How to solve environmental problems. Global environmental problems

At the moment, creating a completely eco-friendly city is beyond the reach of humanity. If you try to imagine what an environmentally friendly city integrated into nature should look like, then only 100% harmless materials, similar in properties to wood and stone, should be used for construction there.

Naturally, such a city should be much more reminiscent of a park or nature reserve than an industrial metropolis, and the houses in it should be buried in trees, and animals and birds should calmly walk along the streets. But creating such a metropolis is a complex process.

It is easier, on the contrary, to disperse human settlements and begin to settle in natural landscapes practically untouched by human hands. Settlements dispersed in space reduce the load on the biosphere in individual places. Naturally, life in new places should include compliance with environmental safety regulations.

Holzer biocenosis

The possibility of such a natural, almost heavenly life without losing the comfort that the achievements of modern civilization provide was proven by the famous Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer. He does not use irrigation, land reclamation, pesticides or herbicides on his farm. He has only one hired worker (despite the scale of the farm of 45 hectares), only one tractor and his own power plant.

Holzer created a natural biocenosis, where, in addition to cultivated plants, animals, birds, fish, and insects live. Almost the only work that the owner and mistress do is sowing and harvesting.

Nature does the rest proper organization natural environmental conditions. Holzer even managed to grow rare species plants that do not grow in high alpine regions, as well as plants characteristic of much warmer countries (kiwi, lemon, sweet cherry, orange, cherry, grapes).

All of Austria is lining up for Holzer's vegetables, fruits, fish, and meat. The farmer believes that today's food production is completely pointless, because it wastes an inordinate amount of energy. It’s enough just to study natural patterns and create the maximum natural conditions existence for plants and animals.

This kind of “lazy” farming, also called permoculture (permanent culture that reproduces viable environmental conditions), eliminates agricultural depletion of soils and loss of species diversity, helping to preserve natural water bodies and the purity of the atmosphere. A natural, environmentally sound lifestyle will help greatly reduce the volume of harmful production, which will also lead to a reduction in environmental pollution.

Ways to solve environmental problems and directions for rationalizing environmental management

The need for an urgent practical solution to the problem of environmental protection has led to the development in most countries of state measures of a legislative, organizational and administrative nature aimed at preserving and restoring the quality of the natural environment. Moreover, this aspect is increasingly becoming the main focus government activities in countries with developed market economies, is accompanied by the active use of economic levers and incentives, which together ensure the achievement of the goal. At the same time, in a number of regions of the world and countries, including Russia, the effectiveness environmental activities is not adequate to the significance of the problem and the severity of the crisis situation. Significant reasons for this are insufficient knowledge of the state of the environment and its changes, the interrelations of the complex natural processes with various anthropogenic factors, lack of funding.

The solution to the environmental crisis will help solve environmental problems; in turn, solving environmental problems is a necessary prerequisite for progressive economic development.

Environmental problems are simultaneously addressed at two levels: national and international.

National level. Despite many legislative acts, the state of the environment in Russia and the rational use of natural resources are alarming.

The level of environmental pollution depends primarily on the perfection of technological processes, their environmental orientation, the availability and technical and economic characteristics of equipment, and the degree of its wear. Meanwhile, the revaluation of fixed assets showed that the average wear and tear of equipment in industry is almost 59%. The lack of funds for renovation and the development of waste-free technologies makes Russia's environmental problems one of the most acute. The destruction of economic ties between enterprises has led to the fact that those insignificant volumes of environmental protection equipment that existed are lost. Along with the reduction in production volumes in Russia, the production of environmental protection equipment, technology, measuring instruments and equipment. The reduction of agrotechnical and environmental protection measures in agriculture, which had a certain environmental effect, also has a negative impact.

The mechanism of influencing natural resource users using economic levers does not give the expected result.

Prevention of negative anthropogenic impact and elimination negative consequences This influence requires the creation of an environmental industry and special environmental equipment.

