Puzanova Tatyana Alekseevna - physical geographer, landscape geochemist, soil geographer. Graduated from the Department of Landscape Geochemistry and Soil Geography, Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University. After graduating from graduate school, she defended her dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Geographical Sciences on the topic “Natural and anthropogenic evolution of the soil cover of the Western Caspian region in the Holocene.” For many years T.A. Puzanova studies issues of natural and anthropogenic evolution of soil cover, trends in changes in landscape and soil-geochemical conditions in the context of economic activity.
For many years T.A. Puzanova studied changes in the soil cover of the Caspian lowland in connection with fluctuations of the Caspian Sea. Within the framework of this topic, T.A. Puzanova took part in the projects “Late Holocene evolution of soil cover: factors, stages, speed (Caspian Lowland)”, “Application of GIS technologies for managing the Astrakhan Biosphere Reserve”, “Geochemical changes in soils and sediments during the rapid rise of the Caspian Sea”. Based on the studies carried out, models of the late Holocene development of soils within various types of shores of the Caspian lowland were developed, a coupled analysis of natural and anthropogenic trends in the evolution of soils, soil complexes and catenas was carried out; An analysis of the transformation of the soil cover was carried out under the conditions of the current rise in the level of the Caspian Sea, a forecast diagram of the correlative relationships of the soil-vegetation cover and the depth and mineralization of groundwater was developed for the Russian coast of the Caspian Sea. T.A. Puzanova led projects on carbon fossilization in deep soil horizons: “Pedolithogenesis and its role in the formation of the material composition of continental sediments”, “Reconstruction of socio-natural systems of the Middle Volga region based on soil-archaeological research”.
Since 2005, the research activities of T.A. Puzanova concerned the collection and analysis of data characterizing the characteristics of the hydrocarbon state of the soil cover under conditions of oil pollution. The conducted scientific research made it possible to develop methods for diagnosing hydrocarbon pollution and assessing the stability of soil cover for the purposes of environmental regulation and environmental monitoring in areas of oil and gas production and transportation.
Results of scientific activities of T.A. Puzanova have been actively used for a number of years for teaching activities. T.A. Puzanova supervises educational field practices for students of the Department of Landscape Geochemistry and Soil Geography, the educational program “Geoecology of Oil and Gas”, she has developed and delivered three lecture courses: lectures on “Soil Science”, “Methodology of Field Research”, “Sustainable Development of Regions of the Oil and Gas Complex”. In 2010, T.A. Puzanova published a textbook “Ecology”, recognized at the “University Book – 2010” competition as the best publication in the field of natural sciences. T.A. Puzanova is also the scientific secretary of the Scientific and Methodological Council for Ecology of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.
T. A. Puzanova
THE GREAT OVERPOPULATION OF THE XXI CENTURY
T. A. Puzanova, Candidate of Geographical Sciences, Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University, Scientific Secretary of the Moscow Center of the Russian Geographical Society, Scientific Secretary of the Scientific and Methodological Council on Ecology of the Ministry of Education and Science
We all live on planet Earth and throughout our lives, willingly or unwillingly, we consume natural resources. Every day, by opening the water tap, eating breakfast and starting the car before going to work, we are already unwittingly changing the balance of the planet’s resources. It is obvious that many resources of the biosphere are quite large and humanity does not yet experience a shortage of them, but many of them are limited, and in this case it is necessary to realize the exhaustibility of non-renewable resources, especially in the context of a rapid increase in the planet's population.
Approximately at the beginning of the Holocene, 12,000 years ago, about 4 million people lived on the planet, 5000 years ago the number of earthlings already numbered 14 million people, at the beginning of our era it was already 170 million, in the 18th century. - 360 million people. Humanity passed the first billion mark around 1820, and 110 years later in 1925, it crossed the second billion mark. For each next billion inhabitants, it took several decades, and the time period from 6 to 7 billion was already only 12 years.
In 2015, more than 7 billion people live on the planet, and the process of increasing the number of inhabitants of the planet continues. There is even a counter of the Earth's population, counting minutely the change in the number of earthlings (http://www. census.gov/ipc/www/popclockworld.html). On average, there are 156 more people in the world every minute, and over 220,000 are added every day - this is the population of a large city. The Earth's population increases annually by an amount comparable to the population of a large country (such as Germany) - about 80 million people, and in 5 years - comparable to the emergence of such a large region as Western Europe. Almost all of the world's population growth is occurring in developing countries.
A similar surge in the number of people occurred thanks to a string of natural scientific discoveries in the 17th–20th centuries. In previous eras, people were helpless when faced with a disease that was perceived as an evil spirit possessing a person. Treatment methods were based on natural medicines, dietary changes, spells, incantations, prayers and hygiene. For example, in Ancient Rus', along with monastic medicine, there were many folk healers: chiropractors, stone cutters, pochechuyny (treatment of hemorrhoids), keel (hernia treatment), chepuchin (healers of venereal diseases), midwives, etc.
