Ecological problems of the West Siberian Plain. Problems of nature and man in Western Siberia

Today, in almost all countries of the world, the issue of environmental safety is particularly acute. There is nothing surprising in this: the rash and greedy use of natural resources has led to the fact that at the moment there is a danger of the disappearance not only of most of the animals, but also of the human race itself. There is a huge amount of environmental and environmental programs that could theoretically help to cope with all the problems. But, as it usually happens, everything is good only on paper.

This is especially true of our country. Unfortunately, the issue of the ecological state of the locality always remains at the very end of the priorities. Once it did not cause any special problems, but times change, and the intensity of pollution of our own land is growing at an alarming rate. Of course, modern civilization can not exist without all the benefits that it gives developed industry. Unfortunately, manufacturers often deliberately shy away from compliance with basic environmental standards, as a result of which the situation with environmental pollution is becoming more and more sad.

One must never forget that without nature there is no man. On how well we will protect the environment, the well-being of our own children depends in the future, so you should not tolerate this issue admirably.

Accelerated in recent years, industrial development of the country positively affects the economy, but here the environmental problems of the West Siberian Plain because of this increase every year.

It should be remembered that the most weak link in all nature protection activities is the economic benefit. Even the installation of simple treatment plants is extremely expensive, and therefore the management of enterprises often "forgets" about them, preferring to pay less significant fines.

Needless to say, without the real support of the state, which would allocate funds for the purchase of such equipment, without subsidizing the deployment of integrated environmental activities, it is not worth dreaming about improving the environmental situation in our country.

This is especially true of Western Siberia. This area is so peculiar that he should dedicate an entire article.

Introduction

By the way, where is the West Siberian Plain? It is located all over the territory from the Ural mountains to the Central Siberian plateau, occupying a huge area.

Western Siberia - the region is unique. It looks like a gigantic bowl in which there is a rather severe climate. The age of the West Siberian Plain is at least 25 million years old. In addition, it is unique in its geological development: for thousands of years, this area has consistently been raised and lowered, because of which a truly unusual and complex terrain was formed. However, the average heights of the West Siberian Plain are small: on all its length they rarely exceed the mark of 50-150 meters above sea level.

The main elements of the relief are the plains and riverbeds. In places, the plain takes on pronounced features of a hilly folded area. In the southern part of Western Siberia, such a structure of the terrain is encountered most often. A lot of river plains, formed in the conditions of a large number of large rivers with a slow current, complete the picture. This is where the West Siberian Plain lies.

Main characteristics of the area

As we have already said, the climate here is very specific. Thus, southern territories are characterized by pronounced continental climate. Due to the fact that the shape of the relief of the West Siberian Plain is a kind of bowl (see above), there are no significant movements of air masses within its limits. Therefore, there are no sharp changes in the temperature regime throughout the winter. And it is all the more surprising that the extent of the West Siberian Plain is almost 2500 thousand kilometers!

So, even in Barnaul the temperature often drops to -45 degrees Celsius, but the same temperature is observed in the northern part of the plain, although it is more than two thousand kilometers up to it. Spring is rather long, relatively dry. April in full understanding of this word is not a spring month.

In May, the temperature rises sharply, but because of the movement of air masses from the ocean, colds often return, and in some cases snow may fall out. In July, the average air temperature can reach +22 degrees Celsius (but not more than 5 degrees in the northern part). Since the average elevations of the West Siberian Plain are small, often there are strong piercing winds.

The main reasons for the severe environmental situation in the region

First, the current situation is due to the fact that in recent years the intensity of extraction of natural resources has been increasing in an explosive manner. In Western Siberia, there are several industries at once, which cause the most pronounced damage to nature: pulp and paper, food, oil and timber. Do not forget about the explosive growth in the number of personal road transport, which also contributes to the process of environmental pollution.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon is boosted even by agriculture: in recent years quite a lot of mineral fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides have been used in Western Siberia. In addition, local authorities are not at all interested in any actions with regard to landfills.

Many of them have long been closed, but continue to burn regularly every summer, often bringing residents of nearby settlements to resuscitation. Due to the fact that the shape of the relief of the West Siberian Plain resembles a bowl, it could last for several months over the cities. The simplest statistics of hospitals testify that at this time the situation with respiratory diseases is catastrophically complicated.

