After $51 billion of new Olympic development was built in Sochi, Russia, and surrounding areas, 5,000 acres of forest have been felled, wetlands have been filled, waste has been unlawfully dumped and illegal landfills have caused landslides.

Wetlands are some of the most productive and important ecosystems in the world. Their locations are a confluence of different species of organisms and manners of filtration. Historically, wetlands have taken the brunt of human waste and development, including landfills and airports.

Sochi is a prime example of this ecosystem abuse, as the Olympic stadiums were built directly over wetlands.

Not only has this environmental exploitation affected the land, but the people, as well.

The Russian government has continued to ruin the ecologically significant environment to impress the world’s Olympians while risking the health and safety of the Russian people. In some cases, areas have been pushed even farther below the poverty line.

For example, residents of one nearby area, who have already lived without running water or a sewage system for years, have had their communal outhouse torn down because of its proximity to a newly constructed road that will be used for the games, according to The Associated Press.

In other cases, the Sochi reporting spotlight has focused on the ever-continuing construction in the Olympic village and surrounding areas. While reporters, Olympians and others have been complaining about poor conditions in their hotels, Sochi natives are dealing with health hazards or imprisonment.

Along with these environmental atrocities, an unknown number of environmentalist critics have been bullied, jailed and imprisoned in the days leading up to an international event the Russian government is calling “the greenest” in Olympic history.

The arrest of Yevgeny Vitishko has raised alarms from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which have criticized Russia’s reaction to free speech. Vitishko was arrested on the charge of swearing in public. He is the author of a group report on the environmental damage from Olympic construction.

Because of his 15 days in jail, the group, called Echo Watch North Caucasus, has had to indefinitely delay the report’s publication.

In December, Vitishko was sentenced to three years in a penal colony after he was accused of violating a curfew imposed on him after a probation sentence in 2012. Other human rights advocates have called the charges “spurious and politically motivated,” according to Al Jazeera.

Until his recent arrest this month, Vitishko had been free and waiting for an appeal process.

Suren Gazaryan, another member of Echo Watch North Caucasus who was sentenced with him in December, fled to Tallinn, Estonia, and was granted asylum there.

They’re not alone. Other activists have been arrested and sentenced to short spurts of jail time for reasons similar to Vitishko.

In a New York Times article, Yulia Naberezhnaya, a fellow activist and friend of Vitishko, called their arrests “fabrications” and “pretext,” and said she fears for her safety in Sochi.

A week before the games began, an employee from the Federal Security Service — the successor agency to the KGB — called Naberezhnaya to ask if she intended to protest during the Olympics. The threatening manner of the call, along with multiple activists’ arrests, pushed her to leave the area.

With the amount of wrongdoing surrounding environmental and human treatment during the Sochi Olympics, it is appalling that the international media has chosen to focus on other, less pressing issues like hotel accommodations. This negligence not only puts the greater ecosystems in jeopardy, but also puts human lives at risk.

By bringing attention to these offenses, there is more chance that somehow, in some way, wrongs can be righted. The first step is to acknowledge their existence.

Meg Callaghan is a senior environmental studies major at SUNY-ESF. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at mlcallag@syr.edu.

Published on February 13, 2014 at 2:00 am