It was often said, by half-hearted western Soviet apologists back in the
1970s, that one should wonder not why Russia was so badly ruled, but marvel
that it could be ruled at all.
I always assumed that this was a reference to the geographical magnitude of
the country and its diffuse ethnic mix, rather than an insinuation that
Russians themselves were genetically predisposed towards incompetent and
vicious autocracies. Might have to think again, though. A good proportion of
that geographical magnitude and ethnic mix got the hell out as soon as it
could in the years following 1991 - leaving Russia smaller, more ethnically
heterodox, but scarcely better ruled.
There’s another little nugget of information to wonder at with Russia:
despite, or perhaps because of, possessing one of the lowest population
densities in the world, it has wreaked easily the most environmental havoc
and misery of any country on earth. From Kamchatka to the Gulf of Finland,
Russia is still a land of acid rain, heavy metals and plutonium. Stick a pin
in a map of Russia and you are likely to alight upon a poisoned river or the
rusting hulk of a nuclear submarine, an irradiated steppe, some chemically
defoliated birch trees or a gently glowing peasant with a life expectancy of
34 years.
Karl Marx would have been impressed, I suppose, that in the great battle
between man and nature, the Soviet Union succeeded in wiping from the map
almost an entire sea - the Aral, now largely a toxic desert - and turning
the world’s deepest freshwater lake, Baikal, into a borscht of cadmium and
mercury deposits. Shorn of its dumb and vindictive state socialism it was
blithely assumed that Russia would improve, but there was nothing in
Russia’s history to suggest this would be the case.
Now the Russians have planted a flag 13,980ft beneath the North Pole, claiming
some half a million square miles of Arctic seabed for themselves (despite
being signatories to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea). There are
rich oil and mineral deposits down there.
It is assumed by the Russian newspapers that this is the first blow in the
battle for control of this bounty and that some day soon there will be a
brave new closed city like Chelyabinsk or Krasnoyarsk rising from the snow
up there - perhaps the usual tower blocks of grim concrete apartments
surrounded by belching refineries, decomposing seal carcasses and woebegone
polar bears.
It’s a pleasing, if naive, thought that the Arctic should belong to all of us
and, by extension, none of us. But if it is to be divided up I think I would
rather it fell into the hands of Chad than Russia. Maybe Moscow should be
told that it can have the North Pole when the Aral Sea has been restored to
its previous size and Siberia no longer has a half-life.
- Apparently, one in 11 British Muslims actively supports terrorist attacks
over here and a further 20% or so “empathise” with those who carry out such
attacks. This warning comes not from the BNP, but from a bloke called Haras
Rafiq, who is an adviser to the government. I’d put the figures slightly
higher - based on previous opinion poll findings - but Rafiq seems to be in
the right sort of area. That’s something like 400,000-plus British citizens
ready to either strap on the Semtex or smile indulgently while someone else
does so.
Who knows if this will come as a shock to the government, the leaders of
Muslim organisations and the BBC which insist that terrorism has “nothing to
do with Islam” and that each act of carnage is simply the work of rogue
nutters and wholly unconnected to the religion to which, seemingly by
coincidence, they adhere.
That terrorist attacks from people who coincidentally happen to be Methodists
or Unitarians or Hindus have been thin on the ground has not dissuaded the
authorities from this interesting, counter-intuitive point of view. Perhaps
Rafiq will have more luck.
He might add, too, that in one poll last year 40% of British Muslims wished to
see sharia law imposed in the country and that the proportion of those who
support or “empathise” with terrorist attacks increases markedly when
Israelis are the chosen victims.
We shall fight on the beaches...
Bin that Olympic logo immediately: here’s the perfect image of Britain, in a
photograph taken in Westcliff-on-Sea last week. An enormous elderly woman
has somehow got herself jammed in a deckchair on the Essex shingle and the
waves are beginning to lap about her feet. Soon perhaps she will drown.
But she does not look hugely perturbed. She is staying put - and unlike King
Canute, does not for a moment imagine that the waves can be held back: the
waves will do exactly as they wish.
“Look, you fat old trout,” the waves admonish her, as they begin their ingress
over her Dr Scholl’s, “this is what happens when you ignore repeated
government health warnings about obesity. We all told you and you wouldn’t
listen, would you?”
