Ecological situation of Lithuania is quite good, but the main reason is not good care of Nature, but the economical crisis in Lithuania, which lasts for already 10 years.

Ecology is one of the biggest concerns about the future of humankind. We are getting bigger in number, but Mother Earth remains of the same size but with less raw materials. One day some resources can be finished with the consumption like today. Some countries had huge forests, oil sources etc., but now they are wasted or useless because of damage. A lot of people protest against any damage of the nature, but their voices sometimes are useless. The Greenpeace organization is the biggest warrior for ecology. In the global world the movements of ecology has the political weight. The World Trade Organization introduced some standards also concerning pollution and ecological production.

The ecological situation of Lithuania is quite good. In comparison with situation 10 years ago, degree of pollution decreased in quite large numbers. Lithuania still has stable percent of territory covered with forests: about 30%. The forests are increasing a little bit so logically some erosion processes should also stop or at least not to be crucial for shaping the landscape. The pollution of the cars also decreased, because of better quality engines and petrol. Aerosol usage also decreased.

These changes unfortunately are not because of better work of scientists and ecologists, but because of general economic crisis. It also has to do with recent history. Until 1989 Lithuania was in Soviet Union, where attention to ecological problems was minimal. Huge farms, factories and other kinds of industry plus unwise usage of chemicals made a lot of problems in nature, caused erosion, pollution of drinking water, soil and air. After Lithuania gained independence in 1990, a lot of factories were closed down, farms also closed because of lack of raw material, which mainly was transported from other Soviet Union republics.

The economical crisis and reorganization of agriculture began. During this period farmers refused to use chemical fertilizers simply because they were expensive. Instead they began using natural fertilizers: trash, compost etc. The cattle farms were reorganized and simply closed and the bigger part of them dismantled. The same fate was with some huge factories. When the factory is closed there are no polluted water, usually used for cooling engines. When Lithuania became independent, the borders opened and rich Lithuanians could buy foreign cars, which already were more ecological than Soviet ones. The petrol also had to be of better quality; that's why Lithuanian petrol had difficulties in competing with Finish of British and later with Russian. In ten years the car age increased, so the pollution of air decreased tangibly.

A very important factor in ecological situation of a state is ecological monitoring. It is observation of conditions of air water, soil, deep-water sources etc. and registering the changes constantly. This allows saying how serious the pollution this year or month is in comparison with the past, also foreseeing what can happen in the future. After the collapse of Soviet Union the broad monitoring system also collapsed, so Lithuanian scientists had to maintain the equipment and to collect and analyze data. The biggest problem was and still is money, for which new equipment could be bought and installed. Ecologists used so-called “substantial minimum“ principle, when minimum of available research resources are used for minimum expenses. Even this saving program allowed scientists to find out the numbers of pollution and to fulfill the requirements of various international conventions, the member of which Lithuania is.

The biggest ecologist in Lithuania is Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus. Before coming to native country and being elected as a President he was the high ecological official in Chicago, US. Under his leadership the Michigan lace was cleaned. In one interview to a Lithuanian newspaper he was asked which work he could choose: the ecologist or President and Adamkus undoubtedly answered: ecologist, of course!

The scientists are quite optimistic about ecological situation, even though still Lithuanian nature is polluted a lot. The crisis is the main reason why industry do not pollute as much as they can, simply because factories and farms are closed. This makes every citizen of Mother Earth be aware of what we ourselves can do trying to survive and fulfill our pleasures by any means: destroy the planet, use all of the recourses and unrecognizably change the landscape.