january 19th on d, w. o. o. for the tiger, a massive ecosystem home to many species of animals and plants. it's the neurologist. conf. forrest forrest on those as idols. i see this is a huge region, a huge forest. the 1st time you take a look at it, everything looks the same. then you walk a few meters so and you think you're seeing something new all over again by the taiga is vital to the survival of the planets climate. to see their vault this siberian forest acts as a lung for the earth that it but the russian tiger is in danger. oil spills clear, cutting strip mining and fires a taking their toll on this unique habitat. one of the most important ecosystems on earth is in peril. did 50 the destruction is real. and there are already some sections of the tiger that have basically collapsed. um awesome. oh, good. could put a dense impenetrable forest. an almost mythical concept in russian culture. cruz face, the vast expanses of forest gifts, the us it's green color. but how long will this last? i on the tiger rushes green loan in distress. blue the angle ah, a river of great beauty. around 1800 kilometers long. it cuts across the russian tiger. it's banks aligned with pine, and launch trees. ah, this is the home of dmitri sla, budget, cough hunter. and so may, can those almost every bend in the river that begins its life in lake by kyle for dimitry the lake has something of a mystical quality to it. as well as the beulah corblu annual bill villages. i'm originally a biologist and in biology there's a good term habitat. it's everything the place where something lives at the place that provides sustenance and a place from which you draw energy brought him to my people a place without which you have no home or mister bas. got dorothea voss to bills de la mancha rosa michael knowledge a store to him a suitable for the most to show that by cow. this human habitat has its own character, but you can really feel, i'm the worst goddess every one who lives here can confirm it. to what effect on you, if you don't take in its personality, it's character and submit to it your lot. you talk irish circle. i missed him. when you chose to intervals. dmitri believes in the power of nature. he still drinks the water here. but his paradise is in danger, especially because of the many tourists who come to lake by carland leave their garbage behind. dmitri fears for the future. yeah, good dickerson, aetna, i'm like a wild animal is it? when the city spreads out, which animals move further away from the streets from the noise, the music, the racket, new. so i'm the same way yellow. that means the more tourism there is a round lake by called the farther north. i go to feel my own project listening much. we break the se in the tiger. dmitri lives both with and from nature. as a blogger, he documented the changes in his habitat. he wants to help protect this unique ecosystem. ah lake by carl is the blue heart of the tiger. it is so large that it can be easily seen from space at 636 kilometers long, 80 kilometers white and 1640 meters deep by volume. it is the largest fresh water lake on earth. ah we're enlist, fee, unkind, 70 kilometers, se if you could. and directly on the by kyle, the holy lake of the russians. formed millions of years ago. the lake has long been isolated in faraway siberia. it was not until rail roads and aviation were developed that it became accessible to many from tourists to scientists. environmental problems feel like they're far away here, almost undisturbed. the biodiversity here is unmatched at this latitude. ah! yet a fussy knows, all the fascination of lake by call is of course it's beauty is on it, but also how it's always changing. fee id depending on the light or the season said it changes. yala is the spectacle of incredible. beautiful or dead is one. i know globally for shewn height oh, horn island on lake by kyle. the rock formations are considered one of the top sites in the region. but this beauty comes up to price. tourists constantly leave their garbage behind. activists from the foundation gives the planet life help clean up the worst effected spots. that the plan that had thought it was bits at the, the trampled soil, the trash on the shores getting into the water and what we see and keep his thoughts. nav, ward, the cuts, even the sewage at ending up in the lation of war there. ah, these are the main factors, hemoglobin in bi sincere, these things are changing to landscape. that owns touched. now would then get them all set for decades. this factory was the most serious polosa of lake by high. the bi koski pulp and paper mel 1st opened in 1966 because the cellulose was the cent show for russian missile construction. the plant was allowed to ignore environmental regulations. for decades, hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of toxic waste water flowed into the lake. on top of that, tons of toxic lignin smudge accumulated over the decades. the plants closed in 2013, but the