Articles

Grzegorz has given up driving for a far more lucrative line of work as Poland grapples with energy shortages: illegal mining. Around his home in the Lower Silesian city of Walbrzych, coal sits as little as a meter below the surface in fields, recreation areas and even gardens. A four-man team can unearth a ton in an hour and make 1,000 zloty ($220) each for half a day’s work, roughly 60% of what an average person earns in a week.

Poland is the only European Union member that has actually ignored the EU’s climate neutrality goal, often denying the existence of the climate crisis, and increasing its investment in coal and gas. When the right-wing coalition government came into power in 2015, one of its very first decisions was to block wind power. ..

Poland is planning to build a wall along its border with Belarus, primarily to block migrants fleeing the Middle East and Asia. But the wall would also divide the vast and ancient Białowieża Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage site which harbours more than 12,000 animal species and includes the largest remnants of primeval forest that once covered most of lowland Europe.

We have here (in the Baltic Sea, about half a million tonnes of conventional munitions and about 40,000 tonnes of chemical weapons. Some of the conventional munitions are armed and may explode if moved. As for poisoning people and fish, we don`t have enough data to speak of probability. However, the bombs leak poisonous substances, the seabed is contaminated in their immediate vicinity (up to 250 m).