Since I was prepping for an Earth Day presentation at church, I decided to spend a few minutes looking at the state of the environment in Russia, too. Today, I'm going to turn what I learned into two posts: Russia's eco-profile and my thoughts on raising environmentally responsible kids who were born there, but now live here.

Some of Russia's current ecological state is the legacy of the Soviet Union: Its economy, like many others in the developed world, relied heavily on industrialization to grow in the early part of the 20th century. But unlike the United States, where there has been some effort to measure and limit industrial pollution over the last 40 years, Russia's factories emptied, unchecked, into its air and water supply. Lake Karachay in the southern Urals has been called the most polluted spot on earth by the Worldwatch Institute because it was a dumping ground for radioactive waste. And 21 years after it happened, scientists are continuing to measure the impact of the devastating nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl, in what is now Ukraine.

Since Perestroika, Russia has been catching up to the West in auto ownership--and auto pollution. But its industrial production has reeled in the new economy and factory pollution has fallen. Nevertheless, Russia continues to feel the impact of contaminations past and present: A recent story in The New York Times said that global warming has forced Russia's polar bears to move out of their natural habitat and into closer contact with populated areas. As a result, Russian authorities were now weighing whether to allow hunting of the bears.

According to the United Nations, Russia's annual emissions of carbon dioxide, stood at 1,432,513 thousand metric tons in 2002, the most recent year for which the U.N. has statistics. That makes Russia the world's fourth-biggest polluter. But Russia's annual CO2 emissions are less than half those of China, the number three polluter. And they only about 24% of the annual CO2 emissions by the world's largest contributor to global warming: the United States. Russia, for the record, ratified the so-called Kyoto Protocol, which sets limits on greenhouse gas emissions, in November 2004. The U.S. still has not.

There are a handful of Earth Day activities going on in Russia today. Many of the events will be taking place in Moscow, such as a bike ride and concert sponsored by a group called Carfree Russia and an eco festival in Park Pobedy.