Global environmental problems of the world briefly. Environmental problems of the planet

Landscaping and planning 14.10.2019

The modern world of technological progress is moving forward by leaps and bounds. Along with this, the question of the legacy of such progress, environmental problems, is acute. Report on the topic "Environmental problems" talk about how technological progress affects the environment.

"Environmental Issues" report

In each settlement there are buildings of factories, plants and other production facilities that emit tons of harmful substances into the atmosphere, dump waste into water bodies and dispose of their waste into the ground. And such actions are reflected not only in a specific localization, but also on the entire planet.

Global environmental problems of our time:

* air pollution

This is one of the biggest problems. After all, it was air that became the first victim of technological progress. Just imagine for a moment that thousands of tons of poisonous and harmful substances are released into the atmosphere every hour or even less often. The industry causes enormous harm to the environment. A large accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to a warming of the planet. It seems that temperature fluctuations are not large because of this, but globally this is a significant deviation from the norm. Vapors of toxic substances that enter the atmosphere affect weather. For example, due to excessive ingress of sulfur into the air, acid rain falls. And they, in turn, harm plants, trees and the lithosphere.

* water pollution

This problem is particularly acute in some countries in Asia and Africa. Excessively polluted reservoirs have led to a significant shortage of drinking water. It is not even suitable for washing clothes, let alone for drinking or cooking.

* pollution land

Most businesses, in order to get rid of waste, dispose of it by burying it in the ground. Of course, this has a negative impact on the soil, not only in the field of disposal, but also in the surrounding area. As a result, vegetables and fruits grown in such soil can cause diseases that can lead to death.

Ways to solve environmental problems

1. The use of effective methods of processing garbage, as well as hazardous waste.

2. Transition to the use of safe, environmentally friendly fuel that does not pollute the atmosphere.

3. The introduction of strict state sanctions and fines for water, air and land pollution.

4. Carrying out educational work and social advertising among the population.

At first glance, these actions are quite simple, but when it comes to practice, everything is not so simple. many countries and non-profit organizations are constantly fighting against violators of the law, but the states do not have enough money and people to implement projects to eliminate environmental problems.

We hope that the above information about environmental issues has helped you. And you can leave your report "Solving environmental problems" through the comment form.

The interaction of society and nature is the key problem of political and social economic development society. Expanding and strengthening anthropogenic and technogenic pressure on nature, society is faced with a repeatedly reproduced "boomerang effect": the destruction of nature turns into economic damage and social damage. The processes of ecological degradation acquire the character of a deep ecological crisis. The question of the conservation of nature is turning into a question of the survival of mankind. And there is no political system in the world that in itself would guarantee the ecological well-being of the country.

Many environmental problems of relationships in the "society-nature" system have now stepped over the boundaries of national economies and have acquired a global dimension. Soon, not ideological, but ecological problems will come to the fore all over the world, not relations between nations, but relations between nations and nature will dominate.

The only way to survive is to maximize the strategy of frugality in relation to the outside world. All members of the world community must participate in this process.

1. Global problems of mankind. Factors contributing to the emergence and exacerbation of global problems were:

· a sharp increase in the consumption of natural resources;

· negative anthropogenic impact on the natural environment, deterioration of the ecological conditions of people's lives;

· increased unevenness in the levels of socio-economic development between industrialized and developing countries;

creation of weapons of mass destruction.

We note the signs inherent in global problems:

– global manifestation problems;

- severity of manifestation;

- complex character;

- universal human essence;

- the peculiarity of predetermining the course of the further history of mankind;

- the possibility of their solution by the efforts of the entire world community.

Already now there is a threat of irreversible changes in the ecological properties of the geo-environment, a threat of violation of the emerging integrity of the world community and a threat of self-destruction of civilization.

Now man is facing two major problems: the prevention of nuclear war and environmental catastrophe. The comparison is not accidental: anthropogenic pressure on the natural environment threatens the same as the use of atomic weapons - the destruction of life on Earth.

A feature of our time is the intensive and global human impact on the environment, which is accompanied by intense and global negative consequences. The contradictions between man and nature can become aggravated due to the fact that there is no limit to the growth of human material needs, while the ability of the natural environment to satisfy them is limited. Contradictions in the system "man - society - nature" have acquired a planetary character.

There are two aspects of the environmental problem:

– environmental crises arising as a result of natural processes;

– crises caused by anthropogenic impact and irrational nature management.

The main problem is the inability of the planet to cope with the waste of human activity, with the function of self-purification and repair. The biosphere is being destroyed. Therefore, the risk of self-destruction of humanity as a result of its own life activity is great.

Nature is influenced in the following ways:

– use of environmental components as a resource base for production;

– the impact of human production activities on the environment;

– demographic pressure on nature (agricultural land use, population growth, growth of large cities).

Here, many global problems of mankind are intertwined - resource, food, demographic - all of them have access to environmental issues.

The current situation on the planet is characterized by a sharp deterioration in the quality of the environment - air pollution, rivers, lakes, seas, unification and even complete disappearance of many species of flora and fauna, soil degradation, desertification, etc. This conflict creates a threat of irreversible changes in natural systems, undermining the natural conditions and resources of the existence of generations of the inhabitants of the planet. The growth of the productive forces of society, population growth, urbanization, scientific and technological progress are the catalysts for these processes.

The depletion of the ozone layer is a much more dangerous reality for all life on Earth than the fall of some super-large meteorite. Ozone prevents dangerous cosmic radiation from reaching the Earth's surface. If not for ozone, these rays would destroy all life. Studies of the causes of the depletion of the ozone layer of the planet have not yet given definitive answers to all questions. Observations from artificial satellites have shown a decrease in ozone levels. With an increase in the intensity of ultraviolet radiation, scientists associate an increase in the incidence of eye diseases and oncological diseases, the occurrence of mutations. Man, the oceans, climate, flora and fauna were under attack.

The severity of the socio-ecological situation in developing countries has led to the emergence of the phenomenon of the "third world". It is characterized by:

- the natural originality of the tropical zone;

- the traditional orientation of development, which objectively leads to increased pressure on the biosphere (rapid population growth, traditional agriculture, etc.);

- interconnection and interdependence of different regions of the world (transfer of pollution);

- the underdevelopment of these countries, dependence on the former metropolises.

If for industrialized countries environmental problems have an "industrial character", then for developing countries - with the reuse of natural resources (forests, soils, and other natural resources). In other words, if developed countries suffer from their “wealth”, then developing countries suffer from “poverty”.

Tropical rainforests are being destroyed at an unprecedented rate, and it is these forests that are often called the “lungs of the planet”. Among the main reasons for deforestation in developing countries are the following: traditional slash-and-burn farming, the use of wood as fuel, cutting for export. Tropical rainforests are cleared ten times faster than their natural regeneration. The catastrophic reduction of forests in Southeast Asia may lead to their complete destruction in 15–20 years.

Due to the very importance of tropical rainforests, their removal is an important economic disaster for the entire planet.

Now the process of desertification, originating locally, has taken on a global scale.

Since the emergence of technical civilization on Earth, about 1/3 of the area of forests has been reduced, deserts have sharply accelerated their attack on green areas. Thus, the Sahara desert is moving south at a speed of about 50 km per year. According to climatic data, deserts and semi-deserts occupy more than a third of the land surface and more than 15% of the world's population lives in this territory. Only as a result economic activity Over the past 25 years, more than 9 million square kilometers of deserts have appeared.

The main causes of desertification include the destruction of sparse vegetation due to overgrazing, plowing pastures, cutting down trees and shrubs for fuel, industrial and road construction, etc. Wind erosion, drying up of the upper soil horizons, and droughts are added to these processes.

2. Demographic problem. Demographic development is not only population growth, it includes issues of nature management, population growth relative to the territories of its natural resource base.

The population of our planet is more than 6.2 billion people and is growing very fast. Over the next 10 years, the world's population will increase by another billion inhabitants. More than half of the world's population is concentrated in Asia - 60%. Over 90% of the total population growth occurs in less developed regions and countries, and in the future these countries will maintain high growth rates.

In our time, the consequences of population growth have become so relevant that they have received the status of a global problem. It is the population that is considered by many as one of the factors that threaten the very survival of civilization, because. taking into account the growth in the consumption of natural resources, technical and energy equipment, the pressure of the population on the territory will continuously increase.

At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the socio-demographic situation in the developed and developing world is diametrically opposed.

Only 5% of world population growth occurs in economically developed countries, most of which are located in the northern hemisphere. This increase is due to a decrease in the death rate and an increase in life expectancy.

At least 95% of the world population growth in the coming years will be in the developing countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America. The dynamic growth of the population of these countries is one of the most important socio-economic problems of global importance. It received the loud name "population explosion" and successfully emphasizes the essence of the process of population reproduction in these countries - its release from the control of society.

"Population pressure" complicates not only the food or environmental situation, but also negative impact to the development process. For example, the rapid growth of the population does not allow stabilizing the problem of unemployment, makes it difficult to solve the problems of education, healthcare, etc. In other words, any socio-economic problem includes a demographic one.

The modern world is becoming more and more urbanized. In the near future, more than 50% of humanity will live in cities.

And since there is now a tendency towards population growth throughout the globe and urbanization, we can talk about the environmental problem of cities, mainly the largest of them, associated with excessive concentration in relatively small areas of the population, transport and industrial enterprises, with the formation of anthropogenic landscapes very far from the state of ecological equilibrium.

Urbanization is organically linked to most global problems. Cities, due to the particularly high territorial concentration of population and economy in them, also concentrated the bulk of the military-economic potential.

Cities are the largest centers of consumption of all natural resources, which is associated with the global problem of resource consumption.

An essential feature of large cities with a population of more than 500 thousand people is that with the increase in the territory of the city and the number of its inhabitants, the differentiation of pollution concentrations in different areas will steadily increase in them. Along with low levels of pollution concentration in peripheral areas, it sharply increases in areas of large industrial enterprises and, especially, in central areas.

Over large cities, the atmosphere contains 10 times more aerosols and 25 times more gases. At the same time, 60–70% of gas pollution comes from road transport. With low air mobility, thermal anomalies over the city cover atmospheric layers of 250–400 m, and temperature contrasts can reach 5–6 ° C. They are associated with temperature inversions that lead to increased pollution, fog and smog.

Cities consume 10 or more times more water per person than rural areas, and water pollution reaches catastrophic proportions. Volumes Wastewater reach 1-2 m per day per person. Therefore, almost all major cities are experiencing a shortage water resources and many of them get their water from remote sources.

