Major environmental issues list. Global environmental issues

The main environmental problems of our time

Economic activities of man. Humanity is part of the biosphere, a product of its evolution. However, the relationship between man and natural communities have never been flawless. From the moment the first primitive tool was made, man is no longer satisfied with objects created by nature, but begins to manufacture, introduce into his everyday life objects, substances, etc., which are outside natural biological cycle. The emergence of civilization is a consequence of the emergence of the sphere of suprabiological needs and material technologies. The hunting activity of ancient man undoubtedly hastened the extinction of many large herbivores. For hunting purposes, the burning of vegetation contributed to the desertification of territories. However, the impact of hunter-gatherer tribes on communities has generally not been significant. Man began to change and destroy entire communities with the transition to cattle breeding and agriculture. With the growth of the human population, the number of domestic ungulates exceeds the capacity of the environment, the steppe vegetation consumed by them no longer has time to renew itself. Steppe or savanna are replaced by semi-desert. Due to this impact of pastoralism, there was an increase in the area of ​​​​the Sahara and the neighboring semi-desert zone - the Sahel.

During the development of agriculture, improper plowing led to the loss of the fertile layer, which was carried away by water or wind, and excessive irrigation caused soil salinization. It should be noted that biologically, a person in the prehistoric phase of development differed from all other mammals of the same size in exceptional mobility, usually passing twice as much distance per day as they do. People lived in conditions of energy deficiency, hence they were forced to protect a huge fodder territory, in which they periodically or constantly wandered. And despite this, they were within a very modest energy limit for a long time.

The transition to pastoral nomadic pastoralism and slash-and-burn agriculture has led to a doubling of costs, and when replacing gathering with nomadic pastoralism, there is little saving in space. Slash-and-burn agriculture is territorially more efficient by 2-3 orders of magnitude. This made it possible to reduce the mobility of a person and, in turn, created the prerequisites for the formation of a society with its characteristic division of functions and cultural specialization. And at the same time, slash-and-burn agriculture, in which a piece of forest is burned, several crops are harvested and abandoned, often led to the replacement of forests with steppes and savannahs. Thus, already in antiquity, man caused mass extinctions, disruption of succession series, replacement of one community by another. Mankind, being an integral part of nature that belongs to it and is inside it, thanks to the development of society, the biological species Homo sapiens was taken out of the influence of natural selection, interspecific competition, limiting the growth of numbers, expanded the possibilities of adaptive behavior and resettlement of people. The development of technology and the achievement of the industrialization of civilization has created a persistent myth about the dominance of man over the forces of nature.

There have been two important shifts in the last hundred years. First, the population of the Earth has increased dramatically. Secondly, industrial production, energy production and agricultural products increased even more sharply. As a result, the flows of matter and energy caused by human activity began to account for a significant proportion of the total value of the biogenic cycle. Mankind began to have a noticeable impact on the functioning of the entire biosphere. The critical situation at the end of the 20th century is formed by the following negative trends:

1. The consumption of the Earth's resources has so much exceeded the rate of their natural reproduction that the depletion of natural resources began to have a noticeable impact on their use, on the national and world economy and led to the irreversible impoverishment of the lithosphere and biosphere.

2. Waste, by-products of production and everyday life pollute the biosphere, cause deformations of ecological systems, disrupt the global cycle of substances and pose a threat to human health.

If urgent measures are not taken, in the coming decades, we can expect the destruction and death of many communities, the deterioration of the habitat in general.

