Yesterday, Earth-Info.Net attended a day of talks which outlined some of biggest ecological problems faced by the Arctic region...
Threats include industrial waste products known as
Persistent Organic Pollutants (e.g.
PCBs +
Brominated Flame Retardants) which accumulate in the fatty tissues of predators such as marine mammals + birds and poison them, the
nuclear reactors of decommissioned Russian ships + submarines which have been dumped in the Barent + Kara seas and last-but-not-least
the retreat of the polar ice cap associated with climate change.
A talk by a Norwegian environmental charity called
Bellona was of particular interest as it emphasised the scale of the problems faced by the region as well as the need for
stronger co-ordination, expert advice and co-operation when dealing with trans-boundary environmental issues, such as
nuclear contamination + storage.
On a related note, click
here to find out more about the dangerously full
reservoirs containing radioactive sludge at Russia's nuclear re-processing plant in
Mayak, Siberia...