Global environmental problems and ways to solve them. Environmental problems of the planet

The level of human impact on the environment depends primarily on the technical level of society. It was extremely small at the initial stages of human development. However, with the development of society and the growth of its productive forces, the situation begins to change dramatically. The 20th century is the century of scientific and technological progress. Associated with a qualitatively new relationship between science, engineering and technology, it enormously increases the possible and real scale of society’s impact on nature, and poses a whole series of new, extremely pressing problems for humanity, primarily environmental ones.
What is ecology? This term, first used in 1866 by the German biologist E. Haeckel (1834-1919), refers to the science of the relationship of living organisms with the environment. The scientist believed that the new science would deal only with the relationships of animals and plants with their habitat. This term firmly entered our lives in the 70s of the 20th century. However, today we actually talk about environmental problems as social ecology - a science that studies the problems of interaction between society and the environment.

Today, the environmental situation in the world can be described as close to critical. Among the global environmental problems the following can be noted:

1. - the atmosphere in many places is polluted to the maximum permissible levels, and clean air is becoming scarce;

2. - the ozone layer, which protects against cosmic radiation harmful to all living things, is partially damaged;

3. forest cover has been largely destroyed;

4. - surface pollution and disfigurement of natural landscapes: it is impossible to find a single square meter of surface on Earth where there are no artificially created elements.
Thousands of species of plants and animals have been destroyed and continue to be destroyed;

5. - the world ocean is not only depleted as a result of the destruction of living organisms, but also ceases to be a regulator of natural processes

6. - the available reserves of minerals are rapidly declining;

7. - extinction of animal and plant species

1Atmospheric pollution

Back in the early sixties, it was believed that air pollution is a local problem of large cities and industrial centers, but later it became clear that atmospheric pollutants can spread through the air over long distances, having an adverse effect on areas located at a considerable distance from the place of release of these substances । Thus, air pollution is a global phenomenon and requires international cooperation to control it.

Table 1 Ten most dangerous biosphere pollutants

Carbon dioxide	Formed during the combustion of all types of fuel. An increase in its content in the atmosphere leads to an increase in its temperature, which is fraught with harmful geochemical and environmental consequences.
Carbon monoxide	Formed during incomplete combustion of fuel. May disrupt the thermal balance of the upper atmosphere.
Sulphur dioxide	Contained in industrial smoke. Causes exacerbation of respiratory diseases and harms plants. Corrodes limestone and some stones.
Nitrogen oxides	They create smog and cause respiratory diseases and bronchitis in newborns. Promotes excessive growth of aquatic vegetation.
	One of the dangerous food contaminants, especially of marine origin. It accumulates in the body and has a harmful effect on the nervous system.
	Added to gasoline. Acts on enzyme systems and metabolism in living cells.
	Leads to harmful environmental consequences, causing the death of planktonic organisms, fish, seabirds and mammals.
DDT and other pesticides	Very toxic to crustaceans. They kill fish and organisms that serve as fish food. Many are carcinogenic.
radiation	In excess of permissible doses it leads to malignant neoplasms and genetic mutations.

Among the mostCommon air pollutants include gases such as freons
। Greenhouse gases also include methane, which enters the atmosphere during the extraction of oil, gas, coal, as well as during the decay of organic residues and the growth of cattle numbers। Methane growth is 1.5% per year। This also includes a compound such as nitrous oxide, which enters the atmosphere as a result of the widespread use of nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture, as well as as a result of the combustion of carbon-containing fuels in thermal power plants. However, we should not forget that despite the huge contribution of the listed gases to the “greenhouse effect”, the main greenhouse gas on Earth is still water vapor। With this phenomenon, the heat received by the Earth does not spread into the atmosphere, but, thanks to greenhouse gases, remains at the Earth's surface, and only 20% of the total thermal radiation of the Earth's surface goes irrevocably into space. Roughly speaking, greenhouse gases form a kind of glass cover over the surface of the planet.

In the future, this may lead to increased melting of ice and an unpredictable rise in the level of the world's oceans, flooding of parts of the continental coasts, and the disappearance of a number of species of plants and animals that are unable to adapt to new natural living conditions. The phenomenon of the “greenhouse effect” is one of the main root causes of such an urgent problem as global warming।

2 Ozone holes

The environmental problem of the ozone layer is no less scientifically complex. As is known, life on Earth appeared only after the protective ozone layer of the planet was formed, covering it from harsh ultraviolet radiation. For many centuries there were no signs of trouble. However, in recent decades, intensive destruction of this layer has been noticed.

4 Desertification

Under the influence of living organisms, water and air on the surface layers of the lithosphere

The most important ecosystem, thin and fragile, is gradually formed - the soil, which is called the “skin of the Earth”. This is the guardian of fertility and life. A handful of good soil contains millions of microorganisms that maintain fertility.
It takes a century for a soil layer 1 centimeter thick to form. It can be lost in one field season. According to geologists, before people began to engage in agricultural activities, graze livestock and plow land, rivers annually carried about 9 billion tons of soil into the World Ocean. Nowadays this amount is estimated at approximately 25 billion tons 2 .

Soil erosion, a purely local phenomenon, has now become universal. In the United States, for example, about 44% of cultivated land is susceptible to erosion. In Russia, unique rich chernozems with a humus content (organic matter that determines soil fertility) of 14–16%, which were called the citadel of Russian agriculture, disappeared. In Russia, the area of ​​the most fertile lands with a humus content of 10–13% has decreased by almost 5 times 2 .

A particularly difficult situation arises when not only the soil layer is demolished, but also the parent rock on which it develops. Then the threshold of irreversible destruction comes, and an anthropogenic (that is, man-made) desert arises.

One of the most formidable, global and fleeting processes of our time is the expansion of desertification, the decline and, in the most extreme cases, the complete destruction of the biological potential of the Earth, which leads to conditions similar to those of a natural desert.

Natural deserts and semi-deserts occupy more than 1/3 of the earth's surface. These lands are home to about 15% of the world's population. Deserts are natural formations that play a certain role in the overall ecological balance of the planet’s landscapes.

As a result of human activity, by the last quarter of the twentieth century, over 9 million square kilometers of deserts had appeared, and in total they had already covered 43% of the total land area 2.

In the 1990s, desertification began to threaten 3.6 million hectares of drylands.

This represents 70% of potentially productive drylands, or ¼ of the total land surface area, and does not include the area of ​​natural deserts. About 1/6 of the world's population suffers from this process 2.

According to UN experts, current losses of productive land will lead to the fact that by the end of the century the world may lose almost 1/3 of its arable land 2 . Such a loss, at a time of unprecedented population growth and increasing food demand, could be truly disastrous.