It is necessary to develop production environmentally efficient equipment and technologies, as well as the creation of control and measuring equipment to equip environmental laboratories at local environmental authorities. The lack of measuring equipment makes it difficult to characterize the consequences of anthropogenic influence on the environment and the reverse impact of pollution on human life and activity.

The environmental situation was one of the important factors that over the last decade the number of children with chronic diseases in the country has increased 3 times, and the average life expectancy for the entire population is 8-10 years lower than these data for 44 developed countries of the world.

Reducing the production of intermediate products, material intensity of production, transition to resource-saving and environmentally friendly safe technologies, development of low-waste industries - proven ways to solve problems.

IN organizational plan It is necessary to replace the currently accepted practice of economic sanctions for environmental pollution with a systematically implemented system of economic regulation of environmental management.

Considering that most environmental problems are planetary, an international level plays a large role in solving problems.

International level. The main principle is to ensure equal environmental safety of all countries and territories, the rejection of developed countries from environmental aggression of an economic nature and environmental colonialism: stopping the placement of environmentally hazardous waste on the territory of other countries and the immediate suppression of predatory destruction and irrational inefficient use of natural resources.

Further development needed international cooperation on a bilateral and multilateral basis in the development of environmentally friendly equipment and technology, in environmental monitoring and in the prevention of emerging hazardous environmental situations in any country in the world community. The combined efforts of humanity are necessary to radically solve global environmental problems and preserve life on the planet.

The main directions for solving environmental problems are:

1. Development and implementation of waste-free technologies that allow solving a complex of environmental, economic and social problems.

Non-waste technologies make it possible to achieve a number of environmental benefits

effects:

Prevent environmental pollution from production waste;

Prevent or reduce the destruction of natural resources by taking the most effective use resources taken from nature;

Provide economic benefits and increase the efficiency of social production, i.e. achieving maximum results while minimizing costs.

The social effect is to ensure the environmental conditions necessary for life, improving public health, and increasing life expectancy.

2. Replacement of traditional energy sources with non-traditional ones: solar energy, tides and other inexhaustible natural resources.

3. Replacement of natural resources used in production as objects of labor with artificial substitutes, which will preserve natural resources.

4. Rationalization of environmental management based on loss reduction

natural resources, their degradation, reducing the material intensity of production, reducing the consumption of non-renewable resources, reducing industrial and household waste, etc.

Back to top last decade In the 20th century, about 22 billion tons were released into the atmosphere per year. carbon dioxide. Of these, 45% came from burning coal, 40% from oil, 15% from gas. When producing the same amount of energy, oil produces 15% and gas produces 43% less carbon dioxide than coal.

Therefore, only replacing some types of fuel with others can significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. Moreover, reserves of fossil fuels, especially oil, are limited and should be preserved for future generations.

Of these 22 billion tons, the largest share came from the USA - 23%, the USSR - 19%, Western Europe - 13%, China - 8.7%, Eastern European countries - 7%, and all others - about 28%.

Energy efficiency varies per unit of gross national product (GNP). France has the best indicator. In relation to it - in Japan it will be 1.13, Great Britain - 2.0, USA - 2.24, Poland - 3.13, China - 4.75, in our country - 3.76, i.e. per unit of GNP we spend almost 4 times more energy than France.

The experience of different countries suggests that there are large reserves for energy savings in the world.

Socio-economic, cultural and political factors also contribute to the solution of environmental problems:

Environmental education and upbringing;

Environmental legislation at national and international levels and its implementation;

State investment in the development of the environmental industry, as well as environmental investments from other sources of financing;

System of economic levers;

Administrative control by the state over the rational use of natural resources and environmental impact;

Establishment of scientifically based standards for maximum permissible concentrations of various pollutants in the environment.

On the one hand, the prospects for economic development cannot be considered without taking into account the impact it has on the state of the natural environment. On the other hand, the state of the environment must increasingly be taken into account when making economic decisions. A further uncontrolled increase in anthropogenic load on natural systems can lead to a global imbalance in their balance, which will entail the destruction of the natural basis of human life.

