As a result of a long evolution, the biosphere has developed the ability to self-regulate and neutralize negative processes through a complex mechanism of the circulation of substances.
With the emergence, improvement and spread of hunting, agricultural culture, the industrial revolution, the planetary ecosystem, adapted to the effects of natural factors, began to experience the influence of new human-induced influences - anthropogenic.
Anthropogenic impacts -- activities related to the implementation of economic, military, cultural and other human interests, changing the natural environment. The vast majority of anthropogenic impacts is purposeful. There are also spontaneous, involuntary effects that have the nature of consequences.
Features of the consequences of human impact on the natural environment:
in time, that is, the results are manifested not only in the present, but also in the future, during the life of subsequent generations;
in space, i.e., the impact in a certain place exerts its influence on other regions, remote from the point of impact.
The whole set of anthropogenic impacts can be subdivided according to several criteria (by material and energy nature, by categories of objects, by spatial scales).
Anthropogenic impacts on the ecosphere and human habitat by T. A. Akimova and V. V. Khaskin are divided into the following categories:
The general nature of the processes of anthropogenic impact, predetermined by the forms of human activity:
- a) changes in landscapes and the integrity of natural complexes;
- b) withdrawal of natural resources;
- c) pollution environment.
Material and energy nature of impacts: mechanical, physical (thermal, electromagnetic, radiation, radioactive, acoustic), physico-chemical, chemical, biological, factors and agents, their various combinations.
Categories of objects of impact: natural landscape complexes, earth's surface, soil, subsoil, vegetation, wildlife, atmospheric water objects, microenvironment and microclimate of habitation, people and other recipients.
Quantitative characteristics of the impact: spatial scales (global, regional, local), singularity and multiplicity, the strength of impacts and the degree of their danger (intensity of factors and effects, characteristics of the "dose-effect" type, threshold, acceptability according to regulatory environmental and sanitary and hygienic criteria , degree of risk, etc.).
Time parameters and differences in impacts by the nature of the upcoming changes: short-term and long-term, persistent and unstable, direct and indirect, with pronounced or hidden trace effects, causing chain reactions, reversible and irreversible, etc.
Impact - the direct impact of human economic activity on the environment. All types of impact can be grouped into 4 types: intentional, unintentional, direct and indirect (indirect).
Intentional impact occurs in the process of material production in order to meet certain needs of society. These include: mining, construction of hydraulic structures (reservoirs, irrigation canals, hydroelectric power stations), deforestation to expand agricultural areas and to obtain timber, etc.
Unintended impact occurs side by side with the first type of impact, in particular, open pit mining leads to a decrease in the level of groundwater, to pollution of the air basin, to the formation of man-made landforms (quarries, heaps, tailings). The construction of hydroelectric power plants is associated with the formation of artificial reservoirs that affect the environment: they cause an increase in the level of groundwater, change the hydrological regime of rivers, etc. When energy is received from traditional sources (coal, oil, gas), the atmosphere, surface watercourses, groundwater etc.
Both intentional and unintended impacts can be direct or indirect.
Direct impacts take place in the case of a direct impact of human economic activity on the environment, in particular, irrigation (irrigation) directly affects the soil and changes all the processes associated with it.
Indirect impacts occur indirectly - through chains of interrelated influences. Thus, intentional indirect impacts are the use of fertilizers and a direct impact on crop yields, while unintended ones are the impact of aerosols on the amount of solar radiation (especially in cities), etc.
The impact of mining on the environment is manifested in a variety of ways in direct and indirect impact on natural landscapes. The greatest violations of the earth's surface occur during open method development of minerals, which accounts for more than 75% of mining production in our country.
Currently, the total area of land disturbed during the extraction of minerals (coal, iron and manganese ores, non-metallic raw materials, peat, etc.), as well as occupied by mining waste, has exceeded 2 million hectares, of which 65% is in the European part of the country . In Kuzbass alone, more than 30 thousand hectares of land are now occupied by coal pits, in the area of the Kursk magnetic anomaly (KMA) - no more than 25 thousand hectares of fertile land.
Indirect impacts are manifested in changes in the groundwater regime, pollution of the air basin, surface watercourses and groundwater, and also contribute to flooding and waterlogging, which ultimately leads to an increase in the incidence of the local population. Among the pollutants air environment primarily dust and gas content is released. It has been calculated that about 200,000 tons of dust are produced annually from underground mine workings; coal mining in the amount of 2 billion tons per year from about 4,000 mines in various countries of the world is accompanied by the release of 27 billion m3 of methane and 17 billion m3 of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In our country, during the development of coal deposits by the underground method, significant amounts of methane and CO2 are also recorded, entering the air basin: annually in the Donbass (364 mines) and Kuzbass (78 mines) 3870 and 680 million m3 of methane and 1200 and 970 million m3.
Mining negatively affects surface watercourses and groundwater, which are heavily polluted with mechanical impurities and mineral salts. Every year, about 2.5 billion m3 of polluted mine water is pumped to the surface from coal mines. During open-pit mining, high-quality fresh water resources are depleted in the first place. In the quarries of the Kursk magnetic anomaly, infiltration from tailings impedes a decrease in the level of the upper aquifer of the horizon by 50 m, which leads to a rise in the groundwater level and swamping of the adjacent territory.
Negatively affects mining and to the bowels of the Earth, as waste is buried in them industrial production, radioactive waste (in the USA - 246 underground disposal sites), etc. In Sweden, Norway, England, Finland, storage facilities for oil and gas, drinking water, underground refrigerators, etc. are arranged in mine workings.
Impact on the hydrosphere - man began to have a significant impact on the hydrosphere and the water balance of the planet. Anthropogenic transformations of the waters of the continents have already reached global proportions, violating the natural regime of even the largest lakes and rivers of the globe. This was facilitated by: the construction of hydraulic structures (reservoirs, irrigation canals and water transfer systems), an increase in the area of irrigated land, watering of arid territories, urbanization, pollution of fresh water by industrial and municipal wastewater. At present, there are about 30,000 reservoirs in the world, which are under construction, with a volume of water exceeding 6,000 km3.
Impact on wildlife - animals together with plants play an exceptional role in migration chemical elements, which underlies the relationships existing in nature; they are also important for human existence as a source of food and various resources. However, human economic activity has greatly influenced the animal world of the planet. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, since 1600, 94 species of birds and 63 species of mammals have become extinct on Earth. Animals such as the tarpan, aurochs, marsupial wolf, European ibis, and others have disappeared. The fauna of the oceanic islands has especially suffered. As a result of anthropogenic impact on the continents, the number of endangered and rare species of animals (bison, vicuña, condor, etc.) has increased. In Asia, the number of such animals as the rhinoceros, tiger, cheetah, and others has declined threateningly.
In Russia, by the beginning of this century, certain animal species (bison, river beaver, sable, muskrat, kulan) became rare, therefore, reserves were organized for their protection and reproduction. This made it possible to restore the bison population, to increase the number of the Amur tiger and polar bear.
Impact on the earth's crust - man began to interfere in the life of the earth's crust, being a powerful relief-forming factor. Man-made landforms arose on the earth's surface: ramparts, excavations, mounds, quarries, pits, embankments, waste heaps, etc. Cases of bowing of the earth's crust under large cities and reservoirs were noted, the latter in mountainous areas led to an increase in natural seismicity. Examples of such artificial earthquakes, which were caused by the filling of basins of large reservoirs with water, are found in California, the USA, and on the Hindustan Peninsula. This type of earthquake has been well studied in Tajikistan on the example of the Nuker reservoir. Sometimes earthquakes can be caused by pumping out or pumping waste water with harmful impurities deep underground, as well as intensive oil and gas production at large fields (USA, California, Mexico).