Finally, we are extremely irrationally using the irreplaceable resources of the West Siberian Plain. The reasons should be sought in tsarist times. Then, as in the Soviet period, first the most easily accessible and rich deposits began to be exploited, at the same time leading out all the nearby forests. If you know a brief description of the West Siberian Plain, then you probably know that there are not so many forests on its territory. Once their crowns rustled almost throughout the entire area, but because of the rapid industrialization of the country, almost all of them were completely destroyed.

And only then they proceeded to develop distant deposits, which, because of the imperfection of the technological base, were very quickly depleted.

In addition, most of the raw materials in these deposits remained there. The reason is the same backward technology. Now you can get to these reserves, but for this you will have to pay a lot of labor and a huge number of dumps. Today, this is being done more often. The results are deplorable: an incredible amount of slag simply clogs the ground, and its mass leads to a lowering of the earth's surface. As a result, underground rivers become shallow and completely stop, karst faults appear near which any industrial activity is extremely dangerous.

Since the age of the West Siberian Plain is about 25-30 million years, there are a lot of riches in its depths. But do not assume that their reserves are unlimited.

Another reason is inertness of thinking and adherence to technocratic dogma. Many people still believe in a kind of "superpower" of a person, which allows him not to reckon with nature. They forget that the biosphere is not only an extremely complex but also very fragile mechanism, inept and unskilled intervention in which is fraught with major troubles for all mankind.

However, we have already seen this: constant climatic "freaks", when the absence of snow in January or snowfalls in June, no one surprises, the sharply increased occurrence of tsunamis and tornadoes, the death of a huge number of fish as a result of the release of toxic substances into the rivers. Against this background, the characterization of the West Siberian Plain as an "extremely polluted" place no longer looks so depressing, although all these phenomena are links of the same chain.

The influence of anthropogenic factors

A number of cities in this area are actually in the zone of permanent ecological crisis. The main reason for the current situation is a clear discrepancy between the volume of environmental management and measures to protect the environment. Simply put, the same oil production is constantly increasing, but there are practically no measures to clean up the environment from spilled oil.

In addition, the region has many nuclear facilities, the state of which in many cases is very far from ideal. Since the height of the West Siberian Plain is low (less likely the rapid spread of infection), it is this region that was chosen by the Soviet leadership to test nuclear weapons. The consequences of this locals feel to this day.

We did not accidentally talk so much about the natural and climatic features of this area at the very beginning of the article (such as the height of the West Siberian Plain): the same permafrost, which is everywhere in the northern part of the plain, is a factor that contributes to the growth of environmental tension. In addition, the absence of significant air movements in the winter time leads to an accelerated accumulation of smog mass over large industrial cities, which in this area are many.

Studies clearly show that the most significant environmental problems of the West Siberian Plain are typical for the Altai Territory, the Tomsk Region, and also the Omsk Region and the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District. In these areas, the risk to human health is exceeded by 80-85%! In general, similar problem areas occupy about 15% of the territory of the whole Western Siberia.

Characteristics of hazardous emissions

In Kemerovo, Novokuznetsk, Prokopyevsk, as well as Tomsk, Omsk, Barnaul and Tyumen (to a lesser extent), the situation becomes more and more deplorable every year. In air there is a sharply increased content of formaldehyde, benzapyrene and phenol. All these substances are the most terrible carcinogens. Add to this a huge amount of emitted carbon black and bivalent carbon monoxide. And one can not be surprised at the ever growing number of respiratory diseases among people living in these cities. Do not forget about the emissions of nitrogen dioxide, which is a powerful poison.

Oil refining industry

Each year, oil production burns about seven billion cubic meters of associated gas, which is at least 75-80% of its total volume. And this despite the fact that its technological losses can not exceed 5%. Torches from gas combustion in Western Siberia are perfectly visible even from outer space. It should be added that the degree of emission cleaning in the oil-refining industry in the region does not exceed 0.015%. Thus, the environmental problems of the West Siberian Plain are largely caused precisely by the unscrupulous attitude of large oil companies.

Radiation contamination of the area

About this is not so often said, but most of the territory of Western Siberia is in the zone of considerable radioactive contamination of the area. The main "merit" in this belongs to the enterprise "Chemical Concentrate" and "Siberian Chemical Plant". In Tomsk, where the last plant is located, a zone within a radius of at least 100 kilometers around the city is infected.

