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Table of contents

1. The structure of ecosystems (Basic concepts of ecology. Energy in ecological systems. Biogeochemical cycles. Organization at the community level. Organization at the population level)
2. Basic laws and principles of ecology (Law of the minimum. Law of tolerance. General concept of limiting factors. Law of competitive exclusion. Basic law of ecology. Some other laws and principles important for ecology)
3. Vernadsky's doctrine of the biosphere and the concept of the noosphere
4. The concept of co-evolution and the principle of harmonization (Types of interaction. Significance of co-evolution. Gaia hypothesis. Principle of harmonization. Principle of integrative diversity)
5. Natural balance and evolution of ecosystems (Equilibrium and disequilibrium. Features of evolution. The principle of natural balance. The ratio of balance and evolution)
6. Modern environmental crisis (Scientific and technological revolution and the global environmental crisis. Modern environmental disasters. Real environmentally negative consequences. Potential environmental hazards. Renewable non-renewable. The complex nature of the environmental problem)
7. Ecological significance of science and technology (Natural-scientific roots of environmental difficulties. The trend of science greening. The ideal of science as a holistic integrative-diverse harmonious system. Ecological significance of technology)
8. Modeling in ecology and the concept of sustainable development (Mathematical modeling in ecology. Global modeling. The concept of sustainable development)
9. Consequences of the global ecological crisis and the future of mankind (Prospects for the sustainable development of nature and society. Environmental policy: cooperation and struggle. Ecological society as a type of social structure)
10. Ecological ethics and ecological humanism (Aggressive-consumer and loving-creative personality types. Ecological and global ethics. Evolution of humanism. Principles of ecological humanism)
11. Ecology and culture (Environmental ideology. Ecological culture. Ecological philosophy. Ecological art)

The word "ecology" has now become widely known and commonly used. At the beginning of the XNUMXth century, only biologists knew it. In the second half of the XNUMXth century, when the global crisis erupted, an environmental movement arose, taking on an ever wider scope. The subject "ecology" began to be introduced into secondary and higher schools for students of the natural sciences and the humanities. At the turn of the XNUMXrd millennium, this concept reached the highest political level, and the environmental imperative began to influence the development of material production and spiritual culture.

Currently, the subject "ecology" is taught to students of various specialties, taking into account the specifics of their future profession. Preparing this textbook for publication, the author tried to take into account the various features of teaching this subject and at the same time not lose the integrity of his understanding.

Topic 1. STRUCTURE OF ECOSYSTEMS

1.1. Basic concepts of ecology

In the literal sense, the word "ecology" means "the science of the house" (from the Greek "oikos" - dwelling, habitat). The term "ecology" was proposed by the German zoologist E. Haeckel in the 60th century, but as a science, ecology arose at the beginning of the XNUMXth century, and this word came into wide use in the XNUMXs, when they began to talk about the ecological crisis as a crisis in the relationship of man with the environment his habitat.

As part of the biological cycle, ecology is the science of the habitat of living beings, their relationship with the environment. Ecology studies the organization and functioning of supraorganismal systems at various levels, up to the global level, that is, to the biosphere as a whole.

The subject of ecology is divided in three ways. First, there are autecology, which studies the interaction of individual organisms and species with the environment, and synecology, which studies the community. Secondly, the division goes according to the types of environments, or habitats - the ecology of fresh water, sea, land, ocean. Thirdly, ecology is divided into taxonomic branches - plant ecology, insect ecology, vertebrate ecology, etc., up to human ecology. Various areas of practical application of ecology are also considered - natural resources, environmental pollution, etc.

Basic concepts of ecology: population, community, habitat, ecological niche, ecosystem. A population (from lat. populus - people) is a group of organisms belonging to the same species and occupying a certain area, called the range. A community, or biocenosis, is a collection of plants and animals that inhabit a piece of habitat. The set of conditions necessary for the existence of populations is called an ecological niche. An ecological niche determines the position of a species in food chains.

The totality of the community and the environment is called the ecological system, or biogeocenosis (the differences between these concepts are still insignificant for us). Y. Odum gives the following definition: "Any unity that includes all organisms (i.e. "community") in a given area and interacts with the physical environment in such a way that the energy flow creates a well-defined trophic structure, species diversity and cycling of substances (t . e. the exchange of substances between the biotic and abiotic parts) within the system, is an ecological system, or ecosystem "(Yu. Odum. Fundamentals of Ecology. M., 1975, p. 16).

The term "ecosystem" was introduced by the English ecologist A. Tansley in 1935. In 1944, V. N. Sukachev proposed the term "biogeocenosis", and V. I. Vernadsky used the concept of "bio-inert body". The main meaning of these concepts is that they emphasize the obligatory presence of relationships, interdependence and cause-and-effect relationships, in other words, the unification of components into a functional whole. An example of an ecosystem is a lake, a forest, etc. Ecosystems are very different. The entire biosphere can be viewed as a collection of ecosystems from a blue ocean dominated by small organisms but a high biomass density to a tall forest with large trees but a lower overall biomass density.

There are two approaches to the study of an ecological system: analytical, when individual parts of the system are studied, and synthetic, which considers the entire system as a whole. Both approaches complement each other. Depending on the nature of nutrition in the ecosystem, a nutrition pyramid is built, consisting of several trophic (from the Greek "trophy" - nutrition) levels. The lowest is occupied by autotrophic (literally: self-feeding) organisms, which are characterized by the fixation of light energy and the use of simple inorganic compounds for the synthesis of complex organic substances. Plants belong to this level. At a higher level are heterotrophic (literally: feeding on others) organisms that use plant biomass for food, which are characterized by the utilization, restructuring and decomposition of complex substances. Then come heterotrophs of the second order, feeding on heterotrophs of the first order, that is, animals. The ecological pyramid, or the food pyramid, is well remembered from school biology lessons.

In general, three non-living and three living components are distinguished in the ecosystem: 1) inorganic substances (nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water, etc.), which are included in natural cycles; 2) organic compounds (proteins, carbohydrates, etc.); 3) climatic regime (temperature, light, humidity and other physical factors); 4) producers (autotrophic organisms, mainly green plants, which create food from simple inorganic substances); 5) macroconsumers - heterotrophic organisms, mainly animals that eat other organisms; 6) microconsumers, or decomposers - heterotrophic organisms, mainly bacteria and fungi, "which destroy the complex compounds of dead protoplasm, absorb some decomposition products and release inorganic nutrients suitable for use by producers, as well as organic substances that can serve as energy sources, inhibitors or stimulants for other biotic components of the ecosystem" (Ibid.).

The interaction of autotrophic and heterotrophic components is one of the most common signs of an ecosystem, although these organisms are often separated in space, arranged in tiers: autotrophic metabolism proceeds most intensively in the upper tier - the "green belt", where light energy is most available, and heterotrophic metabolism predominates below, in soils and sediments, there is a "brown belt" in which organic matter accumulates.

The food pyramid defines the cycle of substances in the biosphere, which looks like this:

Ecology has shown that the living world is not a simple collection of creatures, but a single system cemented by many food chains and other interactions. Each organism can exist only under the condition of constant close connection with the environment. The intensity of metabolism in an ecosystem and its relative stability are largely determined by the flow of solar energy and the movement of chemicals.

Individual organisms are not only adapted to the physical environment, but also, by their joint action within the ecosystem, adapt the geochemical environment to their biological needs. From the simple substances contained in the sea, as a result of the activity of animals (corals, etc.) and plants, entire islands were built. The composition of the atmosphere is also regulated by organisms.

In the creation of atmospheric oxygen and organic substances, photosynthesis plays the main role, which proceeds according to the following scheme:

This process of converting part of the solar energy into organic matter through photosynthesis is called the "work of green plants." In this way, not only carbohydrates (glucose) are produced, but also amino acids, proteins and other vital compounds.

The evolution of life forms was ensured by the fact that during most of the geological time, part of the produced organic matter did not decompose, and the predominance of organic synthesis led to an increase in the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere. About 300 million years ago, there was a particularly large excess of organic products, which contributed to the formation of fossil fuels, due to which man made the industrial revolution.

The three functions of the community as a whole - production, consumption and decay - are closely related to each other. Although we consider micro-organisms to be "primitive", man cannot exist without microbes. “Decomposition, therefore, occurs due to energy transformations in the body and between them. This process is absolutely necessary for life, since without it all nutrients would be bound in dead bodies and no new life could arise ... However, the heterotrophic population of the biosphere consists of a large number of species, which, acting together, produce a complete decomposition" (Ibid., p. 41). The most stable decomposition product is humus, which is necessary for the soil for plant growth.

The balance of production and decomposition is the main condition for the existence of all living things in the biosphere. The lag in the utilization of the substance produced by autotrophs not only ensures the construction of biological structures, but also determines the existence of an oxygen atmosphere. “At present, man (of course, unconsciously) begins to accelerate the processes of decomposition in the biosphere, burning organic matter stored in the form of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas), and intensifying agricultural activities, which increases the rate of decomposition of humus” (Ibid.). As a result, the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases, which, like glass, absorbs infrared radiation emitted by the earth's surface, creating the so-called greenhouse effect. People find themselves, as it were, in a giant greenhouse with all the ensuing consequences for the global climate.

"The average global temperature of the atmosphere at the Earth's surface is about 15 °C. Over the past 1 million years, it has changed within 5 °C of cooling and 2 °C of warming. With a change in the average global temperature by 10 °C, i.e. 1,5 times from the current level, it is more likely of all, the action of the Le Chatelier-Brown principle will be completely violated (see below about this principle - A. G.) - the biota will, as it were, "eat" itself, since the metabolic processes, intensifying, will not lead to resistance to changes in the environment biota to the environment, but to the rapid self-destruction of the biosphere" (N. F. Reimers. Hopes for the survival of mankind: conceptual ecology. M., 1992, p. 63). The potential dangers of this process are the melting of polar ice and the establishment of a tropical climate throughout the Earth.

All this indicates how important it is to take into account the subtle mechanisms of the biosphere - a machine that must be known and at least not interfere with its work.

Ecosystems, like organisms and populations, are capable of self-regulation, resisting change and maintaining a state of equilibrium. But in order for these mechanisms to function normally, a period of evolutionary adaptation to environmental conditions, which is called adaptation, is necessary. Adaptation of the body can be structural, physiological and behavioral. Structural includes a change in color, body structure, etc. Physiological refers, say, to the appearance of an auditory chamber in a bat, which makes it possible to have perfect hearing. An example of a behavioral adaptation is shown by a striped-winged moth landing on striped lily leaves so that its stripes are parallel to the stripes on the leaves. Similar adaptation mechanisms exist at the level of ecosystems as a whole. They should not be violated by man, otherwise he will either have to construct their artificial substitutes himself, which he is not yet capable of, or an ecological catastrophe awaits him, since he cannot exist in any other environment than the biosphere.

1.2. Energy in ecological systems

One of the tasks of ecology is the study of the transformation of energy within an ecological system. By assimilating solar energy, green plants create potential energy, which, when food is consumed by organisms, is converted into other forms. Energy transformations, in contrast to the cyclical movement of substances, go in one direction, which is why they talk about the flow of energy.

From the point of view of studying energy flows, two principles of thermodynamics are important. The first law says that energy cannot be created anew and disappear, but only passes from one form to another. The second law is formulated in this way: the processes associated with the transformation of energy can proceed spontaneously only under the condition that the energy passes from a concentrated form to a diffuse one. The fact that, according to the second law, energy in any transformations tends to turn into heat, evenly distributed between bodies, gave grounds to speak of the "aging" of the solar system. Whether this tendency towards energy equalization is characteristic of the entire Universe is not yet clear, although in the XNUMXth century the question of the "thermal death of the Universe" was widely discussed.

The formulation of the second law generally accepted in physics says that in closed systems, energy tends to be distributed evenly, i.e., the system tends to a state of maximum entropy. A distinctive feature of living bodies, ecosystems and the biosphere as a whole is the ability to create and maintain a high degree of internal order, i.e., a state with low entropy.