5 Hydrosphere pollution

One of the most valuable resources of the Earth is the hydrosphere - oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, glaciers of the Arctic and Antarctic. There are 1385 million kilometers of water reserves on Earth and very little, only 25% of fresh water suitable for human life. And despite

These are people who are very crazy about this wealth and destroy it without a trace, indiscriminately, polluting the water with various wastes. Humanity uses mainly fresh water for its needs. Their volume is slightly more than 2% of the hydrosphere, and the distribution of water resources around the globe is extremely uneven. Europe and Asia, where 70% of the world's population lives, contain only 39% of river waters. The total consumption of river waters is increasing from year to year in all regions of the world. It is known, for example, that since the beginning of the 21st century, fresh water consumption has increased 6 times, and in the next few decades it will increase by at least another 1.5 times.

The lack of water is aggravated by the deterioration of its quality. Water used in industry, agriculture and everyday life returns to water bodies in the form of poorly treated or completely untreated wastewater. Thus, pollution of the hydrosphere occurs primarily as a result of the discharge of industrial,

agricultural and domestic wastewater.
According to scientists' calculations, soon diluting this same wastewater may require 25 thousand cubic kilometers of fresh water, or almost all the actually available resources of such runoff. It is not difficult to guess that this, and not the increase in direct water withdrawal, is the main reason for the worsening fresh water problem. It is worth noting that wastewater containing mineral residues and human waste products enrich water bodies with nutrients, which in turn leads to the development of algae, and as a consequence to waterlogging of the reservoir. Currently, many rivers are heavily polluted - the Rhine, Danube, Seine, Ohio, Volga, Dnieper, Dniester and others. Urban runoff and large landfills often cause water pollution with heavy metals and hydrocarbons. As heavy metals accumulate in marine food chains, their concentrations can reach lethal levels, as occurred after a large industrial release of mercury into Japanese coastal waters near the city of Minimata. The increased concentration of this metal in the tissues of fish led to the death of many people and animals who ate the contaminated product. Increased doses of heavy metals, pesticides and petroleum products can significantly weaken the protective properties of organisms. The concentration of carcinogens in the North Sea is currently reaching enormous levels. Huge reserves of these substances are concentrated in the tissues of dolphins,

being the final link in the food chain. Countries located on the North Sea coast have recently been implementing a set of measures aimed at reducing, and in the future completely stopping, the dumping and burning of toxic waste into the sea. In addition, humans transform the waters of the hydrosphere through the construction of hydraulic structures, in particular reservoirs. Large reservoirs and canals have a serious negative impact on the environment: they change the groundwater regime in the coastal strip, affect soils and plant communities, and, after all, their water areas occupy large areas of fertile land.

Nowadays, pollution of the world's oceans is growing at an alarming rate. Moreover, not only wastewater pollution plays a significant role here, but also the release of large quantities of petroleum products into the waters of the seas and oceans. In general, the most polluted inland seas are: Mediterranean, Northern, Baltic, Japanese, Java, and Biscay,

Persian and Mexican Gulfs. Pollution of seas and oceans occurs through two channels. Firstly, sea and river vessels pollute water with waste generated as a result of operational activities and products of internal combustion in engines. Secondly, pollution occurs as a result of accidents when toxic substances, most often oil and petroleum products, enter the sea. Diesel engines of ships emit harmful substances into the atmosphere, which subsequently settle on the surface of the water. On tankers, before each regular loading, containers are washed to remove the remains of previously transported cargo, while the washing water, and with it the remaining cargo, is most often dumped overboard. In addition, after delivering the cargo, the tankers are sent to the new loading point empty; in this case, for proper navigation, the tankers are filled with ballast water, which becomes contaminated with oil residues during the voyage. Before loading, this water is also poured overboard. As for legislative measures to control oil pollution during the operation of oil terminals and the discharge of ballast water from oil tankers, they were adopted much earlier, after the danger of large spills became obvious

Such methods (or possible ways to solve the problem) include the emergence and activities of various types "green" movements and organizations. Besides the notorious « Green PeaWithe'A",distinguished not only by the scope of its activities, but also, at times, by the noticeable extremism of its actions, as well as similar organizations that directly carry out environmental protection

e shares, there is another type of environmental organizations - structures that stimulate and sponsor environmental activities - such as the Wildlife Fund, for example. All environmental organizations exist in one of the forms: public, private state or mixed type organizations.

In addition to various types of associations that defend civilization’s rights to the nature it is gradually destroying, there are a number of state or public environmental initiatives in the sphere of solving environmental problems. For example, environmental legislation in Russia and other countries of the world, various international agreements or the “Red Books” system.

The International "Red Book" - a list of rare and endangered species of animals and plants - currently includes 5 volumes of materials. In addition, there are national and even regional “Red Books”.

Among the most important ways to solve environmental problems, most researchers also highlight the introduction of environmentally friendly, low- and non-waste technologies, the construction of treatment facilities, the rational location of production and the use of natural resources.

Although, undoubtedly - and this is proven by the entire course of human history - the most important direction for solving the environmental problems facing civilization is the increase in human ecological culture, serious environmental education and upbringing, everything that eradicates the main environmental conflict - the conflict between the savage consumer and the rational an inhabitant of a fragile world that exists in the human mind.

Ecology is a science that studies the interactions and influences of living organisms on each other and on the environment. The ecology of nature and man are inextricably linked. In an effort to improve life on Earth, man consumes more than he returns, and thereby harms the environment.

Ecology and nature

Translated from Greek, the word “ecology” means “the science of the home.” The planet is the home of all living things, and the actions of environmentalists are aimed at protecting it. The concept of “nature” defines the natural habitat of living organisms. It covers:

• animal and plant worlds;
• geological structures;
• water resources;
• of people.

Environmental components include weather and climate, which differ from region to region.

Many sciences study aspects that relate to nature: biology, physics, chemistry, geography. Recently, ecology has occupied a special place among the disciplines studying these issues. The reason for this is the increased influence on nature by humans. It causes irreparable damage to the environment.

For many years, scientific thought was dominated by the idea that man is the master of nature and can take whatever he needs. But it is precisely the confidence that everything is permitted that has led to the deterioration of the ecological situation in nature. The construction of factories, gas and oil pipelines, and power plants is the progress of humanity, but a regression of the ecological state of nature. Forests are dying, water bodies and air are being polluted, plant and animal populations are declining.

Ecology and nature are two concepts that go hand in hand in the world community, where a global movement to protect the environment has unfolded. The main goal of his followers is to reduce the harmful influence of people and preserve natural landscapes, flora, and fauna.

The importance of ecology

Ecology as a subject is part of the curriculum in schools, colleges and universities. Regardless of the direction, it is studied in almost all faculties. Every person must be environmentally literate, understand how actions or inactions affect the state of nature

Almost all industrial enterprises have environmental departments responsible for reducing harmful emissions. Every city has an environmental service that solves local problems. Scientists and researchers work on a national and global scale who are trying to achieve one goal - the ecological safety of nature.

