Natalia V. Shabalina
Department of Geography, Moscow State University
117234 Moscow Vorobyovy Gory
RUSSIA
TEL: (095)939-37-89
FAX - (095) 932-88-36
Northern Russia is a region of relatively recent settlement. The basis of its economy is the exploitation of its natural resource potential. At the present time the development of fuel mineral resources is implicated in the rise in a number of ecological problems: zones of extraction and refinement are turning into zones of ecological poverty, they are polluting surface water, air, and leading to the degradation of topsoil.
Exceeding maximum permissible concentrations or pollutants by 10 times leads to irreversible environmental consequences, has an effect on the development of biotsenozy, and influences persons' health. Changing technological processes in industry and furnishing plants with new cleaning equipment demands significant capitalization. In conditions of the self-financing of the regions, a change in the priorities of the use of the natural resource potential may be considered as a "temporary respite" for the further use of capital-rich resources.
We may examine recreation as one alternative type of nature use in Siberia, which is, in our opinion, the least capital-intensive and the most ecologically safe.
Translated by Barbara Welling Hall
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