According to the definition of E. Schrödinger, "life is an ordered and regular behavior of matter, based not only on one tendency to move from order to disorder, but also partly on the existence of order, which is maintained all the time ... the means by which the organism maintains itself constantly at a sufficiently high level of order (and also at a sufficiently low level of entropy), actually consists in a continuous extraction of order from its environment. a well-ordered state of matter in more or less complex organic compounds serves as food for them.After use, animals return these substances in a degraded form, but not completely degraded, since plants can still use them.For plants, a powerful source of "negative entropy" is, of course, sunlight "(E. Shre dinger. What is life? From a physics point of view. M., 1972, p. 71, 76).

The property of living systems to extract order from the environment has led some scientists, in particular E. Bauer, to conclude that the second law does not hold for these systems. But the second law also has another, more general formulation, which is valid for open systems, including living ones. It states that the efficiency of spontaneous energy conversion is always less than 100%. In accordance with the second principle, the maintenance of life on Earth without the influx of solar energy is impossible. "Everything that happens in nature means an increase in entropy in that part of the Universe where it takes place. Similarly, a living organism continuously increases its entropy, or, in other words, produces positive entropy, and thus approaches a dangerous state - maximum entropy , - representing death. He can avoid this state, that is, remain alive, only by constantly extracting negative entropy from the environment "(Ibid., p. 76).

In ecosystems, the transfer of food energy from its source - plants through a number of organisms, occurring by eating some organisms by others, is called the food chain. With each successive transfer, most (80-90%) of the potential energy is lost, turning into heat.

This limits the possible number of chain links to four or five. Green plants occupy the first trophic level, herbivores - the second, predators - the third, etc. The transition to each next link reduces the available energy by about 10 times. Turning to man, we can say that if the relative content of meat in the diet increases, then the number of people who can be fed decreases.

The ecological pyramid, which is a trophic structure, the basis of which is the level of producers, and the subsequent levels form its floors and top, can be of three main types: "1) a pyramid of numbers, reflecting the number of individual organisms; 2) a biomass pyramid, characterizing the total dry weight, calorie content or another measure of the total amount of living matter; 3) an energy pyramid showing the magnitude of the energy flow and (or) "productivity" at successive trophic levels "(Yu. Odum. Fundamentals ... p. 105). The energy pyramid always narrows upward, because energy is lost at each successive level.

The most important characteristic of an ecosystem is its productivity, which refers to both the growth of organisms and the creation of organic matter. Only about half of all radiant energy is absorbed (mainly in the visible part of the spectrum), and the largest, about 5% of it, under the most favorable conditions, is converted into a product of photosynthesis. A significant part (at least 20%, and usually about 50%) of this potential food (net product) of humans and animals is spent on plant respiration. The content of chlorophyll per 1 m2 in different communities is approximately the same, i.e., in entire communities, the content of green pigment is distributed more evenly than in individual plants or their parts.

The ratio between green and yellow pigments can be used as an indicator of the ratio of heterotrophic to autotrophic metabolism. When photosynthesis exceeds respiration in the community, green pigments dominate, and when the respiration of the community increases, the content of yellow pigments increases.

Among the products produced in the process of photosynthesis, primary productivity is distinguished, which is defined as the rate at which radiant energy is absorbed by producer organisms, mainly green plants. It is divided into gross primary production, including the organic matter that was consumed for respiration, and net primary production, minus the plants used for respiration. The net productivity of the community is the rate of accumulation of organic matter not consumed by heterotrophs. Finally, the rate of energy accumulation at the consumer level is called secondary productivity. In accordance with the second principle, the flow of energy decreases with each step, since during the transformation of one form of energy into another, part of the energy is lost in the form of heat. “In more fertile coastal waters, primary production is confined to the upper water layer about 30 m thick, while in cleaner but poorer open sea waters, the primary production zone can extend down to 100 m and below. This is why coastal waters appear dark green, and oceanic - blue" (Ibid., p. 70).

Part of the energy used for respiration, i.e., for maintaining structure, is large in populations of large organisms and in mature communities. The efficiency of natural systems is much lower than the efficiency of electric motors and other engines. In living systems, a lot of "fuel" goes to "repair", which is not taken into account when calculating the efficiency of engines. Any increase in the efficiency of biological systems results in an increase in the cost of maintaining them. The ecological system is a machine from which it is impossible to "squeeze" more than it is capable of giving. There is always a limit, after which the efficiency gains are canceled out by increased costs and the risk of destroying the system.

Man should not strive to receive more than one third of gross (or half of net) production if he is not ready to supply energy to replace those "self-service mechanisms" that have developed in nature to ensure the long-term maintenance of primary production in the biosphere. Direct removal by humans or domestic animals of more than 30-50% of annual vegetation growth can reduce the ability of an ecosystem to resist stress.

One of the limits of the biosphere is the gross output of photosynthesis, and man will have to adjust his needs to it until he can prove that the assimilation of energy by photosynthesis can be greatly increased without endangering the balance of other, more important resources of the life cycle.

The harvest obtained by man is 1% of the net, or 0,5% of the total primary production of the biosphere, if only human food consumption is taken into account. Together with domestic animals, this is 6% of the net production of the biosphere or 12% of the net production of land.

The energy that a person spends in order to get a larger crop is called additional energy. It is necessary for industrialized agriculture, as it is required by cultures created specifically for it. "Industrialized (fossil-energy) agriculture (such as that practiced in Japan) can produce 4 times more yield per hectare than agriculture in which all the work is done by people and domestic animals (as in India), but it requires 10 times more expenditure of various kinds of resources and energy" (Ibid., p. 526). The so-called energy "subsidies" correspond to the law of diminishing returns of A. Turgot - T. Malthus, formulated as follows: "Increase in the specific energy input into the agricultural system does not give an adequate proportional increase in its productivity (yield)".

Closure of production cycles in terms of the energy-entropy parameter is theoretically impossible, since the course of energy processes (in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics) is accompanied by energy degradation and an increase in the entropy of the natural environment. The action of the second law of thermodynamics is expressed in the fact that energy transformations go in one direction, in contrast to the cyclic movement of substances.

In Yu. Odum's formulation, the second law of thermodynamics is valid at least for the current state of the "man - natural environment" system, since the existence of this system is completely dependent on the influx of solar energy. We are witnessing that an increase in the level of organization and diversity of a cultural system reduces its entropy, but increases the entropy of the natural environment, causing its degradation. To what extent can these consequences of the second principle be eliminated? There are two ways. The first is to reduce the loss of energy used by man during its various transformations. This path is effective to the extent that it does not lead to a decrease in the stability of systems through which the energy flows (as is known, in ecological systems, an increase in the number of trophic levels contributes to an increase in their stability, but at the same time, an increase in energy losses passing through the system) . The second way consists in the transition from increasing the orderliness of the cultural system to increasing the orderliness of the entire biosphere. Society in this case increases the organization of the natural environment by reducing the organization of that part of nature that is outside the biosphere of the Earth.

1.3. Biogeochemical cycles

Unlike energy, which, once used by the body, turns into heat and is lost to the ecosystem, substances circulate in the biosphere, which is called biogeochemical cycles. Of the more than ninety elements found in nature, about forty are needed by living organisms. The most important for them and required in large quantities: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen. Oxygen enters the atmosphere as a result of photosynthesis and is consumed by organisms during respiration. Nitrogen is removed from the atmosphere through the activity of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and returned to it by other bacteria.

Cycles of elements and substances are carried out through self-regulating processes in which all components of ecosystems participate. These processes are non-waste. Nothing in nature is useless or harmful; even from volcanic eruptions there is a benefit, since the necessary elements, such as nitrogen, enter the air with volcanic gases.

There is a law of global closure of the biogeochemical circulation in the biosphere, which is valid at all stages of its development, as well as a rule for increasing the closure of the biogeochemical circulation in the course of succession. In the process of evolution of the biosphere, the role of the biological component in the closure of the biogeochemical cycle increases. Humans play an even greater role in the biogeochemical cycle. But its role is carried out in the opposite direction. Man violates the existing cycles of substances, and this manifests his geological force, which is destructive in relation to the biosphere today.

When life appeared on Earth more than 2 billion years ago, the atmosphere consisted of volcanic gases. It had a lot of carbon dioxide and little if any oxygen, and the first organisms were anaerobic. Since production on average exceeded respiration, over geological time oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere and carbon dioxide content decreased. Now the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing as a result of burning large amounts of fossil fuels and reducing the absorption capacity of the "green belt". The latter is the result of a decrease in the number of green plants themselves, and is also due to the fact that dust and pollutants in the atmosphere reflect the rays entering the atmosphere.

As a result of anthropogenic activity, the degree of isolation of biogeochemical cycles decreases. Although it is quite high (it is not the same for various elements and substances), it is nevertheless not absolute, which is shown by the example of the emergence of an oxygen atmosphere. Otherwise, evolution would be impossible (the highest degree of closeness of biogeochemical cycles is observed in tropical ecosystems - the most ancient and conservative).

Thus, we should not talk about man changing what should not change, but rather about his influence on the speed and direction of changes and on the expansion of their boundaries, violating the rule of measure for the transformation of nature. The latter is formulated as follows: during the operation of natural systems, certain limits must not be exceeded that allow these systems to retain their self-maintenance properties. Violation of the measure both upwards and downwards leads to negative results. For example, an excess of applied fertilizers is just as harmful as a deficiency. This sense of proportion has been lost by modern man, who believes that everything is allowed to him in the biosphere.

Hopes for overcoming environmental difficulties are associated, in particular, with the development and commissioning of closed technological cycles. It is considered desirable to organize the cycles of transformation of materials created by man so that they are similar to the natural cycles of the circulation of substances. Then the problems of providing humanity with irreplaceable resources and the problem of protecting the natural environment from pollution would be simultaneously solved, since now only 1-2% of the weight of natural resources is utilized in the final product.

Theoretically closed cycles of substance transformation are possible. However, a complete and final restructuring of the industry according to the principle of the circulation of matter in nature is not realistic. At least a temporary violation of the closedness of the technological cycle is almost inevitable, for example, when creating a synthetic material with new properties unknown to nature. Such a substance is first comprehensively tested in practice, and only then can methods of its decomposition be developed in order to introduce constituent parts into natural cycles.

1.4. Community Organization

It follows from the material of the previous section that the constituent parts of ecosystems are interconnected and act, as it were, according to a single plan. In other words, an organization takes place in ecosystems, just as it exists in a separate organism or society. In ecology, organization (more precisely, self-organization) is considered at two levels - at the level of communities and at the level of populations.

The concept of community has a different meaning in ecology than in the humanities, when, say, one speaks of the world community in the sense of the totality of states and people living on the planet. The concept of a community does not coincide with the concept of a geographical territory, in the sense that several communities can exist on one territory.

Usually, a community consists of several species with a high abundance and many species with a small abundance. More diversity means longer food chains, more symbiosis, and more opportunities for negative feedback to act, which reduces fluctuations and therefore increases the stability of systems. Under stress, the number of rare species decreases.

Border zones between two or more communities, such as between a forest and a meadow, are called an ecotone. The tendency to increase the diversity and density of living organisms at the boundaries of communities is called the edge effect. Organisms that predominantly live, are most numerous, or spend most of their time at the boundaries between communities are called "border" species.

Individual species or groups of species that take a significant part in the regulation of energy metabolism and have a significant impact on the habitat of other species are known as ecological dominants. Nature creates natural means of protection against the predominance of any population. For example, predators prevent one species from monopolizing the basic conditions of existence. Man, acting himself as a super-predator, causes the opposite effect, reducing diversity and promoting the development of monocultures. With the creation of agricultural systems, man is reaching a level that no other animal has reached - the level of food production. But this does not stop the natural defenses against the predominance of dominant species, and monocultures are attacked by sharply increasing populations of so-called agricultural pests. There is not only a population explosion in the population, but also in the number of pests with which a person is forced to fight, using chemical means to protect artificial ecosystems. But pesticides act not only on individual species, as a person would like, but on all living things, including species that destroy pests. The effect is the opposite: the number of the species that they wanted to get rid of does not decrease, but grows, and besides, environmental pollution occurs. Pesticides used by humans do not dissipate as they move along the food chain, but accumulate (the so-called biological accumulation). An example is DDT.