Modern environmental problems

The environmental situation in the world is getting worse every day. Many scientists believe that society's activities have led to an environmental disaster.

The biggest problem is the rapid decline in flora and fauna. Over the past two hundred years, the planet has lost about 900 thousand species. Depletion occurs due to human intervention in the natural habitat:

• use of land for agriculture;
• deforestation;
• drainage of swamps;
• acid rain due to harmful emissions from factories and cars, etc.

The decrease in the amount of mineral resources is a worrying fact for many. Oil, gas, coal, peat, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, rocks were formed thousands, millions of years ago. However, only over the last decade, humans have half depleted the reserves of natural resources, many of which are classified as non-renewable. The process of mining itself is detrimental to the environmental situation, but this area is profitable, so few people care about the preservation of nature.

Recently, scientists have become concerned about the issue of pollution of the world's oceans, which occupy 66% of the globe. The ocean is the main source of oxygen and food for animals and humans. The accelerated pace of industrial development in the 20th century caused severe pollution of the world's oceans. Subsequently, the state of the environment deteriorated, the amount of acid rain increased, and the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere decreased.

The destruction of the ozone layer is an environmental problem, due to which the number of cancers in people and vision problems is increasing. The ozone layer protects living organisms from the harmful effects of UV rays. Holes that have recently formed in this barrier are allowing more dangerous radiation to enter the planet. The destruction of the ozone layer is associated with the operation of engines of spaceships, airplanes, and satellites.

Even in the age of high technology, agriculture continues to be a key, although not such a large, industry, since it is the source of raw materials and food products. However, the activities of society lead to pollution and destruction of fertile soils, making them unsuitable for cultivation. Microorganisms inhabiting the upper layers of the soil die out, which also upsets the balance in nature.

Ways to solve environmental problems

Problems of ecology and nature are solved at the international as well as state levels. Legislative acts, sanitary and hygienic standards are introduced, organizational, technical and other measures are carried out in order to influence society, producers, and make them environmentally responsible.

Specific actions taken by individual enterprises and organizations include:

• proper processing;
• waste disposal;
• installation of treatment facilities in factories;
• ecological use of natural raw materials.

Due to the deplorable situation in nature, enterprises are introducing a separate environmental policy that regulates issues related to environmental protection.

To protect natural landscapes, unique animals and plants, nature reserves and national parks are opened. People plant forest parks and shrubs to prevent further soil erosion. Environmentally friendly farming methods are being developed and natural fertilizers are used. The problem of renewable natural resources is solved by using alternative energy sources: sun, wind, water.

But the root of the problem lies in people's minds, and changing it is more difficult than introducing cleaning technologies in factories or recycling garbage. Educating a person as a part of nature - a complex system where all components are interconnected and interdependent - is a complex task that the world faces today. Parents have a responsibility to teach their children the basics of everyday ecology. Kindergarten, school, university play a big role in this process. It is in classes that children and adolescents gain knowledge about the ways in which nature is being destroyed and how this can be avoided.

We must always remember that nature is man’s home, and we must try by all means to protect it from destruction.

Ecological problem is a change in the natural environment as a result of human activity, leading to disruption of the structure and functioning nature . This is a man-made problem. In other words, it arises as a result of the negative impact of humans on nature.

Environmental problems can be local (affecting a specific area), regional (a specific region) and global (impacting the entire biosphere of the planet).

Can you give an example of a local environmental problem in your region?

Regional problems cover large regions and their impact affects a large part of the population. For example, pollution of the Volga is a regional problem for the entire Volga region.

The drainage of the Polesie swamps caused negative changes in Belarus and Ukraine. Changes in the water level of the Aral Sea are a problem for the entire Central Asian region.

Global environmental problems include problems that pose a threat to all of humanity.

Which of the global environmental problems, from your point of view, are of greatest concern? Why?

Let's take a quick look at how environmental issues have changed throughout human history.

Actually, in a sense, the entire history of human development is a history of increasing impact on the biosphere. In fact, humanity in its progressive development has moved from one environmental crisis to another. But crises in ancient times were local in nature, and environmental changes were, as a rule, reversible, or did not threaten people with total death.

Primitive man, engaged in gathering and hunting, unwittingly disrupted the ecological balance in the biosphere everywhere and spontaneously caused harm to nature. It is believed that the first anthropogenic crisis (10-50 thousand years ago) was associated with the development of hunting and overhunting of wild animals, when the mammoth, cave lion and bear, on which the hunting efforts of the Cro-Magnons were directed, disappeared from the face of the earth. The use of fire by primitive people caused especially a lot of harm - they burned out forests. This led to a decrease in river and groundwater levels. Overgrazing of livestock on pastures may have resulted ecologically in the creation of the Sahara Desert.

Then, about 2 thousand years ago, there followed a crisis associated with the use of irrigated agriculture. It led to the development of a large number of clayey and saline deserts. But let’s take into account that in those days the population of the Earth was small, and, as a rule, people had the opportunity to move to other places that were more suitable for life (which is impossible to do now).

During the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, the impact on the biosphere increased. This is due to the development of new lands, which was accompanied by the extermination of many species of animals (remember, for example, the fate of the American bison) and the transformation of vast territories into fields and pastures. However, human impact on the biosphere acquired a global scale after the industrial revolution of the 17th-18th centuries. At this time, the scale of human activity increased significantly, as a result of which the geochemical processes occurring in the biosphere began to transform (1). In parallel with the progress of scientific and technological progress, the number of people has increased sharply (from 500 million in 1650, the conditional beginning of the industrial revolution - to the current 7 billion), and, accordingly, the need for food and industrial goods, and for more and more fuel, has increased , metal, cars. This led to a rapid increase in the load on environmental systems, and the level of this load in the middle of the 20th century. - beginning of the 21st century reached a critical value.

How do you understand in this context the contradictory results of technological progress for people?

Humanity has entered an era of global environmental crisis. Its main components:

• depletion of energy and other resources of the planet's interior
• Greenhouse effect,
• ozone layer depletion,
• soil degradation,
• radiation hazard,
• transboundary transfer of pollution, etc.

The movement of humanity towards an environmental catastrophe of a planetary nature is confirmed by numerous facts. People are continuously accumulating the number of compounds that cannot be utilized by nature, developing dangerous technologies, storing and transporting many pesticides and explosives, polluting the atmosphere, hydrosphere and soil. In addition, the energy potential is constantly increasing, the greenhouse effect is being stimulated, etc.

There is a threat of loss of stability of the biosphere (disruption of the eternal course of events) and its transition to a new state, excluding the very possibility of human existence. It is often said that one of the reasons for the environmental crisis our planet is in is a crisis of human consciousness. What do you think of it?

But humanity is still able to solve environmental problems!

What conditions are necessary for this?