Mining has the greatest impact on the earth's surface and subsoil, especially with open pit mining. As noted above, with this method, significant areas of land are withdrawn, the environment is polluted with various toxicants (especially heavy metals). Local subsidences of the earth's crust in areas of coal mining are known in the Silesian region of Poland, in Great Britain, in the USA, Japan, and others. Man geochemically changes the composition of the earth's crust, extracting lead, chromium, manganese, copper, cadmium, molybdenum, and others in large quantities.
Anthropogenic changes in the earth's surface are also associated with the construction of large hydraulic structures. By 1988, more than 360 dams (150–300 m high) had been built all over the world, of which 37 were built in our country. Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station marked cracks up to 20 m long). Most of the Perm region annually settles by 7 mm, since the bowl of the Kama reservoir presses against the earth's crust with great force. The maximum values and rates of subsidence of the earth's surface, caused by the filling of reservoirs, are much less than during oil and gas production, large pumping of groundwater.
For comparison, we point out that the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka, due to the pumping of groundwater and the compaction of loose rocks, last years dropped by 4 m (with an annual precipitation rate of up to 50 cm). Thus, only detailed studies of the relationship between natural and anthropogenic relief-forming processes will help to eliminate the undesirable consequences of the impact of human economic activity on the earth's surface.
Impact on climate - in some regions of the globe in recent years, these impacts have become critical and dangerous for the biosphere and for the existence of man himself. Every year, as a result of human economic activity all over the world, the entry of pollutants into the atmosphere amounted to: sulfur dioxide - 190 million tons, nitrogen oxides - 65 million tons, carbon oxides - 25.5 million tons, etc. In addition, more than 700 million tons of dusty and gaseous compounds are emitted during the combustion of fuel annually. All this leads to an increase in the concentration of anthropogenic pollutants in the atmospheric air: carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, ozone, freons, etc. They have a significant impact on the global climate, causing negative consequences: " the greenhouse effect", depletion of the "ozone layer", acid rain, photochemical smog, etc.
The increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere led to global warming: the average air temperature increased by 0.5-0.60 C (compared to the pre-industrial period), and by the beginning of 2000 this increase will be 1.20 C and by 2025 can reach 2.2-2.50 C. For the Earth's biosphere, such climate change can have both negative and positive environmental consequences.
The former include: the rise in the level of the World Ocean (the current rate of rise of water is approximately 25 cm per 100 years) and its negative consequences; disturbances in the stability of "permafrost" (increased thawing of soils, activation of thermokarst), etc.
Positive factors include: an increase in the intensity of photosynthesis, which can have a beneficial effect on the yield of many crops, and in some regions - on forestry. In addition, such climate changes may affect the river flow of large rivers, and hence the water management in the regions.
A paleogeographical approach (taking into account the climates of the past) to this problem will help predict changes not only in climates, but also in other components of the biosphere in the future.
Impact on marine ecosystems - it is manifested in the annual intake of a huge amount of pollutants (oil and oil products, synthetic surfactants, sulfates, chlorides, heavy metals, radionuclides, etc.) in the water area of reservoirs. All this ultimately causes the degradation of marine ecosystems: eutrophication, a decrease in species diversity, the replacement of entire classes of bottom fauna with pollution-resistant ones, mutagenicity of bottom sediments, etc. The results of the ecological monitor of the Russian seas made it possible to rank the latter in terms of the degree of ecosystem degradation ): Azov - Black - Caspian - Baltic - Japanese - Barents - Okhotsk - White - Laptev - Kara - East Siberian - Bering - Chukchi Seas. Obviously, the negative consequences of anthropogenic impact on marine ecosystems are most pronounced in the southern seas of Russia.
According to N. Reimers, pollution is the introduction into the environment or the emergence in it of new physical, chemical, informational or biological agents that are usually not characteristic of it, or the excess at the considered time of the natural average long-term level (within its extreme fluctuations) of the concentrations of the listed agents in environment, often leading to negative consequences. The object of pollution is always biogeocenosis (ecosystem).
Sources of anthropogenic pollution, the most dangerous for populations of any organisms, are industrial enterprises, thermal power engineering, transport, and agricultural production. Natural pollution can be dust storms, mudflows, forest fires, volcanic ash.
According to the objects of pollution, there are:
pollution of surface and ground waters;
pollution atmospheric air;
soil pollution.
The nature of pollution is:
chemical;
physical;
biological;
informational.
IMPACT OF ANTHROPOGENIC FACTORS ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Anthropogenic factors, i.e. the results of human activities that lead to a change in the environment can be considered at the level of the region, country or global level.
Anthropogenic pollution of the atmosphere leads to global change.
Atmospheric pollution comes in the form of aerosols and gaseous substances.
The greatest danger is represented by gaseous substances, which account for about 80% of all emissions. First of all, these are compounds of sulfur, carbon, nitrogen. Carbon dioxide itself is not poisonous, but its accumulation is associated with the danger of such a global process as the "greenhouse effect".
We see the consequences of global warming.
Acid rain is associated with the release of sulfur and nitrogen compounds into the atmosphere. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the air combine with water vapor, then, together with rain, fall to the ground in the form of dilute sulfuric and nitric acids. Such precipitation sharply violates the acidity of the soil, contributes to the death of plants and the drying up of forests, especially coniferous ones. Once in rivers and lakes, they have a depressing effect on flora and fauna, often leading to the complete destruction of biological life - from fish to microorganisms. The distance between the place of formation of acid precipitation and the place of their fall can be thousands of kilometers.
These global negative impacts are exacerbated by desertification and deforestation processes. The main factor of desertification is human activity. Among the anthropogenic causes are overgrazing, deforestation, excessive and improper land exploitation. Scientists have calculated that the total area of man-made deserts exceeded the area of natural ones. That is why desertification is classified as a global process.
Now consider examples of anthropogenic impact at the level of our country. Russia occupies one of the first places in the world in terms of fresh water reserves.
And considering that the total fresh water resources make up only 2-2.5% of the total volume of the Earth's hydrosphere, it becomes clear how rich we are. The main danger to these resources is the pollution of the hydrosphere. The main reserves of fresh water are concentrated in lakes, the area of which in our country is larger than the territory of Great Britain. In one only
Baikal contains approximately 20% of the world's fresh water reserves.
There are three types of water pollution: physical (primarily thermal), chemical and biological. Chemical pollution results from the ingress of various chemicals and compounds. Biological contaminants primarily include microorganisms. They enter the aquatic environment along with effluents from the chemical and pulp and paper industries. Baikal, the Volga, and many large and small rivers of Russia suffered from such pollution. Poisoning of rivers and seas with waste from industry and agriculture leads to another problem - a decrease in the supply of oxygen to sea water and, as a result, poisoning of sea water with hydrogen sulfide. An example is the Black Sea. In the Black Sea, there is an established regime of exchange between the surface and deep waters, which prevents the penetration of oxygen into the depths. As a result, hydrogen sulfide accumulates at depth. Recently, the situation in the Black Sea has deteriorated sharply, and not only because of the gradual imbalance between hydrogen sulfide and oxygen waters, there is a violation of the hydrological regime after the construction of dams on the rivers flowing into the Black Sea, but also because of the pollution of coastal waters by industrial waste and sewage.
There are acute problems of chemical pollution of water bodies, rivers and lakes in
Mordovia. One of the most striking examples is the discharge of heavy metals into drains and reservoirs, among which lead is especially dangerous (its anthropogenic inputs are 17 times higher than natural ones) and mercury. The sources of these pollutions were harmful productions of the lighting industry. In the recent past, a reservoir in the north of Saransk called the Saransk Sea was poisoned with heavy metals.
Not bypassed Mordovia and a common misfortune - the Chernobyl accident. As a result, many areas have suffered from radioisotope contamination of land.
And the results of this anthropogenic impact will be felt for hundreds of years.
ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACT ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL ENVELOPE OF THE EARTH
At the beginning of the 20th century, a new era began in the interaction of nature and society. The impact of society on the geographical environment, the anthropogenic impact, has increased dramatically. This led to the transformation of natural landscapes into anthropogenic ones, as well as to the emergence of global environmental problems, i.e. problems that know no boundaries. The Chernobyl tragedy endangered the entire
Eastern and Northern Europe. Waste emissions affect global warming, ozone holes threaten life, animals migrate and mutate.
The degree of society's impact on the geographic envelope primarily depends on the degree of industrialization of society. Today, about 60% of the land is occupied by anthropogenic landscapes. Such landscapes include cities, villages, communication lines, roads, industrial and agricultural centers.
Eight most developed countries consume more than half of natural resources
Earth and emit 2/5 of pollution into the atmosphere. Moreover, Russia, whose gross income is 20 times less than the US, consumes resources only 2 times less than the United States and emits about the same amount of toxic substances.
These global environmental problems force all countries to join their efforts to solve them. These problems were also considered in July 1997 at the meeting of heads of state of the leading industrial G8 in Denver.
The G8 decided to more actively combat the effect of global warming and by the year 2000 to reduce the amount of harmful emissions into the atmosphere by 15%. But this is not yet a solution to all problems, and the main work remains to be done not only by the most developed countries, but also by those that are now rapidly developing.
1. Results of anthropogenic impact
Since humanity in the modern world has become globally integral physically, politically and economically, but not socially, the threat of military conflicts remains, which exacerbate environmental problems. For example, the Persian Gulf crisis showed that countries are ready to forget about global threats. environmental disasters in solving private problems.
2. Anthropogenic pollution of the atmosphere
Human activity leads to the fact that pollution enters the atmosphere mainly in two forms - in the form of aerosols (suspended particles) and gaseous substances.
The main sources of aerosols are industry building materials, cement production, open pit mining of coal and ores, ferrous metallurgy and other industries. The total amount of anthropogenic aerosols entering the atmosphere during the year is 60 million tons. This is several times less than the amount of pollution of natural origin.
(dust storms, volcanoes).
Nitrogen compounds are represented by toxic gases - nitrogen oxide and peroxide. They are also formed during the operation of internal combustion engines, during the operation of thermal power plants, and during the combustion of solid waste.
The greatest danger is the pollution of the atmosphere with sulfur compounds, and primarily with sulfur dioxide. Sulfur compounds are emitted into the atmosphere during the combustion of coal fuel, oil and natural gas, as well as during the smelting of non-ferrous metals and the production of sulfuric acid. Anthropogenic sulfur pollution is two times higher than natural. Sulfur dioxide reaches the highest concentrations in the northern hemisphere, especially over the territory of the United States, foreign Europe, the European part of Russia, and Ukraine. It is lower in the southern hemisphere.
Acid rain is directly related to the release of sulfur and nitrogen compounds into the atmosphere. The mechanism of their formation is very simple.
Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the air combine with water vapor. Then, together with rains and fogs, they fall to the ground in the form of dilute sulfuric and nitric acids. Such precipitation sharply violates the norms of soil acidity, worsens the water exchange of plants, and contributes to the drying of forests, especially coniferous ones. Getting into rivers and lakes, they oppress their flora and fauna, often leading to the complete destruction of biological life - from fish to microorganisms. Acid rain also causes great harm to various structures (bridges, monuments, etc.).
The main regions of distribution of acid precipitation in the world are the USA, foreign Europe, Russia and the CIS countries. But recently they have been noted in the industrial regions of Japan, China, and Brazil.
The distance between the areas of formation and areas of acid precipitation can reach even thousands of kilometers. For example, the main culprits of acid rain in Scandinavia are the industrial regions of Great Britain,
Belgium and Germany.
Scientists and engineers have come to the conclusion that the main way to prevent air pollution should be to gradually reduce harmful emissions and eliminate their sources. Therefore, a ban on the use of high-sulfur coal, oil and fuel is needed.
3. Anthropogenic pollution of the hydrosphere
Scientists distinguish three types of pollution of the hydrosphere: physical, chemical and biological.
Physical pollution refers primarily to thermal pollution resulting from the discharge of heated water used for cooling at thermal power plants and nuclear power plants. The discharge of such waters leads to a violation of the natural water regime. For example, rivers in places where such waters are discharged do not freeze. In closed water bodies, this leads to a decrease in the oxygen content, which leads to the death of fish and the rapid development of unicellular algae.
(“blooming” of water). Physical contamination also includes radioactive contamination.
Chemical pollution of the hydrosphere occurs as a result of the ingress of various chemicals and compounds into it. An example is the discharge of heavy metals (lead, mercury), fertilizers (nitrates, phosphates) and hydrocarbons (oil, organic pollution) into water bodies. The main source is industry and transport.
Biological pollution is created by microorganisms, often pathogens. They enter the aquatic environment with chemical, pulp and paper, Food Industry and livestock complexes.
Such effluents can be sources of various diseases.
A special issue in this topic is the pollution of the oceans. It happens in three ways.
The first of these is river runoff, with which millions of tons of various metals, phosphorus compounds, and organic pollution enter the ocean. At the same time, almost all suspended and most dissolved substances are deposited in the mouths of rivers and adjacent shelves.
The second way of pollution is associated with atmospheric precipitation, with them in
The world's oceans receive most of the lead, half of the mercury and pesticides.
Finally, the third way is directly related to human economic activity in the waters of the World Ocean. The most common type of pollution is oil pollution during the transportation and extraction of oil.
The problem of anthropogenic impact on the geographic environment is complex and multifaceted, it has a global character. But they solve it at three levels: state, regional and global.
At the first level, each country solves its environmental problems. At the regional level, activities are carried out by several countries with common environmental interests. At the global level, all countries of the world community unite their efforts.
LITERATURE:
1. Barashkov A.I. Will the world end? - M.: Knowledge, 1991.- 48s.
2. Maksakovskiy V.P. Geographical picture of the world. Part 1. - Yaroslavl:
Upper-Volzh. book. publishing house, 1995.- 320s.
News» №25, 1997
4. Reimers N.F. Ecology - M.: Russia Young, 1994.- 367p.
5. Student's handbook. Geography / Comp. T.S. Mayorova - M.: TKO
Introduction
Man from birth has inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He realizes his rights to life, to rest, to health protection, to a favorable environment, to work in conditions that meet the requirements of safety and hygiene in the process of life.
Vital activity is everyday activity and rest, a way of human existence. In the life process, a person is inextricably linked with his environment, while at all times he has been and remains dependent on his environment. It is due to her that he satisfies his needs for food, air, water, material resources for recreation, etc.
Habitat - the environment surrounding a person, due to a combination of factors (physical, chemical, biological, informational, social) that can have a direct or indirect immediate or remote impact on the life of a person, his health and offspring. Man and the environment are continuously in interaction, forming a constantly operating system "man - environment". In the process of evolutionary development of the World, the components of this system were continuously changing. Man improved, the population of the Earth and the level of its urbanization increased, the social structure changed and social basis society. The habitat also changed: the territory of the Earth's surface and its bowels, mastered by man, increased; the natural environment experienced the ever-increasing influence of the human community, there appeared artificially created by man household, urban and production environments. The natural environment is self-sufficient and can exist and develop without human intervention, while all other habitats created by man cannot develop independently and after their occurrence are doomed to aging and destruction. At the initial stage of its development, man interacted with the natural environment, which consists mainly of the biosphere, and also includes the bowels of the Earth, the galaxy and the boundless Cosmos.
Biosphere - natural area of distribution of life on Earth, including the lower layer of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the upper layer of the lithosphere, which have not experienced anthropogenic impact. In the process of evolution, a person, striving to most effectively satisfy his needs for food, material values, protection from climatic and weather influences, to increase his communication, continuously influenced the natural environment and, above all, the biosphere.
