Environmental pollution program. Large-scale problems of our time: pollution of our environment

25.09.2019

Kostin S.N.

Introduction

In recent years, we have often heard and used the word “ecology,” but it can hardly be assumed that everyone understands the same thing by it. Even experts argue about what meaning should be put into this concept. And while they are arguing, non-specialists have already understood what an ecological minimum is: it means breathing clean air, drinking clean water, eat food without nitrates and do not glow in the dark. The term “ecology” (from the Greek “oikos” - house, habitat, and “logos” - science) was coined in 1866 by the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel, who coined it to mean “the general science of the relationship of organisms to the environment.” ”, where we include in a broad sense all “conditions of existence”. This concept, initially quite narrow, was later expanded; for some time, ecology developed as one of the biological sciences that studies not individual organisms, but the structure and functioning of biological systems - populations, species, communities - and their interactions with each other and with environment. This or a similar definition of ecology can be found in many modern encyclopedias and reference books.

But now the concept of “ecology” has already gone far beyond what Ernst Haeckel put into it and what is indicated in reference books and encyclopedias. Now this is an independent science about the environment (from the point of view of its interactions with living organisms and, above all, with people). It is nourished not only and not so much by biology, but also by almost all the sciences about the Earth - meteorology, hydrology, oceanology, climatology, geography, geology with the physical, mathematical and chemical methods necessary for them, as well as sociology, psychology and economics. Such an expansion of the content of ecology and a shift in emphasis in it was required by the rapid quantitative growth of humanity, which began to realize the dangers threatening the entire planet (nuclear disaster, possible greenhouse effect, etc.), and was already faced in its practice with limited natural resources (including energy ) and saw firsthand the disastrous side effects of unwise economic activities on the environment - environmental disasters like Chernobyl and the Aral Sea. In this regard, modern ecology puts human interaction with ecological systems and the entire environment at the forefront of its interests.

Although in recent years we have begun to realize the unity and finitude of the biosphere and the entire environment, the responsibility of humanity for its own fate, the fate of the biosphere, the fate of the entire planet, we are still very far from the state that V.I. Vernadsky designated by the term “noosphere” (from the Greek “noos” - mind). The latter implies the transformation of man from an alien element in nature into its integral part, organically fitting into it. This will only be achieved when new thinking in which ecological problems should have the highest priority, will become an internal need of all humanity, from those in positions of power and those managing resources to all citizens of the world. In the meantime, in addition to naturally increasing environmental problems, people continue to create new difficulties that will inevitably have to be overcome, spending great effort and money. It seems that all environmental problems can be attributed primarily to two main factors connected with each other: climate change and environmental pollution.

Although climate change, natural or caused by human activity (so-called anthropogenic), occurs relatively slowly, it covers vast regions and therefore can pose a serious problem for humanity. With significant climate changes, shifts in climatic zones will occur, as a result of which people will have to completely or partially rebuild their economic activities in these zones. Environmental pollution also takes on a global character, since in fact it does not know national borders. The increase in pollution is turning into a danger to the very existence of the biosphere, including all of humanity.

Man and environment: history of interaction

It is interesting that many researchers call the very fact of the appearance and significant spread of man on Earth one of the largest environmental disasters of antiquity. It is known that the formation and development of Cro-Magnon man was completed within a few millennia. Relatively quickly, this event caused environmental consequences. And, above all, the distribution of one biological species on almost all inhabited land. Never - in millions, billions of years - has any species had such a distribution. It was then that a hitherto insoluble contradiction arose between a catastrophically rapidly developing biological species-consumer of natural resources and the natural environment itself - between man and the nature that gave birth to him. Everything (if not absolutely everything, then a lot) began, as usual, with fire. No, not from the mythical fire of Prometheus, which illuminated human consciousness, but from the very real flame...

Evidence of the barbaric destruction of forests by primitive tribes comes even from not so long ago - which is especially valuable. The Dutch navigator A. Ya. Tasman and his team, the first Europeans to see the shores of Tasmania, did not find the aborigines, although they paid attention to the puffs of smoke rising in different places above the forest. Subsequent explorers of the island constantly encountered forest fires or an abundance of fires lit by the aborigines. And although the Tasmanians were engaged in hunting, fishing, gathering, the main “lever” with which they “turned over” their land - radically rebuilt the landscapes - was fire. As a result of such “nature-transforming activity”, a change in vegetation occurred over vast areas of Tasmania; There have been changes in the nature of the soil and the climate has changed. Many researchers agree that before the advent of man, in particular in Iceland, up to 40% of the island's area was occupied by birch forests with an admixture of willow, rowan and juniper. Since the development of Iceland by the Vikings, forests have been rapidly declining, and now their area does not exceed 0.5%.

In other regions, similar results were achieved by the system of primitive agriculture, which involved burning out huge forest areas regularly - once every few farming seasons. Strange as it may seem for us, who are accustomed to seeing the main problem of nature in the development of technogenic civilization, to perceive this, among the first environmental disasters introduced into the life of the planet by young humanity are the consequences of such a clean and harmless activity as the most ordinary hunting. It was precisely the result of the predatory extermination of entire species of animals (archaeologists, indeed, find gigantic accumulations of animal bones at the sites of former hunting victories), as well as the impact of man on natural complexes in general, that in many regions of the world the preconditions were created for a crisis in the hunting industry, appropriating natural resources. biological resources practically without their conscious renewal. One of the greatest experts ice age American geographer and geologist R. Flint wrote about the disappearance of animal groups: “extinction mainly occurred 5,000-10,000 years ago. Extinct animals include all camels, horses, sloths, two kinds of musk oxen, peccaries, antelopes, all types of bison (except one) ... and certain types of cats - some of them reached the size of a lion. Two species of mammoths, which were larger than modern elephants and were distributed almost everywhere in the United States, also disappeared.”