toxic sludge has remained the abs if he know been ordered, several regions on earth are in danger. and lake by call is one of the id. it's actually incomprehensible that these valuable natural assets, these lands that are worth protecting, on really being protected niche to be efficient leg by carl is a paradise on the threats. russia promise is to act. wild putin's government continues to rely on coal, oil, and gas extraction. it also wants to score ecological points and to strewn up a national program by the end of $224190.00 illegal landfills that to be close down and clean dump. hazardous waste is to be removed from $75.00 sites and 7 new waste processing and disposal centers ought to be belts. ah, putin knows environmental policy is popular, especially with russia's use on state television. he professes his support for international climate agreements and recommend me were paul name here, visit us to put in. we are honoring all the commitments we made under international agreements, including the paris agreement as to what was fearful that there was the kyoto protocol which we took part in the such from the city of may. we have made serious commitments that do not only match but even surpassed the european union in terms of emission reductions of your home sneezing. evidence of doesn't know yona, so use experts, a skeptical that such words will be acted upon. putin makes no mention of the endangered tiger. the world's 3rd largest coal exporter, russia, so says over half of its coal from the co spots regional nature has had to make way for coal mines here for decades. and, and alimony em are also produced in the cos bass. for decades, the emission of pollutants wasn't even measured. ah, we meet alexei chiefs p a cough who belongs to the shows. these indigenous people have traditionally had a special relationship with nature. together with anton lemon, 2 years from the environmental protection group, eco defense. alexei will show us just how far the destruction of the environment has already progressed. ah, alex a leads us to a river. the show us have been hunting here for centuries, he explains. but since coal mining began in the area that has been less and less to hunt mm. the water quality has also changed dramatically. alexei shows us a canal that directly dumps waste water into the river for his people, this is a sin against creation ah. the crescent. yes miss. thank this is just my whole life i have haunted and fish in the very places where the mining is now taking place. since the mining started, this is impossible. any more your the animals have disappeared near the fish in the river. a dead before the forests are being cleared on it for him are all in all strip mining means the destruction of absolutely everything alive in the area out of the us at varnish, that ran. yeah, absolute left. she was wrong. so you, alexei shows us how the coal mining has affected things after just a few centimeters. his hand is no longer visible. but he, i knew the water here used to be crystal clear. i love facial surgery us america, to go out there, or when the mining started, the water turned black from the call. yes, live near i insure magneer will. in the old days you could see every stone, every grain of sand for future. now when you dip your head into the river, 10 to 15 centimeters in, you can't see it anymore. keep your last different jamie, up on that in your your, this is what strip mining does that go of leona or 3 of my, but you're more at the place where you live with them. why is that like this up? because in my opinion, absolutely no environmental protection measures are being observed as any of them. yes, the blue lights the tiger, the world's largest canaveral forest. this area about 40 times larger than germany, supplies the planet with oxygen ah, stretching from scandinavia all the way across canada, a launch part of it lies in russia. ah. indigenous peoples, like the shows have lived for centuries in the russian tiger, as hunters together with nature to day, their homeland is in danger. alexei shows us how christ the coal mining has come to the shows forest seemingly out of no where the tiger turns into a lunar landscape. the forest has turned into a messy patchwork. the machines tearing into the landscape more and more is being mined in russia. from around 260000000 tons in 200-2400 1000000 tons in 2021. the figure is expected to continue climbing higher and higher. this is in direct conflict with pu tins ecological promises. oh ah, said the corporations and only got involved, this is huge business bumps for the indigenous population. it spells disaster. oh, they're in chest so hardly hygiene. far away. moscow left shorts of a boat, but my as the malaria. my brochure at the look for the shows, this is our home lead. it is a pot of our being over chair when people are torn away from the ancestral land and him and thrown somewhere else. it's like, their words are being torn away, but incipient, a