Ecology

When we speak about ecology in the Ural region, we must admit that it is an ecologically poor region. On the one hand the Urals is one of the most beautiful and richest in natural resources regions in the world. On the other hand we must speak about the environmental crisis in the Urals. Air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution are extremely high in the Middle Urals. Plants and factories of Sverdlovsk region alone produce 7% of harmful industrial waste in Russia. The reason of this dangerous situation is that a great number of industrial plants are concentrated in the Urals. Ekaterinburg, Nizhny Tagil, Kamensk-Uralsky, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk are the biggest centres of heavy industry in our country. Dozens of machine-building plants, chemical engineering works, copper works etc are located in these centres. Most of the enterprises are old, it's next to impossible to reduce their harmful waste. It is not always possible to use special devices to reduce the smoke, dust or harmful gases.

The main polluters in the Urals are enterprises of mining and chemical industries, ferrous and non-ferrous metal plants. They emit different harmful substances, carbon monoxide (CO) and sulphur anhydride are the most widely spread. Dangerous gases enter the atmosphere, they mix with water in the air and form a cocktail of acidic chemicals. Finally this killing mixture falls back on the Earth as acid rain. It causes damage or death of forests, lakes, wildlife, humans etc.

Acid rain became one of the most serious pollution problems in our region. Acid rain slowly destroys everything. Acid rain has practically ruined grass and pine forest in the suburbs of Revda and Pervouralsk. Because of harmful changes in the soil lots of poisonous mushrooms appeared there. They look like ordinary mushrooms, that is why they are very dangerous.

The most polluted city in the Urals is Nizhny Tagil. The amount of harmful industrial waste into the atmosphere is 150 thousand tons a year. The metallurgical plant is located in the very centre of the city, it pollutes everything around. People suffer from asthma, bronchitis, tuberculosis. The health of people, especially children, is in danger. Industrial enterprises use lots of water and pour their waste into rivers and lakes. The Isset, the Chusovaya, the Pishma are greatly polluted, because purifying systems are not effective.

The problem of soil pollution is very important in the Urals. The soil is being degraded very quickly because of acid rain, chemical fertilizers, industrial erosion.

The Urals is rich in mineral resources. Oil, coal, gold, platinum etc are extracted in the Urals. And vast territories around the deposits are unsuitable for life.

People realized the horror of radioactive pollution after the Chernobyl tragedy in 1986. But the first radioactive explosion took place in Kyshtym, near Chelyabinsk, at the chemical enterprise "Mayak" in September 1957. Vast territories of Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions were polluted with radiation. Many people had to move from their native places, many of them died from oncological diseases.

So, the environmental degradation in the Urals continues to accelerate. Urgent measures to improve the ecological situation should certainly be taken. But this problem is not easy to solve.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-08