Russia and the Eurasian Republics
By: Zoe Gordon
Chernobyl
On April 26th, 1986, Chernobyls' nuclear power plant blew up. The Fallout spread over Northern and Central Russia. With in three months of the Explosion, more than Thirty people had already died from Radioactive materials and cancer brought on by the radiation. Children that were born from mothers who had high doses of radiation had birth defects. The Half-Life of the materials were 30 years.
Siberian Lakes
In Siberia, there’s lots of global warming occurring. Permafrost melts and releases Carbon that is dead prehistoric animals and plants, the Carbon then turns into Methane, a Greenhouse Gas that is very harmful for the environment. Methane gas is 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide on 100-year time scales. Methane gas has the most powerful effect on global warming. Katey Walter Checks for methane gas, Katey chops holes in the wood and brings back gas samples for the lab to test, if she doesn't want to wait for results, she can light a match, if it shoots up in flames, she knows there's Methane present.
North Aral Sea
In the 1960's, The major rivers that fed into the Aral Sea were re-directed for irrigation uses. Salt in the Sea, caused it to dry up quicker than other Lakes. Now not even one fourth of the Aral Sea still remains. Pesticides were a problem when the Aral Sea started to dry up because they were starting to become air bound. Theres Salt storms every so often in the middle of the pit from the left over salt that couldn’t evaporate with the water. Parts of Central Asia are Arid or Semiarid, meaning there is little or no rainfall.