Most scientists who have studied environmental problems believe that humanity has about 40 more years to return the natural environment to a state of a normally functioning biosphere and resolve issues of its own survival. But this period is negligibly short. And does a person have the resources to solve even the most pressing problems?

To the main achievements of civilization in the 20th century. include advances in science and technology. The achievements of science, including the science of environmental law, can also be considered as the main resource in solving environmental problems. The thought of scientists is aimed at overcoming the environmental crisis. Humanity and states must make maximum use of available scientific achievements for their own salvation.

The authors of the scientific work “The Limits to Growth: 30 Years Later” Meadows D.H., Meadows D.L., Randers J. believe that humanity’s choice is to reduce the load on nature caused by human activity to a sustainable level through reasonable politics, reasonable technology and reasonable organization, or wait until, as a result of changes occurring in nature, the amount of food, energy, raw materials decreases and an environment completely unsuitable for life arises.

Given the shortage of time, humanity must determine what goals it faces, what tasks need to be solved, and what the results of its efforts should be. In accordance with certain goals, objectives and expected, planned results, humanity develops means of achieving them. Taking into account the complexity of environmental problems, these means have specificity in technical, economic, educational, legal and other areas.

Introduction of environmentally efficient and resource-saving technologies

The concept of waste-free technology, in accordance with the Declaration of the UN Economic Commission for Europe, means practical use knowledge, methods and means in order to ensure, within the framework of human needs, the most rational use of natural resources and protect the environment.

The same UN commission adopted a more specific definition of this concept: “Waste-free technology is a method of production in which all raw materials and energy are used most rationally and comprehensively in the cycle: raw materials production consumption secondary resources, and any impacts on the environment do not violate its normal functioning."

This formulation should not be taken absolutely, i.e. one should not think that production is possible without waste. It is simply impossible to imagine an absolutely waste-free production; there is no such thing in nature; it contradicts the second law of thermodynamics (the second law of thermodynamics is the experimentally obtained statement about the impossibility of building a periodically operating device that does work by cooling one source of heat, i.e. eternal engine of the second type). However, waste should not disrupt the normal functioning of natural systems. In other words, we must develop criteria for the undisturbed state of nature. The creation of waste-free production is a very complex and lengthy process, the intermediate stage of which is low-waste production. Low-waste production should be understood as such production, the results of which, when exposed to the environment, do not exceed the level allowed by sanitary and hygienic standards, i.e. MPC. At the same time, for technical, economic, organizational or other reasons, part of the raw materials and materials may become waste and be sent for long-term storage or disposal. At the present stage of development of scientific and technological progress, it is the most realistic.

The principles for establishing low-waste or zero-waste production should be:

1. The principle of consistency is the most basic. In accordance with it, each individual process or production is considered as an element of the dynamic system of all industrial production in the region (TPK) and at a higher level as an element of the ecological-economic system as a whole, which includes, in addition to material production and other human economic activities, the natural environment (populations of living organisms, atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, biogeocenoses, landscapes), as well as humans and their habitat.
2. Complexity of resource use. This principle requires the maximum use of all components of raw materials and the potential of energy resources. As is known, almost all raw materials are complex, and on average more than a third of their quantity consists of accompanying elements that can only be extracted through complex processing. Thus, at present, almost all silver, bismuth, platinum and platinum group metals, as well as more than 20% of gold, are obtained as a by-product from the processing of complex ores.
3. Cyclicity of material flows. The simplest examples of cyclical material flows include closed water and gas cycles. Ultimately, the consistent application of this principle should lead to the formation, first in individual regions, and subsequently throughout the entire technosphere, of a consciously organized and regulated technogenic circulation of matter and associated energy transformations.
4. The requirement to limit the impact of production on the natural and social environment, taking into account the systematic and targeted growth of its volumes and environmental perfection. This principle is primarily associated with the conservation of such natural and social resources as atmospheric air, water, land surface, recreational resources, public health.
5. Rational organization of low-waste and non-waste technologies. The determining factors here are the requirement for the reasonable use of all components of raw materials, the maximum reduction in energy, material and labor intensity of production and the search for new environmentally sound raw materials and energy technologies, which is largely due to the reduction of negative impacts on the environment and damage to it, including related industries farms.