• Unity of good will of all inhabitants of the planet in the problem of survival.
• Establishing peace on Earth, ending wars.
• Stopping the destructive effect of modern production on the biosphere (resource consumption, environmental pollution, destruction of natural ecosystems and biodiversity).

Development of global models of nature restoration and scientifically based environmental management.

Some of the points listed above seem impossible, or not? What do you think?

Undoubtedly, human awareness of the dangers of environmental problems is associated with serious difficulties. One of them is caused by the non-obviousness of its natural basis for modern man, psychological alienation from nature. Hence the disdainful attitude towards compliance with environmentally appropriate activities, and, to put it simply, the lack of an elementary culture of attitude towards nature on various scales.

To solve environmental problems, it is necessary to develop new thinking among all people, to overcome stereotypes of technocratic thinking, ideas about the inexhaustibility of natural resources and a lack of understanding of our absolute dependence on nature. An unconditional condition for the further existence of humanity is compliance with the environmental imperative as the basis for environmentally friendly behavior in all areas. It is necessary to overcome alienation from nature, to realize and implement personal responsibility for how we relate to nature (for saving land, water, energy, for protecting nature). Video 5.

There is a phrase “think globally, act locally.” How do you understand this?

There are many successful publications and programs devoted to environmental problems and the possibilities of solving them. In the last decade, quite a lot of environmentally oriented films have been produced, and regular environmental film festivals have begun to be held. One of the most outstanding films is the environmental education film HOME, which was first presented on June 5, 2009 on World Environment Day by the outstanding photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand and the famous director and producer Luc Besson. This film tells about the history of life on planet Earth, the beauty of nature, and environmental problems caused by the destructive impact of human activity on the environment, which threatens the death of our common home.

It must be said that the premiere of HOME was an unprecedented event in cinema: for the first time, the film was shown simultaneously in the largest cities of dozens of countries, including Moscow, Paris, London, Tokyo, New York, in an open screening format, and free of charge. Television viewers saw an hour and a half film on large screens installed in open areas, in cinema halls, on 60 TV channels (not counting cable networks), and on the Internet. HOME was shown in 53 countries. However, in some countries, such as China and Saudi Arabia, the director was denied permission to conduct aerial filming. In India, half of the footage was simply confiscated, and in Argentina, Arthus-Bertrand and his assistants had to spend a week in prison. In many countries, the film about the beauty of the Earth and its environmental problems, the demonstration of which, according to the director, “borders on a political appeal,” was banned from showing.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand (French: Yann Arthus-Bertrand, born March 13, 1946 in Paris) - French photographer, photojournalist, Knight of the Legion of Honor and winner of many other awards

With a story about the film by J. Arthus-Bertrand, we end the conversation about environmental problems. Watch this movie. Better than words, it will help you think about what awaits the Earth and humanity in the near future; understand that everything in the world is interconnected, that our task now is common and that of each of us - to try, as far as possible, to restore the ecological balance of the planet that we have disrupted, without which the existence of life on Earth is impossible.

In Video 6 den excerpt from the film Home. You can watch the whole film - http://www.cinemaplayer.ru/29761-_dom_istoriya_puteshestviya___Home.html.

The scientific and technological revolution and the use of mineral resources of the earth have led to the fact that the environmental situation on our planet is deteriorating literally before our eyes. The level of pollution of the subsoil, hydrosphere and air layer of the earth is approaching a critical level. Humanity is on the verge of a global man-made catastrophe. Fortunately, more and more government and public organizations understand the depth and danger of the problem.

Work to improve the current situation is gaining momentum. Already, modern technologies offer many ways to solve environmental problems, from the creation of environmentally friendly fuels, environmentally friendly transport to the search for new environmentally friendly sources of energy and the wise use of the Earth's resources.

Ways to solve the problem

An integrated approach to environmental issues is necessary. It should include long-term and planned activities aimed at all spheres of society.

To radically improve the environmental situation, both on earth as a whole and in a particular country, it is necessary to implement measures of the following nature:

1. Legal. These include the creation of environmental laws. International agreements are also important.
2. Economic. Eliminating the consequences of man-made impacts on nature requires serious financial investments.
3. Technological. In this area there is room for inventors and innovators to diverge. The use of new technologies in the mining, metallurgical and transport industries will reduce environmental pollution to a minimum. The main goal is to create environmentally friendly energy sources.
4. Organizational. They consist in uniformly distributing transport among flows to prevent its long-term accumulation in one place.
5. Architectural. It is advisable to plant trees in large and small settlements and divide their territory into zones using plantings. Planting around enterprises and along roads is of no small importance.

Particular importance must be attached to the protection of flora and fauna. Their representatives simply do not have time to adapt to changes in the environment.

Current measures to preserve the environment

Awareness of the dramatic situation in the environment forced humanity to take urgent and effective measures to correct it.

The most popular areas of activity:

1. Reduction of household and industrial waste. This is especially true for plastic utensils. It is gradually being replaced with paper. Research is being conducted to remove bacteria that feed on plastic.
2. Cleaning of drains. Billions of cubic meters of water are consumed annually to support various branches of human activity. Modern treatment facilities allow it to be purified to its natural state.
3. Transition to clean energy sources. This means a gradual abandonment of nuclear energy, engines and furnaces running on coal and petroleum products. The use of natural gas, wind, solar and hydroelectric power keeps the atmosphere clean. The use of biofuels can significantly reduce the concentration of harmful substances in exhaust gases.
4. Protection and restoration of lands and forests. New forests are being planted in cleared areas. Measures are being taken to drain land and protect it from erosion.

Constant agitation in favor of the environment changes people's views on this problem, inclining them to take care of the environment.

Prospects for solving environmental problems in the future

In the future, the main efforts will be aimed at eliminating the consequences of human activity and reducing harmful emissions.

There are such prospects for this:

1. Construction of special plants for the complete recycling of all types of waste. This will avoid occupying new territories for landfills. The energy obtained from combustion can be used for the needs of cities.
2. Construction of thermal power plants operating on “solar wind” (Helium 3). This substance is found on the Moon. Despite the high cost of its production, the energy obtained from solar wind is thousands of times higher than the heat transfer from nuclear fuel.
3. Transfer of all transport to power plants running on gas, electricity, batteries and hydrogen. This decision will help reduce emissions into the atmosphere.
4. Cold nuclear fusion. This option for generating energy from water is already under development.

Despite the serious damage caused to nature, humanity has every chance of returning it to its original appearance.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences N. MOISEEV.

We continue the series of articles by academician Nikita Nikolaevich Moiseev, begun by the magazine at the end of last year. These are the thoughts of the scientist, his philosophical notes “On the necessary features of the civilization of the future,” published in No. 12, 1997. In the first issue of this year, Academician Moiseev published an article, which he himself defined as the reflections of a pessimistic optimist, “Is it possible to talk about Russia in the future tense?” With this material, the magazine opened a new column, “Looking into the 21st Century.” Here we publish the following article, its topic is one of the most pressing problems of the modern world - the protection of nature and the ecology of civilization.