population growth. The accelerating growth of the Earth's population has become a deviation from the laws of balance in wildlife. The number of individuals of any species, according to biological laws, depends on the potential for reproduction, life expectancy, the breadth of adaptive capabilities and is regulated by natural selection - a combination of environmental factors. As a rule, small animals are more numerous than large ones. For many species, there are, to a certain extent, normative limits for fluctuations in their most probable abundance in nature. From this it is believed that the number of individuals of one species of African Quaternary hominids - the ancestors of man - under favorable conditions, in all likelihood, did not exceed 500,000 or was much less. Today it is difficult to find an answer when this “norm” was exceeded. Primitive man himself expanded his adaptive capabilities and thereby weakened the pressure of natural selection. Until about the beginning of the 18th century, humankind expanded slowly, at an average rate of about one percent per century, corresponding to a doubling of population in a thousand years. In the future, the growth rate begins to increase and by the middle of the 20th century it becomes hyperexponential. In 1969, the world population increased by 2% per year, an increase of about 70 million people, or 150 people per minute. In 1989, an increase of 1.8% of the increased population already produced 90 million people (179 people per minute), or more than at any time in the entire previous history of mankind. At the end of the 20th century, each decade adds another 1 billion people to the total population. At the end of 1992, the world's population was 5.6 billion people, and by the year 2000 it will reach 6.1 billion people. This rapid growth is called population explosion.

The trend of increasing the population of the Earth, apparently, will continue in the first half of the XXI century. T. A. Akimova, V. V. Haskin (1994) cites data that, according to various estimates, by 2025 there will be from 7.6 to 9.4 billion people on Earth. The bulk of population growth is and will continue to be in developing countries. Population Growth Requires Increased Production food, creating new jobs and expanding industrial production. So, at the end of the XX century. every day all the people of the Earth need about 2 million tons of food, 10 million m 3 drinking water, 2 billion m 3 of oxygen for breathing. In total, almost 300 million tons of substances and materials are extracted daily, about 30 million tons of fuel are burned, 2 billion m 3 of water and 65 billion m 3 of oxygen are used. Since all this is accompanied by the expenditure of natural resources and massive environmental pollution, the main cause of the contradictions is precisely quantitative expansion of human society- the highest level and the rapid growth of the total anthropogenic load on nature, the strengthening of its destructive impact. All this has very serious not only environmental, but also socio-biological and economic consequences.

Changes in the composition of the atmosphere and climate. The most devastating of human impacts on communities is the release of pollutants. Recall that a pollutant is any substance that enters the atmosphere, soil or natural waters and disrupts the biological, sometimes physical or chemical processes. Pollutants often include radioactive radiation and heat. Environmental pollution is one of the most acute problems. As a result of human activity, carbon dioxide CO 2 and carbon monoxide CO, sulfur dioxide S0 2, methane CH 4, nitrogen oxides NO r NO, N 2 0 enter the atmosphere. The main sources of their intake are the combustion of fossil fuels, burning forests and industrial emissions. enterprises. When using aerosols, chlorofluorocarbons enter the atmosphere, and as a result of transport, hydrocarbons (benzapyrene, etc.) are released.

Due to anthropogenic gases, acid precipitation and smog are formed. acid rain - sulfuric and nitric acids formed when sulfur and nitrogen dioxide dissolve in water and fall to the Earth's surface along with rain, fog, snow or dust. Getting into the lakes, acid precipitation often causes the death of fish or the entire animal population. They can also cause foliage damage and often plant death, accelerate metal corrosion and building failure. acid rain for the most part observed in areas with developed industry. Although water droplets are quickly removed from the atmosphere, they still spread hundreds of kilometers from emitting thermal plants, industrial plants, etc.

As a result of complex chemical reactions of a mixture of gases (mainly nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons contained in car exhaust gases), occurring in the lower atmosphere under the influence of sunlight, various substances are formed that reduce visibility, which are called smog. Smog is extremely harmful to living organisms. One of the harmful components of smog is ozone (0 3). In large cities, during the formation of smog, its natural concentration (1-10 8) increases by 10 or more times. Ozone here begins to have a harmful effect on the lungs and mucous membranes of a person and on vegetation.

Anthropogenic changes in the atmosphere are also associated ozone depletion , which is a protective screen against ultraviolet radiation. Especially quickly the process of destruction of the ozone layer occurs over the poles of the planet, where the so-called ozone holes have appeared. In 1987, an expanding year by year was registered (the expansion rate is 4% per year - an ozone hole over the Antarctic (going beyond the contours of the mainland) and a less significant similar formation in the Arctic.