Selection for the yield of edible plant parts is not necessarily associated with an increase in primary production. In terms of gross productivity, cultural systems are not necessarily superior to natural ones. Nature seeks to increase gross, and man - net production. For example, an increase in the yield of wheat varieties is accompanied by a decrease in the yield of "straw", which, providing strength, is a means of plant self-defense. Selecting plants for fast growth and nutritional value makes them more susceptible to insect pests and diseases. This is another difficulty facing man. A particular solution to one problem leads to the emergence of others. A chain is formed: a natural ecosystem? monoculture? pest breeding? pollution? decrease in plant resistance.

The question arises: is this "problem shift" a means of protecting the biosphere from the dominance of the human population? This question, like everything related to man, is very complicated, since man is a unique species on Earth and there is no one to compare him with, which science usually does when formulating the laws of nature.

1.5. Organization at the population level

Organization at the population level is associated mainly with the regulation of the number and density of populations. Population density is a value determined by the number of individuals or biomass in relation to a unit of space. There are upper and lower limits for population sizes. The ability of a population to increase is characterized by fertility. There is a maximum birth rate (sometimes called absolute or physiological) - a theoretically possible number of individuals under ideal conditions, when reproduction is limited only by physiological factors (for a given population this is a constant value), and ecological, or realizable, birth rate.

In relation to the population, three ages are distinguished: pre-reproductive, reproductive and post-reproductive. There is a stable age distribution constant. Small organisms have a short life cycle, while large ones have a longer one. There is a compensatory mechanism, when high survival causes a high probability of a decrease in survival in subsequent years.

Organization at the population level cannot be understood without considering the ecosystem as a whole, and vice versa. The distribution of individuals in a population can be random (when the environment is homogeneous, and organisms do not tend to unite in groups), uniform (when there is strong competition between individuals, contributing to uniform distribution in space) and group (in the form of clusters, which occurs most often).

There are two opposite processes in the population - isolation and aggregation. Isolation factors - competition between individuals for food with its lack and direct antagonism. This leads to a uniform or random distribution of individuals. Competition is the interaction of two organisms striving for the same thing (food, space, etc.). Competition is intra- and interspecific. Interspecific competition is an important factor in the development of ecosystems as integrity of a higher rank.

Two consequences of aggregation: an increase in intraspecific competition and an increase in mutual assistance that contributes to the survival of the group as a whole. "In individuals united in a group, compared with single individuals, a decrease in mortality is often observed during unfavorable periods or when attacked by other organisms, since in the group the surface of their contact with the environment in relation to the mass is smaller and since the group is able to change the microclimate or microenvironment in a favorable environment for direction" (Yu. Odum. Fundamentals ... p. 269). The positive effect of grouping on survival is best expressed in animals. Ollie found that fish in a group can tolerate a higher dose of poison introduced into the water than isolated individuals. In human society, the impact of socialization is even stronger.

An individual or family site that is actively defended is called a territory. Territoriality is most pronounced in vertebrates. To protect the territory, the instinct of aggression is required, which K. Lorenz calls the main one in animals. The size of the site varies from centimeters to many square kilometers, like a cougar. Individuals of different ages may behave differently. In adults, territoriality is more pronounced, and young people tend to unite in groups.

Periodic departure and return to a given territory is called migration, and the place where the organism lives is called its habitat. The ecological term "niche" is analogous to the genetic term "phenotype". The concept of "ecological niche" includes not only the physical space, but also the functional role of organisms in the community (for example, its trophic status) and its dependence on external factors - temperature, humidity, soil, and other conditions of existence. The habitat is the "address" of the organism, the ecological niche is its "profession". To study an organism, one must know not only its address, but also its profession.

The basic taxonomic unit in biology is the species. A species is a natural biological unit, all members of which are connected by participation in a common gene pool.

In nature, there is divergence - an increase in differences between closely related species (if they live in the same geographical areas) - and convergence - a decrease in differences under the influence of the evolutionary process (if species live in different geographical areas). Divergence enhances niche shifts, thus reducing competition and creating more species diversity in the community. The factor of speciation is not only separation in space, but also the division of ecological niches in one place. This leads to ecological selection.

The person himself becomes a selection factor. Noticed "industrial melanism": the predominance of dark color in some butterflies recorded in the industrial regions of England. This is probably due to the fact that birds of prey selectively destroy individuals that do not have protective coloration. Artificial selection carried out by man affects himself. Perhaps the emergence of ancient civilizations is associated with the domestication of animals and plants, not only in the sense that they served as a means of subsistence, but in the sense of communication. Y. Odum notes that “domestication as a purposeful human activity may not achieve its goals if the previously existing feedbacks established as a result of natural selection and violated by artificial selection are not compensated by purposeful (i.e. reasonable) artificial feedback" (Ibid., p. 316).

Factors that hinder population growth are arranged sequentially: predators, parasites, infections, and intraspecific competition. If these are herbivores, then instead of predators, the amount of food consumed acts at the first stage. In relation to humans, the question of whether natural mechanisms for reducing the number of its population with its increase still remains open. It can be assumed that nature responds to the dominance of the human population with new viruses that lead to new diseases and are resistant to poisons used consciously or not. Society itself wants to return to population regulation, both unconsciously and consciously (the so-called family planning). What will be the overall result, the future will show.

TOPIC 2. BASIC LAWS AND PRINCIPLES OF ENVIRONMENT

The task of ecology, like any other science, is to search for the laws of functioning and development of a given area of ​​reality. Historically, the first for ecology was the law establishing the dependence of living systems on factors limiting their development (the so-called limiting factors).

2.1. Law of the Minimum

J. Liebig in 1840 found that the grain yield is often limited not by those nutrients that are required in large quantities, but by those that are needed in small quantities, but which are scarce in the soil. The law formulated by him read: "The substance, which is at a minimum, controls the crop and determines the magnitude and stability of the latter in time." Subsequently, a number of other factors were added to the nutrients, such as temperature.

The operation of this law is limited by two principles. First, Liebig's law is strictly applicable only under steady state conditions. A more precise formulation: "in a stationary state, the limiting substance will be the substance whose available quantities are closest to the required minimum." The second principle concerns the interaction of factors. A high concentration or availability of a certain substance can change the intake of a minimal nutrient. The body sometimes replaces one, deficient substance with another, available in excess.

The following law is formulated in ecology itself and generalizes the law of the minimum.

2.2. Law of Tolerance

It is formulated as follows: the absence or impossibility of ecosystem development is determined not only by a deficiency, but also by an excess of any of the factors (heat, light, water). Consequently, organisms are characterized by both an ecological minimum and a maximum. Too much of a good thing is also bad. The range between the two values ​​is the limits of tolerance, in which the body normally responds to the influence of the environment. The law of tolerance was proposed by W. Shelford in 1913. We can formulate a number of proposals that complement it:

1. Organisms can have a wide range of tolerance for one factor and a narrow range for another.

2. Organisms with a wide range of tolerance to all factors are usually the most widely distributed.

3. If the conditions for one ecological factor are not optimal for the species, then the range of tolerance to other environmental factors may narrow.

4. In nature, organisms very often find themselves in conditions that do not correspond to the optimal value of one or another factor, determined in the laboratory.

5. The breeding season is usually critical; during this period, many environmental factors often turn out to be limiting.

Living organisms change environmental conditions in order to weaken the limiting influence of physical factors. Species with a wide geographical distribution form populations adapted to local conditions, which are called ecotypes. Their optima and tolerance limits correspond to local conditions. Depending on whether ecotypes are genetically fixed, one can speak of the formation of genetic races or of simple physiological acclimation.

2.3. General concept of limiting factors

The most important factors on land are light, temperature, and water (precipitation), while in the sea, light, temperature, and salinity. These physical conditions of existence can be limiting and beneficial. All environmental factors depend on each other and act in concert.

Other limiting factors include atmospheric gases (carbon dioxide, oxygen) and biogenic salts. Formulating the "law of the minimum", Liebig had in mind the limiting effect of vital chemical elements present in the environment in small and intermittent quantities. They are called trace elements and include iron, copper, zinc, boron, silicon, molybdenum, chlorine, vanadium, cobalt, iodine, sodium. Many trace elements, like vitamins, act as catalysts. Phosphorus, potassium, calcium, sulfur, magnesium, required by organisms in large quantities, are called macronutrients.

An important limiting factor in modern conditions is environmental pollution. It occurs as a result of the introduction into the environment of substances that either did not exist in it (metals, new synthesized chemicals) and which do not decompose at all, or that exist in the biosphere (for example, carbon dioxide), but are introduced in excessively large quantities that do not allow process them naturally. Figuratively speaking, pollutants are resources out of place. Pollution leads to an undesirable change in the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the environment, which has an adverse effect on ecosystems and humans. The price of pollution is health, the price including, in the literal sense, the cost of its restoration. Pollution is increasing both as a result of the growth of the population and its needs, and as a result of the use of new technologies that serve these needs. It is chemical, thermal, noise.

The main limiting factor, according to J. Odum, is the size and quality of "oikos", or our "natural abode", and not just the number of calories that can be squeezed out of the earth. The landscape is not only a warehouse of supplies, but also the house in which we live. "We should strive to keep at least one third of all land as protected open space. This means that a third of our entire habitat should be national or local parks, reserves, green spaces, wilderness areas, etc." (Yu. Odum. Basics ... p. 541). Restriction of land use is analogous to a natural regulatory mechanism called territorial behavior. Many animal species use this mechanism to avoid crowding and the stress it causes.

The territory required by one person, according to various estimates, ranges from 1 to 5 hectares. The second of these figures exceeds the area that now falls on one inhabitant of the Earth. The population density is approaching one person per 2 hectares of land. Only 24% of the land is suitable for agriculture. “While an area of ​​just 0,12 hectares can provide enough calories to support the existence of one person, about 0,6 hectares per person is needed for a nutritious diet with lots of meat, fruits and greens. In addition, you need about 0,4 more ha for the production of various types of fibers (paper, wood, cotton) and another 0,2 ha for roads, airports, buildings, etc." (Yu. Odum. Basics ... p. 539). Hence the concept of the "golden billion", according to which the optimal population is 1 billion people, and therefore, there are already about 5 billion "extra people". Man, for the first time in his history, faced limiting rather than local limitations.

Overcoming the limiting factors requires huge expenditures of matter and energy. Doubling the yield requires a tenfold increase in the amount of fertilizer, pesticides and power (animals or machines).

Population size is also a limiting factor. This is summarized in Ollie's principle: "the degree of aggregation (as well as overall density) at which optimal population growth and survival occurs varies with species and conditions, so both 'underpopulation' (or lack of aggregation) and overpopulation may have a limiting effect." Some ecologists believe that Ollie's principle applies to humans. If so, then there is a need to determine the maximum size of cities that are rapidly growing at the present time.

2.4. Law of competitive exclusion

This law is formulated as follows: two species occupying the same ecological niche cannot coexist in one place indefinitely. Which species wins depends on external conditions. In similar conditions, everyone can win. An important circumstance for victory is the rate of population growth. The inability of a species to biotic competition leads to its displacement and the need to adapt to more difficult conditions and factors.

The law of competitive exclusion can also work in human society. The peculiarity of its action at the present time is that civilizations cannot disperse. They have nowhere to leave their territory, because in the biosphere there is no free space for settling and there is no excess of resources, which leads to an aggravation of the struggle with all the ensuing consequences. We can talk about ecological rivalry between countries and even ecological wars or wars caused by ecological reasons. At one time, Hitler justified the aggressive policy of Nazi Germany by the struggle for living space. Resources of oil, coal, etc. were important even then. They will have even greater weight in the XNUMXst century. In addition, the need for territories for the disposal of radioactive and other waste was added. Wars - hot and cold - take on ecological overtones. Many events in modern history, such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, are perceived in a new way, if you look at them from an ecological perspective. One civilization can not only conquer another, but use it for selfish purposes from an ecological point of view. This will be ecological colonialism. This is how political, social and environmental issues intertwine.