In certain isolated territories (Australia, Tasmania, etc.), where there were no species of animals and plants suitable for agriculture, primitive society so undermined the resources of existing natural complexes that it entered a period of stagnation and even some technical and social regression. And although the previous level of economic development was preserved, the predatory exploitation of natural biological resources caused consistent degradation of the surrounding landscapes, a decrease or qualitative deterioration of the biological resources used. Society, a part of nature, could not remain outside of this process. An interesting fact is that scientists have proven that natural complexes untouched by man are more productive than ecosystems artificially created by him. And this is relevant even for today’s level of agricultural development. And, consequently, gathering and hunting at the initial stage should have been more effective than farming and cattle breeding. But only if the nature surrounding man did not experience another environmental disaster. It was the destructive impact of man on the environment that stimulated, strange as it may sound, the development of civilization - in search of new resources, humanity gradually moved from an appropriating economy to a producing one. However, after one disaster, another was in a hurry. Created by primitive methods, the new natural environment is extremely fragile, quickly depletes the soil and is unviable under normal conditions (being abandoned by humans after depletion). Burning vegetation, loosening the surface of the earth in combination with the destruction of trees and bushes causes significant damage to the soil and leads to erosion. Therefore, the areas of land developed by primitive man soon became completely unusable and people were forced to look for new territories. The planet is still covered with traces of those environmental disasters of antiquity, which today look like eternal steppes and deserts in our eyes.

That is why the environmental problems of antiquity were not and could not be a stimulus only for the progress of mankind. The need for access to natural resources, complicated, among other things, by environmentally destructive human activities, pushed the tribes into conflicts with wealthier neighbors. Although the need to defend the wealth obtained from nature from neighbors, on the other hand, forced primitive tribes to strengthen their settlements, learn to build ramparts, etc., but this is a topic for a completely different conversation... This is exactly how humanity has gone sideways with its natural environment side by side through tens, hundreds of millennia - fighting with the world for existence and creating for ourselves only more and more new problems through victories in this struggle...

Global environmental problems of our time

Over the past millennia, civilization and technology have made a noticeable leap in their development. The appearance of human settlements has changed, the languages of antiquity have sunk into oblivion, and the very appearance of “homo sapiens” has changed beyond recognition. But one thing in human life has remained unchanged: everything that civilization is able to collect in its barns, store behind high fences of special bases, shove on the shelves of home cabinets and refrigerators - all this is taken from the environment. And the entire rhythm of human life, both in past eras and today, was determined by one thing - the possibility of access to certain natural resources. Over the years of such coexistence with nature, natural resource reserves have noticeably decreased. True, nature itself took care to provide man, the eternal dependent, with an almost inexhaustible resource base. But there is never too much nature, just like money. It is not known what all the inhabitants of the planet think about this, but their influence on nature is felt almost everywhere.

Air pollution

Atmospheric air is the most important life-supporting natural environment and is a mixture of gases and aerosols of the surface layer of the atmosphere, formed during the evolution of the Earth, human activity and located outside residential, industrial and other premises, which is why more attention is paid to this problem in this abstract. The results of environmental studies, both in Russia and abroad, clearly indicate that ground-level atmospheric pollution is the most powerful, constantly acting factor affecting humans, the food chain and the environment. Atmospheric air has unlimited capacity and plays the role of the most mobile, chemically aggressive and pervasive interaction agent near the surface of the components of the biosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. In recent years, data have been obtained on significant role to preserve the biosphere of the ozone layer of the atmosphere, which absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, which is harmful to living organisms, and forms a thermal barrier at altitudes of about 40 km, preventing the cooling of the earth's surface. The air in homes and work areas is of great importance due to the fact that people spend a significant part of their time here.

The atmosphere has an intense impact not only on humans and biota, but also on the hydrosphere, soil and vegetation cover, geological environment, buildings, structures and other man-made objects. Therefore, the protection of atmospheric air and the ozone layer is the highest priority environmental problem and is given close attention in all developed countries Oh. Polluted ground atmosphere causes lung, throat and skin cancer, central nervous system disorder nervous system, allergic and respiratory diseases, defects in newborns and many other diseases, the list of which is determined by the pollutants present in the air and their combined effect on the human body. The results of special studies carried out in Russia and abroad have shown that there is a close connection between the health of the population and the quality of atmospheric air.

The main agents of atmospheric influence on the hydrosphere are precipitation in the form of rain and snow, and to a lesser extent, smog and fog. Surface and underground waters of the land are mainly fed by the atmosphere and, as a result, their chemical composition depends mainly on the state of the atmosphere. According to ecological-geochemical mapping data of different scales, melt (snow) water of the Russian Plain, in comparison with surface and groundwater in many areas, is noticeably (several times) enriched in nitrite and ammonium ions, antimony, cadmium, mercury, molybdenum, pink, lead, tungsten, beryllium, chromium, nickel, manganese. This is especially clearly manifested in relation to groundwater. Siberian ecologists-geochemists have revealed the enrichment of snow waters with mercury compared to surface waters in the Katun River basin. Kurai-Sarasinskaya mercury-ore zone of the Altai Mountains. Calculation of the balance of the amount of heavy metals in the snow cover showed that most of them are dissolved in snow water, i.e. are in a migratory and mobile form, capable of quickly penetrating surface and underground waters, the food chain and the human body. In the conditions of the Moscow region, zinc, strontium, and nickel are almost completely dissolved in snow water.

Bad influence polluted atmosphere on the soil and vegetation cover is associated both with the loss of acidic precipitation, which washes out calcium, humus and microelements from the soil, and with a disruption of photosynthesis processes, leading to a slowdown in the growth of plant death. The high sensitivity of trees (especially birch and oak) to air pollution has been identified for a long time. The combined effect of their factors leads to a noticeable decrease in soil fertility and the disappearance of forests. Acid precipitation is now considered as a powerful factor not only in the weathering of rocks and the deterioration of the quality of load-bearing soils, but also in the chemical destruction of man-made objects, including cultural monuments and ground communication lines. Many economically developed countries are currently implementing programs to address the problem of acid precipitation. As part of the National Program for Assessing the Impact of Acid Precipitation, approved in 1980. Many US federal agencies have begun to fund research into atmospheric processes. Causing acid rain, in order to assess the impact of the latter on ecosystems and develop appropriate environmental measures. It turned out that acid rain has a multifaceted effect on the environment and is the result of self-purification of the atmosphere. The main acidic agents are dilute sulfuric and nitric acid, formed during oxidation reactions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides with the participation of hydrogen peroxide.