boy corn you, how long alexei and his people will be able to live in the region is uncertain. entire villages have already fallen victim to coal extraction. a shoe village once stood right here on this. my cape ah, we continue to key, said he of sc a small town in the cris bass region. he had the pollution cannot be ignored. a truck is spreading coal dust all over the landscape. key city of sc is a cold town with mines and factories. a new large coal facility is in the works. more than 90000 people live here. ah, environmentalists say the cold industry has taken the city hostage. even the elementary school spreads the message, happiness and the future lie in coal, mining the dangers of course and disgust. ah, ah, anton, on the other hand, talks about the consequences. something that's quite risky and a place where environmental activists sometimes end up in prison. and the so something is our coma uniform store board. i see, excuse number, this is absolutely illegal. normative, according to russian regulations, the distance between strip mines and residential buildings should be at least 1000 meters and oscar. however, this regulation is not followed anywhere in the course boss, if and especially not here. and kisa yields gifts here, and there are 90000 people living here, fly that they all have to be relocated more. the coal mining has to stall that are bold strip mining in the crust, bass, a $1000000000.00 business for the states and the operating company. it's the areas, largest employer, but it comes to great cost to the house of those living there. city at noon, on average, no less than $3000000000.00 tons of waste material accumulate on such dumps in the cameo of a region year after year. which is a big problem, because these dumps create toxic dust that damages the body of any one who inhales this dust can become seriously ill. the damage to the lungs is typical, as well as a reduction in immunity which leads to tuberculosis and even cancers. because when one together with other environmental organizations and tones, group, eco defense published to study in 2021 on the health impact of coal mining on the region cold raced to the bottom. life expectancy and the cool bass smacked here in blue has been well below the russian average for years. respiratory illnesses are becoming more and more common. the study shows that people in the cos bass gets sick more often and die younger than in the rest of russia. no official figures on this were made available to us. nina grigory f. 9 lives with her husband on the edge of a coal mine. the family has spent almost their entire lives on the farm here. the coldest in particular has made things difficult. on the roof dock gray deposit saw evidence of the nearby strip mine was facing the air has changed. your bush were constantly breathing in the dust. in the past, when there wasn't enough water for our livestock in winter, we thought the snow and gave it to them to drink. if you want to day that's no longer possible. that water is just cole and dirt. now the snow is dirty and black and they are. these are photos showing the toxic black snow. if the cos best region, even in summer, everything is covered in suits. it clings to the locals, her clothes and hands needed to you see if i've been picking grass for the rabbits. what if the grass were clean? what my hands look like? this cheese fair cough this is good and this is relatively clean corner. so, oh, it's not the only change the mining has brought about, nina explains. she used to be able to catch fish with her apron in the small stream next to the house. that was a long time ago. to day the water is black ah . that ball from what on call it fish ground coal mining actually destroys delays of the surface on denzil fan, the reversible damage has been done. i'd in of as if it cannot be repaired and the men of, with the, not even over many centuries an issue, but because the vegetation takes thousands of years to develop with your new buy yet towers and the yahoo, that 1000. and because the extractable resources underneath the soil of the tiger are russia's most important source of income. besides coal, there also oil deposits in the tiger. in 2020 russia was the world's 2nd largest oil exposure, with just over 11 percent market share. oil production is a particular threat to the tiger. many factories are old and outdated. according to environmentalists, there are around 20000 oil spills the year, like this one in may 2021. an accident in the commis republic in north western russia coast around a 100 tons of oil to be spelled though. no, this was the greenpeace thanks. addition, when we came to the site of the latest lake in comb equal these, here is the cold of a river. you wouldn't. and this is the location of the oil spill. it happened right here in the work. is it just standing then? what are they doing? got the oil is flowing out of the pipeline or they just wash it into the river with the pressure washin. you're cool. ah, well, yes, coca rocephin. we've accompanied journalists from norway in germany several times to while fields in siberia, in the taiga. and it was a horrifying experience, and it was very shocking for them. but when we tell them that russia spills $1000000.00 tons of oil every year, they can't believe it. i knew what they needed it. green pace regularly publishes alarming pictures of pollution in the taiga. russia has semester largest oil reserves in the world near the siberian city of norris, another serious disaster occurred in june 2020. 