The danger of depleting the ozone layer is that the absorption of ultraviolet radiation harmful to living organisms may decrease. Scientists believe that the main reason for the depletion of the ozone layer (screen) is the use of chlorofluorocarbons (freons) by people, which are widely used in everyday life and production in the form of aerosols, pre-reagents, foaming agents, solvents, etc. In 1990, the world production of ozone-depleting substances was more than 1300 thousand tons. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC1 ​​3 and CF 2 C1 2), entering the atmosphere, decompose in the stratosphere with the release of chlorine atoms, which catalyze the conversion of ozone into oxygen. In the lower layers of the atmosphere, freons can persist for decades. From here they enter the stratosphere, where their content is currently increasing by 5 percent annually. It is assumed that one of the reasons for the depletion of the ozone layer may be the reduction of forests as oxygen producers on Earth.

The content of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere is growing rapidly. These gases cause "greenhouse effect" .

They miss sunlight, but partially delay the thermal radiation emitted by the Earth's surface. Over the past 100 years, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by 25%, and methane - by 100%. This was accompanied by a global rise in temperature. Yes, in the 80s. the average air temperature in the northern hemisphere increased by 0.5-0.6°C compared to the end of the 19th century. On Earth, according to forecasts, the average temperature by the year 2000 will increase by 1.2°C, and in the next 50 years - by 2-5°C compared to the pre-industrial era. Warming can lead to intensive melting of glaciers and an increase in the level of the World Ocean by 0.5-1.5 m, while many densely populated coastal areas will be flooded. However, with a general increase in precipitation in the central regions of the continents, the climate may become more arid. For example, catastrophic droughts, which are associated with global warming, became more frequent in Africa and North America in the 1980s and 1990s.

The example of atmospheric pollution shows that even weak impacts can lead to major adverse consequences for natural systems.

Pollution of natural waters. Humanity is almost entirely dependent on surface water land - rivers and lakes. This insignificant part of water resources (0.016%) is subjected to the most intense impact. The water of rivers and lakes covers the needs of mankind in drinking water, is used for irrigation in agriculture, in industry, and is used to cool nuclear and thermal power plants. 2200 km 3 of water per year is spent on all types of water use. Water consumption is constantly growing, and one of the dangers is the depletion of its reserves. For example, the withdrawal of water for irrigation from rivers Central Asia led to a shrinking Aral Sea which has practically ceased to exist. From the bottom of the dried sea, salt is carried by the wind for hundreds of kilometers, causing soil salinization. No less formidable phenomenon is the pollution of fresh water bodies. In 1991 in Russian Federation with wastewater was discharged into water bodies (in thousand tons): 1200 suspended solids, 190 ammonium nitrogen, 58 phosphorus, 50 iron, 30 oil products, 11 synthetic surfactants, 2.1 zinc, 0.8 copper, 0.3 phenols, etc. Salts of heavy metals (mercury, lead, zinc, copper, etc.) accumulate in the sludge at the bottom of water bodies and in the tissues of organisms that make up food chains. When ingested into the human body, salts of heavy metals cause severe poisoning. Unique in terms of reserves fresh water is Lake Baikal. It's 1/5 . world fresh water reserves (excluding ice) and more than 4/5 of Russia's reserves. With a volume of 23 thousand km 3, about 60 km 3 of the purest fresh water is annually reproduced in the lake. The unique quality is ensured by the vital activity of the unique, finely tuned biocenosis of Baikal, which contains the largest number of endemic forms of organisms in the world. However, the ever-increasing amount of household waste is causing concern.

In 1990, the volume of household waste entering Baikal reached 200 million m 3 . Often, effluents carry substances that are detrimental to hydrobionts, such as mercury, zinc, tungsten, and molybdenum.

Pollution of water bodies occurs not only with industrial waste, but also with the ingress of organic matter, mineral fertilizers, and pesticides used in agriculture from fields into water bodies. When organic matter decomposes, oxygen is consumed, and therefore its content in water decreases, and many animals die. Mineral fertilizers cause the rapid development of algae, often leading to a deterioration in water quality and the disappearance of the most valuable fish species. Many pesticides are highly resistant and accumulate in the tissues of organisms. At the same time, in the organisms of each next trophic level, their content increases several times, and sometimes dozens of times.