A section of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

The exact opposite of a reef is a desert. Z

Synthetic detergent foam in a Chicago sewer. Unlike soap, detergents are not subject to the decomposing action of bacteria and remain in water for many years.

Sulfur dioxide contained in the smoke emitted by production completely destroyed the vegetation on this mountain. Now we have learned to capture these gases and use them for industrial needs.

Water extracted from the bowels of the earth irrigated the lifeless dunes. And a new city grew in the Moiab Desert.

The fight of bison bulls during the mating season is evidence that these animals, which until recently were almost completely extinct, have now been revived through human efforts and are doing quite well.

Birth of a discipline

Today, the term “ecology” has begun to be used very widely, for a variety of reasons (on business and not on business). And this process is apparently irreversible. However, excessive expansion of the concept of “ecology” and its inclusion in jargon is still unacceptable. For example, they say that the city has a “bad environment.” The expression is meaningless, because ecology is a scientific discipline and it is the same for all humanity. We can talk about a bad environmental situation, about unfavorable environmental conditions, about the fact that there are no qualified ecologists in the city, but not about bad ecology. This is as ridiculous as saying that arithmetic or algebra is bad in a city.

I will try to reduce the known interpretations of this word into a certain scheme of methodologically interrelated concepts. And to show that this can become a starting point for very specific activities.

The term "ecology" arose within the framework of biology. Its author was Jena University professor E. Haeckel (1866). Ecology was initially considered as a part of biology that studies the interaction of living organisms, depending on the state of the environment. Later, the concept of “ecosystem” appeared in the West, and in the USSR - “biocenosis” and “biogeocenosis” (introduced by academician V.N. Sukachev). These terms are almost identical.

So - initially the term “ecology” meant a discipline that studies the evolution of fixed ecosystems. Even now, in general ecology courses, the main place is occupied by problems mainly of a biological nature. And this is also incorrect, because it extremely narrows the content of the subject. Whereas life itself significantly expands the range of problems solved by ecology.

New problems

The Industrial Revolution, which began in Europe in the 18th century, made significant changes in the relationship between Nature and man. For the time being, man, like other living beings, was a natural component of his ecosystem, fit into its circulation of substances and lived according to its laws.

Starting from the time of the Neolithic revolution, that is, from the time when agriculture was invented, and then cattle breeding, the relationship between man and Nature began to change qualitatively. Human agricultural activity gradually creates artificial ecosystems, so-called agrocenoses, living according to their own laws: to maintain them, they require constant, focused human labor. They cannot exist without human intervention. Man is extracting more and more minerals from the bowels of the earth. As a result of its activity, the nature of the circulation of substances in nature begins to change, and the nature of the environment changes. As the population grows and human needs increase, the properties of its environment change more and more.

At the same time, it seems to people that their activity is necessary in order to adapt to living conditions. But they do not notice, or do not want to notice, that this adaptation is local in nature, that not always, while improving living conditions for themselves for some time, they at the same time improve them for the clan, tribe, village, city, and even for themselves in the future. For example, if you throw waste from your yard, you pollute someone else's, which ultimately turns out to be harmful to you. This happens not only in small things, but also in big things.

However, until very recently, all these changes happened so slowly that no one thought seriously about them. Human memory, of course, recorded major changes: Europe was covered with impenetrable forests back in the Middle Ages, endless feather grass steppes gradually turned into arable land, rivers became shallow, animals and fish became fewer. And people knew that there was one reason for all this - Man! But all these changes happened slowly. They became clearly noticeable only after generations.

The situation began to change rapidly with the beginning of the industrial revolution. The main reasons for these changes were the extraction and use of hydrocarbon fuels - coal, oil, shale, gas. And then - the extraction of huge quantities of metals and other minerals. The circulation of substances in nature began to include substances stored by former biospheres - those that were in sedimentary rocks and had already left the circulation. People began to talk about the appearance of these substances in the biosphere as pollution of water, air, and soil. The intensity of the process of such pollution increased rapidly. Living conditions began to visibly change.

Plants and animals were the first to feel this process. The number and, most importantly, the diversity of the living world began to decline rapidly. In the second half of this century, the process of oppression of Nature has especially accelerated.

I was struck by a letter to Herzen, written by one of the residents of Moscow in the sixties of the last century. I quote it almost verbatim: “Our Moscow River has become impoverished. Of course, you can still catch a pound of sturgeon now, but you can’t catch the sterlet that my grandfather loved to treat visitors to.” Like this! And only a century has passed. You can still see fishermen with fishing rods on the banks of the river. And some people manage to catch a roach that accidentally survived. But it is already so saturated with “products of human production” that even a cat refuses to eat it.

The problem of studying the influence on his health, on his living conditions, on his future of those changes in the natural environment that are caused by himself, that is, by the uncontrolled activity and selfishness of man himself, has risen before man.

Industrial ecology and monitoring

So, human activity changes the nature of the environment, and in most (not always, but in most) cases, these changes have a negative impact on humans. And it’s not difficult to understand why: over millions of years, his body has adapted to very specific living conditions. But at the same time, any activity - industrial, agricultural, recreational - is the source of human life, the basis of his existence. This means that people will inevitably continue to change the characteristics of the environment. And then look for ways to adapt to them.

Hence, one of the main modern practical directions of ecology: the creation of technologies that have the least impact on the environment. Technologies that have this property are called environmentally friendly. Scientific (engineering) disciplines that deal with the principles of creating such technologies are collectively called engineering or industrial ecology.

As industry develops, as people begin to understand that they cannot exist in an environment created from their own waste, the role of these disciplines is growing all the time, and almost every technical university now has departments of industrial ecology focused on those or other productions.

Let us note that the less waste that pollutes the environment, the better we learn to use waste from one industry as raw material for another. This is how the idea of ​​“waste-free” production is born. Such production, or rather, such chains of production, solve another extremely important problem: they save the natural resources that people use in their production activities. After all, we live on a planet with very limited mineral resources. We must not forget about this!

Today, industrial ecology covers a very wide range of problems, and the problems are very different and not at all biological. Here it is more appropriate to talk about a whole range of environmental engineering disciplines: ecology of the mining industry, ecology of energy, ecology of chemical production, etc. It may seem that the use of the word “ecology” in combination with these disciplines is not entirely legitimate. However, it is not. Such disciplines are very different in their specific content, but they are united by a common methodology and a common goal: to minimize the impact of industrial activity on the processes of circulation of substances in Nature and environmental pollution.

