), Chuguev (Kharkiv region), Luck, Kerch, Sevastopol,Chernivtsi.Many military units are not complied with the rules protecting the civilian population from the harmful effects of electromagnetic and radio frequency radiation from powerful radar.Pressing issues - the use of military forests and farmland.
Transport - road, rail, water and air - another source of environmental pollution in Ukraine.Emissions of pollutants by motor vehicles on average per year is around 5.5 million tonnes (39% of the total emissions from Ukraine). In major cities, air pollution, exhaust fumes sometimes reaches 70-90% of the overall level of pollution. In addition, more than 20% of the vehicles operated in excess of established norms of harmful substances in exhaust gases.The transport network in Ukraine is quite dense, the number and activity of vehicles in cities large and the environmental damage it causes is very tangible. The main reasons for this - old engine design, fuel used (petrol, not gas or other less toxic substances), and poor organization of the movement, especially in urban areas, at intersections. In the exhaust gases, which emit our cars, there are about 280 different hazardous substances, among which are particularly dangerous carcinogenic benzpyrene, nitrogen oxides, lead, mercury, aldehydes, and sulfur oxides, carbon, soot, hydrocarbons.To transport the same cargo vehicles need 6.5 times more fuel than rail, and 5 times - the water. In Ukraine, operated by more than 1 million trucks and 2.5 million beyond the car. Each of these annual burns between 12 and 30 tons of high Russian gasoline, which is used as an antiknock lead (lead concentration in the gasoline is up to 0.36 g / l, whereas in the UK gasoline - 0.15, USA - 0.013 g / l). Exhaust gases of diesel engines of our much more toxic than gasoline, because they contain lots of carbon oxides, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur, and carbon black (up to 16-18 kg per ton of diesel fuel). From traffic emissions and noise affects all cities of Ukraine, especially the larger ones.Rail transport is environmentally friendly, especially electric. And the problem was the severe pollution of iron impurities which are thrown out of the lavatory. Contaminated by a strip of several meters along the track. In all civilized countries, toilets of trains equipped with special tanks, and sewage are thrown out. As a result, environmental and medical studies have shown that sewage pollution of the railways and their decomposition products, especially in the warmer seasons of the year, caused a disease of the stomach and lungs of many passengers and railway workers.Some damage to the Dnieper and its reservoirs, the Danube, Dniester, the Black and Azov seas causing water transport, primarily through non-compliance with traffic rules and the transfer of petroleum products, accidents, clean tankers, swabs, noise and vibration effects and waves that break down the shore reservoirs.
Agriculture.For our rural areas is characterized by a contamination of natural water and soil with pesticides and fertilizers. Annual revenues of the fields in Ukraine exceed 90 tons and 4.5 million tons, respectively.Area of land contaminated with persistent hloroorganicheskie drugs is about 8 million hectares in several hundred thousand acres of their content is much higher than the MAC. Of the 170 names of pesticides that are used in Ukraine, 49 is particularly dangerous. Recently, cases of the use of toxic pesticides, imported to Ukraine by Western firms, whereas in the West use of these drugs is prohibited.Of the total amount of mineral fertilizers applied to soils in Ukraine, on average, only 5-10% of their absorbed by plants. The remaining 90-95% is washed off by rain and melted snow, blown by winds and into rivers, lakes, ground waters, become harmful components of ecosystems. As a result, both the natural environment and agricultural products is almost universally contaminated with compounds of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, often - radioactive elements (contained in the phosphate fertilizer), sometimes - heavy metals (copper, zinc, a significant excess of MPC are found in 5% of agricultural production) and the remnants of specific herbicides - simazine, atrazine, etc.Agricultural production in Ukraine is now more negative impact on the environment than a few decades ago. This is a consequence of irrational organization of land reclamation and unreasonable, technologically regulated the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, as well as the mismanagement of their storage and transportation.Causing great harm to soils used in the fields of heavy agricultural machinery. She regularly pereuschilnyue soil, destroying the structure, reducing the saturation of the air, the activity rates of biochemical processes, erosion and protideflyatsiynu stability.Very tense ecological situation has developed around large livestock farms (within a radius of several kilometers), which is grown and more than 30-100 thousand head of cattle: they produce daily up to 2-3 tons of excrement, which in the household do not have time to process. Result of decomposition and decay of excreta are allocated large mass of ammonia, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, organic acids, evolving pathogenic microflora.Waste water from livestock farms within a radius of several kilometers pollute surface and groundwater, causing the death of fish and other aquatic organisms. Near these complexes is unfavorable sanitary and hygienic conditions, there is an increased concentration of worms and bacteria. For miles from the complexes is carried by air currents stench.
Municipal waste water.All acute environmental problem of Ukraine's cities, especially cities and resorts, it becomes clear the various municipal waste - domestic and industrial - and their processing. Every year in Ukraine reservoirs dropped to about 4 billion m3 of polluted runoff. Theoretically, the existing methods make it possible to purify waste water at 95-96% (although this is not enough), but in practice the treatment is at best 70-85%. Waste water to sanitary standards throughout the world (and we have even more) is associated with significant costs, so expect a better state of affairs in this area in the near future is not necessary. You can partially solve the problem by going to a closed circuit of water consumption in the workplace. The greatest amount of raw sewage dumped the city of Mariupol (253.8 million m3), Dnipropetrovsk (188 million m3), Zaporozhye (65 million m3), Kiev (29 million m3). In general, all the major cities of Ukraine pollute the aquatic environment, albeit in a relatively smaller scale. The reasons are the same - old equipment, and even the lack of treatment facilities, emergency discharges (there is more than 250 per year).
Physical contamination.Hazardous pollutants on the environment include facilities that generate strong physical fields - electromagnetic radiation, noise, ultra-and infrasound, thermal, vibration (large radio stations, district heating, radar, substations, transmission lines, relay stations, special physical laboratories and facilities cyber centers, nuclear power plants, etc.). The concentration of these facilities in Ukraine is also very high, especially in industrial areas and major cities.
Geoanomalni zone.When planning for economic development of Ukraine, its recreational areas must take into account the influence of geoanomalnih (geoenergoanomalnih) areas as human health and biota, as well as the stability of foundations, slopes, and structures.Geoanomalni areas usually coincide with geological anomalies - faults, cracks in the crust, parts of a large concentration of tectonic stress, high heat flux from the bowels of the earth, karst, underground water streams, ore nodes, deposits of metal ores, etc. They are characterized by gravity, thermal, electromagnetic, geochemical anomalies, active migration of gases and fluids in the crust, increased seismic activity.In its form geoanomalni zone - a strip line and circular formations of different diameters.The largest of these bands, or lineaments, interpreted on satellite images of different parts of the Earth, in particular, and in Ukraine.Energy flows coming from the bowels of the earth affect the biochemical processes in living organisms, controlling the conditions of existence of all living creatures, including humans. This effect may be twofold - either negative or positive. Depending on this distinction geopozitivni (favorable) and geopathic (harmful) zones and areas. If the house is built on geopathic area, its people feel bad (reduced immunity, efficiency, and increased risk of diseases, especially cancer, etc.). Our ancestors knew this and never built housing and churches in these "perilous" places.In our time zone geoanomalni are found, mapped and studied using different methods, the main of which - dowsing and remote. Dowsing method are particularly sensitive people, the so-called biooperatorov. The main "working tool" in this method - he biooperatorov as an indicator that indicates the strength and sign of the energy field (geobiopolya) of any part of the Earth, is a special metal frame (previously used a stick in the form of a letter V, is why, in fact, called such Professional lozohodtsem).