Ways out of the current environmental crisis. Ecological crisis and ways to overcome it

The way out of the global ecological crisis is the most important scientific and practical problem of our time. Thousands of scientists, politicians, practitioners in all countries of the world are working on its solution. The task is to develop a set of reliable anti-crisis measures that will actively counteract further degradation of the natural environment and achieve sustainable development of society. Attempts to solve this problem by any means alone, for example, technological ones (treatment facilities, non-waste technologies, etc.), are fundamentally wrong and will not lead to the necessary results. Overcoming the ecological crisis is possible only if the harmonious development of nature and man, the removal of antagonism between them. This is achievable only on the basis of the implementation of the "trinity of natural nature, society and humanized nature" on the path of sustainable development of society, an integrated approach to solving environmental problems.

An analysis of both the ecological and socio-economic situation in Russia makes it possible to single out five main directions in which the world should emerge from the ecological crisis. At the same time, an integrated approach is needed in solving this problem, i.e., all five directions should be used simultaneously.

The first direction is the improvement of technology - the creation of environmentally friendly technology, the introduction of waste-free, low-waste industries, the renewal of fixed assets, etc.

The use of environmentally friendly technologies contributes to the protection of the environment. These technologies are less polluting, use all resources more efficiently, recycle more waste and products resulting from their use, and provide more acceptable treatment of residual waste than the technologies they replace.

Green technologies are low-waste or waste-free “processing and production technologies” and thus contribute to the prevention of environmental pollution. It also includes "end-of-life technologies" or cleaning technologies designed to eliminate existing contamination.

Environmentally friendly technologies are not just separate technologies, but are complex systems that require the availability of special scientific and technical information, procedures, goods, services and equipment, as well as methods of appropriate organizational and management activities. Therefore, when discussing technology transfer, it is necessary to take into account its potential impact on human resource development and local capacity building, as well as on the status of women. Environmentally friendly and clean technologies must meet national socio-economic, cultural and environmental priorities.

Favorable conditions must be created for access to and transfer of environmentally sound technology, especially to developing countries, through the adoption of supportive measures aimed at promoting cooperation in the field of technology and enabling the transfer of necessary scientific and technological information, as well as the creation of economic, technical and managerial potentials for the effective use and further improvement of the technology obtained. Cooperation in technology involves the joint efforts of enterprises and governments, both providers and recipients of this technology. To maximize the benefits of technology transfer, such cooperation must be ongoing and involve governments, the private sector and research and development institutions. Successful long-term partnerships in such cooperation invariably require continuous, systematic training and capacity building at all levels over a long period of time.

The introduction of new and efficient technologies is a necessary condition for enhancing the capacity, in particular of developing countries, to achieve sustainable development, maintain a stable global economy, protect the environment and reduce poverty and human suffering. An integral part of this activity is the improvement of applied technologies, and, where necessary, their replacement with more accessible and environmentally safer and cleaner.

The second direction is the development and improvement of the economic mechanism of environmental protection.

The methods of the administrative-legal mechanism of management consist in the development and publication of legal and administrative acts regulating the organization and management in the field of environmental management, the rights and obligations of managers, officials and the population of the country for economical use and reproduction natural resources and ensuring balance in the natural environment. Administrative acts are binding and directly affect the collectives of enterprises, organizations, individual workers and the population of the given area.

The economic mechanism of environmental protection is integral part a general mechanism for regulating relations in the sphere of "society - nature". Thus, it is, first of all, a system, infrastructure (legal, organizational, institutional) necessary to direct the action of these economic facts in order to achieve a reasonable balance of environmental and economic interests of society.

The essence of the current system of economic incentives for environmental protection in Russia is reduced to a system of environmental charges for environmental pollution.

The main problem of the current system is the incompatibility of environmental payments made by enterprises with the actual damage caused to the environment and the costs that must be incurred in the event of installing various treatment facilities. The consequence of this is a chronic underfunding of environmental protection measures, which the state is forced to take on.

The third direction is the application of measures of administrative restraint and measures of legal responsibility for environmental offenses (administrative-legal direction).

The fourth direction is the harmonization of ecological thinking (environmental and educational direction).

Ecological thinking is a system of views on the world, reflecting the problems of interaction between Mankind and Nature in terms of their harmonization and optimization.

The fifth direction is the harmonization of environmental international relations (international law direction).

Harmonization of international environmental relations is one of the main ways for the world community to get out of the ecological crisis. It is generally recognized that the exit strategy can be implemented only on the basis of the unity of environmental actions of all states. Today, no country is able to solve its environmental problems alone or by cooperating with only a small group of countries. There is a need for clear concerted efforts by all states, coordination of their actions on a strict international legal basis.

Nature knows no state boundaries, it is universal and one. Therefore, disturbances in the ecosystem of one country will inevitably cause a response. For example, if industrial enterprises Germany or England emit flue gases with an unacceptably high percentage of harmful impurities into the atmosphere, this negatively affects not only the ecological state of these countries, but causes significant damage to the flora and fauna of neighboring Scandinavian countries. It is clear that state borders are not recognized by all other components of the natural environment (river runoff, marine areas, migratory species of animals, etc.).

The high priority of the environmental factor in international relations is constantly increasing, which is associated with the progressive deterioration of the state of the biosphere. All the main components of the environmental crisis (greenhouse effect, ozone layer depletion, soil degradation, radiation hazard, transboundary pollution transfer, depletion of energy and other resources of the planet’s interior, etc.) become environmental imperatives and determine new norms and rules for the interaction of states. There is every reason to believe that in the XXI century. ecology will be among the highest priorities global system international relations. Even now, some statesmen consider it expedient to create such a supranational body that would manage the protection and rational use of the environment in all states and regions.

