Tomorrow is the World Environment Protection Day

The World Environment Protection Day will be celebrated tomorrow. This holiday was established in 1972 by UNO General Assembly in order to turn public attention to the necessity to protect and improve environment. In Russia this day coincides with the professional holiday of ecologists, approved by the decree of Russian President in 2007. It will be celebrated for the second time.

Our country is rich with natural resources and the largest number of untouched ecological systems – more than 20% - is still preserved in Russia and it is important to save them for future generations.

Unfortunately the common ecological situation both in the country and in the world has the tendency to aggravation. For the last 10-15 years aggravation of several most crucial ecological showings was registered in Russia. More than 140 Russian cities have high and very high level of pollution. As Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, more than 40 million people live on unfavorable territories from the point of view of ecology and more than one million – on the territories where the level of pollution is considered dangerous. Every year about 350 thousand Russians die because of bad ecology and only air pollution costs 85 thousand lives annually according to information of Federal Service for Supervision in sphere of natural resources. Ecological situation in such big Russian rivers as Volga, Ob, Lena, Oka, Kama, and some others remains difficult and the main reason is water pollution and sewage. For example in Bashkortostan more than 60% of sewage is not cleared enough and 2% of sewage is poured out without any refinement. About 100 million hectares of soil in Russia are found under the threat of desertification and nearly a half of all agricultural lands is subject to erosion.

The state undertakes necessary steps to increase environmental activity at all levels, strengthening ecological control and opening new specially protected natural territories but the care about environment we live in is not just the care of the state and it should become social liability for every citizen and every director of either enterprise or organization. The World Environment Protection Day is a good reason to remember that preservation of natural treasures is necessary first of all for us.