Environment in Ukraine

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 508.

Unit 10

1. Look at the pictures and describe them in terms of the events depicted. How do these pictures characterize the overall environmental situation in Ukraine and separate regions? The cities depicted (downward): Ivano-Frankivsk, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Prypiat, Donetsk.

2. Ukraine as any other country in the world will have to deal with climate changes. Look through the maps of the aggregate climate change impact, vulnerability and overall capacity of Europe to mitigate the climate change effect. How is Ukraine characterized on these maps? Look and discuss in pairs to present the class.

3 (a). Look at the territory occupied by Ukraine on the map of Europe below. What climate changes can we expect?

3 (b). Read about the climate change in Ukraine. Correct the statements below.

The New Climate Era

The Ukrainian Week # 13 (36), August 2012

Global warming could have both a negative and a positive impact on Ukraine, depending on whether its economy will be able to adapt to climate change in a timely manner

The climate in Ukraine largely changes in line with the global pace. At this point, Ukraine is not among the countries most vulner­able to the global dynamics of cli­mate change, reports the UN inter­national group of experts. How­ever, a permanent rise in the average annual temperature may result in dramatic transformations in a vast part of Ukraine's physical and climatic landscape. The Car­pathian, Southern and South-Eastern regions of Ukraine will be the most vulnerable. A rise in humid­ity resulting in flooding is pro­jected for the Carpathian area, while Southern and South-Eastern Ukraine may experience lengthy droughts and desertification of vast territories.

Ukrainian researchers believe that the country's climate has al­ready become less continental and is growing more similar to an oce­anic climate in some areas. These transformations have triggered a shift of climate zones that are slowly moving northward and are changing the natural system as they destroy natural ecosystems. The forest-steppe parts of Ukraine are no longer considered to be evenly humidified areas.

All these transformation have been affecting various areas of life in Ukraine for a while now. Their effect is particularly visible in agri­culture, which accounts for over 8% of Ukraine's GDP. Despite op­timistic expert projections of bet­ter grain crops in the case of mild warming, the expected rapid rise of the average annual temperature will have a disastrous impact on Ukrainian agriculture, if it fails to adapt itself to new climate conditions. Agricultural output will decline, while its share in GDP will drop by several percent in the long term. In addition to insect-pests, the amount of which is boosted by the warming, fertile soil can be damaged by erosion and desertifi­cation, as a result of the microclimate becoming more arid.

Currently, Ukrainian agricul­ture is not responding to climate change properly, as it is choosing the easiest way. To minimize the losses caused by natural disasters, many farms are switching to grow­ing technical plants that are less vulnerable to bad weather. As a re­sult, the area under rapeseed crops being grown instead of wheat and vegetables is increasing signifi­cantly, particularly in Crimea and the Odesa, Mykolayiv and Kherson Oblasts. In 2008, Ukraine was the top European country for area planted with rapeseed which, along with sunflower, covered 1/5 of the total area under crops. Ex­perts have already categorized rapeseed as an environmental weapon against Ukraine, exhaust­ing the fields and turning chornozem, the fertile black soil, into the lands that can no longer be farmed.

As a result of the droughts that have become common in Eastern Ukraine in recent years, the growth of vegetables, especially potatoes, beetroots, cucumbers and cabbage has shrunk, thus af­fecting the population's food sup­ply. Cabbage, potato, sugar and buckwheat "crises" that have oc­curred now and then during in past two decades, have been a wor­rying signal, against the backdrop of the expected increased deterio­ration in the world food situation. Socio-economic troubles and the vulnerability of the agricultural sector to the world market will make the rural population particu­larly sensitive to the consequences of climate change.

Global warming will have a heavy impact on the water supply, primarily drinking water, in the most arid areas. Crimea and some Southern oblasts of Ukraine are al­ready suffering from a shortage of good quality water, and the prob­lem of the increase in the annual temperature will aggravate this. The quality of surface water, espe­cially in shallow rivers, could also worsen, which will lead to the spread of infections.

In social terms, climate change will disproportionately affect peo­ple with a low income, having the heaviest impact on socially vulner­able groups with limited access to energy, water and a good quality food supply, as well as other ser­vices, including healthcare.

Experts add migration and hu­manitarian problems to the list of socio-political risks of natural transformations. Researchers an­ticipate that global warming will make part of currently inhabited territories unsuitable for habita­tion, and provoke greater migra­tion flows to other places, includ­ing Ukraine. Meanwhile, internal migration is also possible, with people from Southern and Eastern Ukraine, suffering from a short­age of water and droughts, moving to central and western oblasts.

This challenge re­quires a comprehensive response from the government to make adjust­ments to climate change nation­wide and locally, also prevent the worst case scenarios. In Novem­ber 2010, the National Security and Defense Council drafted a plan of adjustment to climate change for 2011-2013, but it would require multi-billion in­vestments for implementation, which is not provided for in the state budget.

1. According to the UN experts, Ukraine will be the country most vulnerable to the climate change impact.
2. The parts of Ukraine which are likely to face dramatic climate changes are the Dnieper River pool and central regions.
3. Eastern parts will suffer from increased precipitation.
4. The habitats in Ukraine are moving southward, which mitigates the effect of the climate change.
5. The effect of climate change is especially visible in industry.
6. Ukrainian agricultural sector is all set for the climate changes.
7. Rapeseed is the best crop for chernozem.
8. The rural population will be less sensitive to agricultural crises than urban.
9. Water supply of fresh drinking water will not be affected by climate shifts.
10. Internal migration in Ukraine will be caused by economic reasons.
11. The Ukrainian government encourages investments in climate change mitigation projects.

4. One the world environmental news headliners is 1986 Chernobyl meltdown and its aftermaths. Watch the NewsHour report “Revisiting Chernobyl, a nuclear disaster site of epic proportions” and fill the gaps in the fragments of the script below.

There's no doubt radiation causes cancer and _____________ . The fast moving _______ particles plow into _____________ with enough energy to knock lose ________ . That dangled molecules called __________ can kill or damage ________ . Enough of this would kill you quickly. Less damage can cause cancer or if _______ as the target, create genetic __________.

Pripyat was just one of __________ towns and settlements ________ after the accident. More than _________ people were displaced. But a few hundred stubborn holdouts remain on the land.

Ukraine is asking the West for $ ______________ to pay for a new shelter over the old ____________ that would last a hundred years. Beneath it all there melting which is brew of radioactive ____________ including ____________ , which has a ___________ of __________ years meaning in ___________ years half of it will still be here and __________ years later half of that will still be here and so on.

(b) Discuss the issues below using the whole video fragment:

1. Why does Chernobyl bring memories back nowadays?
2. Why is the Chernobyl exclusion zone an attractive place for some people?
3. What aftermaths of the Chernobyl meltdown were the most alarming for Europe?
4. How was the meltdown stopped? How many Soviet Army conscripts are estimated to have taken part in it?
5. What were and are the immediate and long-lasting effects of ionizing radiation on the population?
6. What is the opinion of the UN Chernobyl Forum? Why don't local doctors agree with this conclusion? Can you explain such difference of ideas?
7. What is the impact of the radiation on plants and animals in the exclusion zone? Speak about pine trees, barn swallows and grasshoppers. Why is the research of fruit flies so important for solving ‘the Chernobyl riddle'?
8. What is the greatest challenge about building a new confinement for the sarcophagus of the Chernobyl Reactor No. 4?

5. Another big issue nowadays is Ukraine's energetic security the way to which is fathomed through fracking or developing shale gas fields.

(a) Read the texts weighing pros and contras of this new energy source.