The Russian government received an unusual document from one of the major Japanese firms Mitsui. It was signed by Mr. Suetomi, Chairman of the company's Project Management and Financing Committee in the CIS countries. In this letter to Boris Nemtsov, then First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, dated March 30, 1998, Russia is offered a loan of at least $ 2 billion for the implementation of an environmental protection project. Under the terms of the loan, the specified amount should be returned in 30 years, and only 10 years after receiving it, you should start paying 0.75% per annum on it.

In accordance with the Russian loan, it is proposed to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, fluorocarbon compounds, fluoride compounds, nitrogen oxide, and hexafluorides as part of projects to combat global warming. To achieve these goals, a whole range of large-scale measures is proposed: it is planned to carry out reconstruction and modernization of GRES, power transmission lines and installations for energy and resource conservation, improve gas generators, gas pipelines and transport systems, modernize urban central heating systems, develop new and renewable energy sources, including solar, geothermal, wind, as well as using biomass for generating electricity.

Of the total amount of the loan, Sakhalin Island accounts for about 900 million US dollars, not forgetting the Nizhny Novgorod, Tver, Pskov regions, and Ural regions, where it is planned to allocate 250 million US dollars to modernize steelmaking processes and reduce electricity consumption. In the European and Asian parts of Russia, in order to reduce gas leaks, it is planned to carry out reconstruction of oil and gas pipelines together with Transneft and Gazprom. $ 500 million has been allocated for these activities. Even the reconstruction of the railway system in various regions of Russia, such as the construction of a high-speed highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, is not forgotten. It stipulates the need to resume production of diesel-electric locomotives using Japanese, American, and European technologies, as well as joint production of electric equipment for rolling stock using Japanese innovations.

So what is it: charity, mutual interests or business calculation? To answer this question, it is necessary to consider the situation from the point of view of the world ecology and its state in Japan.

According to the calculations of a full member of the International Energy Academy, Honored Power Engineer of the Russian Federation, Candidate of Technical Sciences Boldyrev, Japan consumes annually 1045 million tons of atmospheric oxygen more than the flora produces on its territory. And this is not only estimated figures: in Japan, a case was recorded when people were killed in places where the oxygen content was much lower than normal (in crevices, lowlands).

Similar calculations for the United States showed that the difference between the consumption of oxygen by industry and the reproduction of natural zones is 1529 million tons annually. In other words, the flora of the region does not provide the necessary reproduction of atmospheric oxygen, which is why Americans consume "foreign" oxygen from the planet, primarily from neighboring countries.

On the other hand, there are donor countries whose forests produce an abundance of oxygen and supply, one might say, strategic raw materials to industrial consuming countries for free. The largest donor countries are Brazil and Russia. Brazil's tropical forests produce about 5,089 million tons of excess oxygen per year, while Russia's forests, although they "work" mainly in the summer, produce 5,346 million tons.

Currently, according to Boldyrev's calculations, oxygen - consuming countries are: USA, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, England, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and the donor countries are Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Turkey, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, India, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

It should be noted that the world community, which has long been concerned, however, not with the oxygen starvation of most industrialized countries, but with carbon dioxide emissions and the so-called "greenhouse effect", has come to a decision on the need to help developing countries protect the environment. A price was set at $ 10 for each ton of carbon dioxide absorbed by the country's forests.

However, even if the Earth's flora absorbs all the carbon dioxide produced by the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels, it will not restore the original oxygen content in the atmosphere, since atmospheric oxygen is consumed during the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels not only to produce carbon dioxide, but also to form water. Therefore, if industrialized countries are willing to pay $ 10 to absorb one ton of carbon dioxide, it is easy to determine the cost of one ton of oxygen produced by the planet's forests, which will be $ 13.8.

Calculations show that Japan and the United States, as a matter of fairness, would have to pay annually to the donor countries: 1045 million x 13.8 = 14.42 billion dollars and 1529 million x 13.8 = 21.1 billion dollars. Thus, Russia and Brazil could receive 5346 million x 13.8 = 72.77 billion and 5085 million x 13.8 = 70.17 billion US dollars each year for the "excess" oxygen that they supply to the planet's atmosphere, respectively. So the annual cost of air oxygen that Russia supplies to the planet's atmosphere is many times higher than the 30-year loan to Japan. At the same time, Japan and the United States owe "someone" 14.42 billion and 21.1 billion dollars a year, respectively. To whom?

So, to solve the question raised at the beginning of the article about charity or business calculation, everyone can independently compare the scale of prices and benefits of partners, but nevertheless the money is still offered for the necessary and necessary business.

(C) "NG-Nauka" (NGN), electronic version of the appendix to "NG" (EVGNN). Number 010 (14) of November 04, 1998, Wednesday. Article 1. Reprint abroad is allowed by agreement with the editorial board. A link to " NGN " and EVNGN is required. For more information, please contact evng@ng.ru