This Week on Earth: Oct 16-22

Photo Credit: Douglas Sprott, March 2011 — Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, via Wikimedia Commons

UKRAINE

Ukraine is set to be the first country to investigate damages to the natural environment as war crimes, according to the Kyiv Post. Damage to oil refineries, agro-processing facilities and water infrastructure has potentially caused serious air pollution and contamination of water supplies. Most notably, the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam earlier this summer and the massive flooding that ensued will result in drought across one million hectares of farmland as well as organic pollution to freshwater reservoirs and the Black Sea. 

So far, Ukrainian prosecutors have recorded over 265 environmental war crimes committed by Russia during the invasion.

“Using the examples of these recorded crimes, we have shown our European counterparts how Russian aggression is destroying the environment. In terms of severity, duration, and scale, they are perhaps the largest environmental crime on the European continent,” Maksym Popov, Advisor to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, said. 

JAPAN

Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency were at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan last week to test samples of fish, seaweed, seawater and sediment for radioactivity. 

In 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused meltdowns in three of the four reactors of the power plant, releasing highly radioactive cooling water into the ground. The contaminated water has since been treated to eliminate tritium, a radioactive isotope of water, but storage tanks for the wastewater are reaching maximum capacity. As such, the Japanese government authorized the release of the treated water into the Pacific Ocean, a decision that came under intense scrutiny by the international community.

“I would say that the first two batches of releases went well. No issues were observed,” Lydie Evrard, deputy director general of the IAEA, said. 

A detailed report containing all data collected by the agency is expected to be released at the end of the year.

CALIFORNIA-CHINA

California Governor Gavin Newsom promised during a visit to China that his state will always be open to collaborating on issues of climate change. Relations between China and the U.S. have been frosty in recent years, but Newsom sought to distinguish California as a reliable ally independent of American foreign policy as a whole. 

“I want you to know, regardless of what happens nationally, sub-nationally, you have a partner in the state of California,” he stated at a discussion on climate at the University of Hong Kong.