Scientific discoveries and the development of physical and chemical technologies in the 20th century led to the emergence of artificial sources of radiation that pose a potential danger to humanity and the entire biosphere. So, according to T.A. Akimova, V.V. Khaskin (1994), many years of activity of the Mayak Production Association (Chelyabinsk region) led to the accumulation of extremely large amounts of radionuclides and pollution in the Ural region (areas of the Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Kurgan and Tyumen regions). Discharge of radiochemical production waste in 1949-1951. into the open hydrological system of the Ob basin through the Techa River, as well as as a result of accidents in 1957 and 1967. in environment 23 million curies were ejected. Radiation contamination covered an area of ​​25 thousand km 2 with a population of more than 500 thousand people (Fig.).

Marine waters are also polluted. With rivers and runoff from coastal industrial and agricultural enterprises, millions of tons of chemical waste are annually carried into the sea, and with municipal runoff and organic compounds. Due to accidents of tankers and oil-producing installations, at least 5 million tons of oil per year enters the ocean through various sources, causing the death of many aquatic animals and sea birds. Concerns are caused by the burial of nuclear waste at the bottom of the seas, sunken ships with nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons on board. The most significant accumulations of such sources are located in the Barents, Kara and Seas of Japan. For more than 20 years, the military has used the waters near Novaya Zemlya and the Kola Peninsula as a nuclear dump.

Energy production. The need for energy is one of the basic human needs. Energy is needed both for the normal functioning of modern human society, and for the simple physical existence of each person. At the end of the 20th century, electricity was mainly obtained at hydroelectric power plants, thermal and nuclear power plants. Complex environmental problems are associated with the production of energy at heat and power enterprises. For example, for many decades it was believed that hydroelectric power plants are environmentally friendly enterprises that do not harm nature. In Russia, the largest hydroelectric power stations were built on the main, great rivers. This construction, as it has now become clear, caused great damage not only to nature, but also to man.

Firstly, the construction of dams on lowland rivers causes the flooding of large areas for reservoirs, which is associated with the resettlement of people and the loss of arable land, meadows and pastures.

Secondly, the dam, blocking the river, creates insurmountable obstacles for the migration of anadromous and semi-anadromous fish, which rise to spawn in the upper reaches of the rivers.

Thirdly, water stagnates in storage facilities, its flow slows down. This affects the life of all organisms that live in the river and near the river.

Fourthly, local water rise affects groundwater, leads to flooding, swamping, as well as bank erosion and landslides.

Fifth, large high-altitude dams on mountain rivers are sources of danger, especially in areas with high seismicity. There are several cases known in world practice when the breakthrough of such dams led to great destruction and death of hundreds and thousands of people.

The most dangerous pollutants natural environment are CHPPs that burn huge amounts of fuel. Millions of cubic meters of harmful and hazardous waste from the operation of thermal power plants almost entirely enter the natural environment.

For many years it was believed that nuclear power plants (NPPs) ) are cleaner than hydroelectric power plants, state district power plants, thermal power plants. However, they pose a potential hazard in the event of a serious reactor accident. Thus, explosions, fire and eruption of fission products during the accident in 1986 at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant became a global catastrophe. About 7.5 tons of nuclear fuel and fission products with a total activity of at least 50 million curies were ejected from the destroyed reactor. 80% of the territory of Belarus, the northern part of the Right-bank Ukraine, 17 regions of the Russian Federation are polluted by the Chernobyl emission to varying degrees.

Thus, energy poses the most complex environmental problems.

deforestation is one of the most important global environmental problems of our time. The role of forest communities in the functioning of natural ecosystems is enormous. The forest absorbs atmospheric pollution of anthropogenic origin, protects the soil from erosion, regulates the runoff of surface water, prevents the decrease in the level of groundwater, etc.