The vegetation cover of cities is usually almost completely represented by "cultural plantations" - parks, squares, lawns, flower beds, alleys. The development of urban green spaces takes place in artificial conditions, constantly supported by man. Perennial plants in cities develop under conditions of severe oppression.

In addition, the continuous sprawl of cities leads to the absorption of land, especially in developing countries.

3. Energy and raw material problem. The rapid growth of industry, accompanied by global pollution of the natural environment, has posed an unprecedented acute problem of raw materials. Now a person in his economic activity has mastered almost all types of resources available and known to him, both renewable and non-renewable.

Changes in the biosphere as a result of human activity are rapid. During the 20th century, more minerals were extracted from the bowels than in the entire history of civilization.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, wood was the main energy resource, followed by coal. It was replaced by the extraction and consumption of other types of fuel - oil and gas. The era of oil gave impetus to the intensive development of the economy, which in turn required an increase in the production and consumption of fossil fuels. Energy needs have doubled every 13 years. Global reference fuel reserves are primarily composed of coal (60%) and oil and gas (27%) reserves. In total world production, the picture is different - coal accounts for more than 30%, and oil and gas - more than 67%. If we follow the forecasts of optimists, then the world's oil reserves should be enough for 2-3 centuries. Pessimists, on the other hand, believe that the available oil reserves can meet the needs of civilization for only a few decades.

Currently, the growth of energy and material consumption of modern production is significantly ahead of population growth. Energy consumption is growing 3 times, the extraction of mineral resources is 2 times faster than the population. The mining industry produces more than 40 tons of products per year per inhabitant of the Earth. During coal mining, about 1 billion m 2 of waste rock is annually raised to the surface. Useless pyramids are built from it - waste heaps. At the same time, thousands of hectares of fertile land are being wasted. The atmosphere is polluted, waste heaps are burning, the wind raises clouds of dust from their barren slopes.

As technological progress increases, primary sources of electricity obtained from hydro- and geothermal power plants acquire an increasing share. V last years there were doubts about the feasibility further development nuclear energy.

The use of energy resources is one of the indicators of the level of development of civilization. The energy consumption of the developed countries far exceeds the corresponding indicators of the countries of the developing world. Only the top 10 industrialized countries consume 70% of the world's total energy. Per unit of final output, Russia now spends three times as much energy as Japan and Germany, and twice as much as the United States. It is obvious that Russia simply does not have enough fuel resources for such a natural growth. Thus, the most important reason for the deterioration of the environmental situation in Russia is the inefficient, nature-intensive structure of the economy.

The main directions of the economy of energy resources are: improvement of technological processes, improvement of equipment, reduction of direct losses of fuel and energy processes, improvement of equipment, reduction of direct losses of fuel and energy resources, structural changes in production technology, structural changes in products, improvement of the quality of fuel and energy, organizational and technical measures. Carrying out these activities is caused not only by the need to save energy resources, but also by the importance of taking into account environmental issues when solving energy problems. Of great importance is the replacement of fossil fuels with other sources (solar energy, wave energy, tide energy, earth energy, wind energy). These sources of energy resources are environmentally friendly. By replacing fossil fuels with them, we reduce the harmful impact on nature and save organic energy resources.

The most important direction of economic reforms in Russia, the transition to a sustainable type of development is an environmentally-oriented structural restructuring that allows for effective resource conservation.

Thanks to the energy crisis, the world economy moved from an extensive path of development to an intensive one, the energy and raw materials intensity of the world economy decreased, and the provision of its fuel and mineral resources (due to the development of new deposits) even began to increase.

Resource availability is the ratio between the amount of natural resources and the amount of their use. The level of resource provision is determined by the potential of the country's own resource base, as well as other facts, for example, political and military-strategic considerations, international division labor and others.

4. Land resources, soil cover is the basis of all living nature. Only 30% of the world's land fund is agricultural land used by mankind for food production, the rest is mountains, deserts, glaciers, swamps, forests, etc.

Throughout the history of civilization, population growth has been accompanied by an expansion of cultivated land. More land has been cleared for settled agriculture in the past 100 years than in all previous centuries.

Now in the world there is practically no land left for agricultural development, only forests and extreme territories. In addition, in many countries of the world, land resources are rapidly declining (growth of cities, industry, etc.).

Every year, due to erosion, 7 million hectares of land fall out of agricultural circulation, and due to waterlogging - salinization, leaching - another 1.5 million hectares. And although erosion is natural geological process, in recent years it has clearly increased, often due to imprudent human activities.

Reduction land resources in developing countries, caused by natural, socio-economic factors, underlies political and ethnic conflicts. Land degradation is a serious problem. The fight against the reduction of land resources is the most important task of mankind.

Of all types of resources, fresh water is in the first place in terms of the growth of demand for it and the increase in the deficit. 71% of the entire surface of the planet is occupied by water, but fresh water makes up only 2% of the total, and almost 80% of fresh water is in the Earth's ice cover. About 60% of the total land area is in areas where there is not enough fresh water. A quarter of humanity feels the lack of it, and more than 500 million people suffer from lack and poor quality.

The industrial value of water is very high, since almost all production processes require a large amount of it. The bulk of water in industry is used for energy and cooling.

In general, 10% of the planet's river runoff is withdrawn for household needs. Of these, 5.6% are spent irretrievably. If irretrievable water intake continues to increase at the same rate as now (4-5% annually), then humanity can exhaust all fresh water reserves in the geosphere. The situation is complicated by the fact that a large number of natural waters are polluted by industrial and household waste. All this eventually ends up in the ocean, which is already heavily polluted.

5. Water is an prerequisite existence of all living organisms on Earth.

The resource potential of the ocean can replenish depleted reserves.

So what are the resources of the oceans?

· Biological resources (fish, zoo- and phytoplankton);

Huge resources of mineral raw materials;

· Energy potential (one tidal cycle of the World Ocean is able to provide humanity with energy - but so far this is the "potential of the future");

· For the development of world production and exchange, the transport significance of the oceans is great;

· The ocean is a receptacle for most of the waste of human economic activity (by the chemical and physical effects of its waters and the biological influence of living organisms, the ocean disperses and purifies the bulk of the waste entering it, while maintaining the relative balance of the earth's ecosystems).

The ocean is the main reservoir of the most valuable and increasingly scarce resource - water (the production of which by desalination is increasing every year). Scientists believe that the biological resources of the ocean are enough to feed 30 billion people.

Of the biological resources of the ocean, fish is currently used primarily. However, since the 1970s, the increase in catch has been falling. In this regard, humanity will seriously think about the fact that the biological resources of the ocean are under threat as a result of their overexploitation.

The main reasons for the depletion of biological resources include: irrational management of the world's fisheries, pollution of ocean waters.

In addition to biological resources, the World Ocean has huge mineral resources. Almost all elements of the periodic table are present in sea water. The bowels of the ocean, its bottom are rich in iron, manganese, nickel, cobalt. Currently, offshore oil and gas production is developing, and the share of offshore production is approaching 1/3 of the world production of these energy carriers.

However, along with the exploitation of the rich natural resources of the World the ocean is growing and pollution, especially with the transportation of oil. 90% of the waste dumped into the seas every year ends up in coastal areas, where it damages fisheries, recreation, and more. The pollution of the ocean with oil products, pesticides, synthetic detergents, and insoluble plastics has reached catastrophic proportions. Now about 30 million tons of oil products per year enter the ocean. Oil film covers about 1/5 of the ocean area.

Limited, uneven distribution of fresh water resources and growing water pollution are one of the components of the global resource problem of mankind.

In the future, the situation with another natural resource that was previously considered inexhaustible - the oxygen of the atmosphere - is alarming. When the products of photosynthesis of past eras - combustible fossils - are burned, free oxygen is bound into compounds. Long before fossil fuels are depleted, people must stop burning them, so as not to suffocate themselves and destroy all life.

The population explosion and the scientific and technological revolution have led to a colossal increase in the consumption of natural resources. At such a rate of consumption, it became obvious that many natural resources would be depleted in the near future. At the same time, waste from giant industries began to pollute the environment more and more, destroying the health of the population.

The danger of an ecological - resource crisis with the scientific and technological revolution is not accidental. The scientific and technological revolution creates conditions for the removal of technical restrictions on the development of production. A new contradiction has taken an exceptionally sharp form - between the internally unlimited possibilities for the development of production and the naturally limited possibilities of the natural environment.

6. Food problem. The food problem has a global character and, due to its close interconnection with the complex task of overcoming the socio-economic backwardness of the former colonial and dependent states.

The solution of the food problem is associated not only with an increase in food production, but also with the development of strategies for the rational use of food resources, which should be based on an understanding of the qualitative and quantitative aspects of human nutritional needs.

In general, the world's food resources are sufficient to provide a satisfactory diet for mankind. World economy has the agricultural resources and technology to feed twice the number of people on earth. However, food production is not provided where it is needed. Starvation and malnutrition of 20% of the world's population is the main social content of the food crisis.

The food situation in the world is influenced by: physical and geographical conditions and population distribution, the development of world transport and world trade.

The food situation in developing countries is closely intertwined with other problems, many of which are also becoming global. These include: military spending, growing external financial debt, and the energy factor.

7. The problem of socio-economic backwardness of developing countries. The "Third World" is a very conditional community of countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania, which in the past constituted the colonial and semi-colonial periphery of the developed capitalist countries.

For this group of countries, the emergence and aggravation of global problems has its own specifics, arising from the peculiarities of the development of their culture and economy.

Most of the world's population is concentrated in developing countries, significant reserves of the world's natural resources are concentrated on their territory, a little more than 18% of the world's national product is produced there, a significant part of their population does not have an income level that meets the standards of the developed world.

Each year, developing countries pay three times the amount of aid they receive on debt interest alone.

The deterioration of the economic situation of developing countries undoubtedly affects the entire world community: where there are glaring differences in living standards different peoples, global stability is impossible.

The main cause of hunger and lack of food in developing countries lies not in natural disasters, but in the economic backwardness of these countries and the neo-colonial policy of the West.

The epicenter of the global environmental problem is gradually moving to developing regions that are on the verge of an environmental crisis.

Dangerous changes in the environment of developing countries include the continued growth of cities, the degradation of land and water resources, intensive deforestation, desertification, and the increase in natural disasters.

It is assumed that dangerous changes will reach critical proportions, affecting developed countries as well. But if the developed countries have long been studying the permissible limits of the impact on nature, the possible consequences of its violation and taking measures, then the developing countries are busy with something completely different, because. exist below the poverty line, and environmental protection costs are seen as a luxury that they cannot afford.

