Caspian Sea and Pollution

Environmentalists like to point their finger at "big oil" for pollution problems. This is a fairly balanced article that notes the blame for the degradation of the Caspian and its fisheries resources is a result of numerous sources.

Analysis: Oil pollution in the Caspian

by John C.K. Daly
Washington (UPI)
Sep 20, 2007

The Caspian is the world's most easily accessible major oil region yet to be fully developed. Both Western nations and former Soviet republics are rushing to exploit its vast hydrocarbon wealth.

Environmental issues are increasingly moving to the forefront of this exploitation. While nations bordering the Caspian piously insist that environmental worries top their list of concerns, cynics maintain that environmental issues are a facade for the nations to rewrite what they have come to regard as increasingly exploitative production-sharing agreements signed in the heady days following the implosion of the Soviet empire. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

The Caspian is the world's largest enclosed body of water, with a surface area of 143,244 square miles. Its pollution comes from three sources: inflowing rivers bringing contaminants from their watershed area, offshore oil production platforms and the rising Caspian tanker trade.

As for riverine pollutants, the bulk comes from Russia. As the Volga flows through Russia's European heartland, and 11 of Russia's 20 largest cities are...(complete story here).

The world likes to point its finger at the U.S. for the pollution problems on this earth. We actually do a better job than almost any nation in the world at protecting our water, land and air resources. Yes, we do generate a lot of garbage and a lot of air pollutants because of our level of industrialization and our advanced economy, but if we manage them the way other countries did, we would have to put snow plows on our vehicles to move the garbage out of the way to get to work and wear respirators and oxygen tanks to breathe.