The photograph doesn’t reveal that the coastguards freed our heroine -
perhaps by slicing off vast swathes of thigh flesh, or after having summoned
a large crane. No matter, I prefer to think that she is still sitting there,
and with the water now around her neckline and her head tilted back to avoid
the endless grey sea, is puffing on one last exquisitely defiant cigarette.
A holiday read to make you fall about
Looking for something worth reading on the beach this summer - or to while
away those languid hours as your howling toddler is frisked for explosives
at Heathrow and her bottle of baby milk is fed to the sniffer dogs? And her
doll ripped open?
I suggest you forgo the usual selection of thrillers and the latest
sanctimonious tome from some middle-aged woman angry that people
occasionally misuse commas.
Why not go for a book you have already paid for once, through taxes? And will,
I’m sure, be only more delighted to pay for a second time.
You can buy The Role of Towels as a Control to Reduce Slip Potential from -
natch - the Health and Safety Executive. It’s the culmination of £12,000
worth of research into what happens when you step out of a bath onto a towel
you’ve placed on the floor to reduce the risk of breaking your neck. So, do
towels do the job? Let me spoil the book for you by giving away the last
line. “The testing carried out here is insufficient to draw significant
conclusions,” it says, with masterful understatement.
- A sense of utter futility and existential despair, not to mention laziness,
has led to me never, ever, taking any advice from green activists about how
I might cause less damage to the earth. I am convinced that pretty soon, for
example, it will be shown that recycling rubbish causes much more damage to
the ozone layer than simply flinging it out of your car somewhere along the
A5.
Listen to this latest news from the green lobby: walking is four times more
damaging to the ozone layer than driving a car. A brisk walk to the shops
will require you to eat 100 grams of, say, beef, thus resulting in 3.6kg of
emissions used to produce your steak. A car journey would produce less than
1kg of emissions. So, save the planet and buy a car.
West doesn't have to give us arctic, we'll take it ourselves. Many thanks for your concern though.
Peter, St.Petersburg, Russia
All the mal-educated Brits and yanks. Reading rubbish like that is to brainwash those of you who can read, Big Brother is for others who cannot. It does not matter what you think, remember how many of you objected NuLabour policies for the last 10 years and posted angry comments here - has anything changed? Nope, not a micron. So, just shut up, you ignorant lot, nobody cares what you think.
Boris, Uralsk, Russia
Felix, Canterbury , UK
have you ever been in US cities in June, LA or New York? London also isn't the most pleasant place to be. Do you know that around Moscow is alot of torf that gets burned every summer when temp. gets over 30C? We have problems but WE are solving them, leave your advises for Irakies
Marishka, Moscow, Minnesota
Uhhhh...wow...I'm crying from laught :)Very interesting article :) Just 1 thing - skin is the better index of ecology.Then why in "clear from ecological point of view UK women use make up at the age of 20 to hide pimples and acne, when Slavonic women (Russsi, Serbia, Ucraine etc.) have perfect clear skin and use make-up only to underline NATURAL beauty, not to hide smth...just think a bit 'bout that...
BAD'ka, Tomsk,nuclear Siberia , RUSSIA
Aha! "Iraq, we have already saved, it's time to save the Arctic..."
Kostya, Windisch, Switzerland
"Those angry Russian patriots (all living in the West)! I wonder when they were in Moscow last time. I was there in June. The air is just awful, you choke and taste the petrol. And huge heaps of litter and rubbish along each road. They should first learn to keep their own house clean before advising others."
Felix, Canterbury , UK
Oh, please... Moscow has the worst ecology ever seen... And its not Russia itself, just one city of many. If you want to know situation in the country, you'd better go somewhere else: e.g. visit all duty factories... After this you at least will have bits of reasons to tell about Russia...
Well, this is an advice for those who want to know about 'duty-Russia' only... ;)
Artem, Barnaul, Russian Federation
Sir,
I would be glad to sponsor your visit to Russia, so that after your return you could save your electricity bills by emitting gentle glow yourself. I would also be glad to sponsor your visit to Uzbekistan, so that you could see all that millions of people who are not anymore afraid of thirst thanks to the sacrifice of Aral sea.
regards,
gueladjo, Moscow , Russia
Very funny story. You are talking about Russia who is spending hunders millions and trying to keep oil pipes far from Baikal as possible or may be you try to tell as about ecology of Australia? Where now we can the desert with size of continent after british impact. Who is destroyed ecosystem there ?