Global problems were the result of a huge scale of human activity, radically changing nature, society, people's way of life, as well as the inability of a person to rationally dispose of this mighty force.

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Ministry of Education of the Moscow Region

GOU SPO Moscow Regional College for the Humanities

REPORTBY GEOGRAPHY

TOPIC: "Ecological problems of mankind"

1st year students

Ermakova Xenia

Serpukhov 2012

Introduction

The problems of ecology in the modern world are becoming more and more urgent every year. Catastrophes that happen in the world, through physical, chemical, biological components, irreparably affect the planet's ecosystem. However, mankind does not yet understand the true danger that lurks in all ongoing processes in the world. The latest production, the development of modern industrial technologies, the unrestrained mining of natural resources unwittingly make people living on planet Earth hostages of environmental problems.

The global environmental problems that exist in the world are well known - this is the pollution of the world's oceans, the destruction of tens, thousands of species of animals and plants, deforestation, violation of the ozone layer, pollution of the atmosphere by exhaust gases and waste products from factories and factories. Do you involuntarily think about what we will breathe, what we will drink and eat after a while? It is clear that humanity cannot exist without natural resources, but their ruthless consumption should be limited. We must try to be economical, because natural resources are limited. Natural resources may dry up in the future and many factories, factories and industrial complexes will be forced to switch to new types of fuel. The global energy balance should be aimed at the use of new types of energy that are absolutely harmless to the environment. All efforts should be directed to the search for efficient and safe types of nuclear energy, including space energy. pollution ocean ozone waste

Currently, world ecologists characterize the natural situation that has developed on the planet as close to critical. Mankind does not need to treat nature only as an object of consumption. Nature cries out to be treated with care, attention, appreciated its beauty, indispensability and necessity. To date, it is a well-known fact that the temperature on the planet has increased by about 0.8 degrees Celsius. According to environmental scientists, this is primarily due to the greenhouse effect resulting from human activities in the field of industrial technology. Changes in the atmosphere are already taking place and there are suggestions that in a few millennia all these problems can lead to a redistribution of precipitation, and this, as a rule, natural disasters- all kinds of droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, etc. Environmental problems can only be solved jointly, taking into account the combined efforts of all countries.

Saving nature is an international issue that does not require delay. Recently, the work of the international ecological communities on the development of programs, conventions, agreements on environmental protection has intensified. All of them bring the solution of environmental problems to a new, more perfect level. However, the attitude towards nature should be brought up from early childhood. The upbringing and education of a child, the formation of ecological consciousness and the understanding that nature must be treated with great trepidation, not harm it, be in harmony with all living organisms that inhabit our planet is an important aspect of the entire world community.

Air pollution

Pollution is understood as the process of bringing into the air or the formation in it of physical agents, chemicals or organisms that adversely affect the living environment or damage material values. In a certain sense, the removal of certain gas components (in particular, oxygen) from the air by large technological objects can also be considered pollution. And the point is not only that gases, dust, sulfur, lead and other substances entering the atmosphere are dangerous for human body-- they adversely affect the cycles of many components on earth. Pollutants and poisonous substances are transported over long distances, fall with precipitation into the soil, surface and underground waters, into the oceans, poison the environment, and adversely affect the production of plant mass.

Air pollution also affects the planet's climate. There are three points of view on this. 1. The global warming observed in the current century is due to an increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, and by the middle of the next century, a catastrophic climate warming will occur, accompanied by a strong increase in the height of the World Ocean. 2. Atmospheric pollution reduces the level of solar radiation, increases the number of condensation nuclei in clouds, as a result, the Earth's surface cools, which in turn can cause new glaciation in the northern and southern latitudes (there are few supporters of this point of view). 3. According to supporters of the third point of view, both of these processes will balance and the Earth's climate will not change significantly.

The main sources of air pollution are enterprises of the fuel and energy complex, manufacturing industry and transport. More than 80% of all atmospheric emissions are emissions of carbon oxides, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen, hydrocarbons, and solids. Of the gaseous pollutants, carbon oxides, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide formed mainly during the combustion of fuel. Sulfur oxides are also emitted into the atmosphere in large quantities: sulfur dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon disulfide, hydrogen sulfide, etc. The most numerous class of substances polluting the air of large cities are hydrocarbons. Free chlorine, its compounds, etc. are also among the constant ingredients of gas pollution of the atmosphere.

In addition to gaseous pollutants, tens of millions of tons of particulate matter enter the atmosphere. These are dust, soot, soot, which in the form of small particles freely penetrate the respiratory tract and settle in the bronchi and lungs. However, this is not all - "along the way" they are enriched with sulfates, lead, arsenic, selenium, cadmium, zinc and other elements and substances, many of which are carcinogenic. From this point of view, asbestos dust is especially dangerous for human health. Cadmium, arsenic, mercury and vanadium also belong to the first hazard class. (Interesting results comparative analysis by American scientists. The lead content in the bones of a 1,600-year-old native of Peru is 1,000 times less than in the bones of modern US citizens.)

Such a specific phenomenon as acid rain is also associated with atmospheric pollution.

Pollution of the oceans

One of the most important objects of environmental protection is the oceans. The peculiarity of which is that the current in the seas quickly carries pollutants to long distance from their point of release. That is why the problems of protecting the cleanliness of the oceans and seas are of a strongly pronounced international character.

Without exception, all serious incidents of ocean pollution are closely related to oil. In connection with the widespread practice of cleaning the holds of tankers, about 10 million barrels of oil are deliberately dumped into the ocean every year. At one time, such violations often went unpunished; today, satellites make it possible to collect the necessary evidence and bring the guilty people to justice.

All oceans suffer from pollution, but coastal pollution is much higher than in the open ocean due to a greater number of sources of pollution, from coastal industrial installations to heavy traffic. sea vessels, the environment suffers and there is a danger to human health.

Wastewater contains a lot of harmful organisms that multiply in molluscs and can cause a large number of significant diseases in humans. The indicator of infection is the most common bacterium Escherichia coli.

There are other microorganisms that are no less dangerous to human health, which also affect crustaceans. Among other things toxic properties accumulating in marine organisms (have an enhanced effect). All industrial pollutants are poisonous to humans and animals. Like many other water pollutants, such as those used in chemicals, they can be persistent chlorine compounds.

These chemicals are removed from the soil with a solvent and end up in the seas, where they begin to penetrate into living organisms. Fish with chemicals can be eaten by both humans and fish. In the future, seals eat the fish, and in due time they become food for polar bears or some whales. Whenever chemicals are transferred from one stage of the food chain to another, their concentration increases. An unsuspecting polar bear can eat about a dozen seals, eating with them the toxins that are contained in 10,000 infected fish.

There is speculation that pollutants are also to blame for the growth of plague-susceptible marine mammals. Apparently, metal contaminants in the ocean, in turn, also became the basis for enlarged livers in fish and skin ulcers in humans.

Toxic substances that eventually enter the ocean may not be harmful to all living organisms: some lower life forms even thrive thanks to such conditions.

There are a number of worms that live in relatively polluted bodies of water and are often assigned ecological indicators of relative pollution. The study of the power of using the lower class of marine worms to check the sanitary condition of the oceans continues to this day.

deforestation

The death or destruction of a natural forest is mainly the result of human activities associated with deforestation. Wood is used as fuel, raw material for pulp and paper mills, building material, etc.

In addition, the forest is cut down when clearing areas for pastures, when conducting slash-and-burn farming, as well as in mining areas.

Not all deforestation is human-caused, sometimes it is a combination of natural processes such as fire and floods. Wildfires destroy large areas of forest each year, and although the fire may be natural life cycle forests, after which the forests can gradually recover, but this does not happen, due to the fact that people bring livestock to the burnt areas, develop agriculture, as a result, the young forest cannot grow again.

Forests still cover about 30% of the Earth's surface, but every year about 13 million hectares of forest are cut down, the areas freed from forests are used for agriculture and the construction of growing cities. Of the cut areas, 6 million hectares are virgin forests, i.e. no man has ever set foot in these forests.

Rainforests in places like Indonesia, the Congo and the Amazon are especially vulnerable and at risk. At this rate of deforestation, tropical rainforests will be gone in less than 100 years. West Africa has lost about 90% of its coastal rainforests, similar rates in South Asia. In South America, 40% of tropical forests have disappeared, new areas have been developed for pastures. Madagascar has lost 90% of its eastern rainforests. Several countries have declared catastrophic deforestation of their territories, such as Brazil.

Scientists have calculated that 80% of all species of flora and fauna live in tropical forests. Deforestation destroys ecosystems and leads to the disappearance of many species of animals and plants, some plants are irreplaceable species from which medicines are obtained.

In 2008, the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn, Germany, found that deforestation and damage to ecological systems could cut the standard of living for poor people in half.

Disappearance of animals and plants

There are fewer and fewer plants and animals on our planet: some species are disappearing, the number of others is declining ... This worried people back in the 19th century, but only in 1948 was it formed international union Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). The Commission on rare and endangered species created under him began collecting data on endangered plants and animals. In 1963, the first list of rare and endangered species of wild animals and plants of the world appeared, called the Red Data Book.

ALARM LIST

All species of animals and plants listed in the Red Book need special protection. But their current state, number and area of habitats are different. There are species quite numerous, but living in a very limited area. As a rule, these are species inhabiting one or several small islands. For example, the Komodo monitor lizard, which lives on the islands of Eastern Indonesia. Such species are very vulnerable: human impact or natural disasters can lead to their extinction in just a few years. This is what happened to the white-backed albatross.

The decrease in the number of one species or another occurs due to different reasons. In one case, this is mass hunting, fishing or egg collection. In the other, deforestation, plowing up the steppe, or building hydroelectric stations, that is, the destruction of not the animal itself, but its habitat. Some animals and plants are endangered only due to natural causes, usually climate change (for example, the relict gull). Therefore, in order to preserve some species, it is enough to prohibit hunting (or gathering - for plants). For others, it is necessary to create special protected areas with a complete ban on any economic activity (see the article "Reserved lands") or even the organization of special nurseries for captive breeding of animals that are on the verge of extinction. Therefore, in the Red Books, all species are divided into different categories, depending on their current state and trends.

