from Russia with… smoke

We often talk about sustainability initiatives in developed countries in Africa and in South America. Some of countries on those continents are in terrible conditions varying from war to basic sustainability issues. More developed countries came to help and provide support in different ways. I really feel for those people in many aspects because I am from a country that needs such help. My homeland spreads vary large territory and has extremely diverse environment. Maybe as diverse as in some tropical countries. I have lived there for 19 years until my family moved to Canada 3 years ago and I have some awful things that people do to the environment. During this course I was not able to find a topic that I know well that’s about sustainability. During this week I want to tell as much as I can about my country’s sustainability issues in homes to continue this and get some feedback from you and thoughts on solving these issues. I wan to write this not because I want to tell how disgusting the place is. I love it regardless of its shape because it my home. For the same reason it hurts to see it this way and that’s why I want to share it with you.

The first post will be about my home town: Cherepovets, Russia. If you like to go in detail with things, go to the Google Maps and type in “Cherepovets, Russia”. Get to the “Satellite” view for maps and observe.

My hometown has 3 large plants. Two of them are chemical producing pretty much any fertilizer that has ever been used in agriculture or most chemicals used for industrial purposes. The third plant is called Severstal. I is a steel plant that produces many metal derivatives. This plant is owned by the person who is one of the billionaires on the Forbes list: Alexey Mordashov who used to have $12b before the recession and who was left with 3 after it. Those three plants are the reason why there is a brown spot over 2/3 of Cherepovets when you look on it from space (google maps).

Here is how this plant looks sometimes… quite often actually.

The fact is that there are no filters on those pipes. They were turned off after the recession because it is too costly to run them. Interestingly, the plant was supposedly build in such way that the smoke should go away from the city. I used to think so. However, when I come to Cherepovets in the summer every year, I feel dizzy for a day or two because the smoke and car exhausts is in the air. And it’s not even windy yet.

to be continued…