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Environmental issues in Russia
Nowadays we often hear about ecological problems in our country.
There are numerous environmental issues in Russia. Many of the issues have been attributed to policies during the Soviet Union, a time when officials felt that pollution control was an unnecessary hindrance to economic development and industrialization. As a result, nowadays environmental consciousness has permeated only a small fraction of society. We are facing an ecological catastrophe.
Russia's air is among the most polluted in the world, although its quality has been improving since the 1990s. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Volgograd, as well as other major industrial and population centers, are the highest concentrations of air pollution. Overall, over 200 cities in Russia exceed pollution limits, and this is increasing as more vehicles appear on the roads. Air pollution is attributed to 17% of childhood and 10% of adult diseases, as well as 41% of respiratory and 16% of endocrine diseases.
Water pollution is also one of the most serious environmental problems in Russia. Less than half of Russia's population has access to safe drinking water. 75% of surface water and 50% of all water in Russia is now polluted. This has caused health issues in many cities as well as in the countryside, as only 8% of wastewater is fully treated before returned to waterways. Industrial and chemical waste is often dumped into waterways, including hydrogen sulfide, which has been linked to the large-scale death of fish in the Black and Caspian seas.
Deforestation is also ongoing issue for many countries include Russia. The Siberian forests that absorb much of the world´s carbon dioxide is damaged by pollution and indiscrimmate clear-cutting, mostly by foreign companies. This poses a bigger threat to the world environment than the destruction of the Brazilian rain forests.
Nuclear energy is widely used in Russia. A...