Category I includes species that are endangered and whose salvation is impossible without special measures. Category II includes species whose numbers are still relatively large, but are declining catastrophically, which in the near future may put them on the verge of extinction. Category III consists of rare species that are currently not threatened by anything, but they are found in such small numbers or in such limited areas that they can disappear with an unfavorable change in habitat. Category IV includes poorly studied species, whose abundance and condition are alarming, but the lack of information does not allow them to be assigned to any of the previous categories. And finally, category V includes restored species, whose condition, thanks to the measures taken, no longer causes concern, but which are not yet subject to commercial use.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature is a public organization, and its decisions, unfortunately, are not binding. Therefore, the IUCN initiated the conclusion of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna. The convention was signed in 1973 in Washington, and now more than 100 countries have joined it. This intergovernmental agreement made it possible to tightly control the international trade in rare species. Partially, even those species that live in countries that have not acceded to the Convention turned out to be protected, since the main sales markets - Western Europe, the USA, Japan and other developed countries - turned out to be closed.

The list of species listed in the Red Books is constantly growing. This happens not only due to a decrease in the number of well-studied species, but also in connection with the emergence of new data on the animal and flora Earth. The latest edition of the International Red Book (1996) lists almost 34 thousand plant species (12.5% of the world flora) and more than 5.5 thousand animal species (about 3 thousand vertebrates and 2.5 thousand invertebrates).

After the first edition of the International Red Book, similar national lists were compiled in many countries. They were given the status of a state document - a law. The criteria for compiling national or regional Red Books are the same as for the international one, but the state of the species is assessed at the same time. limited area. Therefore, the national Red Book often includes species that are rare in a given country, but common in neighboring ones. For example, the corncrake, whose numbers have declined sharply in Western Europe, but remained high in Russia. But the Mediterranean tortoise had to be listed in the Russian Red Book. This animal was caught almost completely, especially in the Black Sea region. The national Red Books also include species that live mainly outside the borders of a given country. For example, in Russia, the Japanese snake is found only on the island of Kunashir, while in Japan it is a common species.

In the USSR, the Red Book was established in 1974 and first published in 1978; in 1984 the second edition was published. And the first Red Book of Russia (at that time the RSFSR) appeared in 1982. In the late 90s. A new list of rare and endangered animals has been prepared. Now it has 155 species of invertebrates, 4 - round-stomes, 39 - fish, 8 - amphibians

21 - reptiles, 123 - birds and 65 species of mammals. In a number of regions, territories and republics Russian Federation have their own Red Books.

Soil pollution

Soil is a natural formation that has a whole set of specific properties. Soil structure, composition and fertile layer formed as a result of complex biological processes over many centuries. Her main characteristic is fertility, the level of which determines whether the soil is able to ensure the full growth and development of plants growing on it. There is such a thing as natural soil fertility, which means the level of nutrient content, looseness of the structure and the presence of living organisms in all soil layers. Also, the fertile layer is formed as a result of the accumulation of solar energy, which enters it due to plant photosynthesis. Increasing soil fertility, remains to be quite topical issue. The level of soil fertility is invariably affected by humans and often this impact is detrimental. Today, soil pollution is global in nature and can lead to irreparable consequences. The destruction of the fertile layer inexorably leads to a violation of the natural balance, metabolism in nature. Based on this, we can say that soil pollution can result in the destruction of other ecosystems.

Mass soil pollution with pesticides. From time immemorial, man has sought to obtain the maximum amount of the crop and used a variety of tricks for this. However, if in ancient times the methods of influencing the soil were reduced to the tricks of processing and the application of some organic fertilizers, today the methods of influencing the soil have reached a completely different level. Soil pollution problems arise from the uncontrolled use of pesticides and herbicides. For the cultivation of various kinds of crops, a wide variety of pesticides are widely used, which lead to the accumulation of toxic substances in the soil layers. This cannot but affect human health, since the crop harvested from plants grown on poisoned land also contains particles of these poisons. Based on the increase in the incidence of people, and there is an assessment of soil pollution - biodiagnostics. Pesticides protect plants from various kinds of diseases and allow them to be preserved until harvest. Pesticides directly enter the soil with treated seeds and further processing different cultures. Soil pollution with pesticides is the most widespread. They can stay in the soil for many years, even if it is clay soil, without losing their destructive properties. In such soil, new microorganisms will not appear for a very long time. Modern tendencies are such that people stop using pesticides that are so harmful to the soil and the human body and prefer to influence the increase in productivity by other methods.

Other ways of soil pollution. Not only pesticides can increase soil pollution levels. To date, soil cultivation is carried out with various technical devices, which leads to inexorable contamination of the soil with elements of heavy metals, such as lead, mercury. These substances can get into the soil together with production wastes and during the decomposition of products of the pulp and paper industry. Small particles of lead also enter the soil from car exhaust. That is why it is not recommended to cultivate the land and set up garden plots near highways. The characteristics of soil pollution sources show that the main enemy of the soil is technological process, whose products ruthlessly ruin it. However, not always the destruction of the fertile soil layer is related to a person. For example, soil erosion is a natural phenomenon. At the same time, erosion regularly leads to the washing out of humus, the leaching of nutrients and the disruption of soil structure. Protection against soil pollution in this case should consist in the creation of dams and the correct placement of various crops that will prevent the soil from being washed away. The soil restores the fertile layer by self-regulation, but this process can take hundreds of years, and regular soil pollution reduces its results to zero. Therefore, it is necessary to take measures to restore and purify the soil. Only in this case the fertile layer will not be lost.

Conclusion

Achieving an ideal state of absolute harmony with nature is basically impossible. Just as impossible is a final victory over nature, although in the process of struggle a person discovers the ability to overcome the difficulties that arise. The interaction of man with nature never ends, and when it seems that man is about to gain a decisive advantage, nature increases resistance. However, it is not infinite, and its overcoming in the form of suppression of nature is fraught with the death of man himself.

The current success of man in the fight against the natural environment has been achieved by increasing the risk, which should be considered in two ways - the risk of possible adverse environmental events due to the fact that science cannot give an absolute forecast of the consequences of human impact on the natural environment, and the risk of random disasters associated with the fact that technical systems and the person himself do not have absolute reliability. Here, one of Commoner's propositions, which he calls the "law" of ecology, turns out to be true: "nothing is given for free."

Based on the analysis of the ecological situation, we can conclude that we should rather not talk about the final and absolute solution of the environmental problem, but about the prospects for shifting particular problems in order to optimize the relationship between man and the natural environment in the existing historical conditions. This circumstance is due to the fact that the fundamental laws of nature impose restrictions on the implementation of the goals of mankind.

List of sources

Printed editions:

1. Ananichev K. V. Problems of the environment, energy and natural resources. International aspect. M.: "Progress", 1974.

2. Vorontsov A.I., Kharitonova N.Z. Protection of Nature. - M: Higher School, 1977. - 408 p.

3. Kamshilov M. M. Evolution of the biosphere.-M.: Nauka, 1979.-256 p.

4. Patin S.A. Impact of pollution on biological resources and productivity of the world's oceans. M.: Food industry, 1979. - 304 p.

5. Chernova N.M., Bylova A.M. Ecology. - M.: Enlightenment, 1981.- 254 p.

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Introduction

Everything is interconnected with everything - says the first ecological law. This means that one cannot take a step without hitting, and sometimes without violating, something from the environment. Each step of a person on an ordinary lawn is dozens of destroyed microorganisms, frightened off insects, changing migration routes, and perhaps even reducing their natural productivity.

Already in the last century, a person's concern for the fate of the planet arose, and in the current century it has come to a crisis in the world ecological system due to the resumption of pressure on the natural environment.

What are global issues?

It would seem that the question has been clear for a long time, and their range was determined back in the early 70s, when the term "globalistics" itself began to be used, the first models of global development appeared.

One of the definitions refers to the global "problems arising as a result of the objective development of society, creating threats to all mankind and requiring the combined efforts of the entire world community for their solution" 1 .

The correctness of this definition depends on which problems are classified as global. If this is a narrow circle of higher, planetary problems, then it is fully consistent with the truth. If we add here such problems as natural disasters(it is global only in the sense of the possibility of manifestation in the region), then this definition turns out to be narrow, limiting, which is its meaning.

Yuri Gladky made an interesting attempt to classify global problems, identifying three main groups:

1. Problems of a political and socio-economic nature.

2. Problems of natural and economic nature

3. Problems of a social nature.

Rice. 1. Scheme "Classification of global problems" 1 .

Awareness of global problems, the urgency of revising many of the usual stereotypes came to us late, much later than the publication in the West of the first global models, calls to stop the growth of the economy. Meanwhile, all global problems are closely interconnected.

Until recently, nature conservation was a matter for individuals and societies, and ecology initially had nothing to do with nature conservation. This name Ernest Haeckel in 1866 in the monograph "General Morphology" christened the science of the relationship of animals and plants living in a certain area, their relationship to each other and to living conditions.

Who eats what or whom, how it adapts to seasonal climate changes - the main questions of the original ecology. With the exception of a narrow circle of specialists, no one knew anything about it. And now the word "ecology" is on everyone's lips.

Such a dramatic change over the course of 30 years occurred due to two interrelated circumstances characteristic of the second half of the century: the growth of the world's population and the scientific and technological revolution.

The rapid growth of the world's population is called the population explosion. It was accompanied by the seizure of vast territories from nature for residential buildings and public institutions, roads and railways, airports and marinas, crops and pastures. Hundreds of square kilometers of tropical forests were cut down. Under the hooves of numerous herds, the steppes and prairies turned into deserts.

Simultaneously with the population explosion, there was also a scientific and technological revolution. Man mastered nuclear energy, rocket technology and went into space. He invented the computer, created electronic technology and the industry of synthetic materials.

The population explosion and the scientific and technological revolution have led to a colossal increase in the consumption of natural resources. Thus, 3.5 billion tons of oil and 4.5 tons of stone and brown coal. At such a rate of consumption, it became obvious that many natural resources would be depleted in the near future. At the same time, the waste from giant industries began to pollute the environment more and more, destroying the health of the population. In all industrialized countries, cancerous, chronic pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases are widespread.

Scientists were the first to sound the alarm. Beginning in 1968, the Italian economist Aurelio Pecchen began to annually gather in Rome major experts from different countries to discuss issues about the future of civilization. These meetings were called the Club of Rome. In the spring of 1972, the first book prepared by the Club of Rome was published, with the characteristic title "Limits to Growth". And in June of the same year, the UN held the First International Conference on Environment and Development in Stockholm, which summarized materials on pollution and its harmful effects on the health of the population of many countries. The participants of the conference came to the conclusion that a person from a subject who studied the ecology of animals and plants, in the new conditions, must himself turn into an object of multilateral environmental research. They appealed to the governments of all countries of the world with an appeal to create special state institutions for these purposes.

After the conference in Stockholm, ecology merged with nature conservation and began to acquire its present great importance. V different countries ministries, departments and committees on ecology began to be created, and their main goal was to monitor the natural environment and combat its pollution in order to preserve public health.

