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Norilsk

‘A Trash Heap for Our Children’: How Norilsk, in the Russian Arctic, Became One of the Most Polluted Places on Earth

A smelting company has poisoned rivers, killed off boreal forest and belched out more sulfur dioxide than active volcanoes. Now it wants to produce more metal for the “green economy.”

By Marianne Lavelle

Vasily Ryabinin scales an overlook on the Taimyr Peninsula in June 2020, with the sprawl of the Norilsk Nickel complex visible below. He toured the area with Russian journalists shortly after resigning from his job with Russia's environmental protection agency due to his concern over what he saw as its failure to fully investigate the spill of 6.5 million gallons of diesel fuel into Arctic waterways last year. Credit: Yuri Kozyrev, NOOR

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