Russia's Environment And The Environment In Russia

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Out of all of the countries in the world, Russia is by far the largest at about 17,075,200 square kilometres. With a big country comes big environmental responsibility, but Russia doesn’t seem to be doing too well of a job. The environmental conditions of Russia may not be as great as you think, having statistics that are quite shocking. Because of the abundance of sources such as oil, natural gas, and coal, Russia is one of the leading producers of greenhouse gas emissions. Not only are these different forms of pollution negatively affecting the environment, they are affecting the health of the people who reside there. These negative impacts in the environment are becoming dangerous in Russia and may not be able to be stopped in enough time. …show more content…

What many people are unaware of is that between 2000 and 2012, Russia lost more of its forests than any other country on earth. That is single handedly accounting for 13.6 percent of net loss in forest area. Russia has a massive forest cover, the largest in the world, amounting to one fifth of the global forest area. It is estimated that about 20,000 km are deforested every year in Russia, which is bad news considering the forests in Russia have a shorter growing season because of the extremely cold weather that occurs there. This results in the forests taking longer to recover, and if they can’t recover at the same speed they’re being deforested, that’s when it becomes an environmental concern. While many industries may comply with the laws and regulations, many ignore the necessity for sustainable production. Russia 's regulations regarding the timber industry are much more loose compared to countries such as Canada, the United States, and different parts of Europe. Deforestation is permanent destruction, the land they are destroying will never be the same and at the rate Russia and even the rest of the world are going, it will have no time to recover, at least not in our lifetime. Deforestation is said to be one of the leading causes of climate change, which we all know is the biggest environmental issue of our time. Trees help with storing carbon, 300 billion tons of carbon are stored in them which is 40 times greater than the annual greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Deforestation not only lessens the amount of carbon that can be stored in these trees, but also then releases carbon dioxide into the air. Deforestation will always be a lose lose situation, we need trees and forests in order to breathe and stay alive. Russia is doing their country and the world a great disservice by cutting down precious forests for

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