OhMyCrom! 4 million tons?
Environment
Landscape near Norilsk
Much of the surrounding areas are naturally treeless tundra.
Pollution
The nickel ore is smelted on site at Norilsk. The smelting is directly responsible for severe pollution, generally acid rain and smog. By some estimates, 1 percent of the entire global emissions of sulfur dioxide comes from this one city. Heavy metal pollution near Norilsk is so severe that mining the surface soil is now economically feasible, as a result of acquiring high concentrations of platinum and palladium through pollution.[11]
The Blacksmith Institute[8] included Norilsk in its 2007 list of the ten most polluted places on Earth. The list cites air pollution by particulates (including radioisotopes strontium-90, and caesium-137 and metals nickel, copper, cobalt, lead, and selenium) and by gases (such as nitrogen and carbon oxides, sulfur dioxide, phenols, and hydrogen sulfide). The Institute estimates four million tons of cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, arsenic, selenium, and zinc are released into the air every year.[citation needed]
According to an April 2007 BBC News report,[12] the company accepted responsibility for what had happened to the forests, and insisted they were taking action to cut the pollution. For the period up to
2015?2020 the company expects to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by approximately two-thirds, but admits it is hard to guarantee this pace of reduction because they are still developing the technology. CNN has claimed that there is not a single living tree within 48 km (30 mi) of the nickel smelter Nadezhda ("The Hope").[13]-- Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens. -- Jimi Hendrix