The processes and sources of pollution of the surface atmosphere are numerous and diverse. Based on their origin, they are divided into anthropogenic and natural. Among the anthropogenic processes, the most dangerous processes include the combustion of fuel and waste, nuclear reactions in the production of atomic energy, nuclear weapons testing, metallurgy and hot metal working, various chemical production, including oil and gas and coal processing. During fuel combustion processes, the most intense pollution of the surface layer of the atmosphere occurs in megacities and major cities, industrial centers due to the widespread use of motor vehicles, thermal power plants, boiler houses and other power plants operating on coal, fuel oil, diesel fuel, natural gas and gasoline. The contribution of motor transport to total air pollution here reaches 40-50%. A powerful and extremely dangerous factor in air pollution are disasters at nuclear power plants (Chernobyl accident) and testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere. This is due both to the rapid spread of radionuclides over long distances and to the long-term nature of contamination of the territory (see Appendix 2).

The high danger of chemical and biochemical production lies in the potential for emergency releases into the atmosphere of extremely toxic substances, as well as microbes and viruses that can cause epidemics among the population and animals. Currently, there are many tens of thousands of pollutants of anthropogenic origin in the surface atmosphere. Due to the continued growth of industrial and agricultural production, new chemical compounds are emerging, including highly toxic ones. The main natural process of pollution of the surface atmosphere is the volcanic and fluid activity of the Earth. Special studies have established that the entry of pollutants with deep fluids into the surface layer of the atmosphere occurs not only in areas of modern volcanic and gas thermal activity, but also in such stable geological structures as the Russian Platform. Major eruptions volcanoes lead to global and long-term atmospheric pollution, as evidenced by chronicles and modern observational data (the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991). This is due to the fact that huge amounts of gases are instantly released into the high layers of the atmosphere, which are picked up at high altitudes by air currents moving at high speeds and quickly spread throughout the globe. The duration of the polluted state of the atmosphere after large volcanic eruptions reaches several years.

The atmosphere is characterized by extremely high dynamism, due to both the rapid movement of air masses in the lateral and vertical directions, and high speeds and the variety of physical and chemical reactions occurring in it. The atmosphere is now viewed as a huge chemical cauldron, which is under the influence of numerous and variable anthropogenic and natural factors. Gases and aerosols emitted into the atmosphere are characterized by high reactivity. Dust and soot arising from fuel combustion and forest fires absorb heavy metals and radionuclides and, when deposited on the surface, can pollute large areas and enter the human body through the respiratory system. Aerodynamic barriers are large forests, as well as active deep faults of considerable length (Baikal Rift). The reason for this is that such faults control the physical fields and ion flows of the Earth and serve as a kind of barrier to the movement of air masses.

Assessing and, even more so, forecasting the state of the surface atmosphere is a very difficult problem. Currently, its condition is assessed mainly using a normative approach. The values of toxic chemicals and other standard indicators of air quality are given in many reference books and manuals. Such guidelines for Europe, in addition to the toxicity of pollutants (carcinogenic, mutagenic, allergenic and other effects), take into account their prevalence and ability to accumulate in the human body and the food chain. There are few stationary air monitoring posts and they do not allow us to adequately assess its condition in large industrial and urban centers. TO promising directions Assessment of the state of the surface atmosphere of large industrial and urban areas includes multichannel remote sensing. The advantage of this method is the ability to characterize large areas quickly, repeatedly, and in one key. Environmental practice in Russia and abroad has shown that its failures are associated with incomplete consideration of negative impacts, inability to select and evaluate the main factors and consequences, low efficiency of using the results of field and theoretical environmental studies in decision-making, and insufficient development of methods quantification consequences of pollution of the surface atmosphere and other life-supporting natural environments.

All developed countries have adopted laws on the protection of atmospheric air. They are periodically revised to take into account new air quality requirements and new data on the toxicity and behavior of pollutants in the air. The fourth version of the Clean Air Act is currently being discussed in the United States. The battle is between environmentalists and companies with no economic interest in improving air quality. Government Russian Federation A draft law on atmospheric air protection has been developed and is currently being discussed. Improving air quality in Russia is of great socio-economic importance. This is due to many reasons and, above all, the unfavorable state of the air basin of megacities, major cities and industrial centers, where the bulk of the skilled and working population lives.

Water pollution

Water is one of the most important life-supporting natural environments formed as a result of the evolution of the Earth. It is an integral part of the biosphere and has a number of anomalous properties that affect the physical, chemical and biological processes occurring in ecosystems. Such properties include very high and maximum heat capacity of liquids, heat of fusion and heat of evaporation, surface tension, solvent power and dielectric constant, transparency. In addition, water is characterized by an increased migration ability, which is important for its interaction with adjacent natural environments. The above properties of water determine the potential for the accumulation of very high quantities of a wide variety of pollutants, including pathogenic microorganisms. Due to the continuously increasing pollution of surface waters, groundwater is becoming practically the only source of household and drinking water supply for the population. Therefore, their protection from pollution and depletion and rational use are of strategic importance.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that groundwater suitable for drinking lies in the uppermost, most susceptible to pollution part of artesian basins and other hydrogeological structures, and rivers and lakes make up only 0.019% of the total water volume. Water good quality required not only for drinking and cultural needs, but also for many industries. The danger of groundwater pollution lies in the fact that the underground hydrosphere (especially artesian basins) is the ultimate reservoir for the accumulation of pollutants of both surface and deep origin. Pollution of drainless water bodies on land is long-term, and in many cases irreversible. Of particular danger is contamination of drinking water by microorganisms that are pathogenic and can cause outbreaks of various epidemic diseases among the population and animals. Practice has shown that the main cause of most epidemics was the consumption of oxen infected with viruses and microbes for drinking and other needs. Human exposure to water with high concentrations of heavy metals and radionuclides is shown in the sections devoted to these environmental pollutants.

