An independent, modern, prosperous Ukraine was the vision of
the young people that took to the streets to get rid of the Yanukovych regime
and many think there is a better chance of that in partnership with the European
Union than under Russian influence. But the fact is that the EU, US and their
transnational corporate partners (and the home-grown oligarchs) have very
different plans
And these do not hinge upon the prosperity and wellbeing of
Ukrainian citizens and their environment. Fracking on a massive scale will be a
prime focus for EU and IMF "loans", and Shell and Chevron, who signed
deals with ousted president Yanukovych in 2013, will be joined by all the usual
suspects.
Ukraine has an estimated 42 trillion cubic feet of technically
recoverable shale gas reserves, the fourth largest deposits in Europe behind
Poland, France and Norway. Since France is so far not in the market, Ukraine's
deposits are even more attractive. The US Energy Administration suggests Ukraine could be exporting shale gas
by 2020. With almost every Russian gas pipeline running through Ukraine, it
would be possible to create parallel infrastructure exporting shale gas.
The Russian government says it objects
to fracking in Eastern Ukraine because of fears about water pollution when
its actual fear is competition. That is not to say water pollution won't
happen, but it isn't stopping Russia's
own fracking plans for large areas of Siberia.
The corporations are moving into other areas of Ukraine’s
economy too. Ukraine's former collective farms were seized by oligarchs like
Oleg Bakhmatyuk and grown to the point where his agricultural
business UkrLandFarming is the worlds second biggest egg producer, and the
eighth largest grain exporter.
UkrLandFarming recently sold a 5% share to multinational
agri-chemical giant Cargill for £200m. Cargill already have a big operation in
Ukraine, with feed mills, oil production and grain silos.
Ukraine is poised to become the world's third biggest grain
exporter in 2014 overtaking Russia and Argentina, another blow to Russian
hegemony. But all this wealth will not be produced to benefit ordinary
Ukrainians. It will enrich the oligarchs and their global partners whilst it further
destroys Ukraine's land and ecology.
There is terrible air pollution throughout Ukraine, because
of the coal-burning industries of eastern Ukraine and poor regulation of
transport. The rich dark soil of the steppes is already suffering from erosion
and land slips due to over farming. Grain production is being sustained by the
application of huge quantities of chemicals and recent low rainfall has led to a
need for more irrigation.
The great rivers –
the Dnieper, Dniester, and Donets – are seriously polluted with chemical runoff.
The diversion of fresh water has made the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea more
saline, damaging marine wildlife and reducing fish stocks.
Ukraine must also go on coping with the aftermath of the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant explosion. Vast areas of farmland and forest are
contaminated with radioactivity including Strontium 90, but small farmers are
still working it.
Ukrainians just have to look across the border to Poland to
see that EU membership is not necessarily a route to modernity. Poland is still
a focus for dirty industries with low levels of regulation that EU giants
France and Germany would never permit on their own soil.
And the Polish government has put thousands of hectares of
prime agricultural land on the market in recent years – multinational purchasers
are accused of planning to exploit a legal loophole to start growing GM crops.
Polish farmers have been blockading
the land sales agency with tractors continuously for a year.
Millions of Ukrainians are now set to join the economic and
environmental struggles facing all of us on the planet - they are more than
welcome!
Penny Cole
Environment editor
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