What would one answer if asked what the biggest environmental problem in Bulgaria was? For me, none of the numerous environmental problems in the country would be the worst, since they all share the number one slot.
The initial impact is on the natural environment, caused by runaway construction in protected areas, and forest fires, both of which chase away rare and valuable wildlife, for example, birds and insects unique to Bulgaria and some parts of Europe. Devastation to habitats mean irreversible damage to plant species, many of which can only be found now in protected areas.
Another problem is unsustainable, dirty fuels and the burning of coal. We dictate how these fuels are used and to what extent. For Bulgaria, as a post-communist country, it is natural that people see it as a privilege to own a car. But now, without any restrictions on the number of vehicles on the roads, they want to own more and more and drive as often as possible. Many people regard it as shameful to share a car or to switch off the engine while waiting to pick someone up. What does it take to teach them that their health and well being – and the environment’s – depends on clean air?
Energy policy naturally depends on the state. Worldwide, there are very few state leaders who have decided on decent, reasonable and sustainable energy policies, and invested in them. You could argue, of course, that it is not economically sound. But is it preferable after a very few years to have to invest more and more in health care and bear the consequences of destroying land to build a mine polluting a whole region, like Stara Zagora, and to construct coal-fired thermal power plants and other heavy industries?
Then there is nuclear energy. It has always seemed funny when they say that nuclear energy will counteract climate change. Out of the frying pan, into the fire, I say. Yes, naturally, if countries replace their coal-fired thermal power plants with nuclear stations, carbon dioxide emissions will drop, but what will be left? Another unimaginably polluting industry.
I recently met someone who had worked at Kozloduy nuclear power plant. He was a defender of nuclear energy and explained that the average “permitted” radiation from Kozloduy was as high as the radiation in Sofia, as Vitosha was a granite mountain. But every day, when you enter Kozloduy, they measure your body’s radiation level and, if it is higher than permitted, they don’t let you in. You will be allowed back in a few days, “during which you have take a lot of showers to decrease the radiation”. (I’ve never heard so much nonsense in my life.) So, if conditions for workers are so “special”, doesn’t that suggest something is wrong? And we have not yet even broached storing nuclear waste. Or nuclear accidents, which pose a real danger in areas of seismic activity, such as Belene, where a nuclear power plant is to be constructed.