To achieve these goals, he transformed part of the biosphere into territories occupied by the technosphere.
Technosphere - a region of the biosphere in the past, transformed by people with the help of direct or indirect impact of technical means in order to best suit their material and socio-economic needs. The technosphere, created by man with the help of technical means, is the territory occupied by cities, towns, rural settlements, industrial zones and enterprises. Technospheric conditions include the conditions for people to stay at economic facilities, in transport, at home, in the territories of cities and towns. The technosphere is not a self-developing environment, it is man-made and after creation it can only degrade.
The purpose of the work is to study the topic: Anthropogenic impact on the natural environment.
The goal set defines the objectives of the study:
Anthropogenic impact on flora and fauna;
Air pollution;
Pollution of the hydrosphere;
Soil pollution.
1. The concept of anthropogenic impact.
Modern man was formed about 30-40 thousand years ago. Since that time, a new factor, the anthropogenic factor, began to operate in the evolution of the biosphere. Anthropogenic impacts include those types of changes in the environment that are caused by human life and activities.
A qualitative leap in the development of science and technology over the past two centuries, and especially today, has led to the fact that human activity has become a factor on a planetary scale, the guiding force for the further evolution of the biosphere. Anthropocenoses arose (from the Greek anthropos - man, koinos - general, community) - communities of organisms in which a person is the dominant species, and his activity determines the state of the entire system. Now humanity is using for its needs an increasing part of the planet's territory and increasing amounts of mineral resources. Over time, the anthropogenic impact has acquired a global character. The virgin landscapes were replaced by anthropogens. There are practically no territories not affected by man. Where no man has gone before, the products of his activity reach with air currents, river and ground water.
Depending on the type of activity influenced by the formation of landscapes, they are distinguished into technogenic, agricultural, recreational and others.
The following human impact on the environment and landscapes is distinguished:
1. Destructive (destructive) impact. It leads to the loss of wealth and qualities of the natural environment. Destructive impact can be conscious and unconscious;
2. Stabilizing effect. This impact is purposeful, it is preceded by awareness of the environmental threat to a specific specific object. Actions here are aimed at slowing down the processes of destruction and destruction of the environment;
3. Constructive impact - purposeful action. Its result should be the restoration of the disturbed landscape (reclamation).
At present, destructive influence prevails.
2. Anthropogenic impact on flora and fauna.
Human impact on wildlife are made up of direct influence and indirect changes in the natural environment. One form of direct impact on plants and animals is deforestation. So suddenly finding themselves in an open habitat, the plants of the lower tiers of the forest are adversely affected by direct solar radiation. In shade-loving plants of the herbaceous and shrub layers, chlorophyll is destroyed, growth is inhibited, and some species disappear. Light-loving plants that are resistant to high temperatures and lack of moisture settle on the felling sites. The animal world is also changing: the species associated with the forest stand disappear and migrate to other places.
A tangible impact on the condition of the vegetation cover is exerted by the massive visitation of forests by vacationers. Under these conditions, the harmful effect is trampling, soil compaction and its pollution. Soil compaction inhibits root systems and causes woody plants to dry out. The direct influence of man on the animal world is the extermination of species that are food or other material benefits for him. It is believed that since 1600. more than 160 species and subspecies of birds and at least 100 species of mammals were exterminated by humans. Many species of animals are on the verge of extinction or have survived only in nature reserves. Enhanced fishing brought to the brink of destruction different kinds animals. Also, environmental pollution has a very adverse effect on the biosphere.
The disappearance of a relatively small number of animal and plant species may not seem very significant. However, the main value of living species is not their economic significance. Each species occupies a certain place in the biocenosis, in the food chain, and no one can replace it. The disappearance of one or another species leads to a decrease in the stability of biocenoses. More importantly, each species has unique, unique properties. The loss of the genes that determine these properties and are selected in the course of long evolution deprives a person of the opportunity to use them in the future for his practical purposes (for example, for selection).
3. Air pollution
Atmospheric air is one of the most important components of the environment. The main sources of air pollution are thermal power plants and heating plants that burn fossil fuels; motor transport; ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy; mechanical engineering; chemical production; extraction and processing of mineral raw materials; open sources (extraction of agricultural production, construction). In modern conditions, more than 400 million tons of particles of ash, soot, dust and various kinds of waste and building materials enter the atmosphere. In addition to the above substances, other, more toxic substances are emitted into the atmosphere: vapors of mineral acids (sulfuric, chromic, etc.), organic solvents, etc. At present, there are more than 500 harmful substances polluting the atmosphere. Many branches of energy and industry generate not only the maximum amount of harmful emissions, but also create environmentally unfavorable living conditions for residents of both large and medium-sized cities. Emissions of toxic substances lead, as a rule, to an increase in the current concentrations of substances above the maximum permissible concentrations (MACs). MPCs of harmful substances in the atmospheric air of populated areas are the maximum concentrations related to a certain averaging period (30 minutes, 24 hours, 1 month, 1 year) and do not have, with a regulated probability of their occurrence, either direct or indirect harmful effects on the human body, including long-term consequences for the present and subsequent generations that do not reduce a person's working capacity and do not worsen his well-being.
4. Pollution of the hydrosphere
Water, like air, is a vital source for all known organisms. Anthropogenic activity leads to pollution of both surface and underground water sources. The main sources of pollution of the hydrosphere are discharged wastewater generated during the operation of energy, industrial, chemical, medical, defense, housing and communal and other enterprises and facilities; disposal of radioactive waste in containers and tanks that lose their tightness after a certain period of time; accidents and catastrophes occurring on land and in water spaces; atmospheric air polluted by various substances and others.
Surface sources of drinking water are annually and increasingly polluted by xenobiotics of various nature, so the supply of drinking water to the population from surface sources is an increasing danger. More than 600 billion tons of energy, industrial, household and other waste waters are annually discharged into the hydrosphere. More than 20–30 million tons of oil and products of its processing, phenols, easily oxidizable organic substances, copper and zinc compounds enter the water spaces. Unsustainable agriculture also contributes to the pollution of water sources. Residues of fertilizers and pesticides washed out of the soil enter water bodies and pollute them. Many pollutants of the hydrosphere are able to enter into chemical reactions and form more harmful complexes.
Water pollution causes the suppression of ecosystem functions, slows down natural processes biological treatment fresh water, and also contributes to a change in the chemical composition of food and the human body.
Hygienic requirements for the quality of drinking water of centralized drinking water supply systems are specified in sanitary rules and regulations. The norms are established for the following water parameters of reservoirs: the content of impurities and suspended particles, taste, color, turbidity and water temperature, pH, composition and concentration of mineral impurities and oxygen dissolved in water.
5. Soil pollution
The soil is a habitat for numerous lower animals and microorganisms, including bacteria, mold fungi, viruses, etc. The soil is a source of infection with anthrax, gas gangrene, tetanus, botulism.
Along with the natural uneven distribution of certain chemical elements in modern conditions, their artificial redistribution takes place on a huge scale. Emissions from industrial enterprises and agricultural facilities, dispersing over considerable distances and getting into the soil, create new combinations of chemical elements. From the soil, these substances, as a result of various migration processes, can enter the human body (soil - plants - a person, soil - atmospheric air - a person, soil - water - a person, etc.). All kinds of metals (iron, copper, aluminum, lead, zinc) and other chemical pollutants enter the soil with industrial solid waste.
The soil has the ability to accumulate radioactive substances that enter it with radioactive waste and atmospheric radioactive fallout after nuclear tests. Radioactive substances are included in food chains and affect living organisms. Among the chemical compounds that pollute the soil are carcinogenic substances - carcinogens that play a significant role in the occurrence of tumor diseases. The main sources of soil pollution with carcinogenic substances are vehicle exhaust gases, emissions from industrial enterprises, thermal power plants, etc. Carcinogens enter the soil from the atmosphere together with coarse and medium-dispersed dust particles, when oil or oil products leak, etc. The main danger of pollution soil is linked to global air pollution.