In the entire set of works related to environmental protection and rational development of natural resources, it is necessary to highlight the main directions for creating low- and waste-free industries. These include: integrated use of raw materials and energy resources; improvement of existing and development of fundamentally new technological processes and production facilities and related equipment; introduction of water and gas circulation cycles (based on effective gas and water treatment methods); cooperation of production using waste from some industries as raw materials for others and the creation of waste-free industrial complexes.

On the way to improving existing and developing fundamentally new technological processes, it is necessary to comply with a number of general requirements: implementation of production processes with the minimum possible number of technological stages (apparatuses), since at each of them waste is generated and raw materials are lost; the use of continuous processes that allow the most efficient use of raw materials and energy; increase (to the optimum) unit power of units; intensification of production processes, their optimization and automation; creation of energy technological processes. The combination of energy and technology makes it possible to more fully utilize the energy of chemical transformations, save energy resources, raw materials and materials, and increase the productivity of units. An example of such production is the large-scale production of ammonia using an energy technology scheme.

Rational use of natural resources

Both non-renewable and renewable resources of the planet are not infinite, and the more intensively they are used, the less of these resources are left for the next generations. Therefore, decisive measures for the rational use of natural resources are required everywhere. The era of reckless exploitation of nature by man is over, the biosphere is in dire need of protection, and natural resources should be protected and used sparingly.

The basic principles of this attitude towards natural resources are set out in the international document “The Concept of Sustainable Economic Development”, adopted at the Second UN World Conference on Environmental Protection in Rio de Janeiro.

Regarding inexhaustible resources, the “Concept of Sustainable Economic Development” of development urgently requires a return to their widespread use and, where possible, the replacement of non-renewable resources with inexhaustible ones. This primarily concerns the energy industry.

For example, wind is a promising source of energy, and in flat, open coastal areas, the use of modern “wind turbines” turns out to be very advisable. With the help of natural hot springs, you can not only treat many diseases, but also heat your homes. As a rule, all the difficulties in using inexhaustible resources lie not in the fundamental possibilities of their use, but in the technological problems that have to be solved.

With regard to non-renewable resources, the “Concept of Sustainable Economic Development” states that their extraction should be made normative, i.e. reduce the rate of extraction of minerals from the subsoil. The global community will have to give up the race for leadership in the extraction of this or that natural resource; the main thing is not the volume of the extracted resource, but the efficiency of its use. This means a completely new approach to the problem of mining: it is necessary to extract not as much as each country can, but as much as is needed for the sustainable development of the world economy. Of course, the world community will not come to such an approach immediately; it will take decades to implement it.

With regard to renewable resources, the “Concept of Sustainable Economic Development” requires that their exploitation be carried out at least within the framework of simple reproduction, and their total quantity does not decrease over time. In the language of ecologists, this means: as much as a renewable resource (for example, forests) was taken from nature, so much is returned (in the form of forest plantations).

Land resources also require careful treatment and protection. To protect against erosion use:

Forest shelterbelts;
- plowing without turning over the formation;
- in hilly areas - plowing across the slopes and tinning the land;
- regulation of livestock grazing.

Disturbed, contaminated lands can be restored; this process is called reclamation. Such restored lands can be used in four ways: for agricultural use, for forest plantations, for artificial reservoirs and for housing or capital construction. Reclamation consists of two stages: mining (preparing areas) and biological (planting trees and low-demanding crops, for example, perennial grasses, industrial legumes).

