Lake Baikal in Russia

National Geographic Article Adrian Foster The National “The World’s Great Lake” is an epic tale of the people who live around Lake Baikal and their troubles with the cellulose plant that pollutes it. The article began talking about Sergei Vasiliev, Captain of the Albatross. He impart blames himself for the plant that sits in Lake Baikal. The text states that “He still wonders if he would have found the courage to speak his mind that fateful July in 1954.” July 1954 in mentioned because that’s when Captain Sergei Vasiliev gave the government officials a two week “cruise” around the great lake. Albatross is a scientific research ship. Mr. Vasiliev being widely known as the greatest of the Lake Baikal ship captains naturally was appointed captain over the scientific vessel. He later on found out that he would regret that decision. The “very serious,” “very powerful” men on the ship were planning on putting a plant on the lake. Thus polluting it. Lake Baikal is the world’s oldest and deepest lake. So immense is lake Baikal that if all its 386 tributaries dried up tomorrow, its volume-some 23,000 cubic kilometers of water could keep the Angara River flowing close to 400 years. The plant makes the lake an environmental battle ground, but it’s also a God sent to many in hard times that surround the lake. As the narrator explores the lake he runs into several people who live off the lake and use it for survival. Mikhal Grachev The director of the limn logical institute in Irkutsk, tells how 200 square kilometers have been polluted by the cellulose. Russia government won’t do anything about it because it brings the country money. Natives at the Buddhist datson and monastery near the buryat capital live off the lake. They have been struggling to obtain their culture after decades of darkness brought by Stalin and his red army in the 1930’s. The Baikal seal lives in Baikal and nowhere else on earth. It is fully adapted to the fresh water. Its nearest