A decrease in the area of ​​forests causes a violation of the cycles of oxygen and carbon in the biosphere. Although the catastrophic effects of deforestation are widely known, deforestation continues. Forests on our planet occupy an area of ​​about 42 million km 2, but their area is decreasing by 2% annually. Despite the fact that Russia has the largest forest area in the world (about 5 hectares of forest land per inhabitant), this wealth is not used effectively. According to Academician M. Ya. Lemeshev, massive extensive logging based on clear cuts, by the end of the 20th century, covered essentially the entire state forest fund of the country. These cuttings often undermine the foundations of forest reproduction, especially in the European part of Russia and the Urals.

The reduction of forests entails the death of their richest fauna and flora. A person must remember that his existence on the planet is inextricably linked with the life and well-being of forest ecosystems.

Soil depletion and pollution. Soils are another resource that is overexploited and polluted. The imperfection of agricultural production is the main reason for the reduction in the area of ​​fertile soils. In case of improper plowing, the fertile soil layer is often washed away by precipitation (water erosion), or scattered by the wind (wind erosion), ravines are formed.

The plowing of vast steppe areas in Russia and other countries has caused dust storms and the death of millions of hectares of the most fertile lands.

Soil erosion in the 20th century has become a worldwide evil. It is estimated that as a result of water and wind erosion during this period, 2 billion hectares of fertile lands of active agricultural use were lost on the planet.

Excessive irrigation, especially in hot climates, can cause soil salinization. This is also one of the main reasons for the loss of arable land from agricultural use.

Radioactive contamination of the soil is a great danger. Radioactive substances from soils get into plants, then into the organisms of animals and humans, accumulate in them, causing various diseases. Long-lived radioactive elements persist in ecosystems for hundreds of years.

Of particular danger are chemical means of protection, especially organic compounds used in agriculture in the fight against pests, diseases and weeds. Inept and uncontrolled use of pesticides leads to their accumulation in soil, water, and bottom sediments of reservoirs. It is important to remember that they are included in the ecological food chains, moving from soil and water to plants, then to animals, and eventually enter the human body with food.

Reducing natural diversity. Extreme exploitation, pollution, and often just barbarous destruction of natural communities lead to a sharp decrease in the diversity of living things. The extinction of animals that we are witnessing could be the largest in the history of our planet. More species of birds and mammals have disappeared from the face of the Earth in the last 300 years than in the previous 10,000 years. The extinction of large animals is dramatic, and they naturally need to be protected. It should be remembered that the main damage to diversity is not in their death due to direct persecution and destruction, but in the fact that due to the development of new areas for agricultural production, the development of industry and environmental pollution, the areas of many natural ecosystems are disturbed. This so-called "indirect impact" leads to the extinction of tens and hundreds of species of animals and plants, many of which were not known and will never be described by science. The process of extinction, for example, of animals, has significantly accelerated due to the destruction of tropical forests. Over the past 200 years, their area has almost halved and continues to decline at a rate of 15-20 hectares per minute. The steppes in Eurasia and the prairies in the USA have almost completely disappeared. Tundra communities are also being intensively destroyed. Coral reefs and other marine communities are under threat in many areas.

In communities that have been disturbed due to human impact, new species with unpredictable properties are already emerging in our time. It should be expected that this process will grow like an avalanche. When these species are introduced into the "old" communities, their destruction may occur and an ecological crisis may occur.

Ways to solve environmental problems

Balanced development of mankind- a way to solve modern environmental problems. Balanced development is characterized by the UN International Commission on Environmental Protection and Development as a way of social, economic and political progress that will meet the needs of present and future generations. In other words, humanity must learn to "live within its means", use natural resources without undermining them, invest, figuratively speaking, in "insurance" - to finance programs aimed at preventing the catastrophic consequences of their own activities. Such major programs include curbing population growth; the development of new industrial technologies to avoid pollution, the search for new, "clean" energy sources; increase in food production without increasing the area under crops.