The most important anthropogenic processes of water pollution are runoff from industrial, urban and agricultural areas, precipitation of products of anthropogenic activity. This process pollutes not only surface waters (endless reservoirs and inland seas, watercourses), but also the underground hydrosphere (artesian basins, hydrogeological massifs), the World Ocean (especially water areas and shelves). On continents, the greatest impact is on upper aquifers (ground and pressure), which are used for domestic and drinking water supply (see Appendix 3). Accidents of oil tankers and oil pipelines can be a significant factor in the sharp deterioration environmental situation on sea coasts and water areas, in inland water systems. There has been a tendency for these accidents to increase over the last decade. On the territory of the Russian Federation, the problem of pollution of surface and groundwater with nitrogen compounds is becoming increasingly urgent. Ecological and geochemical mapping of the central regions of European Russia has shown that the surface and ground waters of this territory are in many cases characterized by high concentrations of nitrates and nitrites. Regular observations indicate an increase in these concentrations over time.

A similar situation arises with the pollution of groundwater by organic substances. This is due to the fact that the underground hydrosphere is not capable of oxidizing the large mass of organic matter entering it. The consequence of this is that the contamination of hydrogeochemical systems gradually becomes irreversible.

Lithosphere pollution

As you know, land currently makes up 1/6 of the planet, the part of the planet where humans live. That is why the protection of the lithosphere is very important. Protection of soils from humans is one of the most important tasks humans, since any harmful compounds found in the soil sooner or later enter the human body. Firstly, there is a constant leaching of contaminants into open water bodies and groundwater, which can be used by humans for drinking and other needs. Secondly, these contaminants from soil moisture, groundwater and open water bodies enter the bodies of animals and plants that consume this water, and then again enter the human body through food chains. Thirdly, many compounds harmful to the human body have the ability to accumulate in tissues, and, above all, in bones. According to researchers, about 20-30 billion tons of solid waste enter the biosphere annually, of which 50-60% are organic compounds, and about 1 billion tons in the form of acidic gas or aerosol agents. And all this is less than 6 billion people! How do lithosphere pollutants get into the soil? Various soil pollution, most of which are anthropogenic, can be divided according to the source of these pollutants entering the soil.

Atmospheric precipitation: many chemical compounds (gases - oxides of sulfur and nitrogen) that enter the atmosphere as a result of the operation of the enterprise, then dissolve in droplets of atmospheric moisture and fall into the soil with precipitation. Dust and aerosols: Solid and liquid compounds in dry weather usually settle directly as dust and aerosols. With direct absorption of gaseous compounds by the soil. In dry weather, gases can be directly absorbed by the soil, especially wet soil. With plant litter: various harmful compounds, in any state of aggregation, are absorbed by leaves through stomata or deposited on the surface. Then, when the leaves fall, all these compounds enter the soil. Soil contaminants are difficult to classify; different sources give different divisions. If we generalize and highlight the main thing, then the following picture of soil pollution is observed: garbage, emissions, dumps, sludge; heavy metals; pesticides; mycotoxins; radioactive substances.

Other contaminants

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is extremely dangerous and has a diverse composition: food scraps, paper, scrap metal, rubber, glass, wood, fabric, synthetic and other substances. Food leftovers attract birds, rodents, and large animals, whose corpses are a source of bacteria and viruses. Atmospheric precipitation, solar radiation and heat release in connection with surface, underground fires, fires contribute to the occurrence of unpredictable physicochemical and biochemical processes at solid waste landfills, the products of which are numerous toxic chemical compounds in liquid, solid and gaseous states. The biogenic impact of solid waste is expressed in the fact that the waste is favorable for the reproduction of insects, birds, rodents, other mammals, and microorganisms. At the same time, birds and insects are carriers of pathogenic bacteria and viruses over long distances.

Wastewater is no less dangerous. Despite the construction of treatment facilities and other measures, reducing the negative impact of such wastewater on the environment is an important problem in all urbanized areas. A particular danger in this case is associated with bacterial contamination of the habitat and the possibility of outbreaks of various epidemic diseases. Hazardous waste from agricultural production - manure storage facilities, residues of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, pesticides left on the fields, as well as undeveloped cemeteries for animals that died during the epidemic. Although this waste is of a point nature, it is a large number of and high concentrations of toxic substances in them can have a noticeable negative impact on the environment. Due to the fact that the scale and intensity of the impact of solid and hazardous waste on the environment turned out to be more significant than previously thought, and its nature and influencing natural factors were poorly studied, the regulatory requirements of SNiP and a number of departmental instructions regarding the selection of sites, design of landfills and the designation of sanitary protection zones should be considered insufficiently justified. Nor can a situation be considered satisfactory when the sanitary protection zone of a landfill and the equipment used are chosen essentially arbitrarily, without taking into account the real processes of pollution and the response of the biosphere to the functioning of solid and hazardous waste landfills. A comprehensive and, if possible, exhaustive assessment of all parameters of the impact of waste on all life-supporting natural environments is necessary, allowing us to elucidate the ways and mechanisms of penetration of pollutants into the food chain and the human body.

Death and deforestation

One of the reasons for the death of forests in many regions of the world is acid rain, the main culprits of which are power plants. Emissions of sulfur dioxide and their transport over long distances lead to such rain falling far from the sources of emissions. In Austria, eastern Canada, the Netherlands and Sweden, more than 60% of the sulfur falling on their territory comes from external sources, and in Norway even 75%. Other examples of long-distance transport of acids include acid rain on such remote islands as Atlantic Ocean, like Bermuda, and acid snow in the Arctic.

Over the past 20 years (1970 - 1990), the world has lost almost 200 million hectares of forestland, which is equal to the area of the United States east of the Mississippi. A particularly great environmental threat is the depletion of tropical forests - the lungs of the planet and the main source of the planet's biological diversity. There, approximately 200 thousand square kilometers are cut down or burned annually, which means 100 thousand species of plants and animals disappear. This process occurs especially quickly in the richest tropical forests regions of the Amazon and Indonesia. British ecologist N. Meyers concluded that ten small areas in the tropics contained at least 27% of the total species composition of this class of plant formations, later this list was expanded to 15 tropical forest hotspots that should be preserved, which come what may. 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%. Current situation with forests is very different across continents. If in Europe and Asia the forested areas increased slightly between 1974 and 1989, then in Australia they decreased by 2.6% in one year. Even greater forest degradation is taking place in certain countries: in Cote D, Ivoire, forest areas decreased by 5% over the year .4%, in Thailand by 4.3%, in Paraguay by 3.4%.