Conclusion
So, according to the results of writing the essay, it is clear how huge the anthropogenic impact of man on the environment is. Moreover, it has reached such volumes at which the damage to the environment and humans from anthropogenic impact has become a new global problem.
We systematize the directions of the damage caused by anthropogenic impact:
The content of harmful impurities of both inorganic and organic content increases in water;
Pollution of water basins by sewage;
The oceans began to be regarded as a gratuitous waste dump - the anthropogenic "drain" became much larger than the natural one;
To carry out economic activity, a person needs resources, but they are not unlimited.
So the problem of fresh water scarcity is already being raised;
We have to breathe air, which contains a whole range of harmful substances of anthropogenic origin.
In addition, an increase in emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere leads to the destruction of the ozone layer, there is a problem of the greenhouse effect;
There is a degradation of flora and fauna.
Forests are being cut down, rare animal species are disappearing, mutations are spreading;
Enormous harm to health is caused by the nuclear industry and because of weapons testing.
To fundamentally improve the situation, purposeful and thoughtful actions will be needed. An effective environmental policy will be possible only if we accumulate reliable data on the current state of the environment, sound knowledge of the interaction of important environmental factors if we develop new methods to reduce and prevent damage to the environment and ourselves.
List of used literature
1. Prikhodko N. Life safety. Almaty 2000
2. Chernova N.M., Bylova A.M. Ecology. 1988
3. E. A. Kriksunov and V.V. Pasechnik, A.P. Sidorin "Ecology." Publishing House "Drofa" 1995
4. Dobrovolsky G. V., Grishina L. A. "Soil protection" - M.: MGU, 1985
IN AND. Vernadsky noted that with the increase in the scale and intensity of activity, humanity as a whole has become a powerful geological force. This led to the transition of the biosphere to a qualitatively new state. Exterminated today 2/3 forests of the planet; more than 200 million tons of carbon monoxide, about 146 million tons of sulfur dioxide, 53 million tons of nitrogen oxides, etc. are emitted into the atmosphere annually. About 700 million hectares of once productive lands are disturbed by erosion (out of 1,400 million hectares of cultivated land). It is obvious that natural resources and the regenerative abilities of living nature are by no means unlimited.
The entire history of mankind is a history of economic growth and the gradual destruction of the biosphere. Only in the Paleolithic era, man did not disturb natural ecosystems, since his way of life (gathering, hunting, fishing) was similar to the way of existence of his kindred animals. Further development of civilization led to the creation of a modern artificial, man-made human environment, depletion and pollution of the natural environment. Particularly striking economic and environmental changes occurred in the 20th century: according to calculations, only about 1/3 of the planet's territory remained unaffected by human activity. Over the past century, a global economic subsystem has emerged and grown hundreds of times in the Earth's ecosystem. In the XX century. the consistent expansion of the economic subsystem was going on at an accelerated pace due to the displacement of natural systems (Table 2.1).
Table 2.1. Changes in the global economic subsystem and ecosystem of the planet|
Indicators |
Early 20th century |
End of XX century |
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Gross world product, USD billion |
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|
Power of the world economy, TW |
||
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Population, billion people |
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Fresh water consumption, km 3 |
||
|
Consumption of net primary production b iota, % |
||
|
Area of forested territories", mln km2 |
||
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Desert area growth, mln ha |
||
|
Reduction in the number of species, % |
||
|
Area disturbed by economic activity on land (excluding the area of Antarctica), % |
As can be seen from Table 2.1, by the beginning of the 20th century. the planet's economy produced a gross world product (GMP) in the amount of about 60 billion dollars a year. This economic potential has been created throughout the existence of civilization. Currently, a similar amount of VMP is produced in less than one day.
In 100 years, world energy consumption has increased 14 times. The total consumption of primary energy resources over this period exceeded 380 billion tons of reference fuel (> 1022 J). Between 1950 and 1985, average per capita energy consumption doubled to 68 GJ/yr. This means that global energy has grown twice as fast as population.
The structure of the fuel balance of most countries of the world has undergone changes: if earlier in the fuel and energy balance the main share was wood and coal, then by the end of the 20th century. Hydrocarbon fuel has become the predominant type - up to 65% is oil and gas, and up to 9% in total - nuclear and hydropower. Alternative energy technologies are gaining some economic importance. The average per capita electricity consumption has reached 2400 kWh/year. All this had big influence on structural shifts in the production and life of hundreds of millions of people.
The extraction and processing of mineral resources - ores and non-metallic materials - has increased many times over. The production of ferrous metals has increased eight times over the century and reached in the early 1980s. 850 million tons/year. The production of non-ferrous metals developed even more intensively, mainly due to the very rapid increase in the smelting of aluminum, which reached by the end of the 1980s. 14 million tons/year. Since the 1940s industrial production of uranium rapidly increased.
In the XX century. the volume and structure of mechanical engineering has significantly increased, the number and unit capacity of manufactured machines and units are rapidly increasing. Military equipment accounted for a significant share of engineering products. Industries such as the production of means of communication, instrumentation, radio engineering, electronics, and computer technology have emerged and rapidly developed. The production of self-propelled vehicles has increased thousands of times Vehicle. Since the 1970s About 16 million new cars appear on the world's roads every year. In some countries (France, Italy, USA, Japan) the number of cars is already comparable to the number of inhabitants. It is known that for every 1,000 kilometers a car consumes the annual norm of oxygen for one person, as a result, 6.5 billion people consume as much oxygen as 73 billion people would need to breathe.
An important feature of modern technogenesis is the intensive chemicalization of all sectors of the economy. Over the past 50 years, more than 6 billion tons of mineral fertilizers have been produced and applied. For various purposes, more than 400 thousand. various synthetic compounds, including explosives and toxic substances. The beginning of mass production of many products of large-scale chemistry, in particular petrochemistry and chemistry of organic synthesis, dates back to the middle of the century. For 40 years, the production of plastics, synthetic fibers, synthetic detergents, pesticides, and medicines has increased many times over.
The huge technical potential of mankind in itself has an internal instability. Due to the high concentration within the biosphere and the human environment of dangerous agents and sources of risk (all types of weapons, poisonous substances and nuclear fuel), this potential not only threatens the biosphere, but also includes the potential for self-destruction. This threat is not so easily perceived, because in the psychology of the masses it is masked by the positive results of social progress in the second half of the 20th century, when per capita income growth increased, health and education systems became more efficient, people's nutrition improved, and life expectancy increased.
However, behind these “average global” positive results, there is a very deep disparity in the economic situation and consumption of resources between regions and countries of the world, between different groups of people. It is estimated that the richest 20% of the world's population accounts for 86% of total personal spending, consumes 58% of the world's energy, 45% of meat and fish, 84% of paper, and owns 87% of personal cars. On the other hand, the 20% of the world's poorest people consume only 5% or less of goods and services in each of these categories.
In all natural environments, there is a unidirectional change in the concentrations of chemicals towards an increase. In the atmosphere, the concentration of carbon dioxide is rapidly increasing (from 280 to 350 parts per million in 200 years, with more than half of the increase in the last 50 years), methane (from 0.8 to 1.65 parts per million), nitric oxide and etc. In the second half of the XX century. completely new gases appeared in the atmosphere - chlorofluorocarbons (chladons). All this is a consequence of human activities. The concentration of chemicals in the surface waters of the land is also actively and rapidly growing, as evidenced by the global eutrophication of land water bodies and part of the coastal waters of the World Ocean.