There are several ways to combat atmospheric carbon dioxide pollution causing the greenhouse effect: technical improvement of engines, fuel equipment, electronic fuel supply systems; improving fuel quality, reducing the content of toxic substances in exhaust gases as a result of the use of fuel afterburners, catalytic catalysts; use of alternative fuels. Electric transport will save the population from exhaust gases.

The introduction of new technologies will reduce the accumulation carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, will help create alternative raw materials for synthesis organic matter, which means solving important environmental problems.

Strategy for managing the consumption of natural resources from the standpoint of sustainable development. Since the level of human anthropogenic impact on the natural environment has reached dangerous limits, it is necessary to move from an unbalanced economy to a balanced one.

Considering the need to search for a new model for the development of civilization, it is necessary:

curb population growth;

exclude wasteful reduction of natural resources;

achieve the level and pace of economic development, if possible, at the expense of renewable natural resources (and this, in turn, should lead to a reduction in environmental pollution, the protection and preservation of "environmental capital" - natural resources);

reconsider economic decisions that lead to deforestation, desertification, harmful effects on flora and fauna, pollution of the atmosphere and water resources;

to change agricultural policy: instead of "aid" in the form of the supply of surplus agricultural products, developing countries should provide them with financial support that would help them to carry out important internal reforms aimed at increasing production and slowing the destruction of their agricultural resource base;

adopt a law on food safety - this will lead to a reasonable technology for growing agricultural products in order to obtain an environmentally friendly product;

stimulate the market for forest products in such a way as to reduce market demand for them by replacing building materials and conserve forest, especially tropical resources;

the most important condition for balanced economic development is the joint consideration of economic and environmental issues in the decision-making process between developed and developing countries, so that ecological and economic systems become fully interconnected;

accept only an environmentally balanced budget.

"Society and the environment" is not only an international, interstate, but also an interdisciplinary problem. Almost all humanitarian, natural and Technical science. They explore various components of this problem - natural, technical, economic, medical, social, political, geographical, architectural and planning, and others.

ecological crisis describe the current state of the relationship between human society and natural environment in which a person lives, in which the contradictions between the economic interests of society in the consumption and use of the natural environment and the environmental requirements for ensuring the safety and quality of this environment for the survival of society itself have been exacerbated to the limit .

AT structure ecological crisis, there are two sides - natural and social .

The natural side of the ecological crisis brings together signs of degradation, destruction of the natural environment :

– global warming climate, greenhouse effect;

– general weakening of the Earth's ozone layer; the appearance of ozone holes;

– atmospheric pollution, formation of acid rain, photochemical reactions with the formation of ozone, peroxide compounds from CnHm;

– pollution of the oceans, burial of highly toxic and radioactive wastes (dumping), pollution with oil, oil products, pesticides, surfactants, heavy metals, thermal pollution;

– pollution and depletion surface water, imbalance between surface and ground waters;

– pollution of the earth's surface by the whole complex of pollutants: MSW, heavy and radioactive elements, changes in the geochemistry of the earth and groundwater;

– reduction of forest areas (deforestation) as a result of fires, industrial logging, loss of already harvested wood, acid rain, illegal logging, harmful insects and diseases, damage from industrial emissions (including nuclear accidents);

– soil degradation, desertification as a result of deforestation, irrational land use, drought, overgrazing, irrational irrigation (waterlogging, salinization);

- release of existing and emergence of new ecological niches, filling them with unwanted living organisms;

- violation of the ecological balance on a global and regional scale, the general overpopulation of the planet and high population density in various regions, the deterioration of the quality of the living environment in cities.

The growth of the human population on Earth deserves special consideration. .

The number of animal species in nature is limited by the capacity of the environment and for a long time statistically little changes, fluctuating around a certain constant level. As a rule, small animals have a larger number and a larger range of its fluctuations compared to large animals. For mammals, there is a pronounced negative correlation between body weight and number of individuals. If we consider the body weight of a person as 10 - 100 kg, the natural biological range of its population should not exceed 1 million individuals. According to expert estimates, the population of the first people (1 million years ago) numbered about 100 thousand individuals, by the time the species Homo Sapiens appeared - about 500 thousand, 30-20 thousand years ago - about 5 million people. At present, the human population has been exceeded by 4 orders of magnitude compared to the original (more than 10,000 times), the life expectancy of people is on average 2–2.5 times higher than the natural life expectancy of mammals with the same body weight.

What are the consequences of such uncontrolled population growth?

quantitative expansion. A person in food chains acts as a consumer, the number of which is 10,000 times higher than the natural biological number, which cannot but affect the biotic balance and competitive relationships in nature.

Competition for food - humanity eats up most of the food resources allocated by nature for final consumers. The "lion's" share is negligible.

Physical mass of people makes up 1/20 of the mass of land animals and about 1/2 of all mammals.

Consequently, modern human populations cannot be included in natural biocenoses.

Qualitative side of the expansion of mankind on nature It concerns both nature and man himself.

Xenobiotics - the predominant mass of substances and materials that are involved in production and consumption by society, and then enters the environment, is not utilized in the natural biotic cycle, turning out to be ballast or pollutant.

The quality of the people at rapid growth population drops significantly. Disabling most of the mechanisms of natural selection, the success of hygiene and medicine, saving the majority of patients and translating acute diseases into chronic forms, replacing the body's defenses with drugs and procedures, saving the lives of people with aggravated heredity, environmental pollution, stress, smoking, alcohol, drugs - not contribute to the preservation of a healthy species gene pool.

giftedness - with the growth of the number of people, the factor of natural selection for the mind, which acted on early stages anthropogenesis (a significant part of the clan was the direct descendants of the leader - distinguished by the sum of qualities in which intelligence was an important component). The innate intellectual potential of a person (average IQ) remained at the level of the prehistoric Cro-Magnon.