Or may be remain Canada where in 70-th almost all lakes were dead?
Const, Waterloo, Canada
To Ivan, Moscow, Russia,
Ivan, this is exactly what I though when I read this article! Thanks for putting it so precisely!
Daniel, Heidelberg, Germany
Hey, guys.
I'am one of those gently glowing peasants, you've mentioned about. I am exceeded an average life expectancy, and I am very sorry about that.
----
i am not sure about 34 years life expectancy for russian peasants, but the official data puts life expectancy for males at 58 years, something unheard in any normal country ... in some areas the situation is plainly worse .. in the province of pskov male life expectancy is 51-52 years .. though the reason cited is usually the famous russian addiction to alcohol and not ecology
NB, TA,
Hey, guys.
I'am one of those gently glowing peasants, you've mentioned about. I am exceeded an average life expectancy, and I am very sorry about that.
----
i am not sure about 34 years life expectancy for russian peasants, but the official data puts life expectancy for males at 58 years, something unheard in any normal country ... in some areas the situation is plainly worse .. in the province of pskov male life expectancy is 51-52 years .. though the reason cited is usually the famous russian addiction to alcohol and not ecology
NB, TA,
That this article is nothing but ignorant rubbish can be known only to those more or less educated ones. All the others take this for granted.
But the fact is that now we are witnessing the more and more information of this kind is being poured on your heads. So now we can see that even the most educated of you just cannot resist being totally brainwased. I could not even imagine that your Propaganda Machine could be thus much more uncivilized, stupid and straightforward as we had in USSR (and I can clearly remember ours).
For us, Russians, reading all such materials is great fun. We even have a special news site, where people translate the funniest ones (this article by Rod was translated there too). But for you, from our point of view, it should be a real disaster.
Ivan, Moscow, Russia
Article comments are much more interesting than article itself. You can measure people attitude to the problem from more angles and much briefer. :)
My 2 cents. For now there was just successful deep dive under the North Pole. It doesn't give any rights of ownership of course. As stated in the international law rights of ownership are defined by the source of the seashelf. There is no scientific data on the actual location of the shelf yet. It can belong to Canada or Denmark for example. However in case it would be identified that this seashelf is stretched from territory of Russia it will be Russian territory.
Dan Gabdullin, Yoshkar-Ola, Russia
We have a politician-troublemaker in Russia who speaks in the same aggressive manner as Rod and does nothing for UK-Soviet relationships. His name is Zhirinovskij, I do not expect him to be known outside of Russia. I cannot speak for everyone but I think most of Russians see him as a clown, laugh at some colourful passages similar to “peasants gently glowing in the dark†but generally don’t want him to speak for them. I wonder whether Rod Liddle is a British analogue of our Zhirinovskij or he is a credible writer with impressive credentials – a former BBC editor and speech writer for the Labour Party?
Alex M., Russia/UK,
They never said that this territory belongs to them because they planted their flag there, just like Americans never claimed that the Moon belongs to them. The purpose of Russian expedition to North Pole was to prove that it is continuation of their continental shelf. They will be submitting a request to UN in that regard.
>Maybe Moscow should be told that it can have the North Pole when the Aral Sea has been >restored to its previous size and Siberia no longer has a half-life.
See, there is a difference between Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and etc and Russia. You can't tell them things, because they can respond.
>Rod Liddle left his post as editor of the BBC's Today programme in 2002, after a row about >impartiality in an article he wrote for The Guardian.
This does explain a lot to me. I honestly hope you'll be looking for a new job soon as such nonsense should not be tolerated.
Daniel, Heidelberg, Germany
Well, that replic about drugs seems reasonable for me :)
There is a russian joke - don't tell me what to do and I won't tell you where to go :)
UK people, first solve your own problems (hmmm, sounds good) in Iraq, Afganistan and EU, and then teach others.
And be aware, the heat and light you have is coming from Russia :):)
Konstantin , Moscow, Russia
And what attitude to Aral Russia has now? It is in territory of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, from our borders up to it of 500 km a minimum. And what do you think Russians must also answer for the Brazilian woods ?
Masha, Moscow,
It's a really interesting article. Such an aggressive and groundless reaction to a scientific expedition... It looks like Russia really has some rights to this territory and "West" just doesn't have any serious cases against.