Prospects for development and solutions to environmental problems

Talking about possible options development of the ecological situation on the planet, the most rewarding and, of course, the most meaningful conversation seems to be a conversation about some of the areas of environmental protection that exist today. Otherwise, we would have to talk exclusively about the horrors of depletion of natural resources, etc. Despite the fact that each of the global problems discussed here has its own options for partial or more complete solutions, there is a certain set of general approaches to solving environmental problems. In addition, for last century humanity has developed a number of original ways to combat its own nature-destroying shortcomings. Such methods (or possible ways to solve the problem) include the emergence and activities of various kinds of “green” movements and organizations. In addition to the notorious “Creep Race”, which is distinguished not only by the scope of its activities, but also, at times, by the noticeable extremism of its actions, as well as similar organizations that directly carry out environmental actions, there is another type of environmental organizations - structures that stimulate and sponsor environmental activities - the Foundation wildlife, for example, all environmental organizations exist in one of the forms: public, private state or mixed type organizations.

In addition to various types of associations that defend civilization’s rights to the nature it is gradually destroying, there are a number of state or public environmental initiatives in the sphere of solving environmental problems. For example, environmental legislation in Russia and other countries of the world, various international agreements or the “Red Books” system. The International “Red Book” is a list of rare and endangered species of animals and plants - currently includes 5 volumes of materials. In addition, there are national and even regional “Red Books”. Among the most important ways to solve environmental problems, most researchers also highlight the introduction of environmentally friendly, low- and non-waste technologies, the construction of treatment facilities, the rational location of production and the use of natural resources. Although, undoubtedly - and this is proven by the whole move human history- the most important direction for solving the environmental problems facing civilization is the improvement of human ecological culture, serious environmental education and upbringing, everything that eradicates the main environmental conflict - the conflict between the savage-consumer gel and the rational inhabitant of the fragile world that exists in the human mind.

Industrial waste processing

Today, on average, for each inhabitant of the planet, about 20 tons of raw materials are extracted per year, which, using 800 tons of water and 2.5 kW of energy, are processed into consumer products and approximately 90 - 98% go to waste (see Appendix 1). At the same time, the share of household waste per person does not exceed 0.3-0.6 tons per year. The rest is industrial waste. In terms of the scale of extracted and processed raw materials - 100 Gt/year, human economic activity has approached the activity of biota - 1000 Gt/year and has surpassed the volcanic activity of the planet - 10 Gt/year. At the same time, the wastefulness of the use of raw materials and energy in human economic activity exceeds all reasonable limits. And if in developed countries agricultural waste is recycled by 90%, car bodies by 98%, used oils by 90%. then a significant part of industrial and construction waste, waste from mining and metallurgical industries is almost completely not recycled. Humanity has succeeded in creating production tools and technologies for destroying its own kind and has practically not been involved in creating an industry for processing the waste of its activities. As a result, in addition to the annual increase in the volume of processed industrial waste, including toxic, there are also old burial sites (landfills) all over the world, the number of which in industrialized countries amounts to tens and hundreds of thousands, and the waste volumes reach hundreds of billions of tons. Thus, if we talk about environmental rehabilitation, meaning the systematic processing of waste (primarily especially hazardous), it will require costs of tens and hundreds of billions of dollars per year for decades.

Thus, the data shows the continuous growth of non-recyclable industrial waste, not to mention unaccounted for landfills, old burial sites, the inventory of which has not even begun and which contains about 86 billion tons of waste (1.6 billion tons of toxic). The State Committee for Ecology has prepared a draft Federal Law on Industrial and Consumption Waste, which was submitted by the Government of the Russian Federation to the State Duma for consideration and is expected to be adopted in 1997. The introduction of this law will put the work on handling production and consumption waste on a legal basis. Thus, in the world and in Russia, the bulk of waste, including hazardous waste, is accumulated, stored or buried. A number of countries use flooding in the sea (ocean) for disposal, which, in our opinion, should be completely prohibited by international agreements, regardless of the hazard class of the waste. This is in some way a moral problem; produced - process (store) on your territory, and do not use as a dump what belongs to everyone (seas, mountains, forests). Actually, no more than 20% of the total volume is currently processed.

Conclusion

In this work, I tried to consider the main environmental problems and came to the conclusion that the global environmental crisis has already gone so far that its catastrophic consequences are almost inevitable, and we can only talk about mitigating them. Mitigation can only be achieved if there is a “critical mass” of highly educated people in the world who clearly understand the essence of the problem and are able to influence public opinion. However, observations show that most people, even in academic circles, do not realize that humanity is facing an environmental disaster. As a rule, people brush it off: in the process of human development, serious problems allegedly arose repeatedly, but when the time came, they were successfully solved.

Bibliography

1. Lavrov S.B., Global problems of our time: parts 1, part 2. – St. Petersburg, 1993.

2. Voznyak V.Ya., Faitelman N.G., Arbatov A.A. et al., Ecological improvement of the economy., M., Nauka, 1994.

3. Danilov-Danilyan V.I., Ecology, nature conservation and environmental safety. MNEPU, 1997

4. Korableva A.I. Assessment of pollution of aquatic ecosystems with heavy metals / Water resources. 1991.

The impact of human society on nature has increased dramatically. Thus, over the past 30 years, as many natural resources have been used in the world as in the entire previous history of mankind. In this regard, there is a threat of depletion and even exhaustion of certain types of resources. This primarily applies to minerals, water and other types of resources.

At the same time, the scale of waste returning to nature has increased, which has caused the threat of environmental pollution. According to scientists, today there are (relatively) 200 kg for every inhabitant of the planet. waste. Today, anthropogenic landscapes already occupy 60% of the earth's land.

Society does not just use natural resources, but transforms the natural environment. The interaction between man and nature becomes a special area of activity called “environment management”.

Environmental management is a set of measures taken by society to study, develop, transform and protect the environment.

It could be:

rational, in which the interaction between society and nature develops harmoniously, a system of measures has been created aimed at reducing and preventing the negative consequences of human intervention in nature.
irrational - a person’s attitude towards nature is consumerist, the balance in the relationship between society and nature is disturbed, the requirements for environmental protection are not taken into account, which leads to its degradation.

Pollution is growing, with up to 100 million tons of waste, and the ocean is especially affected by oil pollution. According to some estimates, from 4 to 16 million tons enter the ocean annually.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION– the introduction of new, uncharacteristic physical, chemical and biological agents or exceeding their natural level.