Do not forget that from the territory of Totsky, Novaya Zemlya and Semipalatinsk ranges for nuclear explosions, radiation contamination was far dispersed. It captures the Tomsk, Kemerovo and Novosibirsk regions. In addition, the long-suffering Altai Territory was partially affected by the blow, which is already constantly infected with heptyl that falls on its land from the falling stages of rockets from Baikonur. During the period from 1953 to 1961, a lot of explosions were made on these ranges, the consequences of which still make themselves felt.

But even this is not all. It is not customary to talk about this, but the West Siberian Plain is in a zone of fairly strong radiation contamination, since it has produced many underground nuclear explosions, the consequences of which are felt in the same Nefteyugansk. In Omsk, however, the central parts of the city are quite heavily polluted with radiation, while its peripheral areas remained practically clean.

Water pollution

Almost all of the territory of the West Siberian Plain is more or less contaminated with ammonium and iron salts, phenols and nitrates. Unfortunately, not even this is the most significant problem: the whole hydrographic network of the region has great problems in connection with oil production in the region. However, in the southern part of the West Siberian Plain there is a relatively prosperous situation in this respect.

Alas, in other localities MPC (the maximum permissible concentration) of petroleum products in water is exceeded by five or even 50 (!) Times. Especially this applies to the Novosibirsk, Tomsk and Omsk regions. It is important to understand that the whole (!!!) northern part of the long-suffering Western Siberia is infected in such a way that the MAC norms exceeded by 50-100 times do not surprise anyone. And now - the worst. Experts believe that about 40% of the entire territory of the region is in a state of permanent ecological disaster, since the norms for the content of oil products in water are exceeded 100 times or more.

Such are the ecological problems of the West Siberian Plain. Briefly summarizing, we can say that not everything is so bad. The above horrifying indicators are more typical for areas near major cities, which provides the "average temperature for the hospital." Everything could be much better, but the management of many enterprises is not at all interested in updating treatment plants (or even in their installation). But water is one of those treasures with which the West Siberian Plain is especially rich! A photo of its majestic rivers is in the article, so you can see for yourself.

Scientists-hydrologists say that the most threatening situation has developed on the stretch Biysk - Novosibirsk, where the Ob is most polluted. A little below the city of Kolpasheva, the degree of contamination of the river is also high, but at the point of confluence the picture becomes much better. Almost on all smaller rivers of the region the situation is absolutely identical. However, everywhere the same: the qualitative and quantitative pollution of the aquatic environment sharply decreases in the direction from the north to the south (in the north most of the minerals are mined).

Forest resources

Strangely enough, but the use (according to official data, of course) of the forest resources of Siberia is rather modest. The average volume of logging along the glades does not exceed 8%, while on average in the country this figure is 18%, and in some cases even more. The absence of planned thinning leads to the fact that the forest begins to age and die.

Thus, overpopulated arrays today are no less than 70% of the region. All this gradually leads to the fact that real "forest epidemics" are constantly occurring on the territory of Western Siberia, caused by invasions of wood dwellers and other pests. In addition, due to the aforementioned pollution of the water mirror, frequent cases of drying up whole forest tracts are observed.

Another trouble - fires, which in recent years, "famous" Russian and West Siberian Plain. Approximately 65% of unplanned losses of wood just the same fall precisely on them. We do not forget that approximately 25% of the taiga is in the zone of active oil production, which again sharply increases the probability of ignition of large areas. It is worth noting that the number of fires largely depends on the organization of local authorities. So, in the Kemerovo region there are many forests that are seriously affected by pests, but losses from fire are negligible (no more than 0.2%). This is how the West Siberian Plain is characterized in "forest" terms. Photos of the beautiful taiga are in our article.

Own stability of biotopes

Of course, the ecological status of biotopes in Western Siberia, like any other locality, largely depends on their own stability. The most important factors that somehow influence the degree of pollution are: bogging, perennial frost, density of the hydrographic network. Thus, the tundra and forest tundra are the least resistant, but the desert terrain is able to resist environmental problems for a long time. It can be concluded that the geological structure of the West Siberian Plain contributes to an unfavorable ecological situation.

The most difficult situation is currently observed in the Kemerovo region and in the Altai. In the first case, this is due to the intensive extraction of gas and oil, and in the second - to the work of Baikonur, since it is to the Altai that the spent first stages of carrier rockets fall. Environmentalists warn that in these areas should pay close attention to the implementation of environmental protection measures.

As you can see, the ecological problems of the West Siberian Plain are diverse and very serious. If you do not take any action right now, then many of them will no longer be corrected.