Simultaneously with such engineering activity, the problem of its assessment arises, which constitutes the second direction of practical ecology. To do this, it is necessary to learn how to identify significant environmental parameters, develop methods for measuring them, and create a system of standards for permissible pollution. Let me remind you that in principle there cannot be non-polluting industries! That is why the concept of MPC was born - maximum permissible standards for the concentration of harmful substances in the air, water, soil...

This most important area of ​​activity is commonly called environmental monitoring. The name is not entirely apt, since the word “monitoring” means measurement, observation. Of course, it is very important to learn how to measure certain characteristics of the environment; it is even more important to combine them into a system. But the most important thing is to understand what needs to be measured first, and, of course, to develop and justify the MPC standards themselves. You need to know how certain values ​​of biosphere parameters affect human health and practical activities. And there are still a lot of unresolved questions. But Ariadne's thread has already been outlined - human health. It is precisely this that is the final, Supreme judge of all the activities of ecologists.

Protection of Nature and ecology of civilization

All civilizations and all peoples have long had the idea of ​​the need to take care of Nature. For some - to a greater extent, for others - to a lesser extent. But man understood long ago that the land, rivers, forests and animals living in them are an enduring value, perhaps the main value that Nature possesses. And nature reserves probably arose long before the word “reserve” itself appeared. So, even Peter the Great, who cut down the entire forest in Zaonezhye for the construction of the fleet, forbade anyone to touch the forests in the vicinity of the Kivach waterfall with an ax.

For a long time, the main practical tasks of ecology boiled down to environmental protection. But in the twentieth century, this traditional frugality, which also began to gradually fade away under the pressure of developing industry, was no longer enough. The degradation of Nature began to turn into a threat to the very life of society. This led to the emergence of special environmental laws and the creation of a system of reserves like the famous Askania-Nova. Finally, a special science was born that studies the possibility of preserving relict areas of Nature and endangered populations of individual living species. Gradually, people began to understand that only the richness of Nature and the diversity of living species ensure the life and future of man himself. Today this principle has become fundamental. Nature has lived without humans for billions of years and can now live without him, but humans cannot exist outside a full-fledged biosphere.

The problem of its survival on Earth is rising before humanity. The future of our species is in question. Humanity may face the fate of dinosaurs. The only difference is that the disappearance of the former rulers of the Earth was caused by external reasons, and we can die from the inability to wisely use our power.

It is this problem that is the central problem of modern science (although perhaps not everyone has yet realized this).

Exploring your own home

The exact translation of the Greek word “ecology” means the study of our own home, that is, the biosphere in which we live and of which we are a part. In order to solve the problems of human survival, you must, first of all, know your own home and learn to live in it! Live long, happily! And the concept of “ecology”, which was born and entered the language of science back in the last century, it related only to one of the aspects of the life of the inhabitants of our common home. Classical (more precisely, biological) ecology is only a natural component of the discipline that we now call human ecology or modern ecology.

The original meaning of any knowledge, any scientific discipline is to comprehend the laws of one’s own home, that is, that world, that environment on which our common destiny depends. From this point of view, the entire set of sciences born of the human Mind is an integral part of a certain general science about how a person should live on Earth, what he should be guided in his behavior in order not only to preserve himself, but also to ensure the future of his children, grandchildren, their people and humanity as a whole. Ecology is a science aimed at the future. And it is based on the principle that the values ​​of the future are no less important than the values ​​of the present. This is the science of how to pass on Nature, our common home, to our children and grandchildren, so that they can live in it better and more conveniently than we do! So that it preserves everything necessary for people’s lives.

Our house is one - everything in it is interconnected, and we must be able to combine the knowledge accumulated in different disciplines into a single holistic structure, which is the science of how a person should live on Earth, and which is naturally called human ecology or simply ecology.

So, ecology is a systemic science; it relies on many other disciplines. But this is not its only difference from traditional sciences.

Physicists, chemists, biologists, and economists study many different phenomena. They study in order to understand the nature of the phenomenon itself. If you like, out of interest, because a person, when solving a particular problem, first simply seeks to understand how it is solved. And only then he begins to think about what to adapt the wheel he invented to. Very rarely do they think in advance about applying the acquired knowledge. At the birth of nuclear physics, did anyone even think about the atomic bomb? Or did Faraday imagine that his discovery would lead to the planet being covered in a network of power plants? And this detachment of the researcher from the goals of the study has the deepest meaning. It is laid down by evolution itself, if you like, by the market mechanism. The main thing is to know, and then life itself will select what a person needs. After all, the development of the living world occurs exactly this way: each mutation exists on its own, it is only an opportunity for development, only a “testing of the paths” of possible development. And then selection does its job: from the countless number of mutations, it selects only those units that turn out to be useful for something. It’s the same in science: how many unclaimed volumes of books and journals containing the thoughts and discoveries of researchers gather dust in libraries. And one day some of them may be needed.

In this respect, ecology is not at all like traditional disciplines. Unlike them, it has a very specific and predetermined goal: such a study of one’s own home and such a study of possible human behavior in it that would allow a person to live in this house, that is, to survive on planet Earth.

Unlike many other sciences, ecology has a multi-tiered structure, and each of the floors of this “building” is based on a variety of traditional disciplines.

Top floor

During the period of perestroika proclaimed in our country, we began to talk about the need to get rid of ideology, from its total dictate. Of course, in order for a person to reveal his potential inherent in Nature, a person needs freedom of search. His thought should not be constrained by any boundaries: the whole variety of development paths should be accessible to vision in order to have wide possibilities of choice. And frameworks in the thinking process, whatever they may be, are always a hindrance. However, only thought can be unconstrained and as revolutionary as desired. And you should act carefully, based on proven principles. This is why it is also impossible to live without ideology, which is why free choice must always be based on a worldview, and it is formed by the experience of many generations. A person must see, realize his place in the world, in the Universe. He must know what is inaccessible and forbidden to him - the pursuit of phantoms, illusions, and ghosts has at all times been one of the main dangers facing man.

We live in a house whose name is the biosphere. But she, in turn, is only a small particle of the Great Universe. Our home is a tiny corner of vast space. And a person must feel like a part of this boundless Universe. He must know that he arose not due to someone’s otherworldly will, but as a result of the development of this infinitely vast world, and as the apotheosis of this development, he gained Reason, the ability to foresee the results of his actions and influence the events that occur around him, and therefore , and what is happening in the Universe! I would like to call these principles the basis, the foundation of an ecological worldview. And therefore, the basis of ecology.

Any worldview has many sources. This includes religion, traditions, and family experience... But still, one of its most important components is the condensed experience of all humanity. And we call it SCIENCE.

Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky used the phrase “empirical generalization.” By this term he called any statement that does not contradict our direct experience, observations, or one that can be deduced by strict logical methods from other empirical generalizations. So, at the heart of the ecological worldview lies the following statement, first clearly formulated by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr: we can consider as existing only that which is an empirical generalization!

