Ecological situation in Ukraine

With the development of civilization man’s interference in nature has increased, the contradictions between man and nature have acquired a dramatic character. Every year the world’s industry pollutes the atmosphere with millions of tons of dust and other harmful substances. The seas and rivers are poisoned with industrial waste, chemical and sewage discharge.

Ukraine is suffering a lot of environmental problems. Many of them have been caused by economic activities. There are many consequences of damaging environment. One of them is water pollution. The Dnipro and other rivers are in danger. They are filled with poison: industrial waste, all kinds of chemical elements and pesticides. Industrial enterprises of large cities waste harmful substances into river and sea’s waters. The emissions destroy fishing industry and lead to damage of wildlife.

Another problem is the air pollution. The waste gases cause acid rains. The next ecological problem is the problem of the Azov Sea. Because it is such a small sea, it becomes dirty very easily. Many industrial centres such as Mariupol, Berdyansk pour into the sea all kind of chemicals. It naturally influences the state of the sea water and the shore line flora and fauna.

But the most terrible ecological problem of Ukraine is Chernobyl. The effect of Chernobyl disaster is dangerous and tragic. In 1986 a nuclear power station of Chernobyl, which is near Kiev, exploded, producing highly dangerous radioactive fallout not only in the vicinity of the accident but because of prevailing winds across the continent of Europe. As the result of that accident 18% of the territories of our republic were contaminated by radioactive elements. The agriculture of our country suffered great losses.

Supporters and opponents of nuclear power were trading wildly different estimates for the number of people who are likely to die as a result of the radioactivity spread across Europe by the explosion. Fatal cancers will eventually kill 93, 000 people according to Greenpeace, 9, 000 according to the World Health Organization and just 1, 000 according to one optimistic academic study. After the disaster in Chernobyl the inhabitants of the nearby towns and villages had to be evacuated. Some of them died and some become invalids.

The death toll from the world’s worst nuclear accident is of far more than academic interest. The figures are propaganda in the increasingly vociferous debate over whether industrialized countries should resume building nuclear power stations in response to dwindling fossil fuel supplies and the threat from global warming. …

While environmental groups such as Greenpeace may exaggerate the effect of Chernobyl, the nuclear industry and organisations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency have tended to play the effect down. …

25 years after nuclear accident at Chernobyl there was an awful crisis in Japan, caused by powerful earthquake on the 11^th of March, 2011, and subsequent tsunami. A lot of people died. Levels of radioactive contamination near the Fukushima nuclear reactors caused harm to local marina life, at least 6 countries have defected radiation in small amounts in the air, water, soil.

Nuclear energy is often called the energy of the future because of a great amount of advantages, but millions of people are afraid of radiation. On the one hand using nuclear power gives us more variety in fuel sources, on the other hand it is a remembrance about Chernobyl and Fukushima tragedies. The scientific uncertainty about the number of long-term casualties from Chernobyl directly undermines public trust in the nuclear industry. Nuclear pollution cannot be seen but its effects can be terrible. Ecological catastrophes do a lot of harm to Nature, but they are much more dangerous for man. Different countries use nuclear energy, but people from all over the world suppose that this is the very time when a serious debate about its merits is most needed.