Social qualities , upbringing - first of all, act as manifestations of the law "not enough for everyone" and closely related to the economy. The degree of inequality (economic, social) in life chances among people is such as never occurs in nature within one stable animal species. Population growth at the expense of underdeveloped countries only reinforces this social inequality.

The social side of the ecological crisis manifests itself in the following social phenomena:

In the inefficiency of the work of special bodies for the protection of the environment, the protection and use of forests, fish resources, wildlife, subsoil.

In opposition to the representative and executive authorities, local self-government, which exacerbates the inefficiency of work.

In the inability of law enforcement agencies to provide control and supervision over the implementation of laws on environmental protection.

In mass environmental legal nihilism, disrespect for environmental legal requirements, violation and non-compliance with them.

Ways out of the ecological crisis, in essence, boil down to the need to:

1. Restrain population growth.

2. Reduce the environmental intensity of the economy.

It is around these problems that models and programs, including international ones, are being formed to overcome the ecological crisis and further development of mankind.

International cooperation to overcome the ecological crisis.

The maturing of the conflict between nature and man was predicted from time immemorial, the inscription in hieroglyphs on the pyramid of Cheops reads: "People will perish from the inability to use the forces of nature and from ignorance of the true world." Similar prophecies are contained in the religions of the ancient Persians, Hindus, and the Bible. The grounds for such judgments were also found by scientists (J.B. Lamarck and others)

1968 - the creation of the "Club of Rome" on the initiative of one of the economic directors of the company "Fiat". The goal of the Club of Rome is to build forecasts for the near future and present arguments to the world community about the need for measures to prevent a global environmental and economic crisis.

1972 - the first report of the Club of Rome - "The Limits to Growth", a year earlier - the book by J. Forrester "World Dynamics". First predictions, models environmental development were imperfect, because did not take into account many factors, based only on the economy and human security. But main result initiatives of the Club of Rome - the answer to a strategic question: “The threat of a global environmental crisis is real and great, significant losses for humanity cannot be avoided if growth is not restrained, and then the environmental intensity of the world economy is not reduced.”

Environmental Protection Programs (EPPs) are the natural response of industrialized countries to the threat of an environmental crisis, as Until now, it is believed that it is technogenic pollution of the environment that underlies this threat or is its main component. This idea is connected with an attempt to give a positive answer to the question of whether it is possible to preserve the nature intensity of the economy without affecting its foundation, but only by reducing environmental pollution.

"General cleaning and general cleaning" while maintaining economic growth rates and minimal impact on the main parameters of the economy - this is basically impossible if the gross waste of the material balance and production does not change.

1972 – First World Conference on the Environment in Stockholm (113 states participated). General Secretary of the Conference Maurice Strong first formulated the concept eco-development - environmentally oriented socio-economic development, in which the growth of human well-being is not accompanied by the deterioration of the environment and the degradation of natural systems.

The Stockholm Conference softly set the task of developing practical principles for eco-development, for which research was conducted in four areas:

1. Trends, world dynamics of development of the ecological and economic situation under various scenarios of economic growth and specialization.

2. Natural science forecasting of the state of natural complexes and climate.

3. Studying the possibilities of environmental regulation of the use of natural resources and high-quality greening of production.

4. Organization international cooperation and coordination of efforts in the field of solving regional and national tasks of eco-development and environmental management.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is a structure specially created to develop these problems.

1983 – At the initiative of the UN Secretary General, a ICED - International Commission on Environment and Development ("Bruntland Commission" - headed by Gro Harlem Bruntland - Prime Minister of Norway).

1987 The report of the UCSD "Our common future", in which the question of the need to search for a new model of civilization was sharply exacerbated.

"The concept of sustainable development" - has come into use since the publication and approval by the UN General Assembly of the report of the ICED - "The Bruntland Commission" - this such a model of socio-economic development, in which the satisfaction of the vital needs of the present generation of people is achieved without future generations being deprived of such an opportunity due to the depletion of natural resources and environmental degradation. “Ultimately, sustainable development must be based on political will” – all these provisions of the Concept of Sustainable Development do not sound like an ideology concrete action, but as a naive optimistic hope that tries to reconcile the irreconcilable, to preserve, if possible, the civilization of consumption as "meeting the needs of the current and future generations of people", to solve the problem of preserving nature within the framework of a civilization that destroys nature.

RIO92 . In 1992, Rio de Janeiro hosted the UN Conference (the leading organization in international environmental cooperation) on Environment and Development (COSD92) - 179 states, representatives of non-governmental organizations (including International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources), scientific and business circles. The report and a series of documents adopted at Rio 92 dealt with most of the environmental issues that make up the current environmental crisis - an unprecedented list of intentions that claims to be a worldwide program of action. The Conference adopted the Convention on Biodiversity, which set the following three tasks as the most important: conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of biodiversity components, fair and equitable receipt of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.

Humanity's prospects for overcoming the global environmental crisis

Eco development concept- rightfully the first concept of the new time, it was the first to formulate the ideas of commensurate economic development with the capabilities of natural systems, the idea of balance, a balance between economic and environmental requirements. A new development concept was proposed by M. Strong in his report at the First World Conference on the Environment (Stockholm, 1972). In the same report, he called on the world community to change the development paradigm, to move from economic development to ecological and economic development. The essence of the concept was that economic growth is possible only within the framework of an acceptable ecological and economic balance. A new form of organization of the human economy would require a fundamentally new functional and organizational structures management.

The concept of eco-development did not last long and gradually transformed into the concept of sustainable development.

The concept of sustainable development. Its provisions do not sound like an ideology of concrete action, but like a naive optimistic hope. This concept tries to reconcile the irreconcilable: to preserve, if possible, a civilization of consumption, as it "meets the needs of the present and future generations of people", and to solve the problem of preserving nature within the framework of a civilization that destroys nature.

