Stop the construction of an oil pipeline in a World Natural Heritage Site!Please go to http://www.babr.ru/?pt=truba to say NO!
Please give your support to stop oil pipeline construction next to Lake Baikal!
This might be our last chance to stop a project to build an oil pipeline through the Lake Baikal basin in the immediate vicinity of the lake (as close at 800 metres at one point, and crossing 10 major rivers flowing into the lake, and 113,4 kilometres of the UNESCO World Heritage Site).
In very dubious circumstances the state organisation responsible for carrying out environmental impact assessments has approved the project of the state oil pipeline monopoly, "Transneft." It is likely that only the intervention of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, can prevent the project going ahead before it is too late.
Thousands of signatures have been collected against the project via the Internet (to date - 12625). Thousands more (over 16,000) have been collected in Irkutsk region to a petition to President Putin to call off the project.
In the event of an accident, within 20-40 minutes, up to 40,000 tons of oil could enter the lake with catastrophic consequences. The area is one of the most seismically active in Siberia where, in 1911, the most severe earthquake on Russian territory occurred. Scientists of the Irkutsk branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have warned that in the case of such an accident some 10 thousand square kilometres of the lake (one third of the lake) would be covered by oil, bringing about the destruction of the major part of the lake's endemic organisms.
Containing 20% of the earth's liquid fresh water, Lake Baikal became a World heritage Site in 1996. The IUCN report recommending it for World Heritage status describes the lake as "a classic case for a World Heritage site meeting all four natural criteria. The Lake itself is the centrepiece of the site and it is its largely unseen underwater features that are the core of its value to both science and conservation.
The surroundings of the lake with its taiga-clad mountain scenery and wildlife resources still mostly existing in a natural state is an added bonus. LB is in a class by itself, limnological wonder and a region of superlatives:.Lake Baikal is one of the most biodiverse lakes on earth with 1340 species of animals (745 endemic) and 570 species of plants (150 endemic)."
Please give your support to stop oil pipeline construction next to Lake Baikal in http://www.babr.ru/?pt=truba