Any chemical contamination is the appearance chemical substance in a place not intended for him. Pollution arising from human activity is the main factor in its harmful impact on the natural environment.

Chemical pollutants can cause acute poisoning, chronic diseases, and also have carcinogenic and mutagenic effects. For example, heavy metals can accumulate in plant and animal tissues, causing toxic effects. In addition to heavy metals, particularly dangerous pollutants are chlorodioxins, which are formed from chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons used in the production of herbicides. Sources of environmental pollution with dioxins are by-products of the pulp and paper industry, waste from the metallurgical industry, and exhaust gases from internal combustion engines. These substances are very toxic to humans and animals even at low concentrations and cause damage to the liver, kidneys, and immune system.

Along with environmental pollution by new synthetic substances, great damage to nature and human health can be caused by interference in natural cycles of substances due to active production and agricultural activities, as well as the generation of household waste.

At first, human activity affected only the living matter of land and soil. In the 19th century, when industry began to rapidly develop, significant masses of chemical elements extracted from the bowels of the earth began to be involved in the sphere of industrial production. At the same time, not only the outer part began to be exposed earth's crust, but also natural waters and atmosphere.

In the middle of the 20th century. some elements began to be used in quantities that are comparable to the masses involved in natural cycles. The low efficiency of most modern industrial technology has led to the formation of a huge amount of waste, which is not recycled in related industries, but is released into the environment. The masses of polluting waste are so large that they pose a danger to living organisms, including humans.

Although the chemical industry is not the main source of pollution (Fig. 1), it is characterized by emissions that are most dangerous for the natural environment, humans, animals and plants (Fig. 2). The term “hazardous waste” applies to any kind of waste that may cause harm to health or the environment when stored, transported, processed or discharged. These include toxic substances, flammable wastes, corrosive wastes and other reactive substances.

Depending on the characteristics of mass transfer cycles, the polluting component can spread over the entire surface of the planet, over a more or less significant area, or have a local character. Thus, environmental crises, resulting from environmental pollution, can be of three types - global, regional and local

One of the global problems is the increase in carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere as a result of man-made emissions. The most dangerous consequence of this phenomenon may be an increase in air temperature due to the “greenhouse effect.” The problem of disrupting the global carbon mass exchange cycle is already moving from the environmental sphere to the economic, social and, ultimately, political spheres.

In December 1997 in Kyoto (Japan) it was adopted Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(dated May 1992) (). The main thing in Protocol– quantitative obligations of developed countries and countries with economies in transition, including Russia, to limit and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, primarily CO 2, into the atmosphere in 2008–2012. Russia's permitted level of greenhouse gas emissions for these years is 100% of the 1990 level. For EU countries as a whole it is 92%, for Japan - 94%. The US was supposed to have 93%, but this country refused to participate in the Protocol, since reducing carbon dioxide emissions means lower levels of electricity generation and, therefore, stagnation of industry. October 23, 2004 The State Duma Russia has decided to ratify Kyoto Protocol.

Regional-scale pollution includes many industrial and transport wastes. First of all, this concerns sulfur dioxide. It causes the formation of acid rain, which affects plants and animals and causes diseases in the population. Technogenic sulfur oxides are distributed unevenly and cause damage to certain areas. Due to the transfer of air masses, they often cross state borders and end up in territories remote from industrial centers.

In large cities and industrial centers, the air, along with carbon and sulfur oxides, is often polluted by nitrogen oxides and particulate matter emitted by automobile engines and smokestacks. Smog formation is often observed. Although these pollutions are local in nature, they affect many people living compactly in such areas. In addition, damage to the environment is caused.

One of the main environmental pollutants is agricultural production. Significant masses of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus are artificially introduced into the circulation system of chemical elements in the form of mineral fertilizers. Their excess, not absorbed by plants, is actively involved in water migration. The accumulation of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds in natural bodies of water causes increased growth of aquatic vegetation, overgrowing of water bodies and pollution of them with dead plant debris and decomposition products. Moreover, it is anomalous high content soluble nitrogen compounds in the soil entails an increase in the concentration of this element in agricultural food products and drinking water. It can cause serious illness in people.

As an example showing changes in the structure of the biological cycle as a result of human activity, we can consider data for the forest zone of the European part of Russia (table). In prehistoric times, this entire area was covered with forests; now their area has decreased by almost half. Their place was taken by fields, meadows, pastures, as well as cities, towns, and highways. The decrease in the total mass of some elements due to the general decrease in the mass of green plants is compensated by the application of fertilizers, which involves significantly more nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in biological migration than natural vegetation. Deforestation and soil plowing contribute to increased water migration. Thus, the content of compounds of certain elements (nitrogen, potassium, calcium) in natural waters increases significantly.

Table: MIGRATION OF ELEMENTS IN THE FOREST ZONE OF THE EUROPEAN PART OF RUSSIA

Table 3. MIGRATION OF ELEMENTS IN THE FOREST ZONE OF THE EUROPEAN PART OF RUSSIA(million tons per year) in the prehistoric period (on a gray background) and currently (on a white background)
	Nitrogen		Phosphorus		Potassium		Calcium		Sulfur
Precipitation	0,9	0,9	0,03	0,03	1,1	1,1	1,5	1,5	2,6	2,6
Biological cycle	21,1	20,6	2,9	2,4	5,5	9,9	9,2	8,1	1,5	1,5
Receipts from fertilizers	0	0,6	0	0,18	0	0,45	0	12,0	0	0,3
Harvest removal, forest cutting		11,3	0	1,1	0	4,5	0	5,3	0	0,6
Water runoff	0,8	1,21	0,17	0,17	2,0	6,1	7,3	16,6	5,4	4,6

Organic waste is also a water pollutant. Their oxidation requires additional oxygen. If the oxygen content is too low, life is normal for most aquatic organisms becomes impossible. Aerobic bacteria that require oxygen also die; instead, bacteria develop that use sulfur compounds for their vital functions. A sign of the appearance of such bacteria is the smell of hydrogen sulfide, one of their metabolic products.