To conduct research on human ecology, it was required theoretical background. First, Russian and then foreign researchers recognized the teachings of V.I. Vernadsky about the biosphere and the inevitability of its evolutionary transformation into the environment of the human mind - the noosphere.

However, the anthropogenic impact on nature has reached such proportions that global problems have arisen that no one could even suspect at the beginning of the 20th century. If we leave aside the economic and social aspects, and talk only about nature, then we can name the following global environmental problems that are in the field of view of mankind at the end of the 20th century: global warming, depletion of the ozone layer, destruction of the Earth's forest cover, desertification of vast territories, pollution of the World Ocean, reduction of species diversity of flora and fauna. Scientific research is needed not only to solve or mitigate these problems, but also to find out the causes of their occurrence, because without this it is impossible to solve them.

Let's look at some of the problems and their causes in more detail.

demographic problem

People have always been crowded on the planet. Aristotle and other philosophers of antiquity were also concerned about the overpopulation of the Earth. But this tightness also served as an incentive for people to strive to develop new earthly spaces. This was the impetus for the great geographical discoveries, technical inventions, the scientific process itself. If this were not so, people would not develop new lands, would not seek to move to new continents, and would not make geographical discoveries.

In fact, in the course of history, as the productive forces developed, the size of the territory needed to provide food for one person was reduced. According to some estimates, in prehistoric times, when people lived by gathering, depending on the natural habitat, in order to feed one person, it was necessary to develop from 25 to 250 square kilometers. In the era of agriculture, in the slave-owning era, this value decreased and was already about 1 square kilometer. Under feudalism, it was reduced to 0.2 square kilometers, and in our time it is from 0.5 to 1 hectare.

The growing population of the planet requires an ever-increasing increase in the pace of economic development in order to maintain balance. However, if we take into account the current state of technology, then such growth will cause more and more environmental pollution and may even lead to the irretrievable death of nature, which provides food for all of us and supports all life.

It is difficult to judge the phenomenon of a population explosion in Russia, where the population began to decrease since 1993, and even in Western Europe, where it is growing very slowly, but it is well illustrated by the demographic statistics of China, Africa, Latin America, and southern Asia, where the population growing at a gigantic pace.

At the beginning of the century, 1.5 billion people lived on Earth. In 1950, despite the losses in the two world wars, the population increased to 2.5 billion, and then began to increase annually by 70-100 million people. In 1993, the world's population reached 5.5 billion people, that is, doubled compared to 1950, and in 2000 it will exceed 6 billion.

In a finite space, growth cannot be infinite. Stabilization of the world population is one of the most important conditions for the transition to sustainable environmental and economic development. In all likelihood, the current number of people on Earth will double. Perhaps it will stabilize at 10-12, maybe 14 billion people by the end of the CCI century. The conclusion follows from this: we must hurry today in order to stop the slide into irreversible situations in the future.

An essential feature of the modern demographic picture of the world is that 90%2 of population growth is in developing countries. In order to present a real picture of the world, one must know how this majority of humanity lives.

The direct link between poverty and the population explosion is visible on global, continental and regional scales. Africa, the continent in the most difficult ecological and economic crisis, has the highest population growth rates in the world, and unlike other continents, they are not declining there yet. This is how a vicious circle closes: poverty - rapid population growth - degradation of natural life support systems.

The gap between accelerated population growth and insufficient industrial development is further exacerbated by the widespread decline in production, which makes it difficult to solve the huge problem of unemployment in developing countries. Almost a third of their working-age population is fully or partially unemployed. Poverty does not reduce but increases incentives to have more children. Children are an important part of the family work force. From childhood, they collect firewood, prepare fuel for cooking, graze livestock, nurse younger children, and do many other household chores.

So, in reality, the danger to our planet is poverty, in which the vast majority of the world's population lives. Population explosion and forced destruction natural basis existence - to a greater extent a consequence of poverty.

The notion that the rapidly growing population of developing countries is the main cause of growing global resource and environmental shortages is as simple as it is wrong. Swedish environmental scientist Rolf Edberg wrote: "Two-thirds of the world's population is forced to be content with a standard of living that is 5-10% of the level in the richest countries. A Swede, a Swiss, an American consume 40 times more Earth's resources than a Somali, eat at 75 times more meat products than an Indian An English journalist has calculated that the English cat eats twice as much meat protein as the average African, the cat's food is worth more than the average income of one billion people in poor countries A more equitable distribution of earth's resources could can only be expressed in the fact that a well-to-do quarter of the world's population - if only from the instinct of self-preservation - would give up direct excesses so that poor countries could get what they cannot live without.

Ecological problems

First, a few words must be said about the very concept of "ecology". Ecology was born as pure biological science about the relationship "organism - environment". However, with the intensification of anthropogenic and technogenic pressure on the environment, the insufficiency of this approach became obvious. Indeed, at present there are no phenomena, processes and territories unaffected by this powerful pressure. And there is no science that could withdraw from the search for a way out of the ecological crisis. The range of sciences involved in environmental issues has expanded enormously. Now, along with biology, these are economic and geographical sciences, medical and sociological research, atmospheric physics and mathematics and many other sciences.

The environmental problems of our time in terms of their scale can be conditionally divided into local, regional and global ones and require for their solution different means of solution and scientific developments of different nature.

An example of a local environmental problem is a plant that dumps its industrial waste into the river without treatment, which is harmful to human health. This is a violation of the law. The nature conservation authorities or even the public should fine such a plant through the courts and, under threat of closure, force it to build a treatment plant. It does not require special science.

An example of regional environmental problems is the Kuzbass - an almost enclosed mountain hollow filled with gases from coke ovens and fumes from a metallurgical giant, which no one thought about capturing during construction, or the drying up Aral Sea with a sharp deterioration in the environmental situation along its entire periphery, or the high radioactivity of soils in areas adjacent to Chernobyl.

To solve such problems, scientific research is already needed. In the first case, the development of rational methods for absorbing smoke and gas aerosols, in the second, accurate hydrological studies to develop recommendations for increasing the flow into the Aral Sea, in the third, elucidation of the impact on public health of long-term exposure to low doses of radiation and the development of soil decontamination methods.

As before, in the infinite Universe in orbit around the Sun, the small planet Earth revolves non-stop, with each new turn, as it were, proving the inviolability of its existence. The face of the planet is constantly reflected by satellites that send cosmic information to the Earth. But this face is irreversibly changing. Anthropogenic impact on nature has reached such proportions that global problems have arisen. Now let's move on to specific environmental problems.

Climate warming

The sharp warming of the climate that began in the second half of the CC century is a reliable fact. We feel it in milder than before winters. The average surface air temperature increased by 0.7°C compared to 1956-1957, when the First International Geophysical Year was held. There is no warming at the equator, but the closer to the poles, the more noticeable it is. Beyond the Arctic Circle it reaches 2°С 2 . At the North Pole, the under-ice water warmed by 1°С 2 and the ice cover began to melt from below.

What is the reason for this phenomenon? Some scientists believe that this is the result of burning a huge amount of organic fuel and releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is a greenhouse gas, that is, it makes it difficult to transfer heat from the Earth's surface.

So what is the greenhouse effect? Billions of tons of carbon dioxide enter the atmosphere every hour as a result of burning coal and oil, natural gas and firewood, millions of tons of methane rise into the atmosphere from gas developments, from the rice fields of Asia, water vapor and fluorochlorocarbons are emitted there. All of these are "greenhouse gases". Just as a glass roof and walls in a greenhouse allow solar radiation to pass through, but do not allow heat to escape, so carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases" are practically transparent to sun rays, but they delay the long-wave thermal radiation of the Earth, do not allow it to escape into space.

The outstanding Russian scientist V.I. Vernadsky said that the impact of mankind is already comparable to geological processes.

The "energy boom" of the outgoing century increased the concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere by 25% and methane by 100% 2 . During this time, the Earth experienced a real warming. Most scientists consider this a consequence of the "greenhouse effect".

Other scientists, referring to climate change in historical time, believe anthropogenic factor climate warming is negligible and associate this phenomenon with increased solar activity.

The forecast for the future (2030 - 2050) assumes a possible increase in temperature by 1.5 - 4.5°C 2 . Such conclusions were reached by the International Conference of Climatologists in Austria in 1988.

A warming climate raises a number of related issues. What are the prospects for its further development? How will warming affect the increase in evaporation from the surface of the oceans and how will this affect the amount of precipitation? How will this precipitation be distributed over the area? And a number of more specific questions concerning the territory of Russia: in connection with the warming and general humidification of the climate, is it possible to expect mitigation of droughts both in the Lower Volga region and in the North Caucasus; should we expect an increase in the flow of the Volga and a further rise in the level of the Caspian; whether the retreat of permafrost will begin in Yakutia and the Magadan region; Will navigation along the northern shores of Siberia become easier?

All these questions can be answered accurately. However, for this, various scientific studies must be carried out.

Ozone holes

The ecological problem of the ozone layer is no less complex in scientific terms. As you know, life on Earth appeared only after the protective ozone layer of the planet was formed, covering it from cruel ultraviolet radiation. For many centuries, nothing foreshadowed trouble. However, in recent decades, intensive destruction of this layer has been noticed.

The problem of the ozone layer arose in 1982, when a probe launched from a British station in Antarctica detected a sharp decrease in ozone at an altitude of 25 to 30 kilometers. Since then, an ozone "hole" of varying shapes and sizes has been recorded over Antarctica all the time. According to the latest data for 1992, it is equal to 23 million square kilometers, that is, an area equal to the whole of North America. Later, the same "hole" was discovered over the Canadian Arctic archipelago, over Svalbard, and then in different places in Eurasia, in particular, over Voronezh.

The depletion of the ozone layer is much more dangerous reality for all life on Earth than the fall of some super-large meteorite, because ozone does not allow dangerous radiation to the surface of the earth. In the event of a decrease in ozone, humanity is threatened, at a minimum, with an outbreak of skin cancer and eye diseases. In general, an increase in the dose of ultraviolet rays can weaken the human immune system, and at the same time reduce the yield of fields, reduce the already narrow base of the Earth's food supply.

"It is quite possible that by the year 2100 the protective ozone blanket will disappear, ultraviolet rays will dry up the Earth, animals and plants will die. Man will seek salvation under giant domes of artificial glass, and feed on the food of astronauts" a picture drawn by a correspondent of one of the Western magazines may seem too gloomy. But according to experts, the changed situation will affect the flora and fauna. The yield of some agricultural crops may decrease by 30%. 1 The changed conditions will also affect microorganisms - the same plankton, which is the main food for marine life.

