What the Russian Oil Spill Will Mean for Environmentalists
Yet another oil spill, and I think everyone knows it’s terrible for the environment. But this is the worst oil spill for Russia in modern history. So bad that Russia has had to declare a state of emergency. It’s like the tragedies and disasters keep happening, one after the other. It’s like 2020 has had it out for us.
There’s been so much environmental and climate change activism, but that hasn’t stopped major accidents like this from happening. Every time we think that it couldn’t get any worse, we are proved wrong.
Just to be clear about what happened, there was a leak of about 20,000 tonnes of diesel in a power plant, which proceeded to discharge into the Ambarnaya river. And guess what? The Ambarnaya flows right into the oh so fragile Arctic Ocean. As you read this, that river is flowing, and it will almost surely reach the Arctic Ocean.
But there are thousands of other companies that cause similar damage to the environment. The problem is, the world can only consume one or two issues at a time. You can’t have more than two problems in the spotlight. For the world to see the damage being done to our environment, are we going to have to have more accidents like this? And when, if at all, will this come to an end? How are we going to stop huge companies from harming our environment?
This oil spill is the icing on the cake to all the climate change problems we have been worrying about for the past few years. The power plant is owned by Norilsk Nickel, which produces metals like nickel and copper. The company is home to quite a few environmental disasters, like the leak of industrial waste causing a river in Siberia to turn red, and turning it into a dead zone “twice the size of Rhode Island”. Its plants have also belched tons of sulphur dioxide, a leading cause and component of acid rain. Norilsk Nickel is one of the world’s most polluting companies.
This disaster is being compared to the likes of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, which is the worst oil spill ever, having caused the most damage to the environment. 37,000 metric tonnes of crude oil were spilled.
Right now, these statistics don’t even leave me in awe. It’s almost routine for me to wake up to a new disaster everyday, and there isn’t anything being done about it. This decade itself, a grand total of 164,000 tonnes of oil were spilled. Just to put it in perspective, that’s about sixteen times as heavy as the Eiffel Tower.
The question is not whether or not we have a problem at hand; the question is, what are we going to do about it? Environmentalists and activists must take this opportunity to demand reform. Not just for one country, or for one part of it, but the whole world. Let’s be clear, Russia isn’t the problem. They’re part of the problem, just like all the other countries. Industrialization is the real problem. Industries are the leading cause of environmental disasters and accidents, and it’s no surprise.
Russia is currently warming at 2.5 times the rate of the whole world. They had the warmest December last year, and had to resort to fake snow! Even after all that, Russia is still doing much better than the United States in terms of beating climate change, having formally adopted the Paris climate accord.
While we may think there’s nothing someone like you or me could do about anything like this sitting at home, it’s up to us, to our generation, to be creative and come up with new ways to fight all the new problems the world throws at us.
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Originally published at https://energyconscious.weebly.com.