2.5. Basic law of ecology

One of the main achievements of ecology was the discovery that not only organisms and species develop, but also ecosystems. The sequence of communities that replace each other in a given area is called succession. Succession occurs as a result of a change in the physical environment under the influence of the community, i.e., it is controlled by it. Substitution of species in ecosystems is caused by the fact that populations, seeking to modify the environment, create conditions favorable for other populations; this continues until an equilibrium is reached between the biotic and abiotic components. The development of ecosystems is in many respects similar to the development of an individual organism and, at the same time, similar to the development of the biosphere as a whole.

Succession in the energetic sense is associated with a fundamental shift in the flow of energy towards an increase in the amount of energy aimed at maintaining the system. Succession consists of stages of growth, stabilization and menopause. They can be distinguished on the basis of the productivity criterion: at the first stage, production grows to a maximum, at the second it remains constant, at the third it decreases to zero as the system degrades.

Most interesting is the difference between growing and mature systems, which can be summarized in the following table.

Pay attention to the inverse relationship between entropy and information, and also to the fact that the development of ecosystems is in the direction of increasing their sustainability, achieved through increased diversity. Extending this conclusion to the entire biosphere, we get the answer to the question why 2 million species are needed. One can think (as it was believed before the emergence of ecology) that evolution leads to the replacement of some less complex species by others, up to man as the crown of nature. Less complex types, having given way to more complex ones, become unnecessary. Ecology has destroyed this myth convenient for humans. Now it is clear why it is dangerous, as modern man does, to reduce the diversity of nature.

One- and even two-species communities are very unstable. Instability means that large fluctuations in population density can occur. This circumstance determines the evolution of the ecosystem to a mature state. At the mature stage, feedback regulation increases, which is aimed at maintaining the stability of the system.

High productivity gives low reliability - this is another formulation of the basic law of ecology, from which the following rule follows: "optimal efficiency is always less than maximum." Diversity, in accordance with the basic law of ecology, is directly related to sustainability. However, it is not yet known to what extent this relationship is causal.

The direction of the evolution of the community leads to an increase in symbiosis, the preservation of biogenic substances, and an increase in the stability and content of information. The overall strategy "is aimed at achieving as extensive and diverse an organic structure as possible within the boundaries established by the available energy influx and the prevailing physical conditions of existence (soil, water, climate, etc.)" (Yu. Odum. Fundamentals ... p. 332).

The ecosystem strategy is "the greatest protection", the human strategy is "maximum production". Society seeks to obtain the maximum yield from the developed territory and, in order to achieve its goal, creates artificial ecosystems, and also slows down the development of ecosystems in the early stages of succession, where the maximum yield can be harvested. Ecosystems themselves tend to develop in the direction of achieving maximum stability. Natural systems require low efficiency to maintain maximum energy output, rapid growth, and high stability. By reversing the development of ecosystems and thereby bringing them into an unstable state, a person is forced to maintain "order" in the system, and the costs of this may exceed the benefits obtained by transferring the ecosystem into an unstable state. Any increase in the efficiency of an ecosystem by humans leads to an increase in the cost of maintaining it, up to some limit, when further increase in efficiency is unprofitable due to too large an increase in costs. Thus, it is necessary to achieve not the maximum, but the optimal efficiency of ecosystems, so that an increase in their productivity does not lead to a loss of stability and the result is economically justified.

In stable ecosystems, the losses of energy passing through them are great. And ecosystems that lose less energy (systems with fewer trophic levels) are less resilient. What systems should be developed? It is necessary to determine such an optimal variant in which the ecosystem is sufficiently stable and at the same time the energy loss in it is not too large.

As the history of human transformation activity and the science of ecology show, all extreme options, as a rule, are not the best. With regard to pastures, both "overgrazing" (leading, according to scientists, to the death of civilizations) and "undergrazing" of livestock are bad. The latter occurs because, in the absence of direct consumption of living plants, detritus can accumulate faster than it is decomposed by microorganisms, and this slows down the circulation of minerals.

This example lends itself to more general considerations. Human impact on the natural environment is often accompanied by a decrease in diversity in nature. Through this, the maximization of the harvest and the increase in the possibilities of managing this part of nature are achieved. In accordance with the law of necessary diversity formulated in cybernetics, humanity has two options for increasing the ability to manage the natural environment: either reduce the diversity in it, or increase its internal diversity (by developing culture, improving the mental and psychosomatic qualities of the person himself). The second way is, of course, preferable. Diversity in nature is a necessity, not just a seasoning for life. The ease of the first way is deceptive, although it is widely used. The question is to what extent the increase in the ability to manage ecosystems by reducing the diversity in nature compensates for the decrease in the ability of ecosystems to self-regulate. Again, an optimum must be found between the needs of management at the moment and the needs of maintaining diversity in the natural environment.

The problem of optimizing the relationship between man and the natural environment has another important aspect. The practice of human nature-transformation activity confirms the position that there is a close relationship between changes in the natural environment and human. Therefore, the problem of managing the natural environment can be considered in a certain sense as the problem of managing the biological evolution of man through changes in the natural environment. Modern man can influence his biology both genetically (genetic engineering) and ecologically (through changes in the natural environment). The presence of a connection between ecological processes and the processes of human biological evolution requires that the ecological problem is also considered from the point of view of how we want to see the man of the future. This area is very exciting for both scientists and science fiction writers, but not only technical, but also social and moral problems arise here.

Optimization is a scientific and technical term. But is it possible to find a solution to the problems discussed above within the framework of exclusively science and technology? No, science and technology itself should have general cultural and social guidelines, which are concretized by them. In solving optimization problems, science and technology are a kind of tool, and before using it, you need to decide how and for what purposes to use it.

Even seemingly simple cases of calculating the optimal options for using, say, a resource depend on which optimization criterion is used. K. Watt describes an example of optimizing a water basin system, in accordance with which there is a complete exhaustion of resources in the shortest possible time (K. Watt. Ecology and management of natural resources. M., 1971, p. 412). The example shows the importance of the optimization criterion. But the latter depends on priorities, and they are different for different social groups. It is quite understandable that the criteria are especially different when it comes to optimizing the biological evolution of man himself (one rather vague criterion of optimization can be more or less firmly named - the preservation and development of the biosphere and the human race).

In nature, there are, as it were, natural forces of stratification that lead to the complexity of ecosystems and the creation of ever greater diversity. Acting against these forces pushes ecosystems back. Diversity naturally grows, but not any, but integrated. If a species enters an ecosystem, then it can destroy its stability (as a person does now), if it is not integrated into it. There is an interesting analogy here between the development of an ecosystem and the development of an organism and human society.

2.6. Some other laws and principles important for ecology

Among the laws of nature, there are laws of a deterministic type common in science, which strictly regulate the relationship between the components of an ecosystem, but most are laws as tendencies that do not work in all cases. They resemble, in a sense, legal laws, which do not hinder the development of society if they are occasionally violated by a certain number of people, but hinder normal development if the violations become massive. There are also laws-aphorisms that can be attributed to the type of laws as a restriction of diversity:

1. The law of emergence: the whole always has special properties that its parts do not have.

2. The law of necessary diversity: a system cannot consist of absolutely identical elements, but can have a hierarchical organization and integrative levels.

3. The law of irreversibility of evolution: an organism (population, species) cannot return to its previous state, realized in the series of its ancestors.

4. The law of organization complication: the historical development of living organisms leads to the complication of their organization through the differentiation of organs and functions.

5. The biogenetic law (E. Haeckel): the ontogeny of an organism is a brief repetition of the phylogenesis of a given species, i.e., an individual in his development repeats in abbreviated form the historical development of his species.

6. The law of uneven development of parts of the system: systems of the same level of hierarchy do not develop strictly synchronously - while some reach a higher stage of development, others remain in a less developed state. This law is directly related to the law of necessary variety.

7. The law of conservation of life: life can exist only in the process of movement through the living body of the flow of substances, energy, information.

8. The principle of maintaining order (I. Prigogine): in open systems, entropy does not increase, but decreases until a minimum constant value is reached, which is always greater than zero.

9. The principle of Le Chatelier - Brown: with an external influence that brings the system out of a state of stable equilibrium, this equilibrium is shifted in the direction in which the effect of the external influence is weakened. This principle within the biosphere is violated by modern man. “If at the end of the last century there was still an increase in biological productivity and biomass in response to an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, then since the beginning of our century this phenomenon has not been detected. On the contrary, biota emits carbon dioxide, and its biomass automatically decreases” (N. F Reimers, Hope... p. 55).

10. The principle of energy saving (L. Onsager): with the probability of the development of the process in a certain set of directions allowed by the principles of thermodynamics, the one that provides a minimum of energy dissipation is realized.

11. The law of maximizing energy and information: the system that is most conducive to the receipt, production and efficient use of energy and information has the best chance of self-preservation; the maximum intake of a substance does not guarantee the system success in the competitive struggle.

12. Periodic law of geographical zoning of A. A. Grigorieva - N. N. Budyko: with the change of the physiographic zones of the Earth, similar landscape zones and some general properties periodically repeat, i.e. in each zone - subarctic, temperate, subtropical, tropical and equatorial - there is a change of zones according to the scheme: forests? steppes? desert.

13. The law of system development at the expense of the environment: any system can develop only through the use of the material, energy and information capabilities of its environment; absolutely isolated self-development is impossible.

14. The principle of refraction of the acting factor in the hierarchy of systems: the factor acting on the system is refracted through the entire hierarchy of its subsystems. Due to the presence of "filters" in the system, this factor is either weakened or enhanced.

15. The rule of attenuation of processes: with an increase in the degree of equilibrium with the environment or internal homeostasis (in the case of isolation of the system), the dynamic processes in the system decay.

16. The law of physical and chemical unity of living matter by V. I. Vernadsky: all living matter of the Earth is physically and chemically one, which does not exclude biogeochemical differences.

17. Thermodynamic rule of van't Hoff - Arrhenius: a rise in temperature by 10 ° C leads to a two-three-fold acceleration of chemical processes. Hence the danger of an increase in temperature due to the economic activity of modern man.

18. Schrödinger's rule "about nutrition" of an organism with negative entropy: the orderliness of the organism is higher than the environment, and the organism gives more disorder to this environment than it receives. This rule correlates with Prigogine's principle of maintaining order.

19. Rule of acceleration of evolution: with the growth of the complexity of the organization of biosystems, the duration of the existence of a species on average decreases, and the rate of evolution increases. The average duration of the existence of a bird species is 2 million years, of a mammalian species - 800 thousand years. The number of extinct species of birds and mammals in comparison with their total number is large.

20. The principle of genetic pre-adaptation: the ability to adapt in organisms is inherent and due to the practical inexhaustibility of the genetic code. Variants necessary for adaptation are always found in genetic diversity.

21. The rule of the origin of new species from non-specialized ancestors: new large groups of organisms do not originate from specialized representatives of ancestors, but from their relatively non-specialized groups.

22. Darwin's principle of divergence: the phylogeny of any group is accompanied by its division into a number of phylogenetic trunks, which diverge in different adaptive directions from the average initial state.

23. The principle of progressive specialization: a group embarking on the path of specialization, as a rule, in its further development will follow the path of ever deeper specialization.

24. The rule of higher chances of extinction of deeply specialized forms (O. Marsh): more specialized forms die out faster, the genetic reserves of which for further adaptation are reduced.

25. The law of increasing the size (height) and weight (mass) of organisms in the phylogenetic branch. “V. I. Vernadsky formulated this law in the following way: “As geological time progresses, the surviving forms increase their size (and, consequently, their weight) and then die out.” This happens because the smaller the individuals, the more difficult it is for them to resist the processes of entropy (leading to a uniform distribution of energy), to regularly organize energy flows for the implementation of vital functions. Evolutionarily, the size of individuals therefore increases (although it is a very stable morphophysiological phenomenon in a short time interval)" (N. F. Reimers. Nadezhdy ... p. 69).

26. Ch. Darwin's axiom of adaptability: each species is adapted to a strictly defined, specific set of conditions of existence for it.

27. Ecological rule of S. S. Schwartz: each change in the conditions of existence directly or indirectly causes corresponding changes in the ways of implementing the energy balance of the organism.