Birth control. Four main factors determine the size of the population and its rate of change: the difference between birth and death rates, migration, fertility, and the number of inhabitants in each age group. Till fertility rate higher death rate, the population will increase at a rate that depends on the positive difference between these values. The average annual change in the population of a particular region, city or country as a whole is determined by the ratio (newborns + immigrants) - (deceased + emigrants). The population of the Earth or an individual country can equalize or stabilize only after the total fertility rate- the average number of children born to a woman during her reproductive period - will be equal to or below the average level of simple reproduction, equal to 2.1 children per woman. Upon reaching level of simple reproduction it takes some time for population growth to stabilize. The length of this period depends primarily on the number of women who are of reproductive age (15-44 years) and on the number of girls under 15 years of age entering their reproductive period soon.

The length of time that the growth of the world's population or of an individual country will stabilize after the average fertility rate reaches or falls below the replacement level also depends on age structure of the population- percentage ratio of women and men in each age category. The more women in the reproductive (15-44 years) and pre-reproductive (up to 15 years) age, the longer the period that will be required for the inhabitants to achieve zero population growth (NPG). Major changes in the age structure of the population, due to high or low fertility, have demographic, social and economic consequences that last for a generation or even more.

In the 21st century, the issue of solving the most important problems of ecology and preserving the earth's ecosystem for future generations has become acute for all mankind. And the solution of the main environmental problems of our planet depends not only on the targeted policy of the world powers, but also on each person individually.

As the main problems of the ecosystem the globe can be distinguished:

· Air pollution of the earth. The existence of all life on earth largely depends on the degree of air pollution. In almost all developed countries of the world, air pollution with emissions industrial enterprises and car exhaust reaches a critical level. And although at present almost all enterprises are equipped with latest systems clearing this is clearly not enough. The state of the earth's air basin is steadily deteriorating.

· Deforestation. As you know, the forest is the green lungs of the globe. It is thanks to him that the air is enriched with oxygen and purified from harmful impurities. Economic activity human has led to the fact that deforestation is being carried out at a catastrophic pace, and the restoration of the green massif of the globe leaves much to be desired.

Depletion of fertile soil layer. Due to mass deforestation and improper agricultural practices of agricultural land fertile layer soil is steadily depleted. Take, for example, the virgin lands of Kazakhstan, where, due to improper agricultural practices, thousands and thousands of hectares of land have suffered from wind erosion. In addition, the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides leads to the poisoning of all life on earth.

· One more topical issue for mankind is the reduction of fresh water. This process is closely related to the reduction of forest areas and the pollution of the water basin by waste from industrial enterprises. Already today it is forbidden to swim in the basins of many rivers and lakes, as water pollution exceeds all permissible limits. The lack of drinking water in the future threatens an ecological catastrophe.

· Extermination of the animal world of the earth. Human life in a special way affects the safety of the fauna of the globe. So deforestation, pollution of water bodies leads to the disappearance of many rare animals inhabiting our planet. So quite a lot of animals that lived in our forests and fields literally 50 years ago are on the verge of extinction or have disappeared from the face of our planet. And although quite a few nature reserves have been created in the world where human activity is prohibited, animal world land is steadily decreasing. Poachers also put their hand to this, who, for the sake of profit, are ready to kill the last tiger in the Siberian taiga. And if this process is not stopped, our descendants will know about wild animals only from pictures.

· The problem of disposal of municipal solid waste is quite an urgent task today, especially for large cities. And if we do not want the land to turn into one big dump, this problem must be solved without delay. And although processing plants are being created, they are clearly not

Ecological problems land- these are critical environmental situations that are relevant for the entire planet, and their solution is possible only with the participation of all mankind.

It should be immediately noted that any environmental problems of the earth are closely related to other global world problems, they affect each other and the occurrence of one leads to the emergence or exacerbation of others.

1. Climate change

First of all, we are talking about global warming. It is this that has been worrying ecologists and ordinary people all over the world.

The consequences of this problem are completely bleak: rising sea levels, a decrease in agricultural production, a shortage of fresh water (primarily for lands that are located north and south of the equator). One of the main causes of climate change is greenhouse gases.