A string of scientific discoveries laid the foundation for unprecedented advances in medicine: thanks to the work of Louis Pasteur, the microbial nature of infectious diseases was established, Joseph Lister proposed an antiseptic method for treating wounds, which made it possible to sharply reduce the number of complications during surgical interventions, the discoveries of Robert Koch contributed to the development of asepsis. Microbiologists discovered the causative agents and carriers of infectious diseases: malaria, yellow fever, typhus and relapsing fever, etc.
Along with the victory over epidemics, the average life expectancy also increased, which at the end of the Middle Ages was 27.5 years. It is obvious that in previous centuries some lived to see gray hair. For example, the well-known ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras of Samos lived to be 80 years old. But then this was rare: most died in infancy or childhood, and life expectancy depended
not only by chance, but also by the level of wealth (for example, rich families quickly left cities when an epidemic occurred).
The development of industry gradually led to the growth of industrial centers and cities and improved living conditions. Thanks to advances in agriculture, hunger has disappeared in developed European countries (the last outbreak of famine occurred in Ireland in 1846, when about 1 million people died). A decrease in mortality and an increase in life expectancy led to the fact that each successive generation increasingly outnumbered the previous one. Thus, the population began to grow rapidly - a so-called demographic explosion occurred.
In the middle of the 20th century. it seemed that the current rate of population growth would lead the world to an inevitable catastrophe due to lack of resources. Many gloomy forecasts appeared that predicted a terrible overcrowding of the world in the very near future and, as a consequence, famine, epidemics, and wars. Thus, the famous German scientist and rocket designer Wernher von Braun once wittily remarked that if the current rate of human growth continues, the Earth will eventually remain standing room only.
Indeed, overpopulated poor countries in the middle of the 20th century. faced the problem of food shortages and provoked a new wave of environmental problems. The rapid growth of population in these countries led to an increase in food production and the involvement of more and more territories under agriculture: forests were cut down and all convenient spaces were plowed open. To obtain sustainable yields, new crop varieties were introduced thanks to selection and genetic engineering, agricultural mechanization and mass chemicalization: mineral fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and many other plant protection products became almost ubiquitous.
In addition, as is known, plants produce good yields where there is a lot of sun. But where there is a lot of sun, there is often little water. So irrigation came to the fields. Currently, irrigated fields occupy about 17% of arable land, but about 40% of food is grown on them, and the area of irrigated land in the two most populated countries of the world - India and China - occupies more than 40% of arable land. And if for daily needs we do not need so much water - 20–50 liters of water per day, then about 3.5 thousand liters of fresh water are spent per day on food production for every inhabitant of the planet. It is not difficult to calculate that a family of four unwittingly “consumes” an amount of water comparable to a swimming pool. Such impressive figures are obtained because growing 1 ton of wheat requires 1,500 tons of water, rice - 7,000 tons, and 1 ton of beef - from 15,000 to 70,000 tons (this is exactly how much water is needed to grow feed). Accordingly, over the past decades, the demand for clean fresh water has been constantly increasing.
These changes in agriculture in the mid-20th century, called the Green Revolution, led to a dramatic increase in food production and saved millions of people in Asia, Africa and Latin America from starvation. Although the severity of the problem was significantly reduced in those years, hunger is still a “painful” point of civilization. According to statistics, 110 thousand people in the world die every day from lack of food. Currently, the epicenter of the hunger belt is tropical Africa, where the proportion of hungry people exceeds 40%.
Given that the world's population is constantly increasing, the problem of hunger is likely to only get worse, since the rate of provision of agricultural land for each inhabitant of the planet, along with population growth, is constantly falling. So, if we divide the entire area of the earth's land (with all the mountains, glaciers, deserts, swamps and other territories inconvenient both for living and agriculture), then for each person on the planet there are currently less than two hectares, and arable land - 0.2 hectares (in the 1970s - 0.45 hectares).
But the “green revolution”, which reduced the food crisis, also had a “downside”. The low level of economic activity led to the depletion of arable land, the development of erosion processes, especially pronounced in the foothills and mountain areas, to the degradation of forests, desertification processes, swamping, etc. All this led to a rapid increase in anthropogenic ecosystems: if at the beginning of the 20th century V. the transformed landscapes accounted for about 20% of the land, then by the end of the 20th century. - more than 60%. In some overpopulated countries, such as Bangladesh and India, there are virtually no areas (outside rugged mountains) with surviving natural ecosystems.
In addition, the struggle for water and land resources has led to a number of social and political conflicts. Thus, the high population density in the agricultural regions of East Africa gave rise to attempts to develop the border highlands, which have long been used for pasture by nomadic pastoralists, for agriculture. The struggle for the flow of the Nile, in whose basin there are ten African states, has acquired the characteristics of an interstate conflict: the rapid growth of the population of Egypt causes an increase in the need for water. At the same time, the upper reaches of the White and Blue Nile are located in the countries of Ethiopia, Kenya and T...