28. The law of relative independence of adaptation: high adaptability to one of the environmental factors does not give the same degree of adaptation to other living conditions (on the contrary, it can limit these possibilities due to the physiological and morphological characteristics of organisms).

29. The law of unity "organism-environment": life develops as a result of constant exchange of matter and information based on the flow of energy in the total unity of the environment and the organisms inhabiting it.

30. The rule of compliance of environmental conditions with the genetic predestination of the organism: a species can exist as long as and insofar as its environment corresponds to the genetic possibilities of adapting this species to its fluctuations and changes.

31. The law of maximum biogenic energy (entropy) of V. I. Vernadsky - E. S. Bauer: any biological or bio-inert system, being in dynamic equilibrium with the environment and developing evolutionarily, increases its impact on the environment, if this is not prevented by external factors .

32. The law of pressure of the environment of life, or limited growth (C. Darwin): there are restrictions that prevent the offspring of one pair of individuals, multiplying exponentially, from capturing the entire globe.

33. The principle of minimum population size: there is a minimum population size below which its population cannot fall.

34. The rule of representation of a genus by one species: in homogeneous conditions and in a limited area, a taxonomic genus, as a rule, is represented by only one species. Apparently, this is due to the proximity of the ecological niches of species of the same genus.

35. A. Wallace's rule: as you move from north to south, species diversity increases. The reason is that the northern biocenoses are historically younger and are in conditions of less energy from the Sun.

36. The law of depletion of living matter in its island concentrations (G.F. Khilmi): "an individual system operating in an environment with a level of organization lower than the level of the system itself is doomed: gradually losing structure, the system will dissolve in the environment after a while "(G.F. Khilmi. Fundamentals of Biosphere Physics. L., 1966, p. 272). This leads to an important conclusion for human environmental activities: the artificial preservation of small ecosystems (in a limited area, such as a nature reserve) leads to their gradual destruction and does not ensure the conservation of species and communities.

37. The law of the pyramid of energies (R. Lindemann): from one trophic level of the ecological pyramid passes to another, higher level, on average, about 10% of the energy received at the previous level. The reverse flow from higher to lower levels is much weaker - no more than 0,5-0,25%, and therefore it is not necessary to talk about the energy cycle in the biocenosis.

38. The rule of biological amplification: when moving to a higher level of the ecological pyramid, the accumulation of a number of substances, including toxic and radioactive ones, increases in approximately the same proportion.

39. The rule of ecological duplication: an extinct or destroyed species within one level of the ecological pyramid replaces another, similar according to the scheme: a small one replaces a large one, a lower organized one - a more highly organized one, more genetically labile and mutable - less genetically variable. Individuals are crushed, but the total amount of biomass increases, since elephants will never give the same biomass and production per unit area that locusts and even smaller invertebrates can give.

40. The rule of biocenotic reliability: the reliability of a biocenosis depends on its energy efficiency in given environmental conditions and the possibility of structural and functional restructuring in response to changes in external influences.

41. The rule of obligatory filling of ecological niches: an empty ecological niche is always and necessarily naturally filled ("nature does not tolerate emptiness").

42. The rule of ecotone, or edge effect: at the junctions of biocenoses, the number of species and individuals in them increases, as the number of ecological niches increases due to the emergence of new systemic properties at the junctions.

43. The rule of mutual adaptation of organisms in the biocenosis of K. Möbius - G. F. Morozov: species in the biocenosis are adapted to each other so that their community is an internally contradictory, but a single and interconnected whole.

44. The principle of ecosystem formation: long-term existence of organisms is possible only within the framework of ecological systems, where their components and elements complement each other and are mutually adapted.

45. The law of successional deceleration: processes occurring in mature equilibrium ecosystems that are in a stable state, as a rule, tend to slow down.

46. ​​The rule of maximum energy to maintain a mature system: succession is in the direction of a fundamental shift in the flow of energy in the direction of increasing its amount, aimed at maintaining the system.

47. The law of historical self-development of biosystems (E. Bauer): the development of biological systems is the result of an increase in their external work - the impact of these systems on the environment.

48. The rule of constancy of the number of species in the biosphere: the number of emerging species is on average equal to the number of extinct ones, and the total species diversity in the biosphere is a constant. This rule is true for the formed biosphere.

49. The rule of plurality of ecosystems: the plurality of competitively interacting ecosystems is indispensable for maintaining the reliability of the biosphere.

From these ecological laws, conclusions follow that are fair for the "man - natural environment" system. They refer to the type of law as a restriction of diversity, i.e., they impose restrictions on the nature-transforming activity of man.

1. The rule of historical growth of production due to the successional rejuvenation of ecosystems. This rule, in essence, follows from the basic law of ecology and now ceases to work, since man thus took everything he could from nature.

2. Law of the boomerang: everything that is extracted from the biosphere by human labor must be returned to it.

3. The law of the indispensability of the biosphere: the biosphere cannot be replaced by an artificial environment, just as, say, new types of life cannot be created. A person cannot build a perpetual motion machine, while the biosphere is practically a "perpetual" motion machine.

4. The law of diminishing natural fertility: "due to the constant withdrawal of crops, and therefore organic matter and chemical elements from the soil, violation of the natural processes of soil formation, as well as long-term monoculture as a result of the accumulation of toxic substances released by plants (soil self-poisoning), on cultivated lands there is a decrease in the natural fertility of soils ... to date, about half of the arable land in the world has lost fertility to varying degrees, and the same amount of land has completely disappeared from intensive agricultural circulation as it is now cultivated (in the 80s, about 7 million hectares were lost per year )" (N. F. Reimers. Hopes ... p. 160-161). The second interpretation of the law of diminishing natural fertility is given in chapter 1: each subsequent addition of any factor beneficial to the body gives a smaller effect than the result obtained from the previous dose of the same factor.

5. The law of shagreen leather: the global initial natural resource potential is continuously depleted in the course of historical development. This follows from the fact that there are currently no fundamentally new resources that could appear. "For the life of each person per year, 200 tons of solid substances are needed, which he, with the help of 800 tons of water and an average of 1000 W of energy, turns into a product useful for himself" (Ibid., p. 163). All this man takes from what is already in nature.

6. The principle of incompleteness of information: "information when carrying out actions to transform and in general any change in nature is always insufficient for an a priori judgment about all the possible results of such actions, especially in the long term, when all natural chain reactions develop" (Ibid., p. 168) .

7. The principle of deceptive well-being: the first success in achieving the goal for which the project was conceived creates an atmosphere of complacency and makes you forget about possible negative consequences that no one expects.

8. The principle of remoteness of the event: descendants will come up with something to prevent possible negative consequences.

The question of how much the laws of ecology can be transferred to the relationship of man with the environment remains open, since man is different from all other species. For example, in most species, the rate of population growth decreases with increasing population density; in humans, on the contrary, population growth in this case accelerates. Therefore, some of the regulatory mechanisms of nature are absent in humans, and this may serve as an additional reason for technological optimism in some, and for environmental pessimists, testify to the danger of such a catastrophe, which is impossible for any other species.

Topic 3. THE DOCTRINE OF VERNADSKY ABOUT THE BIOSPHERE AND THE CONCEPT OF THE NOOSPHERE

Russian scientists made a great contribution to the development of biology in the XNUMXth century. The Russian biological school has glorious traditions. The first scientific model of the origin of life was created by AI Oparin. V. I. Vernadsky was a student of the outstanding soil scientist V. V. Dokuchaev, who created the doctrine of the soil as a kind of shell of the Earth, which is a single whole, including living and non-living components. In essence, the doctrine of the biosphere was a continuation and extension of Dokuchaev's ideas to a wider sphere of reality. The development of biology in this direction led to the creation of ecology.

The significance of Vernadsky's theory of the biosphere for ecology is determined by the fact that the biosphere is the highest level of interaction between living and nonliving things and a global ecosystem. Vernadsky's results are therefore valid for all ecosystems and are a generalization of knowledge about the development of our planet.

3.1. Vernadsky's doctrine of the biosphere

There are two main definitions of the concept of "biosphere", one of which gave rise to the use of this term. This is the understanding of the biosphere as the totality of all living organisms on Earth. V. I. Vernadsky, who studied the interaction of living and non-living systems, rethought the concept of the biosphere. He understood the biosphere as the sphere of the unity of living and non-living.

This interpretation determined Vernadsky's view of the problem of the origin of life. Of several options: 1) life arose before the formation of the Earth and was brought to it; 2) life originated after the formation of the Earth; 3) life arose along with the formation of the Earth - Vernadsky adhered to the latter and believed that there was no convincing scientific evidence that life had never existed on our planet. Life remained constant during geological time, only its form changed. In other words, the biosphere has always been on Earth.

Under the biosphere, Vernadsky understood the thin shell of the Earth, in which all processes proceed under the direct influence of living organisms. The biosphere is located at the junction of the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. In the atmosphere, the upper limits of life are determined by the ozone screen - a thin (a few millimeters) layer of ozone at an altitude of about 20 km. The ocean is inhabited by life entirely to the bottom of the deepest depressions of 10-11 km. Life penetrates up to 3 km into the solid part of the Earth (bacteria in oil fields).

Being engaged in the biogeochemistry he created, which studies the distribution of chemical elements over the surface of the planet, Vernadsky came to the conclusion that there is practically not a single element from the periodic table that would not be included in living matter. He formulated three biogeochemical principles:

1. Biogenic migration of chemical elements in the biosphere always tends to its maximum manifestation. This principle has now been violated by man.

2. The evolution of species in the course of geological time, leading to the creation of life forms stable in the biosphere, proceeds in a direction that enhances the biogenic migration of atoms. This principle, with anthropogenic grinding of medium-sized individuals of the Earth's biota (a forest is replaced by a meadow, large animals by small ones), begins to act abnormally intensively.

3. Living matter is in continuous chemical exchange with its environment, which is created and maintained on Earth by the cosmic energy of the Sun. Due to the violation of the first two principles, cosmic influences from supporting the biosphere can turn into factors that destroy it.

These geochemical principles correlate with the following important conclusions of Vernadsky: 1) each organism can exist only under the condition of constant close connection with other organisms and inanimate nature; 2) life with all its manifestations has produced profound changes on our planet. Improving in the process of evolution, living organisms increasingly spread across the planet, stimulating the redistribution of energy and matter.

3.2. Empirical generalizations of Vernadsky

1. The first conclusion from the doctrine of the biosphere is the principle of the integrity of the biosphere. "You can talk about all life, all living matter as a single whole in the mechanism of the biosphere" (V. I. Vernadsky. Biosphere ... p. 22). The structure of the Earth, according to Vernadsky, is a coordinated mechanism. "The creatures of the Earth are the creation of a complex cosmic process, a necessary and natural part of a harmonious cosmic mechanism" (Ibid., p. 11). Living matter itself is not a random creation.

The narrow limits of the existence of life - physical constants, radiation levels, etc. - confirm this. It's as if someone created the environment to make life possible. What conditions and constants do you mean? The gravitational constant, or universal gravitational constant, determines the size of stars, the temperature and pressure in them, which affect the course of reactions. If it is slightly less, the stars will not be hot enough for fusion to take place in them; if a little more - the stars will exceed the "critical mass" and turn into black holes. The strong interaction constant determines the nuclear charge in stars. If it is changed, the chains of nuclear reactions will not reach nitrogen and carbon. The electromagnetic interaction constant determines the configuration of electron shells and the strength of chemical bonds; its change makes the universe dead. This is in accordance with the anthropic principle, according to which, when creating models of the development of the world, one should take into account the reality of human existence.

Ecology has also shown that the living world is a single system, cemented by many food chains and other interdependencies. If even a small part of it dies, everything else will collapse.

2. The principle of harmony of the biosphere and its organization. In the biosphere, according to Vernadsky, "everything is taken into account and everything is adjusted with the same precision, with the same mechanicalness and with the same subordination to measure and harmony, which we see in the harmonious movements of celestial bodies and begin to see in systems of atoms of matter and atoms of energy" ( Ibid., p. 24).

