| Baikal
Environmental Wave
[Baikalskaya Ekologicheskaya Volna] 130 Lermontov Street P.O. Box 21 Irkutsk 664033 Russia Tel/Fax: (39-53)
46-74-76
|
CLICK PICTURE FOR LIST OF SCHOOLS... |
| Baikal
Environmental Wave
[Baikalskaya Ekologicheskaya Volna] 130 Lermontov Street P.O. Box 21 Irkutsk 664033 Russia Tel/Fax: (39-53)
46-74-76
|
CLICK PICTURE FOR LIST OF SCHOOLS... |
| Contacts:
Jenny Sulton DIRECTOR Vyacheslav Kudryartsev INFORMATION Tatyana Markova PUBLIC RELATIONS Special thanks to Vyacheslav Kudryartsev for welcoming NMR to Baikal Environmental Wave. BEW
Information:
NMR
Visit with Executive Commitee:
|
A day on "Baikal Sea"...
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| The offices of
BEW are staffed by 7 full-time employees who are involved in research,
writing, translating, lobbying, and educating the Russian public on environmental
issues. Even though the focus is on the Baikal Region, many of the
issues they research and report on arise from situations occurring thousands
of miles away in other countries or on other continents, which they deem
are of concern to those living in the Baikal Region and which may have
a direct, even indirect, bearing on the quality of the ecology of the region.
BEW maintains a truly global perspective on the environment and the interconnectedness
of ecological systems.
BEW translates articles from various journals and scientific newsletters into Russian. There is quite an extensive library at their offices. The holdings there are available to anyone to peruse and to use. BEW is a regular subscriber of World Watch publications and "BBC Wildlife". |
EBB, the western shore of Lake Baikal 10 July 1999 |
| I was given a thorough briefing
on the sad state of industrial development in the region: The Baikal
Region is currently receiving more development energy than any other region
in Russia. This is due to the great abundance of natural resources
in the area (vast forests and mineral deposits, rivers for hydro-power,
and widespread unemployment). Unfortunately, most of the factories
in the region (wood and paper/pulp products, petro-chemicals, plastics,
aluminum, refineries, batteries, etc.) are using outdated technologies
and are being operated with little to no concern for the environmental
impact of their operations.
Air, water and soil, as well as sound pollution, are all of great concern to BEW, which is monitoring a dramatic decline in health statistics (physical and social diseases) and growing threats to the local ecosystems. Lake Baikal is a large body
of fresh water. It holds ~20% of the fresh water in the world.
Obviously, anything that impacts the water of Baikal (known locally as
"The Sea"), or the region surrounding the lake, will have an eventual and
possible catastrophic effect on ecosystems thousands of miles away.
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