The protection of water resources is one of the most important environmental problems of our time. It is difficult to overestimate the role of the ocean in the life of the biosphere, which carries out the process of self-purification of water in nature with the help of plankton living in it; stabilizing the planet's climate, being in constant dynamic equilibrium with the atmosphere; producing huge biomass. But for life and economic activity, people need fresh water. It is necessary to strictly conserve fresh water and prevent its pollution.

Saving fresh water should be carried out in everyday life: in many countries, residential buildings are equipped with water meters, this greatly disciplines the population. Pollution of water bodies is detrimental not only to humanity, which needs drinking water. It contributes to a catastrophic decline in fish stocks both at the global and Russian levels. In polluted water bodies, the amount of dissolved oxygen decreases and fish die. It is obvious that strict environmental measures are needed to prevent pollution of water bodies and to combat poaching.

Recycling

The use of secondary raw materials as a new resource base is one of the most dynamically developing areas of processing polymer materials in the world. Interest in obtaining cheap resources, which are secondary polymers, is very noticeable, so global experience in their recycling should be in demand.

In countries where environmental protection is of great importance, the volume of recycling of recycled polymers is constantly increasing. Legislation obliges legal entities and individuals to throw away polymer waste (flexible packaging, bottles, cups, etc.) in special containers for their subsequent disposal. Today, not only the task of recycling waste of various materials, but also restoring the resource base is on the agenda. However, the possibility of using waste for re-production is limited by its instability and worse mechanical properties compared to the original materials. The final products using them often do not meet aesthetic criteria. For some types of products, the use of recycled materials is generally prohibited by current sanitary or certification standards.

For example, in a number of countries there is a ban on the use of certain recycled polymers for the production of food packaging. The process of obtaining from recycled plastics itself is associated with a number of difficulties. Reuse of recycled materials requires special reconfiguration of process parameters due to the fact that the recycled material changes its viscosity and may also contain non-polymer inclusions. In some cases, the finished product has special mechanical requirements that simply cannot be met when using recycled polymers. Therefore, to use recycled polymers, it is necessary to achieve a balance between the specified properties of the final product and the average characteristics of the recycled material. The basis for such developments should be the idea of ​​​​creating new products from recycled plastics, as well as partially replacing primary materials with secondary ones in traditional products. Recently, the process of replacing primary polymers in production has become so intensified that in the United States alone, more than 1,400 types of products are produced from recycled plastics, which were previously produced only using primary raw materials.

In this way, recycled plastic products can be used to produce products previously made from virgin materials. For example, it is possible to produce plastic bottles from waste, i.e. closed-cycle recycling. Also, secondary polymers are suitable for the manufacture of objects whose properties may be worse than those of analogues made using primary raw materials. The latest solution is called “cascade” waste processing. It is successfully used, for example, by the FIAT auto company, which recycles bumpers from used cars into pipes and mats for new cars.

Protection of Nature

Nature conservation is a set of measures for the conservation, rational use and restoration of natural resources and the environment, including the species diversity of flora and fauna, the wealth of subsoil, the purity of waters, forests and the Earth's atmosphere. Nature conservation has economic, historical and social significance.

Methods of environmental work are usually divided into groups:

Legislative;
- organizational;
- biotechnical;
- educational and propaganda.

Legal protection nature in the country is based on all-Union and republican legislative acts and relevant articles of criminal codes. Supervision over their proper implementation is carried out by state inspectorates, nature conservation societies and the police. Groups of public inspectors can be created under all these organizations. The success of legal methods of nature conservation depends on the efficiency of supervision, strict adherence to principles in the performance of their duties on the part of those who carry it out, and on the knowledge of public inspectors of how to take into account the state of natural resources and environmental legislation.

The organizational method of nature conservation consists of various organizational measures aimed at the economical use of natural resources, their more appropriate consumption, replacement natural resources artificial. It is also envisaged to solve other problems related to the effective conservation of natural resources.