3. The law of biogenic migration of atoms: in the biosphere, the migration of chemical elements occurs with the obligatory direct participation of living organisms. The biosphere in its main features represents the same chemical apparatus from the most ancient geological periods. "There is no chemical force on the earth's surface that is more constantly acting, and therefore more powerful in its final consequences, than living organisms taken as a whole ... All minerals of the upper parts of the earth's crust are free aluminosilic acids (clays), carbonates (limestones and dolomites), oxide hydrates of Fe and Al (brown iron ore and bauxites), and many hundreds of others are continuously created in it only under the influence of life" (Ibid., p. 21). The face of the Earth is actually shaped by life.

4. Cosmic role of the biosphere in energy transformation. Vernadsky emphasized the importance of energy and called living organisms the mechanisms of energy conversion. “This whole part of living nature can be considered as a further development of one and the same process of converting solar light energy into effective energy of the Earth” (Ibid., p. 22).

5. Cosmic energy causes the pressure of life, which is achieved by reproduction. The reproduction of organisms decreases as their number increases. Population sizes increase as long as the environment can withstand their further increase, after which equilibrium is reached. The number fluctuates around the equilibrium level.

6. Spreading of life is a manifestation of its geochemical energy. Living matter, like a gas, spreads over the earth's surface in accordance with the rule of inertia. Small organisms reproduce much faster than large ones. The rate of transmission of life depends on the density of living matter.

7. Life is entirely determined by the field of stability of green vegetation, and the limits of life are determined by the physicochemical properties of the compounds that build the body, their indestructibility under certain environmental conditions. The maximum field of life is determined by the extreme limits of the survival of organisms. The upper limit of life is determined by radiation, the presence of which kills life and from which the ozone shield protects. The lower limit is associated with reaching a high temperature. The interval of 433°C (from minus 252°C to plus 180°C) is (according to Vernadsky) the limiting thermal field.

8. The ubiquity of life in the biosphere. Life gradually, slowly adapting, captured the biosphere, and this capture did not end. The field of stability of life is the result of adaptation in the course of time.

9. The law of frugality in the use of simple chemical bodies by living matter: once an element enters, it goes through a long series of states, and the organism introduces into itself only the required number of elements. Forms of finding chemical elements: 1) rocks and minerals; 2) magma; 3) scattered elements; 4) living matter.

10. The constancy of the amount of living matter in the biosphere. The amount of free oxygen in the atmosphere is of the same order as the amount of living matter (1,5 × 1021g and 1020-1021g). This generalization is valid within the framework of significant geological periods of time, and it follows from the fact that living matter is an intermediary between the Sun and the Earth, and, therefore, either its quantity must be constant, or its energy characteristics must change.

11. Any system reaches a stable equilibrium when its free energy equals or approaches zero, that is, when all the work possible under the conditions of the system has been done. The concept of stable equilibrium is extremely important, and we will return to it later.

12. The idea of ​​human autotrophy. Autotrophs are called organisms that take all the chemical elements they need for life from the inert matter surrounding them and do not require ready-made compounds of another organism to build their body. The field of existence of green autotrophic organisms is determined by the area of ​​penetration of sunlight. Vernadsky formulated the idea of ​​human autotrophy, which took an interesting turn in the discussion of the problem of creating artificial ecosystems in spaceships. The simplest such ecosystem would be the "man - 1 or 2 autotrophic species" system. But this system is unstable and a multi-species life support system is needed to reliably meet the vital needs of a person.

In creating an artificial environment in spacecraft, the question is: what is the minimum diversity required for a given temporal stability? Here a person begins to set tasks that are opposite to those that he solved earlier. The creation of such artificial systems will be an important step in the development of ecology. In their construction, an engineering focus on creating a new one and an environmental focus on preserving the existing one, a creative approach and reasonable conservatism are combined. This will be the implementation of the principle of "designing with nature".

So far, the artificial biosphere is a very complex and cumbersome system. What in nature functions by itself, a person can reproduce only at the cost of great effort. But he will have to do this if he wants to explore space and make long flights. The need to create an artificial biosphere in spacecraft will help to better understand the natural biosphere.

3.3. Evolution of the biosphere

The evolution of the biosphere is studied by a branch of ecology called evolutionary ecology. Evolutionary ecology should be distinguished from ecodynamics (dynamic ecology). The latter deals with short intervals in the development of the biosphere and ecosystems, while the former deals with the development of the biosphere over a longer period of time. Thus, the study of biogeochemical cycles and succession is the task of ecodynamics, and fundamental changes in the mechanisms of the circulation of substances and in the course of succession are the task of evolutionary ecology.

One of the most important areas in the study of evolution is the study of the development of life forms. There are several stages here:

1. Cells without a nucleus, but having strands of DNA (reminiscent of today's bacteria and blue-green algae). The age of such most ancient organisms is more than 3 billion years. Their properties: 1) mobility; 2) nutrition and the ability to store food and energy; 3) protection from unwanted influences; 4) reproduction; 5) irritability; 6) adaptation to changing external conditions; 7) the ability to grow.

2. At the next stage (approximately 2 billion years ago), a nucleus appears in the cell. Single-celled organisms with a nucleus are called protozoa. There are 25-30 thousand of them. The simplest of them are amoeba. Ciliates also have cilia. The nucleus of protozoa is surrounded by a double membrane with pores and contains chromosomes and nucleoli. Fossil protozoa - radiolarians and foraminifers - are the main parts of sedimentary rocks. Many protozoa have complex locomotor apparatus.

3. Approximately 1 billion years ago, multicellular organisms appeared. As a result of plant activity - photosynthesis - organic matter was created from carbon dioxide and water using solar energy captured by chlorophyll. The emergence and spread of vegetation led to a fundamental change in the composition of the atmosphere, which initially had very little free oxygen. Plants assimilating carbon from carbon dioxide created an atmosphere containing free oxygen - not only an active chemical agent, but also a source of ozone, which blocked the path of short ultraviolet rays to the Earth's surface.

L. Pasteur identified the following two important points in the evolution of the biosphere: 1) the moment when the level of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere reached approximately 1% of the current one. Since that time, aerobic life has become possible. Geochronologically, it is Archaean. It is assumed that the accumulation of oxygen proceeded spasmodically and took no more than 20 thousand years: 2) the achievement of the oxygen content in the atmosphere of about 10% of the current one. This led to the emergence of prerequisites for the formation of the ozonosphere. As a result, life became possible in shallow water, and then on land.

Paleontology, which deals with the study of fossil remains, confirms the fact of an increase in the complexity of organisms. In the most ancient rocks, organisms of a few types with a simple structure are found. Gradually the variety and complexity grows. Many species that appear at any stratigraphic level then disappear. This is interpreted as the emergence and extinction of species.

In accordance with paleontological data, it can be considered that bacteria, algae, primitive invertebrates appeared in the Proterozoic geological era (700 million years ago); in the Paleozoic (365 million years ago) - land plants, amphibians; in the Mesozoic (185 million years ago) - mammals, birds, conifers; into the Cenozoic (70 million years ago) - modern groups. Of course, it should be borne in mind that the paleontological record is incomplete.

For centuries, the accumulated remains of plants formed in the earth's crust enormous energy reserves of organic compounds (coal, peat), and the development of life in the oceans led to the creation of sedimentary rocks consisting of skeletons and other remains of marine organisms.

Important properties of living systems include:

1. Compactness. 5 ? 10-15 g of DNA contained in a fertilized whale egg contains information for the vast majority of signs of an animal that weighs 5? 107g (the mass increases by 22 orders of magnitude).

2. The ability to create order from the chaotic thermal motion of molecules and thereby counteract the increase in entropy. Living things consume negative entropy and work against thermal equilibrium, increasing, however, the entropy of the environment. The more complex the living matter is, the more hidden energy and entropy it has.

3. Exchange with the environment of matter, energy and information.

The living being is able to assimilate substances received from outside, i.e., rebuild them, likening them to its own material structures and, due to this, reproduce them many times.

4. Feedback loops formed during autocatalytic reactions play an important role in metabolic functions. "While in the inorganic world feedback between the 'effects' (end products) of non-linear reactions and the 'causes' that give rise to them is relatively rare, in living systems feedback (as established by molecular biology), on the contrary, is the rule rather than the exception." "(I. Prigogine, I. Stengers. Order out of chaos. M., 1986, p. 209). Autocatalysis, cross-catalysis and autoinhibition (the process opposite to catalysis, if a given substance is present, it is not formed during the reaction) take place in living systems. To create new structures, positive feedback is needed; for sustainable existence, negative feedback is needed.

5. Life is qualitatively superior to other forms of existence of matter in terms of the diversity and complexity of chemical components and the dynamics of transformations occurring in living things. Living systems are characterized by a much higher level of order and asymmetry in space and time. The structural compactness and energy efficiency of living things are the result of the highest orderliness at the molecular level.

6. In the self-organization of non-living systems, the molecules are simple, and the reaction mechanisms are complex; in the self-organization of living systems, on the contrary, the reaction schemes are simple, and the molecules are complex.

7. Living systems have a past. The non-living have none. "The integral structures of atomic physics consist of a certain number of elementary cells, the atomic nucleus and electrons and do not show any change in time, unless they are disturbed from the outside. In the event of such an external violation, they, it is true, somehow react to it, but if the violation was not too large, they return to their original position upon termination of it. But organisms are not static formations. The ancient comparison of a living being with a flame suggests that living organisms, like a flame, are a form through which matter in a certain sense passes as flow" (W. Heisenberg. Physics and philosophy. Part and whole. M., 1989, p. 233).

8. The life of an organism depends on two factors - heredity, determined by the genetic apparatus, and variability, depending on environmental conditions and the individual's reaction to them. It is interesting that now life on Earth could not have arisen due to the oxygen atmosphere and the opposition of other organisms. Once born, life is in the process of constant evolution.

9. Ability to excessive self-reproduction. "The progression of reproduction is so high that it leads to a struggle for life and its consequences - natural selection" (C. Darwin. Works. Vol. 3. M.-L., 1939, p. 666).

3.4. Differences between plants and animals

According to most biologists, the differences between plants and animals can be divided into three groups: 1) according to the structure of cells and their ability to grow; 2) the way of eating; 3) the ability to move. Attribution to one of the kingdoms is carried out not on each basis, but on the basis of a combination of differences. So, corals, river sponges remain motionless all their lives, and yet, bearing in mind other properties, they are classified as animals. There are insectivorous plants, which, according to the method of nutrition, are related to animals. There are also transitional types, like, say, Euglena green, which eats like a plant, but moves like an animal. And yet, the three noted groups of differences help in the vast majority of cases.

Crystals grow but do not reproduce; plants reproduce but do not move; animals move and reproduce. At the same time, some cells in plants retain the ability to actively grow throughout the life of the organism. Chlorophyll is contained in plastids - the protein bodies of plant cells. Its presence is associated with the main cosmic function of plants - capturing and converting solar energy. This function determines the structure of plants. "Light sculpts the forms of plants, as if from a plastic material," wrote the Austrian botanist I. Wiesner. According to Vernadsky, "in the biosphere one can see an inextricable link between the light solar radiation illuminating it and the green living world of organized beings located in it" (V. I. Vernadsky. Biosphere. Selected works. T. 5. M., 1960, p. 23).

Animal cells have centrioles, but no chlorophyll and no cell wall to prevent shape change. With regard to differences in the way of nutrition, most plants obtain the substances necessary for life as a result of the absorption of mineral compounds. Animals feed on ready-made organic compounds that plants create during photosynthesis.

In the course of the development of the biosphere, organs were differentiated according to the functions they perform, and the motor, digestive, respiratory, circulatory, nervous systems and sensory organs arose.

In the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries, scientists spent a lot of effort to systematize the entire diversity of flora and fauna. A direction in biology appeared, called taxonomy, classifications of plants and animals were created in accordance with their distinctive features. The species was recognized as the main structural unit, and the higher levels were successively genus, order, class.

There are 500 plant species and 1,5 million animal species on Earth, including 70 vertebrates, 16 birds, and 12 mammals. A detailed systematization of various forms of life created the prerequisites for the study of living matter as a whole, which was carried out for the first time by the outstanding Russian scientist Vernadsky in his theory of the biosphere.