The depletion of the ozone layer has excited not only scientists, but also the governments of many countries. The search for reasons began. At first, suspicion fell on chlorine and fluorocarbons used in refrigeration, the so-called freons. They are really easily oxidized by ozone, thereby destroying it. Large sums were allocated to search for their substitutes. However, refrigeration units are mainly used in countries with warm and hot climates, and for some reason, ozone holes are most pronounced in the polar regions. This caused confusion. Then it was found that a lot of ozone is destroyed by the rocket engines of modern aircraft flying at high altitudes, as well as during the launch of spacecraft and satellites.

Detailed scientific studies are needed to finally resolve the issue of the causes of ozone depletion. Another cycle of research is needed to develop the most rational ways to artificially restore the previous ozone content in the stratosphere. Work in this direction has already begun.

Death and deforestation

One of the causes of forest death in many regions of the world is acid rain, the main culprit of which is power plants. Sulfur dioxide emissions and long-range transport cause these rains to fall far from emission sources. In Austria, eastern Canada, the Netherlands and Sweden, more than 60% of the sulfur deposited on their territory comes from external sources, and in Norway even 75% 1 . Other examples of long-range transport of acids are acid rain on remote Atlantic islands such as Bermuda and acid snow in the Arctic.

Over the past 20 years (1970-1990), the world has lost almost 200 million hectares of forests, which is equal to the US area east of the Mississippi 1 . A particularly great environmental threat is the depletion of tropical forests - the "lungs of the planet" and the main source of biodiversity planets. Approximately 200,000 square kilometers are cut down or burned there every year, which means that 100,000 (!) species of plants and animals disappear 1 . This process is especially fast in the regions richest in tropical forests - the Amazon and Indonesia.

British ecologist N. Meyers came to the conclusion that ten small areas in the tropics contain at least 27% of the total species composition of this class of plant formations, later this list was expanded to 15 "hot spots" of tropical forests that must be preserved in order to no matter what 1 .

In developed countries, acid rain caused damage to a significant part of the forest: in Czechoslovakia - 71%, in Greece and Great Britain - 64%, in Germany - 52% 1 .

The current situation with forests is very different across the continents. If in Europe and Asia the forested areas for 1974 - 1989 increased slightly, then in Australia they decreased by 2.6% in one year. Even greater forest degradation is taking place in some countries: in Cote d, Ivoire, forest areas decreased by 5.4% over the year, in Thailand - by 4.3%, in Paraguay - by 3.4%.

desertification

Under the influence of living organisms, water and air, the most important ecosystem, thin and fragile, is gradually formed on the surface layers of the lithosphere - the soil, which is called the "skin of the Earth". It is the keeper of fertility and life. A handful of good soil contains millions of microorganisms that support fertility. It takes a century to form a layer of soil with a thickness (thickness) of 1 centimeter. It can be lost in one field season. Geologists estimate that before people began to engage in agricultural activities, graze livestock and plow land, rivers annually carried about 9 billion tons of soil into the oceans. Now this amount is estimated at about 25 billion tons 2 .

Soil erosion - a purely local phenomenon - has now become universal. In the US, for example, about 44% of cultivated land is subject to erosion. Unique rich chernozems with humus content have disappeared in Russia ( organic matter, which determines the fertility of the soil) in 14–16%, which was called the citadel of Russian agriculture. In Russia, the areas of the most fertile lands with a humus content of 10-13% have 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 sets in, 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 fall 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. About 15% of the world's population lives on these lands. 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 20th century, more than 9 million square kilometers of deserts appeared, and in total they 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 the potentially productive drylands, or ¼ of the total land area, and this figure 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, the current loss 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 increased food demand, could be truly disastrous.

Causes of land degradation in different regions of the world.

deforestation	Overexploitation	overgrazing	Agricultural activity	Industrialization