Atmospheric fallout of nitrogen and sulfur compounds, including in the form of acid precipitation, significantly affected the chemical and biological processes in soils, which led to the degradation of the soil cover in many regions of the planet. Finally, the problem of biodiversity is well known, the rate of decline of which as a result of economic activity is much higher compared to natural processes extinction of species. As a result of the destruction of the habitat of living organisms, the former biological diversity of the planet has been significantly undermined (Table 2.2).
Global changes in the environment indicate that in its development humanity has surpassed the permissible ecological limits determined by the laws of the biosphere, that man is dependent on these laws.
Table 2.2. Loss of species diversity of the planet over the past 400 yearsPowerful industrial pollution has been added to the change and destruction of natural ecosystems. More than 50 tons of raw materials are extracted annually per capita in the world, as a result of the processing of which (with the help of water and energy) humanity eventually receives almost the same amount of waste, including 0.1 tons of hazardous waste per inhabitant of the planet.
There is a stereotype in society that the main environmental threat production area consists in the generation of waste, but in fact, all the final products of production are waste deposited or transferred to the future. In accordance with the law of conservation, once generated waste passes from one phase state to another (for example, into a gaseous state when burning household waste) or disperses in the environment (if it is a gas, dust or soluble substance), finally, they can be recycled (for example , make toxic waste less toxic) or produce some product that will become waste again after some time. According to the famous Russian environmental scientist K.S. Losev, “there are no “waste-free” and “environmentally friendly” technologies, and the entire global economy is a grandiose system for the production of waste. About 90% of all waste is solid waste and only about 10% is gaseous and liquid.” There is only one way to get rid of waste - by turning it into raw materials, i.e. by creating closed production cycles in which all production and consumption waste is immediately included in a new production cycle.
The world community has come to the conclusion that the growth rate of GNP cannot serve as the only indicator of a nation's well-being. It is also characterized by the quality of life, which largely depends on the environmental situation in the country. According to the data of the World Health Organization (WHO), 20-30% of diseases on the planet are caused by the deterioration of the environment. To the most tangible negative environmental impact leads the activity of branches of material production and intersectoral complexes.
Energy It has a multifactorial impact on the environment in the form of gaseous emissions into the atmosphere, wastewater discharges into water bodies, a large amount of water consumption, landscape changes, and the development of negative geological processes. According to statistics, the Russian thermal power industry accounts for up to 85-90% of emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon from the total emissions of the industry, which is about 4.4-4.6 million tons per year. Emissions of particulate matter leave a so-called “torch trail” in the adjacent territory, within which vegetation is suppressed, leading to ecosystem degradation. Emissions from powerful thermal power plants are the main culprits in the formation of acid precipitation that falls within a radius of thousands of kilometers and brings death to all living things.
Thermal and hydroelectric power plants account for up to 70% of the total consumption of fresh and sea water, and, accordingly, the volume of gross discharge of effluents into natural water bodies. Large thermal power plants discharge annually from 50 to 170 million m 3 of wastewater. Hydropower also often causes irreparable damage to nature, especially on the plains, where vast areas with numerous settlements and fertile floodplain lands that previously served as the main hayfields in the forest zone are flooded under reservoirs (for example, the Rybinsk reservoir). In the steppe zone, the creation of reservoirs leads to swamping of vast territories and secondary salinization of soils, loss of land, destruction of coastal slopes, etc.
Oil and oil refining industry has a significant negative impact primarily on the air basin. In the process of oil production, as a result of burning petroleum gas in flares, about 10% of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide emitted in Russia will fall into the atmosphere. Oil refining results in emissions of hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen into the air. In the centers of the oil refining industry, air pollution is increasing due to the high wear and tear of fixed assets, outdated technologies that do not allow reducing production waste.
The negative environmental situation in the oil production areas is exacerbated by subsidence of the earth's surface as a result of the extraction of a large volume of oil and a decrease in reservoir pressure (in some oil fields in Baku and Western Siberia). Serious damage to the environment is caused by oil and saline wastewater spills due to pipeline ruptures. The number of accidents at infield oil pipelines in Russia in some years was about 26,000.
Gas industry emits carbon monoxide (28% of all industry emissions), hydrocarbons (24%), volatile organic compounds (19%), nitrogen oxides (6%), sulfur dioxide (5%) into the atmosphere. Gas production in the permafrost zone leads to the degradation of natural landscapes and the development of such negative cryogenic processes as thermokarst, heaving and solifluction. The oil and gas industries are the main factors in the depletion of the natural resource potential due to a decrease in the resources of organic and mineral raw materials.
The consequence of the activities of enterprises coal industry is the movement of large volumes of rock, a change in the regimes of surface, ground and groundwater within large areas, a violation of the structure and productivity of soils, the activation of chemical processes, and sometimes a change in the microclimate. Mining in areas with harsh climatic conditions in the Far North, Siberia and the Far East, as a rule, leads to more serious environmental consequences than in the central regions, where the natural environment is more resistant to various anthropogenic impacts.
The coal industry pollutes surface water bodies with sewage. These are mainly highly mineralized mine waters, 75% of which are discharged without any treatment. The coal-mining basins are associated with the formation of a specific technogenic relief, the development of subsidence and collapse phenomena, as well as the flooding of part of the waste areas (Donbass). Almost everywhere, mining leads to the complete loss of land resources, including both fertile land and forest land.
Ferrous metallurgy pollutes the air basin of cities with carbon monoxide (67.5% of the total emission), solid substances (15.5%), sulfur dioxide (more than 10%), nitrogen oxides (5.5%). In the locations of metallurgical plants, the average annual concentration of carbon disulfide exceeds 5 MPC, and benzapyrene - 13 MPC. In Russia, the industry accounts for 15% of the total emissions of the entire industry. The main sources of emissions from ferrous metallurgy into the atmosphere are sintering production (sintering machines, crushing and grinding equipment, places for unloading and pouring materials), blast and open-hearth furnaces, pickling furnaces, cupola furnaces of iron foundries, etc.
Industry enterprises consume and discharge large volumes of water. Wastewater contains suspended solids, oil products, dissolved salts (sulfates, chlorides, iron compounds, heavy metals). These discharges can lead to complete degradation of small watercourses into which they enter, and ash and slag dumps and tailings pollute groundwater due to filtration. As a result, anthropogenic geochemical anomalies are formed with the content of toxic substances hundreds of times higher than the MPC (Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works).
Non-ferrous metallurgy is a very environmentally hazardous industry that emits the most toxic pollutants into the environment, such as lead (75% of emissions from the entire Russian industry) and mercury (35%). The activity of non-ferrous metallurgy often leads to the transformation of the territories where its enterprises are located into ecological disaster zones (the city of Karabash in the South Urals, the city of Olenegorsk in the Murmansk region, etc.). Harmful emissions from enterprises, being strong biological poisons and accumulating in soil and water bodies, pose a real threat to all living things, including humans, and heavy metals with a 25-fold excess of MPC are found in mushrooms, berries and other plants at a distance of up to 20 km from the plant.
Depending on the type transport its impact is manifested in the form of pollution of the atmosphere, water basin, land, degradation of landscapes. Road transport is the main source of urban air pollution. In Russia, according to experts, its share in the total volume of emissions into the atmosphere ranges from 40 to 60%, and in major cities reaches 90%, in Belarus, motor transport accounts for 3/4 of emissions. At the same time, the concentration of harmful substances in vehicle emissions exceeds the MPC tenfold. Electric rail transport pollutes soils and ground water along railway lines and creates a noise and vibration effect in the surrounding areas. Air transport is characterized by chemical and acoustic pollution of the atmosphere, while water transport is characterized by pollution of water areas with oil products and household waste.
Road construction also entails negative environmental consequences: it activates such unfavorable geological processes as landslides, swamping, flooding of adjacent territories, and leads to the loss of the land fund. In the same time road construction- an inevitable sign of civilization, a necessary condition for improving the comfort of living for the population. Therefore, in each specific case, the solution of this problem must be approached individually, taking into account the possible negative and positive consequences of the implementation of road construction projects.