Among the many consequences of the economic activities of human society, the process of progressive accumulation of metals in the environment is of particular importance. The most dangerous pollutants include mercury, pigs and cadmium. Technogenic inputs of manganese, tin, copper, molybdenum, chromium, nickel and cobalt also have a significant impact on living organisms and their communities (Fig. 3).

Natural waters can be contaminated with pesticides and dioxins, as well as oil. Oil decomposition products are toxic, and the oil film, which isolates water from air, leads to the death of living organisms (primarily plankton) in the water.

In addition to the accumulation of toxic and harmful substances in the soil as a result of human activity, land damage is caused by the burial and dumping of industrial and household waste.

The main measures to combat air pollution are: strict control of emissions of harmful substances. It is necessary to replace toxic starting products with non-toxic ones, switch to closed cycles, and improve gas purification and dust collection methods. Of great importance is the optimization of the location of enterprises to reduce transport emissions, as well as the competent application of economic sanctions.

International cooperation is beginning to play a major role in protecting the environment from chemical pollution. In the 1970s, in the ozone layer, which protects our planet from dangerous ultraviolet radiation Sun, a decrease in O 3 concentration was detected. In 1974 it was established that ozone is destroyed by atomic chlorine. One of the main sources of chlorine entering the atmosphere are chlorofluorocarbon derivatives (freons, freons) used in aerosol cans, refrigerators and air conditioners. The destruction of the ozone layer occurs, perhaps, not only under the influence of these substances. However, measures have been taken to reduce their production and use. In 1985, many countries agreed to protect the ozone layer. Exchange of information and joint research on changes in atmospheric ozone concentrations continue.

Taking measures to prevent the entry of pollutants into water bodies includes the establishment of coastal protective strips and water protection zones, the abandonment of toxic chlorine-containing pesticides, and the reduction of discharges from industrial enterprises through the use of closed cycles. Reducing the risk of oil pollution is possible by increasing the reliability of tankers.

To prevent contamination of the Earth's surface, preventive measures are needed - to prevent contamination of the soil with industrial and domestic wastewater, solid household and industrial waste, sanitary cleaning of the soil and the territory of populated areas where such violations have been identified is necessary.

The best solution to the problem of environmental pollution would be waste-free production that does not have wastewater, gas emissions and solid waste. However, waste-free production today and in the foreseeable future is fundamentally impossible; to implement it, it is necessary to create a unified cyclic system of flows of matter and energy for the entire planet. If the loss of matter, at least theoretically, can still be prevented, then environmental problems in the energy sector will still remain. Thermal pollution cannot be avoided in principle, and so-called clean energy sources, such as wind farms, still cause damage to the environment.

So far, the only way to significantly reduce environmental pollution is low-waste technologies. Currently, low-waste industries are being created in which emissions of harmful substances do not exceed maximum permissible concentrations (MPC), and waste does not lead to irreversible changes in nature. Complex processing of raw materials, combination of several industries, and use of solid waste for the production of building materials are used.

New technologies and materials are being created that are environmentally friendly pure species fuels, new energy sources that reduce environmental pollution.

Elena Savinkina

Environmental pollution is the pollution of air, water and soil through the production of millions of tons of waste by people and farm animals.
30 terrifying facts about modern environmental pollution.

Pollution is one of the biggest killers, affecting the lives of more than 100 million people around the world.
More than 1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water.
5,000 people die every day due to poisoning from contaminated water.
More than 1 million seabirds and 100 million mammals die every year due to environmental problems.
Approximately 46% of lakes in America are extremely polluted and dangerous for swimming, fishing and life in the water.

In a major disaster caused by high levels of thick smog that occurred in London in 1952, approximately four thousand people died within a few days due to high concentrations of pollution.
The US produces 30% of the world's waste, 25% of which ends up in natural resources.
Every year, 1.5 million tons of nitrogen pollution flows from the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico.
Each year, approximately one trillion gallons of untreated sewage and industrial waste are discharged into the waters.
Pollution of the natural environment due to children is only 10%, but almost 40% are prone to all the diseases in the world.

More than 3 million children under 5 years of age die every year due to environmental factors.
China is the world's largest producer of carbon dioxide.
Almost 80% of urban waste in India is dumped into the Ganges River.
Environmentalists most neglect the noise type of pollution.
The amount of money invested in nuclear testing is enough to finance 8,000 hand pumps for villages without access to clean water.

Ocean acidification is the worst type of pollution. The oceans are becoming increasingly acidic, creating a greenhouse effect from fossil fuels.
Livestock waste contributes to severe soil pollution. During the monsoon, water flows through fields, carrying dangerous bacteria from livestock waste into underwater rivers and streams. Then they collect this same water from their wells.
People in Beijing are suffocating, air pollution exceeds the norm by 40 times.
Fish die in lakes abnormally filled with algae.
More than a hundred types of pesticides in the air, water or soil in any area can cause birth defects, gene mutations or cancer.

There are more than 500 million cars in the world. By 2030, their number will increase to 1 billion - this means that the level of environmental pollution in cities will double.
Large oil spills like those in the Gulf of Mexico are the worst kind of pollution due to oil spills into water bodies that spread everywhere.
People using household chemicals produce 10 times more toxic substances per 4,000 square meters than the amount released by farmers.
88% of children in China suffer from various respiratory diseases, especially those living in areas with huge levels of plastic waste.
Antarctica is the cleanest place on Earth and is protected by anti-pollution laws to ensure that the area is not affected by environmental problems.

Americans buy more than 29 million bottles of water every year. Only 13% of these bottles are recycled each year.
The deadly 2011 tsunami in Japan created debris over a 112-kilometer radius that consisted of cars, plastic, corpses and radioactive waste.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which develops due to indoor air pollution, is responsible for the deaths of more than 1 million people per year.
Public transport and the use of modern, environmentally friendly cars can help you reduce air pollution and save money.
In Mexico alone, 6,400 people die every year due to air pollution.

Ecology is affected by every creature on the planet. People need to understand that they do not have to do something global to stop environmental pollution. For example, try to use public transport more often, rather than a car, which is not needed everywhere to get somewhere. In addition, pollution of the natural environment causes hundreds of diseases in adults and especially children. If air pollution levels do not decrease, our future will consist of smog, resulting in high mortality due to suffocation. The living world will slowly and painfully die. People need to unite, become one and solve problems related to environmental pollution. So that in the future one can live in a peaceful and clean environment.

