Russia Environmental Issues Essay

Environmental issues have progressively increased over the last hundred years. Even so, these geographical conflicts have not been brought to light until the past several decades, as health problems and loss of biodiversity become a growing issue. Russia, in particular, has produced an extreme amount of environmental problems for itself. These growing problems can be explained through Russia’s geography and political history. As Russia continues to advance economically and attempts to stay a world power, these environmental issues must be actively improved upon before more natural resources are lost.

Russia encompasses the largest area of land for a single country. This massive amount of land has provided both benefits and challenges for those

As Russia has industrialized in an attempt to compete for power and wealth, they have exploited an enormous amount of their natural resources. As a result, Russia is now dealing with a degrading environment, infrastructure issues and the various repercussions of their pollution. One major issue that Russia is dealing with is the nuclear damage from the Chernobyl nuclear reaction explosion. This explosion occurred in 1986 and has caused devastation, which continues to impact Russia’s environment almost 30 years later (Nurlybaev, & Maslyaev, 2011). The Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred in Ukraine and caused large quantities of radioactive particles spread over Russia. While this explosion was an accident, it affected over 500,000 people and continues to cause radiation and health problems today (2011). This explosion has impacted and contaminated some of Russia’s natural resources and will continue to do so until Russia begins to find a way to impose more environmentally friendly practices.

One practice that could improve Russia’s environment is the implementation of new local and global legislation outlining environmentally friendly policies and consequences for those who break the law. As is described in the journal Studies on Russian Economic

Currently, most of Russia runs off of energy from oil and natural gas (Bahgat, 2010). Although Russia may have an abundance of these fossil fuels, the burning of these gases is closely equated to acid rain and global climate warming. In addition, Russia also utilizes nuclear energy, which causes radiation and comes with the risk of explosions such as that of Chernobyl. Move forward, the transition to solar, turbine and geothermal power will allow for a decrease in environmental pollution. These new policies and energy changes may take time, but they are ultimately necessary for Russia to reduce its environmental impact. These changes not only provide the potential for Russia to reduce environmental damages, they also open the door for Russia to gain a foothold in the growing market for renewable energy. This shift in the market could not only provide new economic opportunities for Russia, but also support sustainability across the globe. It is essential that all countries invest in such sustainability in order to preserve the Earth’s biodiversity and natural