There is a concept that explains the evolution of species by the evolution of natural systems. If individual species require a very long time for evolution, then the evolution of ecosystems requires it incommensurably less. In this case, natural selection takes place among natural systems that change as a whole, determining changes in all species included in the system. Such a concept arose, of course, after Darwin's theory of evolution, since for it it was necessary to get used to considering ecosystems as a whole.

The evolution of ecosystems is called ecogenesis, understood as a set of processes and patterns of irreversible development of biogeocenoses and the biosphere as a whole. One of these patterns can be called an increase in the role of living matter and its metabolic products in geological, geochemical and physico-geographical processes and an increase in the transformative impact of life on the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere (the example of the creation of an oxygen atmosphere is very indicative). Other regularities include the progressive accumulation of accumulated solar energy in the surface shells of the Earth, an increase in the total biomass and productivity of the biosphere and its information capacity, an increase in the differentiation of the physical and geographical structure of the biosphere, an expansion of the scope of the biotic cycle and the complication of its structure, as well as the transforming impact of human activity.

The latter turns out to be especially dangerous if we accept the concept of evolution, according to which the higher levels of the organization determine the evolution of the lower ones. Then it will turn out that intensive human impact on the biosphere can give impetus to evolutionary changes at all lower levels: ecosystems, communities, populations, species.

3.5. Noosphere concept

The global nature of man's relationship with his environment led to the concept of the noosphere introduced by Le Roy, and then to the concept of the noosphere developed by Teilhard de Chardin. The noosphere, according to Teilhard de Chardin, is a collective consciousness that will control the direction of the future evolution of the planet and merge with nature at the ideal Omega point, just as such wholes as molecules, cells and organisms were formed before. “We have continuously traced the successive stages of the same great process. Beneath the geochemical, geotectonic, geobiological pulsations, one can always recognize the same deep process - the one that, having materialized in the first cells, continues in the creation of nervous systems. Geogenesis, we said, passes into biogenesis, which ultimately is nothing but psychogenesis ... Psychogenesis has led us to man. Now psychogenesis is obscured, it is replaced and absorbed by a higher function - first, the birth, then the subsequent development of the spirit - noogenesis "(P. Teilhard de Chardin, Human Phenomenon, Moscow, 1973, p. 180).

V. I. Vernadsky gave his interpretation of the concept of the noosphere on the basis of the doctrine of the biosphere. As living matter (this became clear, in particular, thanks to the fundamental works of Vernadsky) transforms inert matter, which is the basis of its development, so a person inevitably has a reverse influence on the nature that gave birth to him. As living matter and inert matter, united by a chain of direct and feedback links, form a single system - the biosphere, so humanity and the natural environment form a single system - the noosphere.

Developing the concept of the noosphere following Teilhard de Chardin, Vernadsky considered how, on the basis of the unity of the previous stage of interaction between living and inert matter, harmony can be achieved at the next stage of interaction between nature and man. The noosphere, according to Vernadsky, "is such a state of the biosphere, in which the mind and the work of man directed by it should manifest itself, as a new geological force unprecedented on the planet" (V.I. Vernadsky. Reflections of a naturalist. Book 2. Scientific thought as a planetary phenomenon. M., 1977, p. 67).

Vernadsky developed the concept of the noosphere as a growing global awareness of the increasing intrusion of man into natural biogeochemical cycles, leading, in turn, to an increasingly balanced and purposeful control of man over the global system.

Unfortunately, Vernadsky did not complete the development of this idea. The concept of the noosphere fully presents one aspect of the current stage of interaction between man and nature - the global nature of the unity of man with the natural environment. During the creation of this concept, the inconsistency of this interaction did not manifest itself with such force as it does now. In recent decades, in addition to the global nature of the relationship between man and the natural environment, the inconsistency of this interaction has been revealed, fraught with crisis ecological conditions. It became clear that the unity of man and nature is contradictory, if only in the sense that, due to the increasing abundance of interconnections between them, the environmental risk grows as a payment for humanity for the transformation of the natural environment.

During its existence, man has greatly changed the biosphere. According to N.F. Reimers, "people have artificially and uncompensated reduced the amount of living matter on the Earth, apparently by at least 30% and take at least 20% of the production of the entire biosphere per year" (N.F. Reimers. Hopes ... p. 129). Such figures clearly indicate that the anthropogenic change of the biosphere has gone too far. The biosphere is turning into the technosphere, and the direction of anthropogenic impact is directly opposite to the direction of the evolution of the biosphere. It can be said that with the advent of man, the descending branch of the evolution of the biosphere begins - the biomass, productivity and information content of the biosphere decrease. Anthropogenic impacts destroy the natural systems of nature. According to Reimers, "following the direct destruction of species, self-destruction of living things should be expected. In fact, this process proceeds in the form of mass reproduction of individual organisms that destroy established ecosystems" (Ibid., p. 136). Thus, it is not yet possible to answer the question of whether in the future man will create a sphere of reason or, with his unreasonable activity, will destroy himself and all living things.

Further. With the release of man into space, the area of ​​interaction between man and the natural environment is no longer limited to the sphere of the Earth, and now this interaction runs along the routes of spacecraft. The concept of "noosystem" would probably be more accurate in our time than the concept of "noosphere", since the latter, after the release of people into space, no longer corresponds to the spatial configuration of human impact on nature. The concept of "noosystem" is also preferable in terms of scientific analysis of the environmental problem, since it focuses on the application of a systematic approach developed in the second half of the XNUMXth century to the study of objective reality.

There is another important consideration not taken into account in the concept of the noosphere. A person interacts with the environment not only rationally, but also sensually, since he himself is not only a rational, but a rational-sensory being, in which the rational and sensual components are intricately intertwined. Of course, the sensual should not be separated from the rational, and feelings can be either conscious or not. Nevertheless, making certain distinctions here is quite appropriate and protects against one-sided interpretations. The noosphere should not necessarily be understood as some kind of ecological ideal, since what is predominantly rational is not always good from an ecological point of view, and the very concept of reasonable is historically changeable. So, all modern technological schemes, of course, are reasonable and rational in their own way in the traditional sense of the word, but often give a negative environmental effect. At the same time, such a feeling as love for nature cannot always be rationally interpreted and, nevertheless, can have a very positive effect on the overall ecological situation.

However, the concept of the noosphere retains its value, since it represents the unity of man and nature in the form of a process - noogenesis, leading to the formation of a single system "man - natural environment". Noogenesis is one of the aspects of the process of formation of the generic essence of a person, and it cannot be stopped without refusing to actualize and improve the potentialities inherent in a person as a species. The desire to achieve their goals in nature will remain, apparently, dominant in determining the prospects of man's relationship with nature from the moment he moved from protecting his species specificity to turning it into an important factor in the formation of natural patterns.

In general, the concept of the noosphere resembles natural philosophical constructions and scientistic utopias. The formation of the noosphere is a possibility, but not a necessity. The value of this concept is that it provides a constructive model of a probable future, and its limitation is that it considers a person as primarily a rational being, while individuals, and even more so society as a whole, rarely behave truly rationally. So far, humanity is not moving towards the noosphere, and the latter remains one of the hypotheses.

Topic 4. THE CONCEPT OF CO-EVOLUTION AND THE PRINCIPLE OF HARMONIZATION

Criticism of Darwin's theory of evolution has been going on since its inception. Some did not like the fact that changes, according to Darwin, can go in all possible directions and randomly. The concept of nomogenesis argued that changes do not occur randomly, but according to the laws of the development of forms. The Russian scientist and revolutionary P. A. Kropotkin adhered to the point of view, according to which mutual assistance is a more important factor in evolution than struggle.

These objections could not shake the theory of evolution until the emergence, under the influence of ecological research, of the concept of co-evolution, which was able to explain the emergence of sexes and other phenomena. Just as chemical evolution is the result of the interaction of chemical elements, so, by analogy, biological evolution can be considered as the result of the interaction of organisms. Randomly formed more complex forms increase the diversity and, therefore, the stability of ecosystems.

The co-evolution of organisms is clearly seen in the following example. The simplest flagellates, living in the intestines of termites, secrete an enzyme, without which termites would not be able to digest wood and break it down into sugars. Encountering symbiosis in nature, it can be assumed that its final stage is the formation of a more complex organism. Herbivores may have evolved from a symbiosis of animals and microscopic plant parasites. The parasite has once acquired the ability to produce enzymes for the digestion of substances that were present in the body of its plant host. The animal shares nutrients from the plant mass with the parasite. The amazing consistency of all kinds of life is a consequence of co-evolution.

4.1. Interaction types

The following types of interaction between populations are distinguished: "1) neutralism, in which the association of two populations does not affect either of them; 2) mutual competitive suppression, in which both populations actively suppress each other; 3) competition for resources, in which each population adversely affects the other in the struggle for food resources in conditions of their shortage; 4) amensalism, in which one population suppresses another, but does not experience a negative impact; 5) parasitism; 6) predation, in which one population adversely affects another as a result of a direct attack, but nevertheless depends on the other; 7) commensalism, in which one population benefits from the association, and for the other this association is indifferent; 8) proto-cooperation, in which both populations benefit from the association, but their connection does not obligate; 9) mutualism, in which the connection of populations is favorable for the growth and survival of both "(Yu. Odum. Osnovy ... p. 273) . Y. Odum emphasizes two important principles: 1) in the course of evolution and development of ecosystems, there is a tendency to reduce the role of negative interactions (2-4) at the expense of positive ones that increase the survival of interacting species; 2) in newly formed or new associations, the probability of occurrence of strong negative interactions is greater than in old associations. The presence of these principles does not mean that predators and parasites disappear over time. Within the framework of the biosphere as an integrity, this does not happen, since dangers and overcoming them contribute to evolution. The philosopher F. Nietzsche drew attention to this with his principles "Live dangerously" and "Look for your enemies." Difficulties need to be overcome and thus improved.

In nature, there is nothing harmful to the species, since what is harmful to the individual and the population is beneficial to the species from the point of view of evolution. The concept of co-evolution explains well the evolution in the "predator-prey" system - the constant improvement of both components of the ecosystem. Predators and parasites regulate populations that do not have mechanisms to prevent overpopulation, which could lead to self-destruction. Negative interactions can accelerate natural selection, leading to the emergence of new adaptations, morphological and physiological changes, and thereby contributing to an increase in the diversity of characters and the evolution of species. Fighting at one level can affect other levels of confrontation. For example, a bacterial inhibitor called penicillin produced in the process of antibiosis (a form of competition in which one species releases substances harmful to representatives of other species) by a fungus of the genus Penicillium is widely used in medicine. Substances that are produced in the process of antibiotics are called antibiotics.

The study of the "host-parasite" system led to interesting results. It would seem that selection should lead to a decrease in the harmfulness of the parasite to the host. In the "host-parasite" system, natural selection should seem to favor the survival of less virulent (dangerous to the host) parasites and more resistant (parasite-resistant) hosts. Gradually, the parasite becomes a commensal, that is, safe for the host, and then they can become mutuals - organisms that contribute to mutual prosperity, like fungi and photosynthetic bacteria that together form lichens. But this is not always the case. Parasites are an inevitable, indispensable part of the ecosystem. And in this pair there is a competitive struggle, as a result of which both of them become more complicated. The death of one leads to the death of the other, and coexistence increases the complexity of the entire system. The co-evolutionary "arms race" promotes a greater diversity of ecosystems.

A hypothesis explaining the origin of the sexes is based on the study of the evolution of the "host-parasite" system. Asexual reproduction, from the point of view of Darwin's theory, is a much more efficient process. The "double cost" of sexual reproduction (the participation of two sexes in reproduction), since males do not include as much in the creation and rearing of offspring as females, caused difficulties in explaining this phenomenon. The systematic study of biological processes offers the following explanation: sex differences give hosts unique advantages because they allow parts of the genetic code to be exchanged between individuals. The recombination of large blocks of genetic information as a result of sexual reproduction makes it possible to change traits in the offspring faster than with mutations, the number of which is greater in parasites, since they have a faster generational change. Parasites, due to the short period of reproduction and the rapid course of evolutionary changes, require less sex and are usually asexual. And here competition is a factor of natural selection.

