Top of Pollutions

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In a week where the highlights from the environment side of the legal research area count goods and bads including the ruling by a federal court in Vermont, US, approving state regulation aimed at curbing carbon emission in lack of federal initiatives; new outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in Surrey, UK; and the publishing of the IUCN’s (the World Conservation Union) annual report sounding the alarm bell over the state of worlds wildlife, inter alia, pointing out that 188 further species are in danger of extinction compared to last year, yesterday’s list of the World’s most polluted places only seems to add to the list of bads. The list, compiled by the New York based environmental group The Blacksmith Institute, list the ten most polluted places in the world and includes sites in Russia, Azerbaijan, China, India, Ukraine, Peru and Zambia. Compared to the list from last year, this year’s new entries include Tianying, China and Sukinda in India. The site of Tianying in China, for instance, affects more than 140,000 people through one of the largest lead productions in China. The average lead concentration in the air and soil of Tianying is 8.5 times and 10 times, respectively, the national health standards. The Sukinda Valley area in India, for instance, contains 97% of India’s chromite ore deposits and one of the largest open cast chromite ore mines in the world. Twelve mines continue to operate without any environmental management plans and over 30 million tons of waste rock are spread over the surrounding areas and the Brahmani riverbanks. The mining operations in the valley potentially affect around 2.6 million people.

As all of the countries on the list are developing countries, according to the World Bank’s definition, the chart highlights the importance of exporting technical and scientific assistance and knowledge to these countries in order to secure that the affected populations, and the environment, are not left behind in the strive towards economic development.

You can read more about the Blacksmith Institute here: http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/get10.php

and the report here:

http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/wwpp2007/finalReport2007.pdf

Photo courtesy of Madhavan/MMP-India/Blacksmith Institute



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