Black Sea: Voyage of Healing

In the fall of 1997, 300 scientists, scholars, religious leaders, and educators participated in a 10-day symposium-at-sea: the Black Sea, that is. Hoping to become more familiar with the area's environmental, political, economic, and spiritual crises after Communism's collapse, the participants visited seven countries that surround the sea and attended various on-board educational workshops and discussions. In the face of the often severe negative changes in these countries' economic and political systems, we learn that environmental protection is the last thing on people's minds, and that the Black Sea truly is in crisis mode. On the other hand, pollution has in some cases decreased because there is less Eastern European manufacturing and agricultural waste being dumped into the rivers leading to the sea, although Western Europe is still contributing plenty of sludge via the Danube, Don, and Dniester rivers. If this topic sounds, well, a little weighty, it is, and, unfortunately, no solutions are forthcoming from the symposium attendees. Though it is fairly well filmed and its participants are well spoken, this tape just does not offer enough actual information or historical perspective, and is too inconclusive, to be truly useful. A strictly optional purchase for flush academic collections. Aud: C. (K. Glaser)