The authors of the concept cannot fail to understand the true state of things and therefore proceed from arguments "from the contrary" (it seems that there is nowhere to go, but one must hope for some light at the end of the tunnel!). Ultimately, all this looks like a propaganda and completely helpless attempt to circumvent the law "not enough for everyone."

The concept does not contain a word about the need to stop economic growth and reduce the scale of material production. On the contrary, “sustainable development” is perceived by the majority precisely as sustainable economic growth, and not as the admissibility of only those actions that, taking into account all the indirect and associated effects, reduce the burden on the biosphere.

The initial interpretation of the concept of "sustainable development" in ecological economics means sustainable development , i.e. development that maintains the state of society at an environmentally acceptable level, without a quantitative increase in the consumption of natural resources. In the concept of sustainable development, this meaning is distorted and turned into a thinly veiled and absolutely hopeless desire of rich countries and sections of society to restrain the desire of the poor to increase their well-being. Repeated repetition of the thesis that developing countries should not follow the path that developed countries have come to their wealth and well-being is perceived in developing countries as socio-political discrimination.

We, the species Homo sapiens (more precisely, quasisapiens), do not want to obey the law of ecosystem stability, which excludes exponential growth in numbers and consumption. But there is no reason to hope that this can pass for us with impunity.

Noosphere Concept belongs to V.I. Vernadsky: “Changing nature “by the power of cultural humanity” becomes a phenomenon of a geological scale.” Man, as part of the biosphere, by his labor greatly enhances the planetary function of living matter, it becomes more and more controlled by the human mind. This process naturally and inevitably leads to the gradual transformation of the earth's biosphere into a "thinking shell", the sphere of the mind - the noosphere. The era of the noosphere should be preceded by a deep socio-economic reorganization of society, a change in its value orientation.

This essentially exhausts the entire content of V.I. Vernadsky about the noosphere. Any detailed and consistent scientific description of the process of noospherogenesis and the noosphere itself with some of its distinct characteristics, i.e. what could rightly be called the doctrine of the noosphere does not exist. But this cannot be demanded from ideas about the distant future. From a futurological point of view, for example, the doctrine of communism has been developed in much more detail than the idea of the noosphere.

In general, to the biosphere, even in its highest formation, however, as well as to the whole human society, one should not apply the criterion of reasonableness. It should rather be about expediency. In the West, references to the noosphere are absent or very rarely slip through the writings of philosophers. In our country, it is considered an ecological ideal, the ultimate goal of sustainable development. The concept of Russia's transition to sustainable development ends with the words: “The movement of mankind towards sustainable development will ultimately lead to the formation of the predicted V.I. Vernadsky of the sphere of reason (noosphere), when the measure of national and individual wealth will be the spiritual values and knowledge of a person living in harmony with the environment. At present, there are no hints of harmonious interactions. Human activity throughout history and especially strongly in the 20th century. was completely destructive in relation to the ecosphere. Humanity is not approaching the noosphere, but is moving at high speed in the opposite direction.

On the other hand, the fundamental possibility of human control over the biosphere raises serious doubts. Along with the colossal destructive intervention in the metabolism and energy in the ecosphere, man actually controls only an insignificant part of the millions of species of living beings. In order to control all types and all interactions between organisms, it is necessary that the information capabilities of a person be comparable to the volume of information flows in natural biota. But they are not comparable: the gap is 20 orders of magnitude and, in principle, cannot be significantly reduced.

Paradigm N.N. Moiseev. Speaking from the standpoint of the latest evolutionism and interpreting the development of the biosphere as a chain of bifurcations (catastrophes) with unpredictable outcomes, Academician N.N. Moiseev considers the origin and development of civilization as an integral part of the evolution of nature.

In his book "To be or not to be ... for mankind?" (1999) he writes: “The main task of planetary civilization is to prevent the transition of the biosphere into a state of bifurcation... The way out of this state is ambiguous. It can also give new incentives for development, as happened to the Cro-Magnons as a result of the Neolithic catastrophe, or it can lead to complete extinction .... The risk is so high that humanity cannot afford it.”

Human civilization must avoid ecological collapse - practically irreversible adverse environmental phenomena, excluding the possibility of the very existence of a person in the resulting environment. The striving for a new civilization, in his opinion, should be realized through co-evolution (joint, interconnected evolution) of human society and the biosphere. Co-evolution is seen as the undoing of the knot of contradictions in the triad of ecology, morality and politics, as the coordination of the "strategy of nature" and the "strategy of the mind". Since the real patterns and rates of evolution of the biosphere and human society are very different, in fact, we are talking about a profound change in the behavior of society in relation to nature, the subordination of mankind to the ecological imperative.

Criterion V.G. Gorshkov.

Professor of biophysics from St. Petersburg V.G. Gorshkov, since 1970, has been developing a theory of biotic regulation and stabilization of the environment, which is now well substantiated, can be cross-checked from various positions, and has predictive capabilities.

The main achievement of this theory is the definition of a criterion that can be designated as the limit of sustainability (endurance) of the ecosphere in relation to anthropogenic impacts, as its "carrying capacity", or in terms used earlier, its ecological technical capacity. This value is 0.01 Pn of the ecosphere, or 1% of the net primary production of the global biota, which is about 0.74 TW of power. According to various estimates, the modern direct consumption by civilization of the bioproducts of terrestrial ecosystems is from 7 to 12% (on average 10%), i.e. an order of magnitude higher than the limit of sustainability of the ecosphere, and the gross energy capacity of civilization (including fossil fuels) is close to 15 TW, which is 20 times more than the energy estimate of the limit.

