Eighteen years after Ukraine was struck by the world's worst nuclear accident -- the Chernobyl disaster -- ecological movements remain almost non-existent in the former Soviet republic still reliant on nuclear energy.
Radioactivity spewed by the April 26, 1986, explosion of Chernobyl's fourth reactor contaminated most of Europe, where it sparked a debate on the problems and dangers of nuclear development.
For Ukrainians, however, the tragedy's consequences had more of a political resonance than an ecological one -- five years before the downfall of the Soviet Union, Chernobyl exposed the lies and irresponsibility of the Soviet authorities charged with dealing with the crisis.
But although cases of cancer of the thyroid multiplied tenfold since 1986, Ukraine's population, a quarter of which lives below poverty level, is more concerned about daily survival than "ecology which is an abstract notion," said Olga Honcharenko, expert in Kiev's international sociology institute (KMIS).
According to a poll by KMIS, environmental problems place only 12th on the population's list of priorities.
Ukraine still has 13 nuclear reactors in four power stations, which produce nearly 45 percent of the national energy output.
Meanwhile, the government has met little resistance in its plans to soon complete the construction of two VVER nuclear reactors -- a Russian design whose safety has been questioned in the West -- and its plans to build a third thereafter.
The political party who could logically raise such concerns on a national level -- Ukraine's Green party -- has lost electoral trust because voters see it as having colluded with industrial bosses, analysts say.
With 30,000 officially registered members, the Greens are the largest ecology party in Ukraine. They won 5.43 percent of the vote during the 1998 legislative elections -- but four years later failed to even enter parliament, winning 1.3 percent.
While the Greens explain this setback by a poor electoral strategy, others see it as a well-deserved punishment for inaction and accuse the party of colluding with industrial bosses who own heavily-polluting factories.
The Greens' electoral list of 2002 in fact included Olexander Koval, former chief of the iron alloy factory of Nikopol.
Vitaly Kononov, current leader of the Greens, dismisses such charges, saying that all party members "behaved properly and voted like the party asked them to."
The long-haired Kononov said that the party's current priorities were fighting against genetically-modified products and boosting the quality of drinking water -- nuclear energy did not figure on the list.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS