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
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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
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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
Historically, Russia has always been a country of perplexing dualities. The reality of Dual Russia, the separation of the official culture from that of the common people, persisted after the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War. The Czarist Russia was at once modernized and backward: St. Petersburg and Moscow stood as the highly developed industrial centers of the country and two of the capitals of Europe, yet the overwhelming majority of the population were subsistent farms who lived on mir; French was the official language and the elites were highly literate, yet 82% of the populati...
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has undergone many changes. These changes were very profound and included the drastic restructuring of both the political structure and the economy. When the Russian people became dissatisfied with the communist system, they pushed for a regime change, which resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the introduction of a democratic system. Along with these political changes came the economic change from communism to a free market system. The new system and the old system, while initially seeming like they have many differences, are similar in the corruptness and oppression of the people. Because of this, the political and economic transitions from the old system of communism to the new democratic system in Russia have not been successful.
The nuclear explosion in Chernobyl, Ukraine greatly impacted the environment in negative ways. Shortly after the explosion, other nuclear plants around Europe began noticing high levels of radiation in the air. The radioactive chemicals that were released led to complete devastation of plant life and the poisoning of natural resources. Chernobyl and surrounding areas quickly became too dangerous for people to...
Chernobyl (chĬrnō´byēl) is the uninhibited city in north Ukraine, near the Belarus boundary, on the Pripyat River. Ten miles to the north, in the town of Pripyat, is the Chernobyl nuclear powerstation, site of the worst nuclear reactor disaster in history ("Chernobyl", Columbia Encyclopedia). To specify, On April 26, 1986, Unit Four of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in Ukraine, injuring human immune systems and the genetic structure of cells, contaminating soils and waterways. Nearly 7 tons of irradiated reactor fuel was released into the environment—roughly 340 million curies. Included in the release were radioactive elements with a half-life of 16 million years. Yet, we humans cannot defe...
Russia is generally apportioned the benefit of having introduced a political phenomenon that basically provided an alternative for capitalism; communism. Since this concept was only set in motion at the turn of the 20th century, we can therefore deduce that, to a large extent, Russia is, to most people, synonymous with leaders such as Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, and Gorbachev. This supposition is entirely based on the premise that the Russian revolution of 1914 inherently altered the socio-cultural and socio-political direction of the nation, bringing into birth a never before envisioned era where Russia was not ruled by the Tsars, but by simple men; men who spoke to and articulated the needs of the masses. To this extent, communism, therefore, is largely misconceived as having been the fulcrum of Russia’s civilization. Much of this misconception , as signaled earlier, is based on the growth and progression of the Russian society in the years after the revolution until 1990, when the Berlin wall fell, essentially bringing down with it decades of Soviet Union tradition based on communism.
In an era of discord, chaos, and bloodlust, Russia had temporarily lost its position as an orderly country on the world map. Many events, like the unpopularity of
The U.S. and Russia have cold war history and ideology still strong among their constituents. The Cold War was also never really over, hence why assuming geopolitics were no longer relevant was a mistake on behalf of Fukuyama’s The End of History. The history of the U.S. and the Soviet Union are described through international proxy wars heavily relying on strategic locations, geopolitics is imbedded in their relationship. They both are always competing for spheres of influence, now not only in regards to Crimea in Ukraine, but also in Syria. Russia will not forget the financial build up of Western states after WW II, the integration of Warsaw Pact states and the Baltic Republics into NATO (Mead, 2), and the containment policy of states around the world that lead to the dissembling of the Soviet
In a speech broadcast to London via radio on October 1st, 1939, Winston Churchill famously said: “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma (Murdico, 1).” While it is true that Churchill was referring to his inability to predict the country’s actions in regards to the impending world war, the words can be used to illustrate a general confusion and lack of understanding, by both western and eastern powers alike, concerning the massive nation. Russia, as it stands today, currently encompasses about 6.6 million square miles of land (Murdico, 1), and is the largest country in the world by land mass. Along with a large area, Russia also has quite the large reputation; having been through two world wars, governments both communist and imperial, and a slew of civil wars and internal struggles. Russian politics and history is still today a hot topic of conversation, yet very little of this conversation mentions anything pre-WWI. It may be difficult to say exactly why this is so, as a great number of factors, including first an foremost our own cultural biases and perspectives come in to play, but it is true that Russia may confuse us because it is nearly impossible to categorize as being entirely “western” or “eastern” in nature. It is not really European nor is it truly Asian. Instead it has been shaped by a blend of different cultures and political ideologies that certainly include both European and Asian influence. Playing a huge role in this is the geography of the area; its location lends itself to contact with and, more importantly, being attacked by surrounding societies while still being pushed up against the corner of a continent in an almost isola...
