Gorbachev: Reaping the Whirlwind
1: The Poisoned Land, the Dying Sea
Panorama presents the first of two reports on the Soviet Union in escalating crisis.
This week Jane Corbin tells the story of an unprecedented journey through the environmental disasters now confronting the Soviet Union. From Chernobyl she brings new evidence of the scale of pollution and the sickness and genetic deformity caused by the nuclear accident. From the Aral Sea a Panorama camera team brings evidence of a catastrophe that rivals
Chernobyl. The planning decisions of the Brezhnev years have left hundreds of thousands facing disease, deformity and death. As the sea dries up, the ecology of the region disintegrates. The future of Mikhail Gorbachev 's perestroika is threatened by growing revolt over the rape of the environment.
Producer GIANFRANCO NORELU Editor TIM GARDAM (Part 2 next week)
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