Human Environment Interaction Russia

Irrigation Irrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops Common in agricultural civilizations for thousands of years, irrigation historically involved diverting water from rivers and lakes through the digging of ditches and canals.

Irrigation Modern day irrigation often involves pumping water from aquifers, often at rates that are possibly unsustainable. The ability to irrigate farmland and to access groundwater has allowed population centers to develop in areas that would otherwise be unable to support large human populations. The continued vitality and success of such population centers depends largely on the ability of policymakers to create and implement sustainable policies that determine how scarce water resources are most affectively utilized.

Aral Sea poor resource management In the 1950s, the Soviet Era communist government attempted to transform the semi-arid region around the Aral Sea into an agricultural region by diverting water from the rivers which supplied the Sea in order to irrigate the crops. The irrigation all but eliminated the source of fresh water to the Aral Sea and has contributed to its increased salinization and continued evaporation. Salinization – the build up of salts at or near the soil surface Additionally, growing crops in such an arid climate required significant amounts of fertilizers and pesticides which polluted the region’s soil and ground water. As of 2007, the Aral Sea was only 10% of its original size.

Adverse Effects As a result, the health of the people in the region has been negatively affected, as well as, the once thriving fishing and farming industry. None of the 24 native species of fish in the Aral Sea are found there today Windstorms picks up exposed fertilizers, pesticides, and a salt from the exposed lake bed and dropped them throughout the surrounding region. The region's once prosperous fishing industry has been virtually destroyed, bringing unemployment and economic hardship. The retreat of the sea has reportedly also caused local climate change, with summers becoming hotter and drier, and winters colder and longer.

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Nuclear Power Nuclear power is used to produce electricity, and like fossil-fuel power plants that burn coal and natural gas, nuclear reactors produce electricity by boiling water into steam, which turns turbines. Nuclear plants, however, do not burn fossil fuels. Instead, they use uranium fuel. The process takes place in tubes holding the uranium fuel. The tubes are inserted into control rods, which are surrounded by water. The heat produced by fission turns this water into steam which powers a turbine and creates electricity. The rods can be withdrawn or inserted to varying degrees to slow or accelerate the reaction.

Benefits of Nuclear Power Nuclear power plants generate energy without the need for fossil fuels like oil, coal, or natural gas. Nuclear plants also produce much less air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions than plants that utilize fossil fuels Nuclear plants can be built in diverse physical environments and are generally constructed near the population centers they supply with electricity.

Negatives of Nuclear Power The same fuel and technology that generates nuclear power can be utilized to produce nuclear weapons. Created as a byproduct of the fission process, radioactive waste has to be stored for many years before it can be safely disposed. In case of accident or explosion, human health can be endangered by dangerous radioactive fallout that is known to cause death and/or serious, long-term medical problems, including various types of cancer.

Chernobyl In 1986, fears and concerns about the dangers of nuclear power were realized at a Soviet nuclear plant in the Ukraine A large explosion on April 25, 1986 released a massive amount of radiation resulting in wide-spread radioactive contamination in the neighboring city of Pripyat and throughout the surrounding region.

Chernobyl The explosion’s impact on the region resulted in a large number of fatalities, radiation sickness, and a contaminated environment. There is still a 17 mile exclusion zone around the Chernobyl site. Only a few thousand elderly residents have been permitted to return to their homes. Pripyat is a deserted city in which trees and brush are overgrown and in which wildlife freely roam. The long term health effects of the disaster are still unknown. The radiation cloud spread around the world and the contamination is so wide-spread at the site and radioactive that a complete clean-up is not yet possible. A containment dome has been constructed over the damaged reactor – the plant is no longer in operation. Hundreds of wildfires during the summer of 2010 raised fears of the release of radioactive material still in the soil into the air.

Chernobyl The Chernobyl disaster caused many people around the world to question the safety and wisdom of constructing and operating nuclear power plants. Despite the likelihood that the disaster was largely a result of a flawed reactor design and inadequate Soviet precautions, nuclear power entered a period of relative decline during which construction of new plants was largely halted. For example, the last two nuclear power plants built in the United States were begun in the 1970s.

Nuclear Power Plants In 2008, there were 439 nuclear reactors generating electricity in 30 countries, supplying 15 percent of the world's total. Sixteen countries relied on nukes for at least one-quarter of their electricity. France is by far the leader with almost 77 percent, followed by Lithuania (64 percent). Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Hungary and South Korea are also big users. There are 35 new plants under construction in 14 countries.

Nuclear Plants Despite continued concerns, many observers forecast an increase in the number of nuclear plants built in the coming decades, especially in light of concerns over climate change and desires for energy independence. However, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that ravaged northeastern Japan (and their impact on Japanese nuclear power plants) have again raised questions about the safety of nuclear power.