A practical conclusion follows from this: humanity should reduce its pressure on the Earth's ecosphere as soon as possible. And preferably several times. According to one of the latest interpretations of this conclusion, such a decrease "can be achieved only by reducing the population of the planet." According to various authors, the carrying demographic capacity of the Earth is from 1 to 2 billion people. From here, in particular, comes the theory of the "golden billion" - the population of the planet for which high standards of well-being can be ensured with sufficient preservation of biotic balance.

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ecological crisis nature man

Ecological crisis, ways out of the ecological crisis

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Smirnykh Daria

An ecological crisis is the current state of the relationship between human society and the natural environment in which a person lives, in which the contradictions between the economic interests of society in the consumption and use of the natural environment and the environmental requirements for ensuring the safety and quality of this environment for the survival of oneself are exacerbated to the limit. society.

In the structure of the ecological crisis, there are two sides - natural and social. The natural side combines signs of degradation, destruction of the natural environment:

global warming, greenhouse effect;

Hosted at http://www.allbest.ru/

general weakening of the Earth's ozone layer; the appearance of ozone holes;

Hosted at http://www.allbest.ru/

atmospheric pollution, acid rain formation, photochemical reactions with ozo formation Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

on, peroxy compounds from CnHm;

pollution of the world's oceans, burial in it is highly toxic Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

solid and radioactive waste (dumping), pollution with oil, oil products, pesticides, surfactants, heavy metals, thermal pollution;

pollution and depletion of surface waters, imbalance between the surface. Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

stnymi and ground waters;

pollution of the earth's surface by the whole complex of pollutants: MSW, heavy and radioactive elements, changes in the geochemistry of the earth and groundwater;

Hosted at http://www.allbest.ru/

reduction of forest areas (deforestation Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

) as a result of fires, industrial logging, loss of already harvested wood, acid rain, illegal logging, harmful insects and diseases, damage by industrial emissions (including nuclear accidents);

soil degradation, desertification as a result of deforestation, unsustainable. Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

land use, drought, overgrazing, irrational irrigation (waterlogging, salinization);

liberation of existing and emergence of new ecological niches, filling them undesirable Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

ny living organisms;

violation of the ecological balance on a global and regional scale, the general overpopulation of the planet and high population density in various regions, the deterioration of the quality of the living environment in cities. Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

The social side of the ecological crisis is manifested in the following social phenomena:

In the inefficiency of the work of special bodies for environmental protection, protection and use of forests, fish resources, wildlife, subsoil. Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

In opposition to representative and executive authorities, local self-government, which exacerbates the inefficiency of work. Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

In the inability of law enforcement agencies to provide control and supervision over the implementation of laws on environmental protection.

Hosted at http://www.allbest.ru/

In mass environmental and legal nihilism, disrespect for environmental and legal requirements, violation and failure to comply with them.

Hosted at http://www.allbest.ru/

1. The main stages of solving the problem of the ecological crisis on Earth

Necessary measures to prevent further deepening of the ecological crisis and their main stages.

1. Regulatory stage.

Need legal regulation solution of environmental problems is explained by the fact that the state (commonwealth of states) needs to regulate the rules of interaction between society and nature on a global scale, and with the help of legislative norms to ensure its proper quality in the conditions of economic activity. Those. in this case, the ecological function of the state is legal in form and ecological in content. The rules of law that serve as a means of implementing environmental legislation are called environmental legal. The norms of environmental protection and resource-saving legislation are used as the basic ones in the world practice. AT Russian Federation in 1991, the law “On the Protection of the Environment” was adopted. Obviously, without determining the exact parameters of the state of natural objects and humans, the fact of an environmental violation cannot be established. Therefore, the regulation of the quality of the natural environment is one of the main goals of the OOPS Law, which is reflected in the conceptual and detailed consideration of this issue in one of its sections.

The law, determining the measure of a reasonable combination of interests of both parties to the conflict, is guided by acceptable levels(parameters) of anthropogenic impacts, the excess of which creates a danger to the natural environment and human health.

The ultimate goal of rationing is to provide a scientifically based combination of economic and environmental interests, i.e. a kind of compromise between economics and ecology.

The regulations become legally binding from the moment they are approved by the competent authorities. The most important for the effective operation of legal mechanisms are the following areas:

hygienic standardization of environmental quality,

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environmental regulation of permissible loads on ecosystems,

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regulation of the volumes of pollution and waste entering the OPS; Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

regulation of the use of natural resources. Hosted at http://www.allbest.ru/

2. Information support for activities to prevent the environmental crisis

The problem of information support for the entire range of tasks for assessing the level of pollution, the state, control of changes and forecasting the development of environmental protection systems. A prompt and representative assessment of the necessary parameters for all problematic objects is the basis for the formation of the position of administrative and regulatory authorities in general on the entire spectrum of environmental issues.

In accordance with the law, information support in the environmental sphere is the collection, systematization, processing, analysis, storage and issuance to the consumer of economically significant information about the environmental sphere by an authority, organization or information technology system.

The initial stage of this task is the creation effective system measurements and collection of information about the parameters of the state of objects of observation or the levels of their pollution. Such a measuring system will be effective if it covers the range of parameters of the state of the biosphere from the most detailed scale, for example, a local oil spill as a result of a pipeline accident, to a planetary one, for example, air pollution in industrial areas, its transfer to third countries and precipitation in the form acid rain."

Preservation high level the efficiency of using the received data on the state of the OPS requires registration measuring system in the form of a single state system environmental monitoring (EGSEM). In addition to collecting and processing the received data, its functions include assessing the state and forecasting the development of a natural object. The implementation of these functions is impossible without the use of geographic information systems (GIS).

