Lake Baikal is a self-contained aquatic system; it is an isolated ecosystem, home to more than 1,500 endemic species found no where else on earth. Among these unique flora and fauna are the Baikal seal believed to be a relative of the Arctic ringed seal, 3,220 kilometers away), and the omul, a fish considered to be a delicacy in the region. Some of the plants and animals can be dated to prehistoric times. As a result, Baikal is a huge natural laboratory.

Lake Baikal resides on one of the two deepest land depressions on Earth. (The other is the Marianas Trench in the Pacific.) The rift is over nine kilometers in depth. Little is understood about this huge fault zone. Hydrothermic vents below the surface cause heavy tectonic activity, with the result of minor earthquakes every few hours. Three large plates meet in this rift, which seven-kilometer-deep sediment shows to be more than 25 million years old. Baikal is the oldest, largest, and most unique (species-wise) lake in the world.

Plans for the paper mill at Baikalsk began in 1954. The public was informed in 1957; protests were held, and ignored. The plant was built on the belief that heating Baikal's mineral-free waters, then spraying them over the pulp of the Siberian pines, would produce a "super" cellulose that could be used to make durable jet tires for Soviet Air Force planes.

A report released in 1998 by the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that of the ten most polluted cities in the world, seven can be found in China. Sulfur dioxide and soot caused by coal combustion are two major air pollutants, resulting in the formation of acid rain, which now falls on about 30% of China's total land area. Industrial boilers and furnaces consume almost half of China's coal and are the largest single point sources of urban air pollution ...

Although the Three Gorges Dam is seen as both an important source of energy for China's growing electricity consumption needs and a means of taming the Yangtze River, notorious for its disastrous floods, the controversial dam also could prove to be an environmental disaster. Thus far, few attempts have been made to address concerns regarding the accumulation of toxic materials and other pollutants from industrial sites that will be inundated after construction of the dam ...