Only such a foundation can protect a person from unjustified illusions and false steps, from ill-considered and dangerous actions; only it can block access to the young minds of various phantoms who, on the ruins of Marxism, begin to travel around our country.

Man has to solve a problem of enormous practical significance: how to survive on an impoverished Earth? And only a sober, rationalistic worldview can serve as a guiding thread in the terrible labyrinth into which evolution has driven us. And help cope with the difficulties that await humanity.

This means that ecology begins with a worldview. I would even say more: a person’s worldview in the modern age begins with ecology - with ecological thinking, and the upbringing and education of a person - with environmental education.

Biosphere and man in the biosphere

The biosphere is the part of the upper shell of the Earth in which living matter exists or is capable of existing. The biosphere usually includes the atmosphere, the hydrosphere (seas, oceans, rivers and other bodies of water) and the upper part of the earth's firmament. The biosphere is not and has never been in a state of equilibrium. It receives energy from the Sun and, in turn, emits a certain amount of energy into space. These energies have different properties (quality). The Earth receives short-wave radiation - light, which, when transformed, heats the Earth. And long-wave thermal radiation goes into space from the Earth. And the balance of these energies is not maintained: the Earth emits slightly less energy into space than it receives from the Sun. This difference - small fractions of a percent - is absorbed by the Earth, or more precisely, by its biosphere, which accumulates energy all the time. This small amount of accumulated energy is enough to support all the grandiose processes of the planet’s development. This energy turned out to be enough for one day for life to flare up on the surface of our planet and for the biosphere to arise, so that in the process of development of the biosphere, man appears and Reason arises.

So, the biosphere is a living, developing system, a system open to space - to the flows of its energy and matter.

And the first main, practically very important task of human ecology is to understand the mechanisms of development of the biosphere and the processes that occur in it.

These are the most complex processes of interaction between the atmosphere, ocean, and biota - processes that are fundamentally nonequilibrium. The latter means that all the circulation of substances here is not closed: some material substance is continuously added, and something else precipitates, forming over time huge layers of sedimentary rocks. And the planet itself is not an inert body. Its depths constantly emit various gases into the atmosphere and ocean, primarily carbon dioxide and hydrogen. They are included in the circulation of substances in nature. Finally, man himself, as Vernadsky said, has a decisive influence on the structure of geochemical cycles - on the circulation of substances.

The study of the biosphere as an integral system is called global ecology - a completely new direction in science. The existing methods of experimental study of Nature are unsuitable for him: the biosphere cannot, like a butterfly, be studied under a microscope. The biosphere is a unique object; it exists in a single copy. And besides, today she is not the same as she was yesterday, and tomorrow she will not be the same as today. And therefore, any experiments with the biosphere are unacceptable, simply unacceptable in principle. We can only observe what is happening, think, reason, study computer models. And if experiments are carried out, then only of a local nature, allowing one to study only individual regional features of biosphere processes.

That is why the only way to study the problems of global ecology is through methods of mathematical modeling and analysis of the previous stages of the development of Nature. The first significant steps have already been taken on this path. And over the past quarter century, much has been understood. And most importantly, the need for such study has become generally recognized.

Interaction between the biosphere and society

Vernadsky was the first, at the very beginning of the twentieth century, to understand that man is becoming “the main geological-forming force of the planet” and the problem of interaction between man and Nature should be among the main fundamental problems of modern science. Vernadsky is not an accidental addition to the line of remarkable Russian natural scientists. He had teachers, he had predecessors and, most importantly, he had traditions. Of the teachers, we must remember first of all V.V. Dokuchaev, who revealed the secret of our southern black soils and laid the foundation for soil science. Thanks to Dokuchaev, we today understand that the basis of the entire biosphere, its connecting link, is soils with their microflora. That life, those processes that occur in soils, determine all the features of the cycle of substances in nature.

Vernadsky's students and followers were V. N. Sukachev, N. V. Timofeev-Resovsky, V. A. Kovda and many others. Viktor Abramovich Kovda has a very important assessment of the role of the anthropogenic factor at the present stage of the evolution of the biosphere. Thus, he showed that humanity produces at least 2000 times more organic waste than the rest of the biosphere. We agree to call waste or garbage substances that are excluded for a long time from the biogeochemical cycles of the biosphere, that is, from the circulation of substances in Nature. In other words, humanity is radically changing the nature of the functioning of the basic mechanisms of the biosphere.

A well-known American specialist in the field of computer technology, MIT professor Jay Forrester, in the late 60s, developed simplified methods for describing dynamic processes using computers. Forrester's student Meadows applied these approaches to study the processes of change in the characteristics of the biosphere and human activity. He published his calculations in a book he called “The Limits to Growth.”

Using very simple mathematical models that could not be considered scientifically based, he carried out calculations that allowed him to compare the prospects for industrial development, population growth and environmental pollution. Despite the primitiveness of the analysis (or perhaps precisely because of this), the calculations of Meadows and his colleagues played a very important positive role in the formation of modern environmental thinking. For the first time, using specific numbers, it was shown that humanity is facing a global environmental crisis in the very near future, most likely in the middle of the coming century. This will be a food crisis, a resource crisis, a crisis with planetary pollution.

Now we can definitely say that Meadows’ calculations were largely erroneous, but he grasped the main trends correctly. More importantly, due to its simplicity and clarity, the results obtained by Meadows attracted the attention of the world community.

Research in the field of global ecology developed differently in the Soviet Union. At the Computing Center of the Academy of Sciences, a computer model was built that can simulate the course of basic biosphere processes. She described the dynamics of large-scale processes occurring in the atmosphere and ocean, as well as the interaction of these processes. A special block described the dynamics of biota. An important place was occupied by the description of atmospheric energy, cloud formation, precipitation, etc. As for human activity, it was given in the form of various scenarios. This made it possible to assess the prospects for the evolution of biosphere parameters depending on the nature of human activity.

Already in the late 70s, with the help of such a computing system, in other words, at the tip of a pen, it was possible for the first time to evaluate the so-called “greenhouse effect.” Its physical meaning is quite simple. Some gases - water vapor, carbon dioxide - transmit sunlight coming to the Earth, and it heats the surface of the planet, but these same gases screen the Earth's long-wave thermal radiation.

Active industrial activity leads to a continuous increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: in the twentieth century it increased by 20 percent. This causes an increase in the average temperature of the planet, which in turn changes the nature of atmospheric circulation and the distribution of precipitation. And these changes are reflected in the vital activity of the plant world, the nature of polar and continental glaciation changes - glaciers begin to melt, ocean levels rise, etc.

If the current growth rate of industrial production continues, then by the thirties of the coming century the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will double. How can all this affect the productivity of biota - historically established complexes of living organisms? In 1979, A. M. Tarko, using computer models, which by that time had already been developed at the Computing Center of the Academy of Sciences, carried out calculations and analysis of this phenomenon for the first time.