In the process of its development, humanity is constantly faced with environmental pollution.

Despite the fact that the improvement of technology improves the quality of our lives, such rapid progress inevitably leads to noise, light, biological and even radioactive pollution.

As a result, with increasing living comfort, a person worsens the quality of his own health. This is why environmental protection is so important.

Physical pollution of the environment

This concept is quite voluminous and therefore it is divided into several subspecies, each of which characterizes a particular physical phenomenon.

Any pollution of the natural environment in which humans participate is called anthropogenic.

Anthropogenic impact suppresses nature's ability to renew itself.

Thermal

It occurs for various reasons, and the source of this type of pollution can be:

underground construction;
laying communications;
activity of some types of microorganisms.

These factors can significantly increase the temperature of the soil, which releases heat into the environment; as a result, the temperature of the environment also changes. In addition, any petrochemical enterprise where production waste is constantly burned can be a serious source of thermal pollution.

As a result of thermal pollution in large industrial cities, the average temperature changes, and this affects water bodies. Due to thermal pollution in water bodies, some species of flora and fauna disappear and others appear in their place, fish spawning conditions are disrupted, and the amount of oxygen in the water decreases. An example would be .

Light

At first glance, this type of pollution seems completely harmless, since, in fact, light pollution is a violation of the natural light of the environment.

However, experts say the opposite, and as a result of light pollution, water bodies suffer the most.

The turbidity of the water changes in them, and artificial light blocks the possibility of access to the depth of natural light. As a result, the conditions for photosynthesis of plants in water bodies change.

There are four main sources of light pollution:

illumination of the night sky in cities;
deliberately pointing light in the wrong direction;
lighting directed to the sky;
a cluster of bright, unsystematic redundant illuminations.

Noise

The main components of noise pollution are excessively loud noises and sounds that have an extremely harmful effect on the human body, therefore noise pollution is considered one of the most dangerous for humanity. Excessively loud sounds, which include sounds with a noise level above 130 decibels, can lead to consequences such as:

diseases of the hearing aid;
nervous disorders (including shock reactions);
mental disorders;
visual impairment and disturbances in the functioning of the vestibular apparatus (this is especially true for people who work in noisy industries).

In recent years, noise pollution has become quite a serious problem, and doctors have even coined a new term - noise disease. This disease is accompanied by disruption of the nervous system under the influence of too loud sounds.

Vibration

As is known, very strong vibrations negatively affect surrounding buildings and structures: such vibrations and vibrations can cause uneven settlement of foundations and entire buildings, which can subsequently lead to their deformation, as well as partial or complete destruction.

Such vibrations and oscillations of different frequencies are called vibration pollution of the environment, but it is dangerous not only due to its impact on buildings and structures, but also due to its negative impact on the human body. At the same time, vibration pollution not only causes irritation and interferes with rest or work, but can also have a serious impact on health.

Particularly susceptible to vibration pollution are areas where the following objects are located:

compressor and pumping stations;
vibration platforms;
turbines of diesel power plants;
cooling towers (devices for cooling large volumes of water).

Electromagnetic

Electromagnetic pollution arises as a result of the operation of power devices, electronics and radio equipment, while ordinary household electrical appliances have nothing to do with this.

We are talking about radar stations, electric vehicles, high-voltage power lines and television stations.

These objects create electromagnetic fields that cause field strength, and in the area of increased field strength, a person may experience problems such as irritation, fatigue, insomnia, persistent headaches and nervous system disorders.

Ionizing

Ionizing radiation is divided into three types:

Gamma radiation.
Beta radiation.
Alpha radiation.

All three species pose a huge danger to living organisms. Under the influence of such radiation, changes occur in the body at the molecular level. Depending on the strength of the radiation, irreversible changes occur in the cell nuclei, disrupting the normal functioning of the cells.

Literally half a century ago, ionizing radiation was not considered particularly dangerous; only deposits were considered serious sources uranium ores, radioactive shales and crystalline rocks, the sun was and remains a serious source of ionizing radiation.

Currently, there are a large number of sources of ionizing radiation created by man: these are nuclear reactors, particle accelerators, artificial radionuclides.

This type of pollution is also called

Mechanical

One of the most insidious types of environmental pollution is mechanical pollution. It would seem that there is nothing irreversible or dangerous about it: the release of dust into the atmosphere, siltation of water bodies with soil, and waste dumps. In fact, the danger is not so much the phenomenon of mechanical pollution itself, but its scale. It is precisely because of this enormous scale that in recent years various environmental problems have increasingly arisen, the elimination of which sometimes requires huge financial costs.

Biological

Experts divide this type of pollution into bacterial and organic.

In the first case, pathogenic microorganisms are to blame, which contribute to the spread of many diseases, but sources of organic environmental pollution can be pollution of water bodies, waste discharges, and neglect of sewerage cleaning measures.

Bacterial contamination is the most dangerous for humans, since it produces many pathogens of serious infectious diseases.

Geological

Geological pollution is mainly caused by the actions of man himself: as a result of some types of activities, landslides or landslides, flooding, subsidence of the earth's surface, and drainage of territories can form. The main reasons why this happens:

mining;
construction;
vibration impact of transport;
impact of waste and sewage water on the soil.

Chemical

This is another serious type of pollution that occurs due to the release of various pollutants, and these pollutants can range from heavy metals to synthetic and organic compounds.

main sources chemical pollution – industrial enterprises and various production, transport, Agriculture.

Pollution fee

In accordance with the Federal Law “On Environmental Protection”, enterprises, institutions, and foreign citizens are charged an environmental fee. If the fee is not paid, a fine is imposed, which can reach up to 100,000 rubles. This is stated in the law. Control over the payment of environmental fees is carried out by Rosprirodnadzor.

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I would like to add and clarify about ionizing radiation. The most dangerous is certainly gamma radiation. These rays have enormous destructive power and penetrating ability. A person can only protect himself from them in a deep bunker with ten-meter-thick concrete walls. The source of such radiation is most often a nuclear reactor. For comparison, it is fashionable to protect yourself from beta rays with a thin sheet of metal or a piece of thick clothing, while an ordinary thin sheet of paper will save you from alpha radiation!