20000 tons of diesel fuel spilled into the am by my i river. the pallet chance operator failed to report the incidence months. the government land debate on line russia's president was furious with the sheet is running mature, which only after 2 days did we hear about the emergency through social media. are you out of your mind just body of kisses, little these incidents endanger a unique bio tope home to special animals like bass and some parts the refuge to the endangered siberian tiger. ah, it is also the habitats of eurasian links and mace. ah, the tiger is doomed by it's whilst of mineral resources in the ranking of the most natural results rich countries. russia comes 1st for diamonds, natural gas, and brown coal with 59 percent, 24 percent, and 30 percent respectively of the world's deposits. rushes timber industry is also booming. ah, here in yes. so see bisque, large quantities of timber, a headed for the wild market surrounded by dense tiger forests. yes. so c bisque is considered the capital of russia's timber industry. dozens of sol mills produce up to 3000000 cubic meters of timber here every year. that's around 75000000 pallets. the demand for wood in particular, has grown enormously in recent years. it's a $1000000000.00 business ah. many previously untouched forest areas and now being targeted by big timber companies. for example, those in the north west of russia, in the ohio wisc or blast blown protected by its distance from large cities and ports. ah greenpeace video footage shows disastrous developments in many places in the tiger lodge and t suede of land eaten away from the landscape. being irretrievably destroyed, ratios, additional in russia, clear cutting is allowed or if that is, that's dozens of heck to is here to severe. imagine this was berlin and areas, the size of whole neighborhoods were being deforested, wired. so what at the board, if you see this area from space, it's just one big, clear cut yet. in fact, there are many of them in a som dealer iq mammography. some locals, however, a fighting back the village of upon us we see signs of protest. the coast bus ah homeland, not a feeding trough for oligarchs. putin stops the coal chaos in the cas bass, environmental activist until it puts up a post, a warning against further deforestation. in upon us, locals activity fight against nearby mining operations. through anton, we meet nikolai montane cough he is an environmental inspector for the municipality of upon us. what nikolai takes us to a sly cape one. it looks as if the trees are being burnt here from underground nikolai meshes the pollutants and documents the results. oh dear, i'm your val speier blah blah blah blah blah. you see the trees jewelled, an image they start growing. i don't know why then the ground beneath them starts burning and they start to die, jack, and see what you want. last year these trees were still alive. in this part, you can see gradually how the fires spreads, undergo round, and the trees burn and fall down. this is not and above ground fire is it's all happening underground. it is impossible to register all the emissions caused by fires here on the dom furniture memorial. there are probably very, very large amounts of gas. harmful compounds from the co burns showed about the measurements show 40 different types of gas each. and by up the fuck, i'm legal among the gases emitted a carbon monoxide, hydrogen, hydrogen, so fight and sulfur dioxide that's on top of the search and other particles that spread over large areas of the tiger. the environmental inspector, moons of the consequences that will get through this is what happens when the slag heat weather's off. the dust blows off the surface and spreads to the surrounding area. settling on villages allows you to say, does, does so fine, that new marconi osis or black long has become the miners, occupational hazard, the pool. all this gets into the bodies of people and animals with harmful consequences on held for watch and on the environment. the orient ah, was osha, sibyl. underground coal fires are a worldwide phenomenon. they can occur in coal stores or in natural deposits, often via spontaneous combustion. the ground here in qu, spouse can heat up to more than a 170 degrees celsius. in places extinguishing the fire over these large areas would be time consuming and expensive. companies therefore often decide to do nothing. nikolai does a littl