Department of Housing and Utilities - the main source of formation and entry of wastewater into water bodies. It accounts for 50% of the total effluent discharge in Russia and Belarus. The second problem of the industry is the disposal and disposal of solid household waste, the disposal of which removes thousands of hectares of land from economic circulation and significantly affects the ecological state of the territory of large cities.
Huge damage agriculture Soil erosion is often caused by anthropogenic origin, resulting in a drop in natural fertility, which is typical for many regions. The depletion and pollution of water sources is progressing as a result of ill-conceived and not always justified land reclamation, non-compliance with the norms for applying mineral fertilizers and pesticides. Livestock complexes and poultry farms are a source of increased environmental hazard, around which the liquid fraction of manure is filtered into the soil, groundwater, and agricultural products are polluted.
Thus, the modern development of the economy can be defined as technogenic type of economic development, which is characterized by high nature and insufficient consideration of environmental requirements in the development and implementation of business projects. It is typical for him:
- rapid and exhausting use of non-renewable natural resources (minerals);
- consumption of renewable resources (land, plant and animal resources, etc.) in volumes exceeding the possibilities of their natural restoration and reproduction;
- production of waste, emissions/discharges of pollutants in volumes exceeding the assimilation potential of the environment.
All this causes colossal not only environmental, but also economic damage, which manifests itself in the cost losses of natural resources and the costs of society to eliminate the negative environmental consequences of anthropogenic activities.
1. Introduction
2. The concept and main types of anthropogenic impacts
3. General concept of ecological crisis
4. History of anthropogenic environmental crises
5. Ways out of the global environmental crisis
6. Conclusion
7. Literature and sources used
Introduction
With the advent and development of mankind, the process of evolution has noticeably changed. On the early stages civilizations, cutting down and burning forests for agriculture, grazing, fishing and hunting for wild animals, wars devastated entire regions, led to the destruction of plant communities, and the extermination of certain animal species. With the development of civilization, especially after the industrial revolution of the late Middle Ages, humanity has mastered ever greater power, ever greater ability to involve and use huge masses of matter to satisfy their growing needs - both organic, living, and mineral, bone.
Real shifts in biospheric processes began in the 20th century as a result of another industrial revolution. The rapid development of energy, mechanical engineering, chemistry, and transport has led to the fact that human activity has become comparable in scale with the natural energy and material processes occurring in the biosphere. The intensity of human consumption of energy and material resources is growing in proportion to the population and even ahead of its growth. The consequences of anthropogenic (man-made) activities are manifested in the depletion of natural resources, pollution of the biosphere with industrial waste, destruction natural ecosystems, changing the structure of the Earth's surface, climate change. Anthropogenic impacts lead to disruption of almost all natural biogeochemical cycles.
In accordance with the population density, the degree of human impact on the environment also changes. At the current level of development productive forces the activity of human society affects the biosphere as a whole.
The concept and main types of anthropogenic impact
Anthropogenic period, i.e. the period in which man arose is revolutionary in the history of the Earth. Mankind manifests itself as the greatest geological force in terms of the scale of its activities on our planet. And if we remember the short time of human existence in comparison with the life of the planet, then the significance of his activity will appear even clearer.
Anthropogenic impacts are understood as activities related to the implementation of economic, military, recreational, cultural and other human interests, making physical, chemical, biological and other changes in the natural environment. By their nature, depth and area of distribution, time of action and nature of application, they can be different: targeted and spontaneous, direct and indirect, long-term and short-term, point and area, etc.
Anthropogenic impacts on the biosphere, according to their environmental consequences, are divided into positive and negative (negative). Positive impacts include the reproduction of natural resources, the restoration of groundwater reserves, field-protective afforestation, land reclamation at the site of mineral development, etc.
Negative (negative) impacts on the biosphere include all types of impacts created by man and oppressing nature. Unprecedented in terms of power and diversity, negative anthropogenic impacts began to manifest themselves especially sharply in the second half of the 20th century. Under their influence, the natural biota of ecosystems ceased to serve as a guarantor of the stability of the biosphere, as had been observed previously over billions of years.
The negative (negative) impact is manifested in the most diverse and large-scale actions: the depletion of natural resources, deforestation over large areas, salinization and desertification of lands, reduction in the number and species of animals and plants, etc.
The main global factors of environmental destabilization include:
Growth in consumption of natural resources with their reduction;
The growth of the world's population with a decrease in habitable
territories;
Degradation of the main components of the biosphere, a decrease in the ability
nature to self-maintenance;
Possible climate change and depletion of the Earth's ozone layer;
Reduction of biological diversity;
Increasing environmental damage from natural Disasters And
man-made disasters;
Insufficient level of coordination of actions of the world community
in the field of solving environmental problems.
Pollution is the main and most widespread type of negative human impact on the biosphere. Most of the most acute environmental situations in the world, one way or another, are associated with environmental pollution.
Anthropogenic impacts can be divided into destructive, stabilizing and constructive.
Destructive (destructive) - leads to the loss, often irreplaceable, of the wealth and qualities of the natural environment. This is hunting, deforestation and burning of forests by man - the Sahara instead of the forest.
Stabilizing is a targeted effect. It is preceded by awareness of the environmental threat to a specific landscape - a field, forest, beach, green alongside cities. Actions are aimed at slowing down the destruction (destruction). For example, the trampling of suburban forest parks, the destruction of the undergrowth of flowering plants can be weakened by breaking paths, forming places for a short rest. Soil protection measures are carried out in agricultural zones. On city streets, plants are planted and sown that are resistant to transport and industrial emissions.
Constructive (for example, reclamation) - a purposeful action, its result should be the restoration of a disturbed landscape, for example, reforestation or the reconstruction of an artificial landscape in place of an irretrievably lost one. An example is the very difficult, but necessary work for the restoration of rare species of animals and plants, for the improvement of the zone of mine workings, landfills, the transformation of quarries and waste heaps into green areas.
The famous ecologist B. Commoner (1974) singled out five, according to him
opinion, the main types of human intervention in environmental processes:
Simplifying the ecosystem and breaking biological cycles;
The concentration of dissipated energy in the form of thermal pollution;
The growth of toxic waste from chemical industries;
Introduction to the ecosystem of new species;
The occurrence of genetic changes in plant organisms and
animals.
The vast majority of anthropogenic impacts are
purposeful nature, i.e. carried out by a person consciously in the name of achieving specific goals. There are also anthropogenic influences, spontaneous, involuntary, having a character after the action. For example, this category of impacts includes the processes of flooding of the territory that occur after its development, etc.
The main and most common type of negative
human impact on the biosphere is pollution. Pollution is the entry into the environment of any solid, liquid and gaseous substances, microorganisms or energies (in the form of sounds, noise, radiation) in quantities that are harmful to human health, animals, plants and ecosystems.
According to the objects of pollution, pollution of surface groundwater, atmospheric air pollution, soil pollution, etc. are distinguished. In recent years, the problems associated with pollution of the near-Earth outer space. Sources of anthropogenic pollution, the most dangerous for populations of any organisms, are industrial enterprises (chemical, metallurgical, pulp and paper, building materials, etc.), thermal power engineering, transnorms, agricultural production, and other technologies.
Man's technical capabilities to change the natural environment grew rapidly, reaching their highest point in the era of the scientific and technological revolution. Now he is able to carry out such projects for the transformation of the natural environment, which until relatively recently he did not even dare to dream of.
General concept of ecological crisis
An ecological crisis is a special type of ecological situation when the habitat of one of the species or population changes in such a way that it calls into question its further survival. The main causes of the crisis:
Biotic: The quality of the environment degrades from the needs of the species after a change in abiotic environmental factors (for example, an increase in temperature or a decrease in rainfall).