Russia, spanning 11 time zones and serving as home to about 150 million people, possesses tremendous natural and human resources. Demand today for imported consumer goods, capital equipment, and services remains remarkably strong, with imports representing an unusually large percentage of the national market. Despite outstanding long-term market potential, Russia continues to be an extremely difficult country in which to do business.
Flanary, W. (2008). Environment effects of the Chernobyl accident. Retrieved November 1st, 2013 from /http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/152617
Russia is located in Northern Eurasia. Russia is the largest country in the world with 6.6 million square miles.It shares borders with China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, North Korea, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, and Finland. It has nine different time zones. It is very large, but the east is not inhabited by many people. It is mainly inhabited by animals because of the weather. Russia was joined with fifteen other countries as one state, they were called the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics or the Soviet Union. They split up in 1991 into fifteen different countries. They split because each republic wanted independence and no one wanted to be together anymore. The split started with a failed coup which helped the Communist Party collapse. The communist party was the major political party of the Soviet Union. Since all republics wanted independence they formed the CIS which stands for Commonwealth of Independent States. The coup were members of the communist party, they detained Mikhail Gorbachev (who was the President of the Soviet Union) and went into Moscow with tanks and armed vehicles. They wanted to defend their freedoms. They tried to make the troops attack the parliament building where Boris Yeltsin (member of parliament and former mayor of Moscow) had his office located. Troops refused to attack, the next day they exited Moscow.after this, the formation of the CIS collapsed.
The Russian Federation, known as Russia has a long and very interesting history. It was turned into a Communist country in 1917, and the Soviet Union was formed in 1922. In 1991 the Soviet Union was dissolved. Russia has been filled with war, controversy, and Communism, but under all of the bad things, there is a beautiful country underneath. Russia is filled with many geological beauties, along with man-made structures. Although not one of the most popular countries for tourism in the world, Russia has been making an upswing to become more modernized and gaining a better financial reputation. Russia has a range of different climates, from the bitter cold in Siberia to the semiarid regions toward the middle of the continent.
Since 1991, or the end of the Soviet-era, Russia’s population has decreased by nearly ten million people. It seems that more and more reasons to depopulate gloom over its inhabitants as the years continue. A once powerful country is now struggling to sustain itself because its own people have been forced to abandon it just to live a better life. For such a territorially large country, its population is similar to that of countries like Nigeria and Bangladesh. Depopulation is one of the biggest problems Russia is facing today mostly due to Russia’s unique transition from a communist regime to a federal republic that has sparked health care issues, political turmoil, poverty, spreading of disease, and economic
It is located in two continents: Europe and Asia. Most people live in the Europe portion of Russia because the climate in nicer and there are more job opportunities. Russia used to be called the United Soviet Socialist Republic (U.S.S.R.) or the Soviet Union. It was once a communist country that controlled many other countries in eastern Europe and western Asia. Communist leaders paid little attention to pollution and smog so Russia is taking steps to solve these problems. Now, Russia claims it is a democratic country with a government that has allowed free market changes in the economy. However, the world has witnessed government control of many ideas and businesses so the future of Russia is
Russia is the largest country in the world, so large that it has 11 times zones, the only climate that it does not contain is a tropical one (Russia). Russia’s climate is so unbearably cold that