Konstantin, Moscow, Russia
Ivan Groznyy (the Terrible) died almost 500 years ago, but Moscovia (Russia was called so at start and till Petr 1st got name Russia) didn't change much! At least, for better...
Excellent article, very exact and humorous.
Irene, L'viv,
Hey, guys.
I'am one of those gently glowing peasants, you've mentioned about. I am exceeded an average life expectancy, and I am very sorry about that.
Please, live us alone, with our oil and gas fields, poisoned rivers and rusting hulks of a nuclear submarines. Or, if you are envy of that, you can go to Russia and become one of us. We have plenty of land here, it will be enough for almost all of British journalists.
Best regards
AKOS, VVO, Russia
It would be better to write article call give Britain some land and look forward another toxic disaster. It seems that Rod Liddle forgot about scandals with british company BP which organized toxic disasters in Alaska, Texas, Siberia and many other areas. Mr. Liddle should think how to improve image of UK wich was damaged by toxic disaaers instead of acusing Russia in hypothetical sins
mike, Moscow, Russia
Just the facts:
US emits 1446777 thousand tons of CO2 every year and it grows by 10% every 6 years.
Russia emits 431090 (just one third of US) thousand tons of CO2 every year and it has been reduced by 20% from 1992 to 1996.
UK emits the same value of CO2 per capita as Russia.
Any questions?
Nick, Moscow, Russia
To Allan Bilder
You might want to take a look at biography of Henrich VIII, King of Great Britain. Great way to start an outlook - a nut case who murdered his wifes because they had annoyed him.
Guy, Ivan the Terrible died about 400 years ago, and Russia has already changed, yeah?
Bear.Brownie, Minsk, Belarus
Hey, guys.
I'am one of those gently glowing peasants, you've mentioned about. I am exceeded an average life expectancy, and I am very sorry about that.
Please, live us alone, with our oil and gas fields, poisoned rivers and rusting hulks of a nuclear submarines. Or, if you are envy of that, you can go to Russia and become one of us. We have plenty of land here, it will be enough for almost all of British journalists.
Best regards
AKOS, Moscow/Vladivostok, Russia
The truth is that if you randomly point at Russia's map there is more than 50% chance that it will be scarcely inhabited area with pristine forests or tundra and rich wildlife, despite all the damage done by the Soviet-style industrialisation (confined, to be sure, to a few agglomerations). Our greatest resources are not oil and gas. It is space, air from our infinite forests and sweet unpolluted water in any quantities. These things are already in short supply in the rest of the world. Oil is also in short supply, so if Arctic fields belong to one of the biggest producers with enormous proven deposits, the chances that they will be exploited any time soon, are much slimmer, than if they go to greedy multinationals. In the meantime you will be more motivated to find alternative sources of energy.
Dmitry, Moscow,
To Ian Kemmish:
Till what times you will think of Russia according to books of centenary prescription? May be I shall think of England according Oliver Twist?
Vladimir, Moscow, Russia
To consolidate Russia around of Putin's mode it is necessary to publish clauses of the author on the front pages of leading newspapers of the world every week.
Its "knowledge" of Russia guarantee 100 % success irrespective of a theme of clause. I think, the Kremlin would pay fees.
Jurij, Riga, Latvija
Hmm.. really interesting to read - not only the story, but comments as well.
I do not know the author, perhaps he is a nice and smart guy. However its always better when smart people write about matters they know about, not just heard. So, dear author, please, be a professional.
One more thing addressed to everybody: First of all thanks for stating your opinions. Look through written above once more. Then you'll notice, that people write what they hear from TV. TV (even CNN or BBC) shows what corresponding governments say. Its the same trivial as awfull!
In the EU I'm used to hear how TV news announcers interprete (not tell about but interprete!) facts I was a witness of. The same about this article.
This is a serious problem in the EU, US, Russia or whatever..
We thing and speak in the way spread by TV and governments... No freedom anywhere=) What people can do?
Back to the issue with the Nord Pole.. Lets follow international laws, and everything will be fine. Thats it
Evgeny, St. Petersburg, Russia
Ian, The West has already managed to 'help' Iraq, Afganistan and bomb Vietnam back to stone age. So you can take your 'helping hand' and shove it where sun don't shine. We don't need your help, go liberate yourselves and have an Iraqi style democracy. We can build our own.