In the tutorial " Ecology"the main provisions of modern ecology, the structure and evolution of the biosphere, the role of living matter in the biosphere are outlined, the concept of the noosphere is given. The author makes an attempt to show the connection between processes and phenomena occurring both at the level of local ecological systems and the global ecosystem - the biosphere. The manual examines in detail the main components of ecological systems and the mechanisms of their interaction, environmental environmental factors and the adaptation of living organisms to them.
In the context of the developing environmental crisis, the task of the ecology course is to form a natural science...
The textbook "Ecology" outlines the main provisions of modern ecology, the structure and evolution of the biosphere, the role of living matter in the biosphere, and the concept of the noosphere is given. The author makes an attempt to show the connection between processes and phenomena occurring both at the level of local ecological systems and the global ecosystem - the biosphere. The manual examines in detail the main components of ecological systems and the mechanisms of their interaction, environmental environmental factors and the adaptation of living organisms to them.
The manual examines the basic ecological principles of the functioning of ecosystems, provides detailed information about the pollution of various components of the environment: atmospheric air, water, land, flora and fauna, the mechanisms of the impact of pollutants on living organisms of the planet, and highlights environmental problems of our time and ways to solve them.
In the context of the developing environmental crisis, the task of the ecology course is to form a natural-scientific ecological worldview. In accordance with this task, the concept of a model of sustainable development of modern civilization, indicators and indices that determine the trend of transformation of society are considered.
The manual contains questions for self-test, a list of references - mandatory (short) and extended. To understand the scale of the phenomena being studied and to find answers to additional questions and reference material on a particular environmental problem, at the end of each chapter of the manual there are links to well-known environmental websites.
For students studying in the humanities and areas, as well as for anyone interested in environmental issues of our time.
T. A. Puzanova
THE GREAT OVERPOPULATION OF THE XXI CENTURY
T. A. Puzanova, Candidate of Geographical Sciences, Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University, Scientific Secretary of the Moscow Center of the Russian Geographical Society, Scientific Secretary of the Scientific and Methodological Council on Ecology of the Ministry of Education and Science
We all live on planet Earth and throughout our lives, willingly or unwillingly, we consume natural resources. Every day, by opening the water tap, eating breakfast and starting the car before going to work, we are already unwittingly changing the balance of the planet’s resources. It is obvious that many resources of the biosphere are quite large and humanity does not yet experience a shortage of them, but many of them are limited, and in this case it is necessary to realize the exhaustibility of non-renewable resources, especially in the context of a rapid increase in the planet's population.
Approximately at the beginning of the Holocene, 12,000 years ago, about 4 million people lived on the planet, 5000 years ago the number of earthlings already numbered 14 million people, at the beginning of our era it was already 170 million, in the 18th century. - 360 million people. Humanity passed the first billion mark around 1820, and 110 years later in 1925, it crossed the second billion mark. For each next billion inhabitants, it took several decades, and the time period from 6 to 7 billion was already only 12 years.
In 2015, more than 7 billion people live on the planet, and the process of increasing the number of inhabitants of the planet continues. There is even a counter of the Earth's population, counting minutely the change in the number of earthlings (http:// www. census gov ipc www popclockworld html). On average, there are 156 more people in the world every minute, and over 220,000 are added every day - this is the population of a large city. The Earth's population increases annually by an amount comparable to the population of a large country (such as Germany) - about 80 million people, and in 5 years - comparable to the emergence of such a large region as Western Europe. Almost all of the world's population growth is occurring in developing countries.
A similar surge in the number of people occurred thanks to a string of natural scientific discoveries in the 17th–20th centuries. In previous eras, people were helpless when faced with a disease that was perceived as an evil spirit possessing a person. Treatment methods were based on natural medicines, dietary changes, spells, incantations, prayers and hygiene. For example, in Ancient Rus', along with monastic medicine, there were many folk healers: chiropractors, stone cutters, pochechuyny (treatment of hemorrhoids), keel (hernia treatment), chepuchin (healers of venereal diseases), midwives, etc.
A string of scientific discoveries laid the foundation for unprecedented advances in medicine: thanks to the work of Louis Pasteur, the microbial nature of infectious diseases was established, Joseph Lister proposed an antiseptic method for treating wounds, which made it possible to sharply reduce the number of complications during surgical interventions, the discoveries of Robert Koch contributed to the development of asepsis. Microbiologists discovered the causative agents and carriers of infectious diseases: malaria, yellow fever, typhus and relapsing fever, etc.
Along with the victory over epidemics, the average life expectancy also increased, which at the end of the Middle Ages was 27.5 years. It is obvious that in previous centuries some lived to see gray hair. For example, the well-known ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras of Samos lived to be 80 years old. But then this was rare: most died in infancy or childhood, and life expectancy depended