Talvivaara mine contributes to an increased public awareness of environmentalism and research

(31 Dec 2012)

“The Talvivaara disaster serves as a reminder to us all that environmental change also takes place at the local level. Sometimes it seems that people have difficulties in grasping global changes and that it takes a local problem before they realise what’s going on in the environment,” says Atte Korhola, Professor of Environmental Change at the University of Helsinki.

In his own work, Korhola investigates global environmental changes and increasingly also the human influence on those changes. For instance, he studies the complexities of climate change, its effects, ozone depletion, acidification and ecosystem eutrophication.

“The Talvivaara wastewater leak is an unparalleled example of point source pollution and Finland’s worst environmental disaster in decades. From it, we must learn to be more careful in our pre-assessment and monitoring of environmental impacts. We’ve not been strict enough in our environmental impact assessments, nor have we implemented them properly. In addition, the new process used at the Talvivaara mine has caused more problems than expected,” explains Korhola.

Korhola would like to emphasise the importance of testing technology that affects the environment in new ways.

“Pilot projects related to new technology should be carried out in safe and secure circumstances. Similar problems also occur in exploiting new natural gas deposits elsewhere in the world, or even in utilising offshore windfarms. Natural gas is turning into a huge business, but the deposits are tapped using technology that may put the vast groundwater areas at risk.”

The Talvivaara leak also offers much opportunity for scientific investigation. Besides environmental loads, it would seem that issues of environmental law are gaining prominence. The environmental debate that sprung up around Talvivaara is also a topic that is being researched at Korhola’s campus in Viikki, Helsinki. The topic has even resulted in many doctoral dissertations.

Researchers at Helsinki specialising in environment-society interactions

Research into the interactions between society and the environment is an emerging and diverse field of investigation. In Finland, the research is concentrated to Helsinki. For example, the Viikki Campus of the University of Helsinki hosts a nationally significant unit in environmental research. In addition, the City of Helsinki Environment Centre is located just opposite Atte Korhola’s workplace in Viikki, and the Finnish Environment Institute will move to Viikki in the near future.

“The autonomy of the universities has increased and the University of Helsinki has clearly invested in the research into environment-society interactions. There has also been much new recruitment in the field, such as professorships in environmental policy, urban environments, risk evaluation and sustainable development,” Korhola adds.

The University of Jyväskylä also has a department devoted to bio- and environmental sciences, but it is clearly more geared towards the natural sciences.

Did the push towards increased specialisation come from the 2012 reform of the Universities Act?

“It’s hard to say, really. The process may have begun regardless of the reform,” says Korhola.

Reviewers are gatekeepers of research into grand challenges

Themes of environmental change are also actively present when the Academy of Finland plans new research programmes. At present, the Academy is preparing a research programme on Arctic regions. There is also an ongoing Academy research programme in the area of sustainable development.

“It’s important to inform the reviewers of Academy funding applications about the policies defined by the Academy Board as regards the grand challenges. They must know what these policies are. The best way for the Academy to respond to the grand challenges is to target calls to specific themes. For example, in the September 2012 call, particular attention was paid to bioinformatics, and Tekes is also planning a new programme in this field,” Korhola remarks.