It turned out that the overall productivity of the biota will remain virtually unchanged, but there will be a redistribution of its productivity across different geographical zones. For example, the aridity of the Mediterranean regions, semi-deserts and deserted savannas in Africa, and the US corn belt will sharply increase. Our steppe zone will also suffer. Yields here may decrease by 15-20, even 30 percent. But the productivity of taiga zones and those areas that we call non-black soil will increase sharply. Agriculture may move north.

Thus, already the first calculations show that human production activity in the coming decades, that is, during the lifetime of current generations, can lead to significant climate changes. For the planet as a whole, these changes will be negative. But for the North of Eurasia, and therefore for Russia, the consequences of the greenhouse effect may also be positive.

However, there is still a lot of debate in current assessments of the global environmental situation. It is very dangerous to draw definitive conclusions. For example, according to calculations by our computer center, by the beginning of the next century the average temperature of the planet should increase by 0.5-0.6 degrees. But natural climate variability can fluctuate within plus or minus one degree. Climatologists debate whether the observed warming is the result of natural variability, or a manifestation of the increasing greenhouse effect.

My position on this issue is very cautious: the greenhouse effect exists - this is indisputable. I think it is certainly necessary to take it into account, but we should not talk about the inevitability of tragedy. Humanity can still do a lot to mitigate the consequences of what is happening.

In addition, I would like to draw attention to the fact that there are many other extremely dangerous consequences of human activity. Among them are such difficult ones as the thinning of the ozone layer, the reduction in the genetic diversity of human races, environmental pollution... But these problems should not cause panic. But under no circumstances should they be ignored. They must be the subject of careful scientific analysis, since they will inevitably become the basis for developing a strategy for the industrial development of mankind.

The danger of one of these processes was foreseen at the end of the 18th century by the English monk Malthus. He hypothesized that humanity is growing faster than the planet's ability to create food resources. For a long time it seemed that this was not entirely true - people learned to increase the efficiency of agriculture.

But in principle, Malthus is right: any resources on the planet are limited, food resources first of all. Even with the most advanced food production technology, the Earth can only feed a limited number of people. Now this milestone has apparently already been passed. In recent decades, the amount of food produced in the world per capita has begun to slowly but inevitably decrease. This is a formidable sign that requires an immediate response from all humanity. I emphasize: not individual countries, but all humanity. And I think that improving agricultural production technology alone cannot do this.

Ecological Thinking and Humanity Strategy

Humanity has approached a new milestone in its history, at which the spontaneous development of productive forces, uncontrolled population growth, and lack of discipline in individual behavior can put humanity, that is, the biological species homo sapiens, on the brink of death. We are facing the problems of a new organization of life, a new organization of society, a new worldview. Now the phrase “ecological thinking” has emerged. It is intended, first of all, to remind us that we are children of the Earth, not its conquerors, but children.

Everything returns to normal, and we should, like our distant Cro-Magnon ancestors, hunters of the pre-glacial period, again perceive ourselves as part of the surrounding Nature. We must treat Nature as our mother, as our own home. But there is a huge fundamental difference between a person belonging to modern society and our pre-glacial ancestor: we have knowledge, and we are able to set development goals for ourselves, we have the potential to follow these goals.

About a quarter of a century ago, I began to use the term “coevolution of man and the biosphere.” It means such behavior of humanity and each person individually, which is capable of ensuring the joint development of both the biosphere and humanity. The current level of development of science and our technical capabilities makes this mode of coevolution fundamentally realizable.

Here is just one important note that protects against various illusions. Nowadays they often talk about the omnipotence of science. Our knowledge of the world around us has indeed expanded incredibly over the past two centuries, but our capabilities are still very limited. We are deprived of the ability to foresee the development of natural and social phenomena for more or less distant times. That's why I'm always wary of broad, far-reaching plans. In each specific period, one must be able to isolate what is known to be reliable, and rely on this in one’s plans, actions, and “perestroikas.”

And the most reliable knowledge is often about what exactly causes harm. Therefore, the main task of scientific analysis, the main one, but, of course, far from the only one, is to formulate a system of prohibitions. This was probably understood during the Lower Paleolithic by our humanoid ancestors. Even then, various taboos began to arise. We cannot do without this: a new system of prohibitions and recommendations must be developed on how to implement these prohibitions.

Environmental strategy

In order to live in our common home, we must develop not only some general rules of behavior, if you like - rules of community life, but also a strategy for our development. The rules of the hostel are in most cases local in nature. They most often come down to the development and implementation of low-waste industries, to cleansing the environment of pollution, that is, to protecting Nature.

To satisfy these local requirements, there is no need for any super-large events: everything is decided by the culture of the population, technological and, mainly, environmental literacy and discipline of local officials.

But then we are faced with more complex situations when we have to think about the well-being of not only our own, but also that of our distant neighbors. An example of this is a river crossing several regions. Many people are already interested in its purity, and they are interested in very different ways. Residents of the upper reaches are not very inclined to care about the condition of the river in its lower reaches. Therefore, in order to ensure normal joint life of the population of the entire river basin, regulations are already required at the state and sometimes at the interstate level.

The river example is also just a special case. After all, there are also problems of a planetary nature. They require a universal strategy. To develop it, culture and environmental education alone are not enough. There are few actions by a competent (which is extremely rare) government. There is a need to create a universal strategy. It should cover literally all aspects of people’s lives. These include new industrial technology systems that should be waste-free and resource-saving. This includes agricultural technologies. And not only better soil cultivation and the use of fertilizers. But, as the works of N.I. Vavilov and other remarkable representatives of agronomic science and plant growing show, the main path of development here is the use of plants that have the highest efficiency of solar energy. That is, clean energy that does not pollute the environment.

Such a radical solution to agricultural problems is of particular importance, since they are directly related to a problem that, I am convinced, will inevitably have to be solved. We are talking about the population of the planet. Humanity is already faced with the need for strict regulation of the birth rate - in different regions of the Earth in different ways, but everywhere there is a restriction.

In order for a person to continue to fit into the natural cycles (circulation) of the biosphere, the population of the planet, while maintaining modern needs, must be reduced by a factor of ten. And this is impossible! Regulating population growth, of course, will not result in a tenfold reduction in the number of inhabitants of the planet. This means, along with a smart demographic policy, it is necessary to create new biogeochemical cycles, that is, a new circulation of substances, which will include, first of all, those plant species that more efficiently use clean solar energy, which does not cause environmental harm to the planet.

Solving problems of this magnitude is only possible for humanity as a whole. And this will require a change in the entire organization of the planetary community, in other words, a new civilization, a restructuring of the most important thing - those value systems that have been established for centuries.

The principle of the need to form a new civilization was declared by the International Green Cross, an organization whose creation was proclaimed in 1993 in the Japanese city of Kyoto. The main thesis is that man must live in harmony with Nature.