Ecologists have proposed the following solutions to this problem:

– reduction of carbon dioxide emissions

– switch to carbon-free fuels

– developing a more economical fuel strategy

2. Overpopulation of the planet

During the second half of the 20th century, the world's population grew from 3 to 6 billion. And according to existing forecasts, by 2040 this figure will reach the milestone of 9 billion people. This will lead to shortages of food, water and energy. The number of diseases will also increase.

3. Depletion of the ozone layer

This environmental problem leads to an increase in the influx of ultraviolet radiation to the Earth's surface. To date, the ozone layer over countries with temperate climate has already decreased by 10%, which causes irreparable harm to human health, can cause skin cancer, vision problems. The depletion of the ozone layer can damage and agriculture, after all, many crops are damaged as a result of excessive ultraviolet radiation.

4. Reduction of biodiversity

Due to intensive human activities, many animals and plants have disappeared from the face of the earth. And this trend continues. The main reasons for the reduction biodiversity loss of habitat, overexploitation of biological resources, pollution of the environment, the impact of biological species brought from other territories are considered.

5. Pandemics

Recently, almost every year, new dangerous diseases have appeared, caused by previously unknown viruses and bacteria. What caused the centers of epidemics around the world.

6. Crisis of fresh water resources

About a third of people on earth suffer from lack of fresh water. AT this moment little is done to preserve the existing water sources. Most cities around the world don't clean up properly, according to the UN Wastewater. Because of this, nearby rivers and lakes are prone to pollution.

7. Widespread use of chemical and toxic substances, heavy metals

Over the past two centuries, mankind has been actively using chemical, toxic substances, heavy metals which causes great harm to the environment. An ecosystem polluted with toxic chemicals is very difficult to clean up, and in real life this is rarely done. Meanwhile, reducing the production of harmful compounds and minimizing their release is an important part of preserving the environment.

8. Deforestation

Deforestation around the world is proceeding at alarming rates. The first place in this environmental problem is occupied by Russia: in the period from 2000 to 2013, 36.5 million hectares of forest were cut down. This problem irreparably harms the vital habitat of many plants and animals and leads to the loss of biodiversity and the deterioration of important ecosystems, as well as an increase in the greenhouse effect due to a decrease in photosynthesis.

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Russia is one of the most environmentally polluted countries in the world.

This is facilitated primarily by technogenic factors, such as deforestation, pollution of water bodies, soil and atmosphere with factory production waste.

This is a problem not only for individual countries, but for the entire planet as a whole. Let's look at what environmental problems exist in Russia, global and major.

In Russia, uncontrolled and illegal deforestation is carried out. These are global environmental problems of entire regions of Russia. Most of these are noted in Far East and northwest of the country. In addition to being cut down by poachers valuable breeds trees, of which there are already fewer and fewer trees, the problem of the rapid deforestation of the Siberian regions is acute. Land is also being cleared for agricultural land and for mining.
In addition to economic damage to the state, uncontrolled deforestation causes irreparable harm to many ecosystems that have been created and maintained for thousands of years.

Deforestation has the following consequences:

• Displacement of animals and birds from their original habitats.
• Violation of established ecosystems, an increase in the greenhouse effect on the planet. As a result, global warming occurs, which, to one degree or another, leads to a change in almost all ecosystems of the Earth. In particular, the water cycle is disrupted, which leads to a more arid climate on the planet.
• Accelerated and their weathering. Especially dangerous is the deforestation of areas with mountainous and hilly terrain, as it causes landslides and flooding.

Energy of Russia and ecology

The dependence of the environmental situation on electricity generation is the most direct, since there are three types of energy sources:

1. organic, these include gas, oil, charcoal and wood itself.
2. water, that is, the use of the power of the water flow to convert it into heat and electricity.
3. nuclear, or the use of energy released during nuclear reactions.

The operation of organic energy sources is directly related to their combustion. It must be said that deforestation is carried out not only in order to use wood as a type of fuel, but also in order to clear a place for the extraction of coal, oil and gas, which in themselves are organic sources of energy.