Speaking of investments, if you paid any attention to oil prices today you would know that Russia is in position to help other countries just as easily as the British and the Americans. Russians can buy your entire country if they wanted to. The days of the British Empire are over, all Britain is today is an island nation largely controlled by Americans.
The times of Yeltsin are over, and as much as you want Russia to be a 3rd world country so you could steal our resources, it's never going to happen. It seems to me that the West is scared that Russia is becoming strong again. Personally I'm not a supporter of Putin, but after all he is Russia's democratically elected president, whether you like it or not.
Gennadiy, Yaroslavl, Russia
I am living in Mari Republic in the center of Russia, 50 kilometers from river Volga. I wouldn't say about large industrial cities, but in our region ecologoy is very good. Half of our republic is covered by beatiful pine forests, there are a lot of crystal clean lakes. People from megapolises visiting our town say that air is fresh even in the center of the town. More than that, I am fond of sport fishing myself and it is possible to catch 10-12 kilograms of fish per day right in center of the town.
There is always a place to improve, but situation is surely not as dramatic as it is described in the article. I welcome everybody to come and see yourself.
Dan Gabdullin, Yoshkar-Ola, Russia
Nice silly article.
D, London, UK
Exciting, sir! I'm going to subscribe to all your articles. Even soviet propaganda takes its hat off infront of your immortial creations. Please, keep on writing - gently glowing peasants of Russia love your stories!
Jurij, Petrozavodsk, Russia
You might want to take a look at Robert K. Massie's biography of Ivan the terrible (co-written with a Russian whose name escapes me for the moment). Massie quietly puts forward a theory that the Russian world view began with the reign of Ivan the terrible. Great way to start an outlook - a nut case who murdered his own son in a fit of pyschopathic rage.
Allan Bilder, Hammmonto, New Jersey USA
"They should first learn to keep their own house clean before advising others."---Felix, Canterbury , UK
Felix, you are completely confused. YOU who teach others, not WE (just recall the proposition to change Russian constitution...). It's YOU who screams about your "moral superiority" on every corner (having so much blood and dirt on your hands). We'll be much better off without your advices.
Citpeks, Tallahassee, US
If true, that extends the life of laughter, a couple more years, I achieved. The author, your cattle exquisite! Write more.
matrena, Moskow, Russia
Those angry Russian patriots (all living in the West)! I wonder when they were in Moscow last time. I was there in June. The air is just awful, you choke and taste the petrol. And huge heaps of litter and rubbish along each road. They should first learn to keep their own house clean before advising others.
Felix, Canterbury , UK
The author has shown the full ignorance of history, geography and ecology.
Congratulate the author - he receives my personal Grand prix on bias.
Ттакже to council to the author перкратить to look "confidential materials".
"Russians themselves were genetically predisposed towards incompetent and vicious autocracies". And it is nazism in the pure state. Who against? PS Where the author takes such good drugs? On a sober head such to invent it is impossible.
Dmitriy, Korolev, Russia
To Brien Comerford:
“…I concur that it is a nation that does not care about ecosystems, biodiversity, wildlife, endangered species or the animal kingdom…â€
You may wish to provide the Russians a good case of caring ecosystems, wildlife as well as lifes in a broad term by your nation in Serbia or Iraq. It seems to me that the latest example represents the environmental-safest approach to the development of gas and oil recourses.
Alex, Rochester, USA
Hmm, interesting:
Leo Tolstoy was the only famous vegetarian in Russian history and had been banned by Russian Orthodox Church as an heretic.
Adolf Hitler was the only famous vegetarian in German history and had been charged in a crime against humanity.
Does the vegetarianism so badly affect a human's mental state? I better go and have a piece of barbecued lamb then...
Vladimir, Ramallah/Rybinsk, PA/Russia
Hmmm care to tell us where China and India rank then? Alexi and Nikita, don't over-react, Rod loves provoking people, even when he doesn't know the subject he's discussing. Don't feed his little delusions of importance.
Nick, Boston, MA
Very funny, as usual, Rod. But I dispute the finding that walking is more damaging to the ozone layer. One reason we have so many fat people is precisely because car drivers do not eat less than walkers, although they require fewer calories.
JL, Liverpool,
Sir! You have to stop taking those drugs!
