Arctic Science Journeys
Radio Script
1996

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Russian Ecocide
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STORY: The environmental disaster ten years ago at Russia's Chernobyl nuclear power plant was just the tip of the iceberg. Decades of chemical and nuclear waste dumping and other environmental abuses have are linked to increased Russian birth defects, cancers, and other diseases. It's also affecting how long people live. Georgetown University demographer Murray Feshbach calls it ecological genocide.

"In the last ten years, approximately, for males, and the last 7, 8, 9 years for females, life expectancy in the country has declined by about 7 or 8 years for males and about 6 or 7 years for females."

That means a Russian woman can expect to live to be 72, while a Russian man will only reach the age of 57.

"But that gap of 14 years is an enormous gap, and it's unprecedented throughout any part of the developed world."

Feshbach says the drop in life expectancy is the result of polluting industries in operation since the start of the cold war a half-century ago.

"And the worst case scenario, if I can just give you quickly, is a plant producing non-ferrous materials, copper, nickel, etc., in a town called Nickle, right on the border with Norway and Finland. The Norwegian greens once wanted to bomb this plant because pollution was so bad that the average life expectancy for workers at this plant is 34."

Steven MacLean is a biology professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and one of the first Alaska scientists to conduct environmental studies with the Soviets some 20 years ago. He says Russia's leaders chose military industrialization over protecting the environment and human health.

"Perhaps because the former Soviet Union had such an immense amount of land, perhaps they viewed it as a resource that large parts of which might be sacrificed in the interest of rapid development. There are some enormous environmental problems. The question becomes, what are they going to do with it and what are we going to do about it."

While Feshbach prescribes a nationwide attack to solve the country's environmental problems, MacLean says educational efforts will go a long way in making fundamental changes that will eventually improve Russia's environment and the health of its people.

"The next generation of leaders of Russia are studying in America, and many of them are studying at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, right now, and I believe that is making a positive step."

Feshbach and MacLean agree that the long-term health of Russia's people and the environment is at stake. They also say that if not addressed, Russia's environmental disaster will ultimately affect the environment and health of all of us living in the Far North. For Arctic Science Journeys, this is Debra Damron.