Biotic: The environment becomes difficult for a species (or population) to survive due to increased pressure from predators or overpopulation.
The ecological crisis is currently understood as a critical state of the environment caused by the activities of mankind and characterized by a discrepancy between the development of productive forces and production relations in human society with the resource and environmental capabilities of the biosphere.
The concept of the global ecological crisis was formed in the 60s - 70s of the twentieth century.
The revolutionary changes in biospheric processes that began in the 20th century led to the rapid development of energy, mechanical engineering, chemistry, and transport, to the fact that human activity became comparable in scale with natural energy and material processes occurring in the biosphere. The intensity of human consumption of energy and material resources is growing in proportion to the population and even ahead of its growth.
The crisis can be global and local.
The formation and development of human society was accompanied by local and regional environmental crises of anthropogenic origin. It can be said that the steps of mankind forward along the path of scientific and technological progress relentlessly, like a shadow, accompanied negative moments, the sharp aggravation of which led to environmental crises.
But earlier there were local and regional crises, since the very impact of man on nature was predominantly local and regional in nature, and has never been as significant as in the modern era.
Fighting a global environmental crisis is much more difficult than dealing with a local one. The solution to this problem can only be achieved by minimizing the pollution produced by mankind to a level that ecosystems will be able to cope with on their own.
Currently global ecological crisis includes four main components: acid rain, greenhouse effect, pollution of the planet with superecotoxicants and the so-called ozone holes.
It is now obvious to everyone that the ecological crisis is a global and universal concept that concerns each of the people inhabiting the Earth.
A consistent solution to pressing environmental problems should lead to a reduction in the negative impact of society on individual ecosystems and nature as a whole, including humans.
History of man-made environmental crises
The first great crises - perhaps the most catastrophic ones - were witnessed only by microscopic bacteria, the only inhabitants of the oceans in the first two billion years of our planet's existence. Some microbial biotas died, others - more perfect ones - developed from their remains. About 650 million years ago, a complex of large multicellular organisms, the Ediacaran fauna, first appeared in the ocean. They were strange soft-bodied creatures, unlike any of the modern inhabitants of the sea. 570 million years ago, at the turn of the Proterozoic and Paleozoic eras, this fauna was swept away by another great crisis.
Soon a new fauna was formed - the Cambrian, in which for the first time animals with a solid mineral skeleton began to play the main role. The first reef-building animals appeared - the mysterious archaeocyaths. After a short flowering, the archaeocyates disappeared without a trace. Only in the next, Ordovician period, new reef builders began to appear - the first real corals and bryozoans.
Another great crisis came at the end of the Ordovician; then two more in a row - in the late Devonian. Each time, the most characteristic, massive, dominant representatives of the underwater world, including reef builders, died out.
The largest catastrophe occurred at the end of the Permian period, at the turn of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. Relatively little change took place on land then, but almost all living things perished in the ocean.
Throughout the next - early Triassic - era, the seas remained practically lifeless. So far, not a single coral has been found in the Early Triassic deposits, and such important groups marine life like sea urchins, bryozoans and sea lilies are represented by small single finds.
Only in the middle of the Triassic period did the underwater world begin to gradually recover.
Ecological crises occurred both before the emergence of mankind and during its existence.
Primitive people lived in tribes, collecting fruits, berries, nuts, seeds and other plant foods. With the invention of tools and weapons, they became hunters and began to eat meat. It can be considered that this was the first ecological crisis in the history of the planet, since anthropogenic impact on nature began - human intervention in natural trophic chains. It is sometimes referred to as the consumer crisis. However, the biosphere endured: there were still few people, and the freed ecological niches occupied by other species.
The next step of anthropogenic influence was the domestication of some animal species and the separation of pastoral tribes. This was the first historical division of labor, which gave people the opportunity to provide themselves with food in a more stable way, compared to hunting. But at the same time, overcoming this stage of human evolution was also the next ecological crisis, since domesticated animals broke out of trophic chains, they were specially protected so that they would give a greater offspring than in natural conditions.
About 15 thousand years ago, agriculture arose, people switched to a settled way of life, property and the state appeared. Very quickly, people realized that the most convenient way to clear land from forest for plowing was to burn trees and other vegetation. In addition, ash is a good fertilizer. An intensive process of deforestation of the planet began, which continues to this day. It was already a larger ecological crisis - the crisis of producers. The stability of providing people with food has increased, which allowed man to overcome the effect of a number of limiting factors and win in the competition with other species.
Approximately in the III century BC. in ancient Rome, irrigated agriculture arose, which changed the hydrobalance of natural water sources. It was another ecological crisis. But the biosphere held out again: there were still relatively few people on Earth, and the land surface area and the number of freshwater sources were still quite large.
In the seventeenth century the industrial revolution began, machines and mechanisms appeared that facilitated the physical labor of a person, but this led to a rapidly increasing pollution of the biosphere with production waste. However, the biosphere still had sufficient potential (it is called assimilation potential) to withstand anthropogenic impacts.
But then the 20th century came, the symbol of which was the NTR (scientific and technological revolution); Along with this revolution, the past century brought an unprecedented global environmental crisis.
Ecological crisis of the twentieth century. characterizes the colossal scale of anthropogenic impact on nature, in which the assimilation potential of the biosphere is no longer enough to overcome it. The current environmental problems are not of national, but of planetary significance.
In the second half of the twentieth century. humanity, which until now perceived nature only as a source of resources for its economic activity, gradually began to realize that it could not continue like this and something had to be done to preserve the biosphere.
Ways out of the global environmental crisis
An analysis of the ecological and socio-economic situation allows us to identify 5 main directions for overcoming the global environmental crisis.
Ecology of technologies;
Development and improvement of the mechanism economy
environmental protection;
Administrative and legal direction;
Ecological and educational;
International legal;
All components of the biosphere must be protected not separately, but as a whole as a single natural system. According to federal law on “Environmental Protection” (2002), the main principles of environmental protection are:
Respect for human rights to a favorable environment;
Rational and non-wasteful nature management;
Conservation of biological diversity;
Payment for nature use and compensation for environmental damage;
Mandatory state ecological expertise;
Priority of conservation of natural ecosystems of natural landscapes and complexes;
Observance of the rights of everyone to reliable information about the state of the environment;
The most important environmental principle is a scientifically based combination of economic, environmental and social interests (1992)
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be noted that during historical development humanity has changed, its attitude towards nature. As the productive forces developed, there was an ever-increasing attack on nature, its conquest. By its nature, such an attitude can be called practically utilitarian, consumerist. This attitude in modern conditions is manifested to the greatest extent. Therefore, further development and social progress urgently requires the harmonization of relations between society and nature by reducing the consumer and increasing the rational, strengthening the ethical, aesthetic, humanistic attitude towards it. And this is possible due to the fact that, having stood out from nature, a person begins to treat it both ethically and aesthetically, i.e. loves nature, enjoys and admires the beauty and harmony of natural phenomena.
Therefore, the upbringing of a sense of nature is the most important task not only of philosophy, but also of pedagogy, which should be solved already from elementary school, because the priorities acquired in childhood will manifest themselves in the future as norms of behavior and activity. This means that there is more confidence that humanity will be able to achieve harmony with nature.
And one cannot but agree with the words that everything in this world is interconnected, nothing disappears and nothing appears from nowhere.
Used literature and sources
1. A.A. Mukhutdinov, N.I. Boroznov . "Fundamentals and management of industrial ecology" "Magarif", Kazan, 1998
2. Brodsky A.K. A short course in general ecology. S.-Pb., 2000
3. Internet site: mylearn.ru
4. Internet site: www.ecology-portal.ru
5. Internet site: www.komtek-eco.ru
6. Reimers N.F. Hope for the survival of mankind. Conceptual ecology. M., Ecology, 1994
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