Thus, the functional combination of the monitoring system and GIS technologies that have their own individual properties (measurement, collection, systematization, processing of initial data on the one hand and the operational formation and issuance of the necessary, comprehensive data on the current (current) or forecasted (in the future) on request ) the state of the OS on the other), makes it possible to form an effective information support for the operational determination (calculation or modeling) necessary action on the normalization of emerging crisis phenomena in the biosphere.

3. Greening the areas of interaction between nature and man

The threat of a global environmental crisis is increasingly forcing us to consider human activity through the prism of natural laws. The reality of the loss of living space urgently requires the development of a system of restraining measures that can stop the destructive "offensive" of civilization on the favorable natural conditions of habitats of flora and fauna. Therefore, having the most complete understanding of the problems of "our home", i.e. biosphere, ecology is able to operate not only with the achievements of other branches of biology, but also to justify the use of environmental principles both in the development of related earth sciences, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and outside the natural sciences - in economics, politics, sociology, ethics.

Such a process of formation of intersectoral accounting methods environmental factors in various scientific, technical and social areas of the relationship of civilization with the environment has been called ecologization and is discussed in general terms below.

4. Ecologization of social production

Understanding the level, types and territorial distribution of pollution in the biosphere, their sources, as well as the state of natural objects important for the existence of living organisms, allows us to move on to addressing the issues of reducing technogenic pressure on nature. The priority direction is the development of methods effective cleaning pollution of industrial and agrotechnical production, reduction of their waste and, above all, for especially harmful substances, reduction of the use of natural resources (resource intensity) in production, i.e. gradual transition to turnover schemes. The introduction of such technological principles and measures to reduce the level of "borrowing" from nature and the reverse emissions of pollution is the essence of the greening of social production.

For the main pollutants of the biosphere, the most relevant areas of greening are the following:

in industrial production: change in the sectoral structure with a decrease in the number of nature-intensive and high-waste technologies, many Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

repeated technological use of production waste, the introduction of highly efficient methods of purification and disposal of remaining harmful by-products, the rejection of the production of environmentally hazardous products, etc.;

in the energy sector: development and transition to Hosted at http://www.allbest.ru/

hydrogen or other environmentally friendly schemes for generating energy, for example, solar or wind, reducing the share of energy generated from hydrocarbon raw materials;

in agriculture: restriction of the use of salt forms mineral fertilizers Hosted at http://www.allbest.ru/

with their replacement with organic and organo-mineral ones, which can significantly reduce the harmful effects on products, soils and the aquatic environment; a significant reduction in the use of pesticides and their replacement with biological means of pest control, the exclusion of hormonal growth stimulants and chemical additives in animal feed, the use of the most gentle methods of cultivating the land;

for transport: reduction of CO, CO2 emissions, "environmental" accounting in the organization of its movement, a gradual reduction in the share of personal use. Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

o transport, development of environmentally friendly fuels, noise protection;

for physical fields: reduction of exposure to radiation, electromagnetic radiation, electrostatic fields, etc. Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

For all the listed tasks on the greening of production, the priority is the development of technologies with the lowest resource intensity and waste production, i.e. with minimal adverse environmental impact. In the case when this is impossible to implement (mainly with a high social significance of the products obtained), then the function of minimizing environmental damage to a reasonable level is already performed by the system for cleaning pollution or recycling waste.

In general, the significance of this stage lies in the fact that the measures under consideration are designed to ensure at the technological level a change in the trend of increasing technogenic pressure on the environment to its decrease.

5. Greening the economy

Economic growth associated with meeting the needs of a sharply increased population of the planet has endangered the destruction of the life support basis of the biosphere. Need to switch to new way existence, compatible with the already significantly impoverished natural potential of the Earth. Two limiting factors have arisen in the way of the economic development of society:

limiting the ability of the environment to accept and assimilate production waste;

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natural non-renewability of most of the natural resources used.

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In this uncontested situation, according to most researchers, it is necessary to reduce natural resource consumption and significantly raise the quality level and efficiency of its use. A necessary condition for a systematic solution of this problem is the ecologization of the economy. Its main components:

resource-saving technologies have priority in development and investment support; Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

implementation of economic accounting of environmental conditions, factors and objects in the planning of the economy;

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taking into account environmental restrictions and implementing the principle of balance in the economics of environmental management, i.e. in the natural environment, the level of ensuring one's own life support and regulation processes should not be exceeded; Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

formation and development of a flexible system of payment for the use (within the limits and above the limits) of natural resources, as well as in case of pollution of natural objects; Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

formation of a flexible tax policy taking into account environmental standards: reduction of tax payments when carrying out environmental protection measures, reducing the level of environmental pollution, reducing resource intensity and, conversely, a significant increase in taxes in the opposite cases; Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

the growth of the level of social production is carried out due to qualitative changes in its structure and technologies, taking into account environmental factors.

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The significance of this stage is to support environmental activities not only at existing enterprises, but also to minimize or eliminate completely environmentally unfavorable schemes of impact on the environment already at the stage of adoption and deployment of economic development plans.

6. On the greening of the social environment and the organization of environmental education

The introduction of environmental standards and principles into social production and the economy can create real prerequisites for the gradual transition of human civilization from the anthropocentric (uncontrolled consumption) principle of existence to the one controlled with the priority of the laws of nature (biocentric). Its solution cannot be achieved without mobilizing the efforts of the entire world society to develop and implement new schemes for the existence of civilization in the face of more complicated environmental conditions, i.e. without greening the social environment. Almost all fundamental and applied branches of the natural sciences and a significant part of the humanities, the developments of which form the framework of social production, are "guilty" of shaping the current environmental situation. Therefore, their participation and use of scientific potential in resolving both existing and emerging crisis situations on the planet, creating environmentally friendly technologies and rules for interacting with the biosphere is very important both scientifically and morally.

