This study addresses the many initiatives to decrease industrial pollution emitting from the Pechenganikel plant in the northwestern corner of Russia during the final years of the Soviet Union, and examines the wider implications for the state of pollution control in the Arctic today. By examining the efforts of Soviet industry and government agencies, Finnish and Swedish officials, and Norwegian environmental authorities to curb industrial pollution in the region, this book offers an environmental history of the Arctic as well as a transnational, geopolitical history.

The rapid changes in the former Soviet Union have rendered most pre-1992 works on its environment obsolete. A more specifically geographic approach that highlights the particular situation in each republic and region is offered by Philip R. Pryde’s new work, Environmental Resources and Constraints in the Former Soviet Republics. Focusing bro

In 1989 a Soviet environmental expert writer under the pseudonym Boris Komarov startled the world. His book "The Destruction of Nature in the Soviet Union", was both a chilling description of the environmental devastation in the Soviet Union and an indictment of the official policy and public apathy that allows it to be perpetuated. Today Boris Komarov writes freely under his own name - Ze'ev Wolfson. But the ecological crisis he documents has only become more severe, more widespread, more deadly. In "The Geography of Survival" Wolfson speaks out in unmistakable terms about the world's choice to embrace the cause of our collective survival or to let desertisation, pollution, disaster, famine, epidemic, and war work their own solution.

Mankind has created pollution, and has suffered its consequences since time immemorial. This has intesified greatly since the industrial revolution. One of the main problems in society, and a major function of government is how to cope with this pollution. 80 years ago the maxim used to be "the solution to pollution is dilution"; to dilute any pollted water supply in a large river, or to build a tall chimney stack to dilute air pollutants into the air so that concentrations of pollutants are always low. Since 1950 western countries have gone further and made major attempts to reduce the emissions of the most important pollutants. The discussion of what is an important pollutant has changed. To S02 and heavy metals such as cadmium or arsenic we now add fine particles and even (when we discuss global climate change) C02. The experience and practice of the western countries was only partly followed in the USSR (although the switch from use of coal to natural gas in major cities around 1970 was very important). Since the collapse of the USSR it has become fashionable both in the west and inside Russia to blame all society's ills on pollution. The statistics do not bear out that conclusion, but pollution remains an important issue which can be reduced without significant detriment to other societal values.

This book explores the development of climate change discourses in Russia. It contributes to the study of climate change as a cultural idea by developing the extensive Anglophone literature on environmental science, politics and policy pertaining to climate change in the West to consider how Russian discourses of climate change have developed. Drawing on contributors specialising in numerous periods, regions, disciplines and topics of study, the central thread of this book is the shared attempt to understand how environmental issues, particularly climate change, have been understood, investigated and conceptualised in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. The chapters aim to complement work on the history of the discursive political construction of climate change in the West by examining a highly contrasting (but intimately related) cultural context. Russia remains one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters with one of the most carbon-intensive economies. As the world begins to suffer the extreme consequences of anthropogenic climate change, finding adequate solutions to global environmental problems necessitates the participation of all countries. Russia is a central actor in this global process and it, therefore, becomes increasingly important to understand climate change discourse in this region. Insights gained in this area may also be illuminating for examining environmental discourses in other resource rich regions of the world with alternative economic and political experiences to that of the West (e.g. China, Middle East). This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Russian environmental policy and politics, climate change discourses, environmental communication and environment and sustainability in general.

This book, originally published in 1992, describes the Soviet environment at its crisis point in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Beolorussia and the Ukraine had, as a result of the Chernobyl accident, been declared ecological disaster zones and across the country as a whole as many as 20 per cent of the population lived in environmental danger areas and another 35-40 per cent in unsatisfactory conditions. According to a Supreme Soviet Environment Committee report of 1989, 80% of all illness in the USSR related either directly or indirectly to environmental problems. In this book, leading specialists from both the West and the Soviet Union present a comprehensive analysis of these problems. The contributors examine the aftermath of Chernobyl, the catastrophic causes and effects of the Aral Sea's shrinkage, the environmental issues and public unrest. The depth of analysis in this volume together with the breadth of topics addressed will ensure that it is read by students and specialists of the Soviet Union and environmental issues, as well as by all government officials, journalists and industrialists with an interest in the Soviet environment.

Six years of glasnost in the republics of the former Soviet Union have revealed enormous environmental problems in that region. This book provides an up-to-date report on the state of the environment and environmental policy in the former USSR. In addition to official data, the author cites anecdotal material drawn from the local media to illustrate the challenges presented by a contaminated food supply, tainted drinking water, foul air and rampant toxic waste. He also considers the possible effects of current political and economic trends on the environment and on environmental policy in the newly independent republics.

This environmental history of the former Soviet Union explores the impact that state economic development programs had on the environment.

The end of this century has witnessed dramatic changes in morality, history and geography. These changes were felt throughout the world, and also across the entire gamut of professional concerns. Even relatively remote and seemingly insulated activities such as science and technology have experienced, and up to a point contributed to, these dramatic changes. This volume presents a series of views on the effect of these changes on science and technology, and more specifically, on the international diffusion of new technologies. These views come from a variety of fields, among them history and sociology of science, political science, information sciences, marketing. Yet, most authors share an interest in science policy studies which permeates this collection. It would be fair to say that this volume belongs to the intellectual domain known as STS, i. e. studies in Science, Technology and Society. The authors come from nine countries, and their contributions are expected to reflect this diversity. It is well known that the dominant lingua franca in the end of the 20th century is Broken English, with the possible exception of a minority of native English speakers some of whom fail to learn this new language. An attempt was therefore made throughout this volume to conform to a certain standard of English usage and, at the same time, to preserve the local flavour of expression, and the stylistic and cultural dimensions of each chapter.