Your apocalyptic dreams of radioctive Russia smell like result of serious nervous disorder!
Krishna, Moscow, R.F.
Cold war ravings and a nice attempt to help the Canadian brothers. Stick a pin anywhere and you'll find Western garbage and contamination. Treviso, Bhopal, Three Mile Island, and you should know the places in Britain yourselves.
Pavel, Rostov, Russia
Rod pure brilliance on russia's environmental track record...
Mark Whittle, LONDON, UK
The world and it's hate-filled leftist media are too busy bashing America to focus on the real problems this world faces. We need a lot more focus on countries like Russia who are one of the biggest threats this planet currently faces. It is a horribly racist country with goverment of no morals or scruples. Just remember this is the country who is currently selling Iran nuclear technology!
Viv, London, England
Brilliant!
Lauren, New York, NY
Spot on regarding Russia. And glad to see that Moscovites are reading this, even if they can't see the truth.
Cit Yinn, London,
Americans have the cleanest record though. That's probably because they've destroyed pretty much all of their wildlife around a century ago and by now there's no one to remember anything. A bunch of national parks will surely compensate for that. LOL
Gregory Kutuzov, Novosibirsk/Los Angeles,
Westerners produce far more garbage per person than anyone else in the world; for example, an average American produces apprxmtly 1200 kgs of trash per year. Inconceivable? Duh!
I am in LA currently, and I just moved to a new place and trashed 85% of all my furniture because it is cheaper for me to do that than to sell it to someone. Inconceivable? Duh!
The West has NO MORAL REASONS to tell anyone on this planet what they can or cannot do. The world wannabe rulers, lol.
Gregory Kutuzov, Novosibirsk, Russia,
Russia Under the Soviet Regime messed up their country more than any other country on Earth is true, a prime example of Government run amuck with no checks or balances. This should give us pause in continuing to give more of our freedoms to Government . "We the People" was written to let us know that Government was to be limited not expanded each election. There is nothing Government can do effeciently and cost effective, however a "Free Market" can.
Larry, Modesto Ca.,
There is no equivelant to the HSE in France nor, as far as I know in any other country but the rate of accidents, etc. is lower in France, the US, Germany, etc. Why might that be?
R Mason, London, UK
When Michael Palin visited the North Pole, he had to speak quickly because the camera kept freezing, and because his plane could not risk turning off its engines, last they fail to start again.
That Russia will be capable of exploiting resources in such a hostile environment without massive international investment and material help is inconceivable. That Russia will be prepared to accept such investment and help on normal business terms is, at the moment, also inconceivable. These minerals are probably pretty safe for the time being.
In Anna Karenina (and later in Resurrection) the Russian peasants stubbornly resist any plan aimed at helping them. The mere fact that they cannot see any disadvantage to themselves in the plan is taken as absolute proof of the plan's and the landowner's subtlety and deviousness. These passages continue to resonate today....
Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK
To the ozone layer? Perhaps not. But it is true that composting your food and garden waste with a wormery creates more greenhouse gases than sticking the whole lot in a modern landfill site.
Strange, but true.
Tim Worstall, Messines, Portugal
Rod pure brilliance on russia's environmental track record...
Mark Whittle, LONDON, UK
Who are you to tell Russia and us Russians anything? Your little American poodle of island has less say in this than even Canada.
alexi stepankov, Moscow , Russia
Oh please. Not that old Canute canard again. The whole point of Canute's actions was to demonstrate to his flattering courtiers that the powers of an earthly king are limited. He could no more hold back the waves than any other mortal, and his exercise was intended to demonstrate that. Look it up if you doubt it.
David McGregor, Fitzroy, VIC, Australia
Why don't author tell us about the pollution of the capital of the UK, London? If the author has so much to say about pollution in other countries, one would assume that his own place is clean at least. But nowhere in the world I had to wash the dirt off my face every time I came back from the walk in the city as I had to do it in London. For centuries the UK has had the most polluted cities in the world, it did not stop the English from exploring other continents. So dear author clean your place first and then speak up.
Nikita, Moscow/Sydney,
I am not certain if Russia has the worse environmental record. But I concur that it is a nation that does not care about ecosystems, biodiversity, wildlife, endangered species or the animal kingdom. I think Leo Tolstoy is the only famous vegetarian in Russian history. You might be right !
Brien Comerford, Glenview, United States