This is facilitated by the adopted system of environmental education both in Russia and in the rest of the civilized world. It is designed to prepare an epistemological and moral foundation for turning the vector of human behavior away from the principles of uncontrolled consumption (anthropocentrism), i.e. filing its own support, to taking into account natural laws and preserving the biosphere in the form of a self-regulating system.

7.International cooperation

One of the most important areas of international cooperation is the international legal regulation of environmental protection, which should be based on generally recognized norms of international law. The main environmental and legal principles were developed by the joint efforts of members of the international community (states, international organizations, including the UN, and conferences). Their basis can be formulated as follows:

priority of environmental human rights; Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

the sovereignty of states over the natural resources of their territory;

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inadmissibility of the ecological well-being of one country at the expense of Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

causing environmental harm to another;

environmental control at all levels;

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free international exchange of environmental information; Hosted at http://www.allbest.ru/

mutual assistance of states in emergency situations;

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resolution of environmental and legal disputes by peaceful means.

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The objects of international environmental cooperation are considered to be those, the assessment of the state of which, the level of their pollution, the implementation of environmental protection measures and the prevention of damage from their adverse effects on the surrounding territories, cannot be carried out by the forces of individual states.

Among them, two categories of objects are distinguished: those that are not included in the jurisdiction of states and those that are within the jurisdiction of states. The first are the air basin, space, the World Ocean, Antarctica, migratory species of animals. These objects are protected and used in accordance with the norms of international environmental law. The second are objects that are within the jurisdiction of states: international rivers, seas, lakes; world natural heritage sites listed in the International Red Book of Endangered and Rare Animals and Plants.

Many international organizations and conferences are engaged in the protection of the natural environment, at which, starting from the Stockholm Conference of 1972, the main decisions were developed and adopted. The leading role belongs to the United Nations (UN) and its specialized bodies. One of the main bodies of the UN is the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), within which national and regional commissions and committees operate.

The United Nations Organization for Culture, Science, Education (UNESCO) was established in 1948; headquarters is in Paris.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) was also established in 1948. This non-governmental organization represents about 100 countries. At the initiative of the IUCN, the Red Book is maintained. The World Health Organization (WHO) was founded in 1946, deals with the protection of human health in terms of its interaction with the environment, is consolidated with UNEP, the IAEA, etc. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was formed in 1957 to ensure nuclear safety and environmental protection from radioactive contamination. Non-compliance of states with the requirements of the IAEA may cause the application of economic sanctions by decision of the UN Security Council.

The UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) was established in 1947. Its main task is to study and generalize human impacts on the planet's climate. It operates primarily within the framework of the global environmental monitoring system (GEMS). The International Maritime Organization (IMO) was established in 1948 and operates in the field of maritime navigation and protection of the sea from pollution. With its participation, conventions have been developed to combat marine pollution by oil and other harmful substances. The Agricultural and Food Organization (FAO) was founded in 1945. The scope of its activities is agriculture and world food resources, participation in many environmental programs of UNEP, UNESCO, IUCN. Along with this, international formal and informal movements for the preservation of life on Earth, which is an objective necessity, have also become widespread. they carry out widespread and operational environmental control and contribute to the timely formulation of topical issues at the international level.

8. On ecology, interaction of sciences and responsibility for the conservation of the biosphere

All of the above problems and stages of necessary actions to “normalize” our interactions with the environment and the enormous difficulty in determining how to solve them put on the agenda the question of determining the center of gravity or responsibility for a positive outcome for civilization. This fate is intended for ecology - a science, the subject of which is the objects of negative impact - ecological systems, representing the whole multitude of organisms and the natural conditions of their habitats.

However, for effective solutions to preserve the self-regulating ability of the biosphere, this is clearly not enough yet. To fully use the capabilities of industry scientific and technical disciplines in solving environmental problems, it is necessary to involve in solving problems "participants in all technological developments that contributed to the formation of environmental violations" and the organization of appropriate environmental and industry associations (blocks) to overcome their consequences. This will account for environmental requirements and principles in the development of effective solutions by branches of fundamental sciences. Therefore, the following functions should be harmoniously combined in the activities of the associations themselves:

ecological, about Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

determining the general formulation and differentiation of problems, safe levels economic and domestic pollution, ensuring control over the implementation of environmental protection measures and compliance with environmental standards;

industry Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

for the development, preparation and direct implementation environmental protection measures (technologies to reduce pollution, production waste, resource intensity, etc.).

Along with this, a system of horizontal links should be thought out at the ecological and sectoral level between blocks that solve the issues of reducing the anthropogenic pressure of various technogenic sources, for example, on the same aquatic ecosystem or on interacting natural objects. This will ensure unity and continuity in methodological approaches and the necessary consistency in solving environmental problems.

So, for the environment, it is relevant:

rationale Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

and the formation of a list of crisis tasks to prevent

negative technogenic impacts on the biosphere;

determination of the levels of possible technogenic impact on ecosystems along the entire spectrum of interaction between the biosphere and the technosphere;

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determination of environmental requirements and the correctness of their consideration when setting up and performing appropriate environmental protection work;

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organization of environmental monitoring. Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

For branch scientific directions:

development of schemes for the functioning of intersectoral blocks-adapters for crisis tasks;

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development and implementation in accordance with these tasks Placed on http://www.allbest.ru/

methods and technologies of environmental protection, resource-saving and low-waste production, management of ecological and technosphere systems, etc.;

determine the level of costs and the possibility of their minimization when posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

implementation of the planned environmental protection anti-crisis measures;

ensure the fulfillment of increasingly complex requirements. Placed on http://www.allbest.ru/

environmental protection.

