Russia and Its Neighbors - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 216

untreated sewage. PCBs and DDT contaminated many rivers. Lake Baikal,
the world's deepest and purist freshwater lake, succumbed to pollution
after a factory to manufacture cellulose cord for tires was constructed
on its shore. Ironically, by the time the factory was completed, the USSR
had switched to petroleum-based cord, so the output was never used for
tires. Originally, Lake Baikal had been the home to 1,200 unique aquatic
species, including the only freshwater seals in the world. Today, many of
these species are extinct or endangered.
Marxist ideology optimistically asserted that industry and technology
would provide more and more material benefits. Overpopulation and
resource depletion were not problems according to Marx. Furthermore,
without private ownership and a market system, Communist incentives
hurt the environment. Managers were rewarded for their gross output,
not profitability or protecting the environment or worker health and
safety, or even using energy efficiently. Within the new Soviet Union
that replaced the old empire, the core of European Russia continued to
exploit the colonial areas like Siberia, the Far East, Kazakhstan, and other
republics of central Asia.
The consequence of 70 years of Communist industrialization was an
environmental disaster. The air is polluted in nearly all cities and in rural
areas near factories and refineries. Toxic metals are dumped into creeks
or left exposed in barrels that rusted so the poison leaks into the water
table. Dioxin is a threat in Kuban, the lower Volga, the Far East, and the
Azov regions. Municipal sewage treatment is often inadequate, and in a
few cities, drinking water is unsafe. Male life expectancy has been falling
and is now only 59 years. Causes are AIDS, heroin, smoking, alcoholism
and suicide. Moreover, infant mortality has been rising, and abortions
are common. The result is population decline. The country is projected
to decline from the current 143 million to 111 million by 2050, a loss of
32 million people and a decrease of more than 20 percent.
Nuclear electric plants and military facilities present dangers of radia-
tion. In 1957 a nuclear waste storage tank at the Mayak nuclear weapons
center exploded. This secret nuclear city is near Chelyabinsk in the Ural
Mountains. A radioactive cloud contaminated an area of 20,000 square
kilometers. The accident was kept secret for three decades, 11,000 people
were evacuated, and the region was permanently placed off limits.
The worst nonmilitary accident was the meltdown at Chernobyl in
1986. Its location was in northern Ukraine near the border with Russia
and Belarus. On the night of April 25, Reactor No. 4 was scheduled to be