446). As cover is diminished, the problem is acceler-
ated. The extent of cutting is not well documented,
as the areas involved are vast, but there have been
reports of poaching for years. Satellite technologies
might allow for better monitoring and management.
Health Outcomes
Poor environmental conditions affect the health
of humans and other living creatures in polluted eco-
systems. Russia’s list of endangered species includes
400 animal species and 676 plant species (Sinitsyna
2007b). While specific causes are complex and diffi-
cult to demonstrate, there are known links between
various environmental exposures and serious adverse
health outcomes. As a prominent environmental ad-
vocate in Russia noted, “illnesses related to poor en-
vironmental conditions touch the majority of the Rus-
sian population...2.5-3 million lives could have been
saved between 1995 and 2009 had it not been for dire
environmental conditions”(Yablokov 2010, 8). An-
other article notes that two-thirds of all Russians live
in ecologically unsafe areas. In Moscow, which has
31,000 industrial enterprises, among other pollution
sources, about 11,000 people die each year because of
environmental pollution (Sinitsyna 2007b). Russia has
substantial population risks to include a decline in life
expectancy rates, an increase in mortality rates, and
an increase in rates of illness. Russia’s population has
declined by about seven million people since the col-
lapse of the Soviet Union.
Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise In-
stitute noted that in 2008, the life expectancy of young
Russian males is lower at age 15 than for young males
in Haiti, a desperately poor and undeveloped nation.
He concludes that Russia has a remarkable health cri-