Sev. America
Southern America
Centre. America					Water can also become the subject of internecine conflicts, as the 200 largest rivers in the world flow through the territory of two or more countries. The water of the Niger, for example, is used by 10 countries, the Nile - by 9, and the Amazon - by 7 countries. Our civilization is already called the "civilization of waste" or the Era of disposable things. The wastefulness of the industrialized countries is manifested in the vast and growing waste of raw materials; mountains of rubbish characteristic all industrial countries of the world. The United States, with 600 kilograms of garbage per capita per year, is the largest producer of household waste in the world, in Western Europe and Japan they produce half as much, but the growth rate of household waste is growing everywhere. In our country, this increase is 2-5% per year 2 . Many new products contain toxic substances lead, mercury and cadmium rechargeable batteries, poisonous chemical compounds in household detergents, solvents and dyes. Therefore, garbage dumps largest cities poses a serious environmental threat - the threat of groundwater pollution, a threat to public health. The disposal of industrial waste to these landfills will create even greater dangers. Waste processing plants are not a radical solution to the problem of waste - sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide are emitted into the atmosphere, and ash contains toxic substances, the ash ends up in the same landfills. Such an ordinary substance as water rarely attracts our attention, although we encounter it every day, rather even hourly: during the morning toilet, at breakfast, when we drink tea or coffee, when leaving the house in rain or snow, while preparing dinner. and washing dishes, during washing ... In general, very, very often. Think for a moment about water... imagine that it suddenly disappeared... well, for example, there was an accident in the water supply network. Perhaps this has happened to you before? With all the evidence in such a situation, it becomes clear that "without water, neither there nor here." *Environmental issues and developed countries* Awareness of the environmental problem has led to the greening of economic development in industrialized countries. First, this was expressed in the fact that the costs of the state and monopolies for environmental protection have increased dramatically. Secondly, the production of cleaning equipment has been launched - an "eco-industry", "eco-business" has arisen - an international market for environmentally friendly equipment and environmentally friendly products. Thirdly, a system of laws and organizations for the protection of the environment (relevant ministries and departments) was formed. Programs for the ecological development of individual countries and regions were developed. Fourth, international coordination in the field of environmental protection has been strengthened. *Environmental issues and developing countries* The center of gravity of the global problems of our time is increasingly moving to the world of developing countries. The environmental pressure is also increasing here, since along with "pre-industrial" pollution, a new one is increasingly manifesting itself, associated with the invasion of transnational corporations (TNCs), with the "export" of polluting industries to the "third world". "Pre-industrial" degradation is primarily desertification (the result of anthropogenic and natural factors: excessive grazing and cutting down of rare trees and shrubs, disturbance of the soil cover, and so on in fragile, easily collapsing ecosystems of arid regions) and mass deforestation. Modern "industrial" pollution in developing countries is caused by the transfer of many polluting industries to the "third world", primarily by the construction of metallurgical and chemical plants. The concentration of population in the largest agglomerations is growing. The "new" pollution in developing countries is also determined by the chemicalization of agriculture. So, all new models of ecological development, all novelties of technology are still the lot of the developed world, which accounts for about 20% of the world's population. energy problem As we have seen, it is closely related to the environmental problem. Ecological well-being also depends to the greatest extent on the reasonable development of the Earth's energy, because half of all gases that cause the "greenhouse effect" are created in the energy sector. The fuel and energy balance of the planet consists mainly of "pollutants" - oil (40.3%), coal (31.2%), gas (23.7%). In total, they account for the vast majority of the use of energy resources - 95.2%. "Clean" types - hydropower and nuclear energy - give less than 5% in total, and the "softest" (non-polluting) - wind, solar, geothermal - account for fractions of a percent. It is clear that the global task is to increase the share of "clean" and especially "soft" types of energy. First, let's consider the possibility of increasing the share of "soft" types of energy. In the coming years, "soft" types of energy will not be able to significantly change the fuel and energy balance of the Earth. It will take some time until they economic indicators will become close to "traditional" types of energy. In addition, their ecological capacity is measured not only by the reduction of CO 2 emissions, but there are other factors, in particular, the territory alienated for their development. Area for different types of power plants 1 . In addition to the gigantic area that is necessary for the development of solar and wind energy, one must also take into account the fact that their ecological "cleanliness" is taken without taking into account metal, glass and other materials necessary to create such "clean" installations, and even in huge quantities. Conditionally "clean" is also hydropower, which can be seen at least from the indicators of the table - large losses of flooded area in floodplains, which are usually valuable agricultural lands. Hydro stations now provide 17% of all electricity in developed countries and 31% in developing countries, where the world's largest hydroelectric power stations have been built in recent years 1 . However, in addition to large alienated areas, the development of hydropower was hampered by the fact that specific capital investments here are 2-3 times higher than in the construction of nuclear power plants. In addition, the period of construction of hydroelectric power stations is much longer than thermal stations. For all these reasons, hydropower cannot provide a quick reduction in pressure on the environment. Apparently, under these conditions, only nuclear energy can be a way out, capable of dramatically and quite short time reduce the "greenhouse effect". The replacement of coal, oil and gas by nuclear power has already resulted in some reductions in emissions of CO 2 and other "greenhouse gases". If those 16% of the world's electricity production, which is now provided by nuclear power plants, were produced by coal-fired thermal power plants, even those equipped with the most modern gas purifiers, then an additional 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide, 1 million tons of nitrogen oxides, 2 million tons of sulfur oxides and 150 thousand tons of heavy metals (lead, arsenic, mercury). Raw material problem The issues of providing raw materials and energy are the most important and multifaceted global problem. The most important because, even in the age of scientific and technological revolution, minerals remain the fundamental basis for almost the rest of the economy, and fuel is its circulatory system. Multifaceted because a whole knot of "sub-problems" is woven together here: Resource availability on a global and regional scale; Economic aspects of the problem (higher production costs, fluctuations in world prices for raw materials and fuel, dependence on imports); Geopolitical aspects of the problem (struggle for sources of raw materials and fuel; Environmental aspects of the problem (damage from the mining industry itself, energy supply issues, regeneration of raw materials, choice of energy strategies, and so on). Resource use has increased dramatically in recent decades. Only since 1950, the volume of mining has increased 3 times, ¾ of all minerals mined in the 20th century were mined after 1960. One of the key issues of any global models has become the provision of resources and energy. And much of what until recently was considered endless, inexhaustible and “free” has become resources - territory, water, oxygen ... Problems of the world ocean The World Ocean, covering 2/3 of the earth's surface, is a huge water reservoir, the mass of water in which is 1.4 ´ 10 21 kilograms or 1.4 billion cubic kilometers. Ocean water is 97% of all water on the planet. As the largest supplier of food products, the World Ocean provides, according to various estimates, from 1/6 to ¼ of all animal proteins consumed by the world's population for food. The ocean, and especially its coastal zone, plays a leading role in sustaining life on the Earth. After all, about 70% of the oxygen entering the planet's atmosphere is produced in the process of photosynthesis by plankton (phytoplankton). The blue-green algae that live in the oceans serve as a giant filter that purifies the water in the process of its circulation. It receives polluted river and rainwater and returns moisture to the continent in the form of pure atmospheric precipitation through evaporation. The World Ocean is one of the most important objects of environmental protection. The peculiarity of this object of environmental protection is that the current in the seas and oceans quickly carries pollutants to long distances from the places of their release. Therefore, the problem of protecting the cleanliness of the ocean has a pronounced international character. Chemical pollution is a change in the natural chemical properties of water due to an increase in the content of harmful impurities in it, both inorganic (mineral salts, acids, alkalis, clay particles) and organic nature (oil and oil products, organic residues, surfactants, pesticides and the like). Sources and substances that pollute the oceans are numerous, from mercury to non-degradable synthetic detergents, which often form thick foam in rivers. Intensive human activity has led to the fact that the Baltic, North and Irish seas are heavily polluted with detergent effluents. The waters of the Baltic and North Seas are fraught with another danger. In 1945 - 1947, the British, American, and also Soviet command flooded them with about 300 thousand tons of captured and own ammunition with poisonous substances (mustard gas, phosgene, adamsite). The flooding operations were carried out in great haste and with serious violations of environmental safety standards. Corps chemical munitions Under the influence, by today they have been severely destroyed, which is fraught with serious consequences. Successful restoration of water resources while simultaneously involving them in economic circulation, that is, the reproduction of water resources, the prevention of possible new pollution, is possible only through a set of measures, including the treatment of wastewater and water bodies, the introduction of recycling water supply and low-waste technologies. Wasteless technology is developing in several directions: 1. Creation of drainless technological systems and water circulation cycles based on existing implemented and promising methods of wastewater treatment. 2. Development and implementation of systems for the disposal of production waste and their consumption as a secondary material resource, which excludes their entry into the aquatic environment. 3. Creation and implementation of fundamentally new processes for the production of traditional types of products, which make it possible to eliminate or reduce the technological stages that produce the main amount of liquid pollutant waste. The most massive substances polluting water bodies are oil and its products. Oil pollution of the ocean is dangerous due to the fact that a thin hydrophobic oil film forms on the surface of the water, which prevents free gas exchange with the atmosphere, which dramatically affects ocean flora and fauna. Shipping is the oldest branch of transport, linking continents and cultures even in the most distant past. But only in the second half of our century did it take on modern grandiose proportions. The tonnage of the marine fleet from 1950 to 1980 increased 6 times. The scientific and technological revolution rapidly changed the tonnage of ships, especially tankers: if in 1970 the average tanker tonnage was 42 thousand tons, then already in 1980 it was 96 thousand tons, while half of the tonnage of the world's tanker fleet was already accounted for by supertankers (more than 200 thousand tons) . True, at the beginning of the 1980s, a sharp excess of the fleet of developed countries, especially supertankers, was revealed. However, the era of supertankers and large tankers and ore carriers brought to the fore ports with great depths of approach, caused a concentration of oil and ore cargo flows. The environmental problems of the World Ocean are caused both by the "load" on coastal areas and directly on the ecosystems of the seas. "Shift to the sea" is called the global process of attraction to the sea shores of a wide variety of economic activities, and hence the population. Powerful port-industrial complexes have developed in the coastal regions. Over the past 40 years, the proportion of coastal areas of the Earth's population has increased from 30 - 35 to 40 - 45% 2 . The ocean is regarded as a free dump of waste - anthropogenic "runoff" has already become much larger than natural: for lead, its share is 92%, for oil - more than 90%, for mercury - 70%. Only oil pollution of the World Ocean is estimated at 3 to 15 million tons per year, with most of it falling on land pollution (carriage by rivers) - more than ½. A great danger to the open ocean is the catastrophe of tankers and even more - nuclear submarines. The Mediterranean Sea has become especially dangerous, through which a cargo flow of 250 million tons of oil passes, although the area of \u200b\u200bthe entire basin is only 1% of the oceans. All this speaks of the growing conflict in the use of the World Ocean - the development of the mining industry on the shelf and the widespread discharge of industrial waste into the ocean undermine the conditions for traditional fishing and recreation industries. In addition, vacationers on the coast themselves worsen the ecological situation. The impact of military conflicts on the World Ocean is especially dangerous. The "Gulf War" led to the fact that almost 2/3 of the western coast of the Persian Gulf was covered with a layer of oil and a huge number of marine animals and birds died. The environment has undergone unprecedented pollution in the history of mankind. More obscure problems may arise due to the warming of the Earth's climate. Currently, there is an imperceptible rise in the ocean level up to 1.5 - 2 meters, which leads to the flooding of "marches" (zones of high biological productivity, bird nests, and so on), causing serious damage to the economy of many countries. In addition to chemical and oil pollution, there is another type of pollution that is especially dangerous for the ocean - radioactive pollution during the disposal of radioactive waste. Pollution of the seas and oceans with radioactive waste is one of the most important problems of our time. In recent years, a number of important international agreements have been adopted to protect the seas and oceans from pollution. In accordance with these agreements, the washing of tankers and the discharge of waste ship waters must be carried out in special port facilities. Each country signing the agreement bears the legal and liability for polluting the waters of the oceans and seas. Problems of space exploration Before the beginning of the first space flights, all near-Earth space, and even more so "distant" space, the universe, were considered something unknown. And only later they began to recognize that between the Universe and the Earth - this smallest particle of it - there is an inextricable relationship and unity. Earthlings began to consider themselves participants in all processes taking place in outer space. Close interaction of the Earth's biosphere with space environment gives grounds to assert that the processes occurring in the Universe have an impact on our planet. Developing space activities, it is necessary to make an ecological orientation of astronautics, since the absence of the latter can lead to irreversible consequences. It should be noted that already at the birth of the foundations of theoretical astronautics environmental aspects played an important role, and, above all, in the works of K.E. Tsiolkovsky. In his opinion, the very exit of man into space is the development of a completely new ecological "niche", different from the earthly one. Near space (or near-Earth space) is the gaseous envelope of the Earth, which is located above the surface atmosphere, and whose behavior is determined by the direct influence of solar ultraviolet radiation, while the state of the atmosphere is mainly influenced by the Earth's surface. Until recently, scientists believed that the exploration of near space has almost no effect on the weather, climate and other living conditions on Earth. Therefore, it is not surprising that space exploration was carried out without regard to ecology. The emergence of ozone holes made scientists think. But studies show that the problem of preserving the ozone layer is only a small part of a much larger problem. common problem protection and rational use near-Earth outer space, and above all that part of it, which forms the upper atmosphere and for which ozone is only one of its components. In terms of the relative strength of the impact on the upper atmosphere, the launch of a space rocket is similar to the explosion of an atomic bomb in the surface atmosphere. Space is a new environment for man, not yet inhabited. But here, too, the age-old problem of clogging the environment arose, this time the space one. There is also the problem of pollution of near-Earth space by debris spacecraft. Moreover, there is a distinction between observable and unobservable space debris, the amount of which is unknown. Space debris appears during the operation of orbital spacecraft, their subsequent deliberate elimination. It also includes spent spacecraft, upper stages, detachable structural elements such as pyrobolt adapters, covers, fairings, the last stages of launch vehicles, and the like. According to modern data, there are 3,000 tons of space debris in near space, which is about 1% of the mass of the entire upper atmosphere over 200 kilometers. Growing space debris poses a serious threat to space stations and manned flights. Already today, the creators of space technology are forced to take into account the troubles that they themselves have created. Space debris is dangerous not only for astronauts and space technology, but also for earthlings. Experts have calculated that out of 150 pieces of spacecraft that have reached the surface of the planet, one is very likely to seriously injure or even kill a person. Thus, if effective measures are not taken by mankind in the very near future to combat space debris, then the space era in the history of mankind may end ingloriously in the near future. Outer space is not under the jurisdiction of any state. This is in its purest form an international object of protection. Thus, one of the important problems that arise in the process of industrial space exploration is to determine the specific factors of the permissible limits of anthropogenic impact on the environment and near-Earth space. It is impossible not to admit that today there is a negative impact of space technology on the environment (destruction of the ozone layer, contamination of the atmosphere with oxides of metals, carbon, nitrogen, and near space with parts of used spacecraft). Therefore, it is very important to study the consequences of its influence from the point of view of ecology. Conclusion Environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources and disruption of ecological links in ecosystems have become global problems. And if humanity continues to follow the current path of development, then its death, according to the leading ecologists of the world, is inevitable in two or three generations. The earth is like a library. It should remain in the same state even after we have nourished our minds by reading all her books and enriching ourselves with the ideas of new authors. Life is the most valuable book. We must treat it with love, but try not to tear a single page out of it, in order to pass it - with new remarks - into the hands of those who will be able to decipher the language of the forefathers, hoping to do honor to the world that they will leave to their sons and daughters. Bibliography 1. Lavrov S.B. Global problems of our time: part 1. - St. Petersburg: SPbGUPM, 1993. - 72 p. 2. Erofeev B.V. environmental law Russia: Textbook. - M.: Jurist, 1996. - 624 p. 3. Yanshin A.D. Scientific problems of nature conservation and ecology. // Ecology and life. - 1999. - No. 3 4. Attali Zh. On the threshold of the new millennium: Per. From English. - M.: International relations, 1993. - 136 p. 5. Encyclopedia for children: V.3 (Geography). - Comp. S.I. Ismailov. - M.: Avanta +, 1994. - 640 p. 6. Losev K.S. Water. - L.: Gidrometeoizdat, 1989, 272 p. 7. Lavrov S.B. Global problems of our time: part 2. - St. Petersburg: SPbGUPM, 1995. - 72 p. 8. Erofeev B.V. Environmental Law: A Textbook for High Schools. - M.: Jurisprudence, 1999. - 448 p. Lavrov S.B. Global problems of our time: part 1. - St. Petersburg: SPbGUPM, 1993. - 72p. Yanshin A.D. Scientific problems of nature conservation and ecology. // Ecology and life. - 1999. - No. 3 Encyclopedia for children: V.3 (Geography). - Comp. S.T. Ismailov. - M.: Avanta +, 1994. - 640s. Encyclopedia for children: V.3 (Geography). - Comp. S.I. Ismailov. - M.: Avanta +, 1994. - 640 p. Erofeev B.V. Environmental Law: A Textbook for High Schools. - M.: Jurisprudence, 1999. - 448 p.