The logic of such an anti-crisis association of scientific and technical forces as a whole can be explained as follows:

it is impossible from the positions of only one ecology to embrace such a vast and extremely diverse area of the modern and constantly becoming more complex crisis of the interaction between civilization and the biosphere;

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if an adequate expansion of the sphere of effective influence of ecology itself and already formed intersectoral environmental associations is undertaken, this will only lead to an obvious hypertrophy of science and the loss of its flexibility and existing opportunities; Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

the main goal of scientific and technical activity so far has been the development of civilization, the growth of prosperity and independence from natural factors. Scattered attempts to reduce the technogenic pressure on the OPS did not give any noticeable results; Hosted at http://www.allbest.ru/

system only Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

"environmental" unification of all sciences and technologies "involved" in the crisis will make it possible to develop and implement optimal solutions to overcome it;

the main functional load falls on the fundamental sciences, which, of course, will not lead to their hypertrophy, since the pressure of the crisis is divided into many components. In addition, in this case, a high scientific level of solving crisis problems is ensured, since Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

sectoral blocks remain connected with the relevant fundamental sciences;

such an approach to solving problems has much greater possibilities for planning developments and implementing anti-crisis measures, since the main part of the work will be carried out by established industry sciences; Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

simplifies the planning of expenses for anti-crisis measures, increases their reliability and transparency due to the assessment of the vast majority of work according to mastered standards. Posted at http://www.allbest.ru/

Hosted on Allbest.ru

Environmental problems in the world

The current state of the environment in the world is characterized extremely negatively in connection with the global environmental crisis. This problem is caused due to the degradation of the environment and the inability of nature to reproduce.

The irrational use of natural resources, the constant growth of scientific and technological progress runs counter to the principles of environmental protection. Violation of the ecological balance in the world is a consequence of the negative impact of man on nature.

The current generation thinks less and less about their own future and their children, who have the right, on an equal basis with everyone else, to a favorable environment.

Components of the ecological crisis

The existing ecological crisis in nature can be characterized by its various components:

significant depletion of natural resources, namely, there is an acute shortage of fresh drinking water in the world;
increasing soil erosion in agriculture, caused by the misuse of land, as well as fertilizer with chemicals that contribute to the growth of agricultural products, but at the same time to the depletion of the fertile properties of the land;
desertification of the territory of the earth, caused due to large-scale logging. Wood harvesting is in first place, as it is a very profitable business, and reproduction is in the very last place;
atmospheric pollution leading to the growth of ozone holes and greenhouse effect on the planet;
rapid exploration of outer space, leaving behind space debris;
periodic environmental disasters caused due to man-made accidents of disasters at hazardous facilities, such as nuclear power plants, the oil industry.

The most acute environmental crisis manifests itself in undeveloped countries, as well as in overpopulated areas, such as Africa, India, China. In the near future, the complete disappearance of drinking water, oil and gas reserves is expected.

Causes of the ecological crisis

In many ways, the ongoing negative processes in nature are associated with a number of reasons:

because of the political situation in the world, when the West is trying to keep all the world's reserves in its hands, including through wars and civil revolutions;
due to imperfect legislation, which does not always take into account the interests of the environment;
growing corruption in the highest echelons of power, who are ready to sell everything that is possible and available in their hands for money;
lack of qualified specialists in the field of environmental protection, for example, ecologists, agronomists, forest guards;
continuous improvement of technologies that harm the environment;
disregard in use alternative sources energy, for example, in Russia, which is still rich in oil and gas;
economic growth of countries, carried out contrary to the interests of the natural environment.

Ways to solve environmental problems

In order to reach a new level in relation to "man - nature" and the balance of the world ecosystem, humanity should develop a number of directions.

Among which:

improvement of technological processes using non-waste production, filter elements for discharge of pollutants into the atmosphere;
renewal of the economic mechanism of environmental protection, when the country's economy includes measures to protect and protect nature from the negative impact of man;
tightening legal liability for damage to nature, for example, increasing penalties, the amounts of which can go to the reproduction and restoration of the environment;
improvement of the legal culture of the population by holding from an early age environmental and educational discussions about the relationship of man with nature;
and, of course, the development of international relations in the field of environmental protection.

The need for an urgent practical solution to the problem of environmental protection has led to the development in most countries of state measures of a legislative, organizational and administrative nature aimed at preserving and restoring the quality of the natural environment.

Moreover, it is this aspect that is increasingly becoming the main direction of state activity in countries with developed market economies, accompanied by the active use of economic levers and incentives, which together ensure the achievement of the goal.

At the same time, in a number of regions of the world and countries, including Russia, the effectiveness of environmental protection activities is not adequate to the significance of the problem and the severity of the crisis situation.

The essential reasons for this are the insufficient knowledge of the state of the environment and its changes, the interrelations of the complex natural processes with a variety of anthropogenic factors, lack of funding.

The way out of the ecological crisis will contribute to the solution of environmental problems, in turn, the solution of environmental problems is a necessary prerequisite for progressive economic development.

What would you like to see in the future

End of the 20th century characterized by an aggravation of the relationship between human society and nature.

It is caused by the growth of the world's population, the preservation traditional ways economic management with increasing rates of natural resource consumption, environmental pollution and handicapped biosphere to its neutralization.

These contradictions begin to slow down the further scientific and technological progress of mankind, becoming a threat to its existence.

Only in the second half of the twentieth century. Thanks to the development of ecology and the dissemination of environmental knowledge among the population, it became obvious that humanity is an indispensable part of the biosphere, therefore the conquest of nature, the uncontrolled and unlimited use of its resources and the growing pollution of the environment is a dead end in the development of civilization and the evolution of man himself.

The most important condition for the development of mankind is respect for nature, comprehensive concern for the rational use and restoration of its resources, and the preservation of a favorable environment.

However, many do not understand the close relationship between economic activity, population growth and the state of the environment.

Broad environmental education should help people to master such environmental knowledge, ethical norms and values, the use of which is necessary for the sustainable development of nature and society.