User:Bruton-Sarah/sandbox

Environment - current issues

• Air Quality- Air quality in Belarus has been an issue for many years in the past. Although in recent years the quality of the air has been improving by almost 50% according to the Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development. The increased use of natural gas and alternative energy to burning coal is the leading the fight against the pollution. Policies implemented in Belarus can also be seen as a leading cause of the quality of air going up and becoming better. Fines and Fees may be used to enforce rules and regulations and also to keep awareness of the issue known as well. The money brought in from the fees and fines are used by the Environmental Fund in Belarus.

• Soil pollution from pesticide use.
• South-Eastern part of the country contaminated with fallout from 1986 accident at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine, receiving about 60% of total fallout. Vast amounts of territory in Homyel and Mahilyow voblasts rendered uninhabitable. Roughly 7,000 km² (2,700 sq mi) of soil were contaminated by caesium-137 to levels greater than 15 curies (550 gigabecquerels) per square kilometer, i.e., taken from human usage for indefinite time. In 1996 the areas contaminated with over 1 Ci/km² (37 GBq/km²) of caesium-137 constituted about 21% of the total territory (only 1% decrease compared to 1986), and in 2002 over 1.5 million people still lived in this area.

Environmental-current issues

Following world war two industry heavy centers like, Salihorsk and Navapolatsk have become heavily polluted. During the time Belarus was apart of the USSR, regulations on pollution was nonexistent, since the collapse of the Soviet Union many of the heavily polluted factories shut down allowing for industrial emissions to drop by 50%. In current years the country has been very slow on focusing on environmental issues. The chemical, petrochemical industries are the largest polluters in waste as well as their high emission of carbon and nitrogen oxides.

Chernobyl Disaster

The government has considered this issues and its effects on the environment. It has been estimated that 70% of the atmospheric radiation was blown into Belarus from Ukraine causing health issues for approximately 25% of its population; Homyel and Mahilyow are some of the most highly affected Providences. 2 million people (including 600,000 children) whom lived in areas that were heavily affected by the radiation claimed to have serious issues after the event. Swedish scientists pressured The Soviet government,who tried to cover up the accident, to explain why there were higher levels of radiation now in Sweden.