The biotechnical method of nature conservation includes numerous methods of directly influencing the protected object or environment in order to improve their condition and protect them from adverse circumstances. Based on the degree of impact, a distinction is usually made between passive and active methods of biotechnical protection. The first includes commandment, order, prohibition, fencing, the second includes restoration, reproduction, change in use, salvation, etc.

The educational and propaganda method combines all forms of oral, printed, visual, radio and television propaganda to popularize the ideas of nature conservation and instill in people the habit of constantly caring for it.

Activities related to nature conservation can also be divided into the following groups:

Natural sciences,
- technical and production,
- economic,
- administrative and legal.

Nature conservation activities can be carried out on an international scale, a national scale or within a specific region.

The world's first measure to protect animals living freely in nature was the decision to protect chamois and marmots in the Tatras, adopted in 1868 by the Zemsky Sejm in Lviv and the Austro-Hungarian authorities on the initiative of Polish naturalists M. Nowitsky, E. Janota and L. Zeisner.

The danger of uncontrolled changes in the environment and, as a result, the threat to the existence of living organisms on Earth (including humans) required decisive practical measures to protect and preserve nature, and legal regulation of the use of natural resources. Such measures include cleaning up the environment, streamlining the use of chemicals, stopping the production of pesticides, restoring land, and creating nature reserves. Rare plants and animals are listed in the Red Book.

In Russia, environmental measures are provided for in land, forestry, water and other federal legislation.

In a number of countries, as a result of the implementation of government environmental programs, it was possible to significantly improve the quality of the environment in certain regions (for example, as a result of a multi-year and expensive program, it was possible to restore the purity and quality of water in the Great Lakes). On an international scale, along with the creation of various international organizations on individual problems of environmental protection, the UN Environment Program operates.

Increasing the level of human ecological culture

Ecological culture is the level of people’s perception of nature, the world around them and an assessment of their position in the universe, a person’s attitude towards the world. Here it is necessary to immediately clarify that what is meant is not the relationship between man and the world, which also implies feedback, but only the relationship of himself to the world, to living nature.

Ecological culture refers to the entire complex of skills of living in contact with the natural environment. An increasing number of scientists and specialists are inclined to believe that overcoming the environmental crisis is possible only on the basis of an ecological culture, the central idea of ​​which is the joint harmonious development of nature and man and the attitude towards nature not only as a material, but also as a spiritual value.

The formation of an ecological culture is considered as a complex, multifaceted, long-term process of approval in the way of thinking, feelings and behavior of residents of all ages:

Ecological worldview;
- careful attitude to the use of water and land resources, green spaces and specially protected areas;
- personal responsibility to society for the creation and preservation of a favorable environment;
- conscious compliance with environmental rules and requirements.

“Only a revolution in people’s minds will bring the desired changes. If we want to save ourselves and the biosphere on which our existence depends, everyone... - both old and young - must become real, active and even aggressive fighters for environmental protection,” concludes his book with these words, William O. Douglas, Dr. law, former member of the US Supreme Court.

The revolution in people's minds, which is so necessary to overcome the environmental crisis, will not happen on its own. It is possible with targeted efforts within the framework of state environmental policy and an independent function government controlled in the field of environment. These efforts should have the goal of environmental education of all generations, especially young people, and instilling a sense of respect for nature. It is necessary to form an ecological consciousness, individual and social, based on the idea of ​​harmonious relationships between man and nature, human dependence on nature and responsibility for its preservation for future generations.

At the same time, the most important prerequisite for solving environmental problems in the world is the targeted training of ecologists - specialists in the field of economics, engineering, technology, law, sociology, biology, hydrology, etc. Without highly qualified specialists with modern knowledge on the entire range of issues of interaction between society and nature, especially in In the process of making environmentally significant economic, management and other decisions, planet Earth may not have a worthy future.

However, even having organizational, human, material and other resources to solve environmental issues, people must acquire the necessary will and wisdom to adequately use these resources.