Lake Baikal is spared
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Posted on April 27, 2006
Filed Under Justice, Deep ecology, Ecological overshoot, Ecological hope, Fossil fuel dependency, Environmental disasters, Earth spirituality
Today from Margaret Swedish:
Apparently, the pristine natural wonder, Siberia's Lake Baikal, will be spared the threat of an oil pipeline. In a previous post, I reported that the Russian government had approved a plan to build an oil pipeline route that would have brought it close to the lake's northern shore. Environmentalists protested that a leak or break in the pipeline could threaten Baikal's pristine waters. The lake contain's 20 percent of the world's fresh water and is rich in biodiversity.
The area is prone to seismic activity, raising the level of fear.
Yesterday, President Vladimir Putin announced that the route would be changed to take it safely away from the lake's watershed. Transneft, the Russian pipeline monopoly, is complaining that moving the route will make it prohibitively expensive to build.
Said Putin (quote in NY Times): "If there is at least a tiny chance of polluting Baikal, we, thinking of future generations, must do everything not only to minimize this threat, but to exclude it."
Would that this approach would rule over all other such delicate decisions regarding the earth's precious ecosystems.
Oil v. the precious natural resources of the earth. In this case, earth wins.
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