There Is a Science of “Baikal Studies”

ABSTRACT The history, main components, and nonstandard teaching methods of the new scientific discipline “Baikal studies” are provided. An interview with an author of textbooks and scientific and popular scientific publications about Baikal, Deputy Director of the Baikal Museum SB RAS E.N. Kuzevanova, provides a brief historical description of the study of the lake. The ecological and economic problems of Baikal are discussed. An analogy is drawn between environmental laws and economic models. Opportunities for using rent income from the lake’s natural resources to finance improvement of the ecological situation in the Baikal natural area are evaluated. It is concluded that Baikal is already fully capable of “financing itself”; annual rent from the hydraulic power of the Angarа River is estimated at more than 120 billion rubles. There is discussion of the necessity and opportunity for the noncontradictory coexistence of environmental and economic efficiency with respect to the activities of human life on the shores of Lake Baikal.