The environmental crisis is characterized by the presence of a number of problems that threaten sustainable development. Let's consider only some of them.

Destruction of the ozone layer . The content of ozone in the atmosphere

insignificant and amounts to 0.004% by volume. Ozone is formed in the atmosphere under the action of electrical discharges, synthesized from oxygen under the action of cosmic UV radiation. Within the atmosphere, elevated concentrations of ozone form the ozone layer, which is essential for life on Earth. The ozone shield attenuates deadly UV radiation in the atmosphere between 40 and 15 km above the earth's surface by about 6,500 times. The destruction of the ozone shield by 50% increases UV radiation by 10 times, which affects the vision of animals and humans and can have other detrimental effects on living organisms. The disappearance of the ozonosphere would lead to unpredictable consequences - an outbreak of skin cancer, the destruction of plankton in the ocean, mutations of flora and fauna. The appearance of the so-called ozone hole over Antarctica was first recorded by ground-based and satellite measurements in the mid-199970s. The area of this hole was 5 million m², and the ozone in the air column was 30-50% less than the norm.

Several suggestions have been made about the causes of the destruction of the ozone layer: the launch of spacecraft, supersonic aircraft, the significant production of freons. Subsequently, based on scientific research, it was concluded that freons, which are widely used in refrigeration and aerosol cans, are the main cause.

The international community has taken a number of measures aimed at preventing the destruction of the ozone layer. In 1977, the United Nations Environment Program adopted a plan of action on the ozone layer, in 1985 a conference was held in Vienna that adopted the Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, a list of substances that adversely affect the ozone layer was established, and a decision was made on mutual information states on the production and use of these substances, on the measures taken.

Thus, the harmful effects of changes in the ozone layer on human health and the environment were officially announced, and that measures to protect the ozone layer required international cooperation. The signing of the Montreal Protocol in 1987 was decisive, according to which control over the production and use of freo-

new The protocol was signed by more than 70 countries, including Russia. In accordance with the requirements of these agreements, the production of freons harmful to the ozone layer must be stopped by 2010.

The greenhouse effect. The release of many gases into the atmosphere: carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrocarbons, i.e. methane (CH4), ethane (C2H6), etc., which accumulate as a result of the combustion of fossil fuels and other production processes, leads to the greenhouse effect, although these substances are almost not dangerous as independent pollutants (except for high concentrations).

The mechanism of the greenhouse effect is quite simple. Ordinary solar radiation in cloudless weather and a clean atmosphere relatively easily reaches the Earth's surface, is absorbed by the soil surface, vegetation, etc. Heated surfaces give off thermal energy again to the atmosphere, but in the form of long-wave radiation, which is not scattered, but absorbed by the molecules of these gases (CO2 absorbs 18% of the heat given off), causing intense thermal movement of molecules and an increase in temperature.

Atmospheric gases (nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor) do not absorb heat radiation, but scatter it. The concentration of CO2 annually increases by 0.8-1.5 mg/kg. It is believed that with a doubling of the CO2 content in the air, the average annual temperature will rise by 3-5ºС, which will cause global climate warming, and in 125 years we can expect massive melting of the ice of Antarctica, a rise in the average level of the World Ocean, flooding of a significant part of the coastal territory and other negative consequences. . In addition to the greenhouse effect, the presence of these gases contributes to the formation smog.

Smog comes in wet, dry, and icy forms. wet smog (London type) - a combination of gaseous pollutants, dust and fog droplets. Thus, in a 100-200-meter layer of air, a poisonous thick dirty yellow fog-moist smog arises. It is formed in countries with a maritime climate, where fogs are frequent and relative humidity is high.

dry smog (Los Angeles type) - secondary air pollution as a result of chemical reactions accompanied by

resulting in the appearance of ozone. Dry smog does not form fog, but a bluish haze.

ice smog (Alaskan type). It occurs in the Arctic and Subarctic at low temperatures in the anticyclone. A dense fog is formed, consisting of the smallest crystals of ice and, for example, sulfuric acid.

Global warming - one of the most significant consequences of anthropogenic pollution of the biosphere. It manifests itself in climate and biota changes: the production process in ecosystems, shifting the boundaries of plant formations, and changing crop yields. Especially strong changes concern the high and middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The rise in ocean level due to warming will be 0.1-0.2 m, which may lead to flooding of the mouths of large rivers, especially in Siberia. At the regular conference of the countries-participants of the Convention on Prevention of Climate Change, held in Rome in 1996, the need for coordinated international action to solve this problem was once again confirmed.

Tropical forest destruction. Over the past 50 years, with the participation of man, 2/3 of the forests covering the Earth have been destroyed. Over the past 100 years, 40% of the forests that existed on Earth have been irretrievably lost. The tropical rainforest is one of the most important suppliers of oxygen to the atmosphere and plays a huge role in maintaining the oxygen balance. Rainforests are called the "green lungs of the planet". The problem is that these forests have already been destroyed by 40%. Every year, 15-20 million hectares of tropical forest are lost in the world, which is equivalent to half the area of Finland. The greatest losses were suffered by 10 countries of the world, including Brazil, Mexico, India, Thailand. If the destruction of tropical forests continues at the same pace, then in 30-40 years it will no longer remain on Earth.

Due to the deforestation of tropical forests, the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere decreases annually by 10-12 billion tons, and the content of carbon dioxide compared to the middle of the 20th century. increased by 10-12%. There is a risk of oxygen imbalance.

The main causes of deforestation are: the plowing of forest land for agricultural land; increase in demand for timber

spring fuel; industrial deforestation; implementation of large-scale development projects.

According to the UN, approximately 90% of the rural and 30% of the urban population in Asia, Africa and Latin America use mainly woodfuel. Commercial logging

The main works are carried out without taking into account environmental requirements and, as a rule, are not accompanied by planting trees in clearings.

After the UN conference in Rio de Janeiro (1992), developing countries confirmed their readiness to reach an international consensus on the problem of conservation of forest resources, intending to take measures on their part to ensure the sustainable development of forestry.

Water shortage. Many scientists attribute it to a continuous increase in air temperature over the past decade due to an increase in the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is not difficult to make a chain of problems that give rise to each other: a large energy release (solution of the energy problem) - the greenhouse effect - lack of water - lack of food (crop failures). Over the past 100 years, the temperature has increased by 0.6ºС. In 1995-1998 there was a particularly large increase. Carbon dioxide, methane and some other gases absorb thermal radiation and increase the greenhouse effect.

An even more important factor is the sharp increase in water consumption for industrial and domestic purposes. The lack of water has sharply worsened the ecological situation in many regions and caused a food crisis.

Desertification. This is the name of the totality of natural and anthropogenic processes that lead to the destruction (violation) of the balance in ecosystems and to the degradation of all forms of organic life in a particular area. Desertification occurs in all natural areas of the world.

The main reason for the current increase in desertification in various countries of the world is the discrepancy between the existing structure of the economic use of natural resources and the potential natural possibilities of this landscape, population growth, an increase in anthropogenic pressures, and the imperfection of the socio-economic structure of a number of countries. According to UNEP*, now deserts of anthropogenic origin

more than 9 million km² are occupied, and up to 7 million hectares of land are annually removed from productive use.

Pollution of the oceans. The World Ocean, covering 2/3 of the earth's surface, is a huge reservoir, the mass of water in which is 1.4 10²¹ kg. Ocean water makes up 97% of all water on the planet. The oceans provide 1/6 of all animal proteins consumed by the world's population for food. The ocean, especially its coastal zone, plays a leading role in maintaining life on Earth, because about 70% of the oxygen entering the planet's atmosphere is produced in the process of plankton photosynthesis. Thus, the World Ocean plays a huge role in maintaining a stable balance of the biosphere, and its protection is one of the urgent international environmental tasks.

Of particular concern is the pollution of the oceans harmful and toxic substances, including oil and oil products, radioactive substances.

The most common ocean pollutants are oil and oil products. An average of 13-14 million tons of oil products enter the World Ocean annually. Oil pollution is dangerous for two reasons: firstly, a film forms on the surface of the water, which deprives marine life of oxygen; secondly, oil itself is a toxic compound that has a long half-life; when the oil content in water is 10-15 mg/kg, plankton and fish fry die. Major oil spills during the crash of supertankers can be called real environmental disasters.

Especially dangerous is Nuclear pollution in the disposal of radioactive waste (RW). Initially, the main way to get rid of radioactive waste was the disposal of radioactive waste in the seas and oceans. This was usually low-level waste, which was packed in 200-liter metal drums, filled with concrete and dumped into the sea. The first such disposal of radioactive waste was carried out by the United States 80 km from the coast of California. Until 1983, 12 countries practiced RW discharge into the open sea. Into the water Pacific Ocean in the period from 1949 to 1970, 560,261 containers with radioactive waste were dumped.

Recently, a number of international documents have been adopted,

whose main goal is to protect the oceans.

Lack of food. An important reason for the lack of food is the reduction since 1956 of arable land per capita due to soil erosion and the withdrawal of fertile land for other purposes. Thanks to the "Green Revolution" of the 1970s. managed to compensate for the decline in yield through the introduction of new varieties, irrigation, the use of fertilizers and herbicides. However, this was not achieved in Australia and Africa - there was not enough water for irrigation. Now it is clearly lacking in Asia and America.

Fish stocks have been drastically reduced. From 1950 to 1989, the world catch increased from 19 to 89 million tons, after which there was no increase. An increase in the fishing fleet does not lead to an increase in catch.

Population growth. The rapidly growing population is the most serious problem of the Earth.

Numerous attempts to reduce the birth rate have been unsuccessful. A population explosion is currently taking place in the countries of Africa, Asia and South America. In the Russian Federation, the situation unfavorable for population growth has developed due to a drop in the birth rate.

Questions for self-examination

What signs characterize the modern ecological crisis?

What are the main causes of pollution of the biosphere.

Give examples of depletion of energy resources.

What global changes are taking place in the atmosphere?

What are the causes and what are the consequences of ozone layer depletion?

What are the causes and what are the consequences of the greenhouse effect?

What global continental problems do you know?

What are the main causes of rainforest destruction?

What are the main sources of pollution in the oceans?

What are the consequences of population growth?

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Similar Documents

Introduction

What are global issues?

demographic problem

Ecological problems

Climate warming

Ozone holes

Death and deforestation

desertification

Environmental issues and developed countries

Environmental issues and developing countries

energy problem

Raw material problem

Problems of the world ocean

Problems of space exploration

Conclusion

Bibliography

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