The main feature of the negative interaction of populations is that during their synchronous evolution in a stable ecosystem, the degree of negative influence decreases. "In other words, natural selection seeks to reduce negative influences or even eliminate the interaction of populations, since prolonged and strong suppression of a prey or host population by a predator or parasite population can lead to the destruction of one or both of them" (Yu. Odum. Osnovy... p. 286). So, there is competition, but its consequence is evolution, not the destruction of the species.

The condition for reducing negative interaction is the stability of the ecosystem and the fact that its spatial structure provides the possibility of mutual adaptation of populations. Negative and positive relationships between populations in ecosystems that reach a stable state eventually balance each other out.

Positive interactions were formed in the course of evolution in the following sequence: commensalism (one population has an advantage), cooperation (both populations benefit), and mutualism (both populations benefit, and they are completely dependent on each other). Cooperation occurs in nature as often as competition, and sometimes very different organisms with very different needs unite, and organisms with similar needs compete. An interesting example of cooperation is demonstrated by tropical leaf-cutting ants, who plant entire mushroom gardens in their nests. Ants fertilize, grow and harvest their mushroom crops like diligent farmers. Such cooperation, reminiscent of agricultural production, is called ectosymbiosis.

The form of organization in which one organism cannot live without the other is called mutualism. Example: collaboration between nitrogen-fixing bacteria and legumes. Mutualistic relationships seem to replace parasitism in the course of ecosystem maturation; they are especially important when some environment resources are limited. The next step is to combine the two organisms into one. This is how L. Margulis explains the evolution of species after the appearance of the first cell.

4.2. Significance of co-evolution

In the 60s, L. Margulis suggested that eukaryotic cells originated as a result of a symbiotic union of simple prokaryotic cells, such as bacteria. Margulis hypothesized that mitochondria (cell organelles that produce energy from oxygen and carbohydrates) originated from aerobic bacteria; Plant chloroplasts were once photosynthetic bacteria. According to Margulis, symbiosis is a way of life for most organisms and one of the most creative factors in evolution. For example, 90% of plants live with fungi because the fungi associated with the roots of plants are necessary for them to obtain nutrients from the soil. Joint life leads to the emergence of new species and signs. Endosymbiosis (internal symbiosis of partners) is a mechanism for complicating the structure of many organisms. The study of the DNA of simple organisms confirms that complex plants originated from a combination of simple ones. Schematically, this can be represented as follows:

It can be seen from the diagram that the combination of two organisms (indicated by the "+" sign) leads to the creation of a third (indicated by the ? sign). Adding another one to it gives a fourth organism, and so on.

Such a symbiotic co-evolution is in good agreement with the data of synergetics, and it can explain the formation of amoeba colonies under the influence of a lack of food and the formation of an anthill. In synergistic terms, it is described as follows. The initial fluctuation is a slightly larger concentration of earth clods, which sooner or later occurs at some point in the termite habitat. But each lump is saturated with a hormone that attracts other termites. The fluctuation grows, and the final area of ​​the nest is determined by the radius of action of the hormone.

Thus, there is a transition from expediency at the level of organisms to expediency at the level of communities and life in general - expediency in the scientific sense of the word, determined by the fact that there are not external in relation to communities, but internal objective supraorganismal mechanisms of evolution that science studies.

From the point of view of the concept of co-evolution, natural selection, which played a major role in Darwin, is not the "author", but rather the "editor" of evolution. Of course, many important discoveries await science in this complex area of ​​research.

Evolution is due to natural selection, not only at the species level. "Natural selection at higher levels also plays an important role, especially 1) coupled evolution, i.e. mutual selection of mutually dependent autotrophs and heterotrophs, and 2) group selection, or selection at the community level, which leads to the conservation of characters, favorable for the group as a whole, even if they are unfavorable for specific carriers of these characteristics "(Yu. Odum. Osnovy ... p. 350).

Odum gives the following definition of co-evolution, or coupled evolution. "Coupled evolution is a type of community evolution (that is, evolutionary interactions between organisms in which the exchange of genetic information between components is minimal or absent), which consists in mutual selective effects on each other of two large groups of organisms that are in close ecological interdependence" ( Ibid., p. 354). The conjugated evolution hypothesis of Erlich and Raven (1965) boils down to the following. As a result of random mutations or recombinations, plants begin to synthesize chemicals that are not directly related to the main metabolic pathways, or, possibly, are side waste products that occur along these pathways. These substances do not interfere with normal growth and development, but may reduce the attractiveness of plants for herbivorous animals. Selection leads to the fixation of this trait. However, phytophagous insects can develop a response (like resistance to insecticides). If a mutant or recombinant appears in a population of insects that can feed on plants that were previously resistant to this insect, selection will fix this trait. So, plants and phytophages evolve together.

Hence the expression "genetic feedback". This is the name of the feedback, as a result of which one species is a selection factor for another, and this selection affects the genetic constitution of the second species. Group selection, that is, natural selection in groups of organisms, is the genetic mechanism of co-evolution. It leads to the preservation of traits that are favorable for populations and communities as a whole, but not beneficial for their individual genetic carriers within populations. The concept of co-evolution explains the facts of altruism in animals: caring for children, eliminating aggressiveness by demonstrating "pacifying postures", obedience to leaders, mutual assistance in difficult situations, etc.

This genetic mechanism can also lead to the death of a population if its activity harms the community. It is known that the extinction of populations can occur at a high rate, and it is group selection that has an effect here. This is a warning to a person who has opposed himself to the biosphere.

Comparing with the "host - parasite" system, a person is called a parasite living off the resources of the biosphere and not caring about the well-being of its owner. It was noted above that in the process of evolution, parasitism tends to be replaced by mutualism. By moving from hunting to farming and cattle breeding, man thereby took a step towards mutualism with the environment. Perhaps the desire to protect nature is not so much the result of the foresight of a person and his awareness of environmental laws, but rather the action of group selection, which makes one learn about the biosphere and use the results of science to harmonize relations with it.

4.3. Gay hypothesis

This hypothesis arose in the last decades of the XNUMXth century on the basis of the doctrine of the biosphere, ecology, and the concept of co-evolution. Its authors are the English chemist James Lovelock and the American microbiologist Lynn Margulis. It is based on the idea that living organisms, united as a whole with their environment, can increasingly control the conditions of existence, including the atmosphere, at each higher level.

First, the chemical non-equilibrium of the Earth's atmosphere was discovered, which is considered as a sign of life. According to Lovelock, if life is a global entity, its presence can be detected through changes in the chemical composition of the planet's atmosphere.

Lovelock introduced the concept of geophysiology, denoting a systematic approach to the earth sciences. According to the Gaia hypothesis, the persistence of a long-term chemical non-equilibrium of the atmosphere is due to the totality of life processes on Earth. Since the advent of life, a biological automatic thermostatic mechanism has been operating, in which an excess of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere has played a regulatory role, preventing the warming trend associated with an increase in the brightness of sunlight. In other words, there is a feedback mechanism.

Lovelock has developed a model that changes in the brightness of sunlight increases biodiversity, leading to an increase in the ability to regulate the surface temperature of the planet, as well as an increase in biomass.

The essence of the Gaia hypothesis: The Earth is a self-regulating system (created by biota and the environment), capable of maintaining the chemical composition of the atmosphere and thereby maintaining a constancy of climate favorable for life. According to Lovelock, we are inhabitants and part of a quasi-living integrity, which has the property of global homeostasis, capable of neutralizing adverse external influences within the capacity for self-regulation. When such a system enters a state of stress close to the limits of self-regulation, a small shock can push it to a new stable state or even completely destroy it.

At the same time, Gaia turns even waste into necessary elements and, apparently, can survive even after a nuclear catastrophe. The evolution of the biosphere, according to Lovelock, can be a process that goes beyond the full understanding, control and even participation of man.

Approaching the Gaia hypothesis from a biological point of view, L. Margulis believes that life on Earth is a network of interdependent connections, which allows the planet to act as a self-regulating and self-producing system.

What conclusions follow from the study of the interaction of living organisms with their environment? Ecology shows that the main reason for the ecological crisis is that a person, contrary to environmental laws, reverses the development of ecosystems, wanting to increase their productivity. A decrease in diversity for consumption and management leads to a decrease in the sustainability of the biosphere. As a result, ecosystems are destroyed and deprive people of sources of life support. Human actions in relation to the environment, in accordance with the feedback mechanism, are transferred to him, and not at all in the way he would like. Harmony between man and nature is necessary, by analogy with co-evolution in living nature. Transferring the patterns of ecosystem development to humans, Yu. Odum suggested that humanity has moved into a stabilization stage similar to the stage of ecosystem maturity, and now priority should be given to the preservation of what has been created, and not to new production.

From the point of view of ethology, the main cause of the ecological crisis is human aggressiveness, which, after the "victory" over nature, turned out to be disastrous for itself. The dominance of man over other species weakens the evolutionary mechanisms of the development of the biosphere, since evolution proceeds through interspecific struggle. It can be assumed that the mind is replacing the natural mechanisms of evolution, but one cannot simply brush aside the philosophical statements (E. Hartmann, A. Bergson) that the mind and abstract thinking lead a person away from understanding nature. Modern scientists argue about the extent to which the concept of co-evolution is applicable to relationships in the system "man - natural environment".

The conclusion that can be drawn on the basis of this chapter is that not only mutual assistance, but also competition "works" for evolution. This wisdom of nature should also be used by man. As applied to man, the concept of co-evolution correlates with the principle of harmonization, which has long been known in philosophy, and if we continue the analogy between the development of nature and man, it should be concluded that everything done by man should lead to the harmonization of its relationship with nature and, thereby, to its internal harmonization.

4.4. The principle of harmonization

The sharp increase in the scale of human nature-transformation activity for the first time sharply raises the question of the harmony of interaction between man and nature. Why should we talk about harmony and not talk about, say, unity? The fact is that, due to its objective dialectic, the contradictory unity of man with nature takes place even at those stages of their relationship when they are aggravated, as, for example, at the present time. At the same time, the need to get out of the ecological crisis necessitates the formation of a special form of the unity of man and nature. This is what harmony is.

Since it is obvious that a person cannot exist without the natural environment, the resolution of environmental contradictions is possible only through the harmonization of the relationship between man and nature, and since environmental contradictions have their own social and epistemological causes, they develop in the transformative and cognitive sphere, affect the ethical and aesthetic aspects of activity. , the harmonization of the relationship between man and nature should be carried out at several levels: nature-transforming, cognitive and personal-value.

If we leave aside considerations about the eternal psychological tendency of man to destruction or about his original sin, scientific, technological and economic progress appear as the immediate causes of the aggravation of the ecological situation. Therefore, the internal harmonization of society, as well as science, technology and production, as now the most significant part of environmental relations, is of fundamental ecological importance.

Much has been said in the history of human culture about harmony in nature - from the idea of ​​nature as an "organized cosmos", "harmony of spheres" in ancient Greece (Pythagoras, Plato, etc.) to its understanding by modern art and science. "An imperturbable system in everything, a complete consonance in nature," - these words of F.I. Tyutchev Vernadsky did not accidentally take as the epigraph of the first essay of his book "Biosphere".

In order to ensure full-fledged ecological development, it is necessary to move along the path of harmonization of society and its relationship with nature. It is in this case that one can hope for a timely resolution of the contradictions between man and nature, which is evidence of the progress of society and the "man - natural environment" system.

There is a word in Russian that has the same root as unity - unity. It expresses a great degree of inner closeness. The next stage of connection is harmony, consonance, harmony. Sympathetic, understanding, empathizing reciprocity of man and nature is their harmony. Here the question arises about the objective grounds for the possibility and necessity of harmonizing the relationship between man and nature.

First, about the possibility. The latter is determined primarily by the presence of such objective grounds for harmonizing the relationship between man and nature as harmony in nature itself, the practice of the relationship between man and nature, their essential unity. Let's start with the last one.

Harmony, in accordance with its understanding in the philosophical literature, assumes that the constituent parts of the system represent an essential unity. This condition is likely to be met.

The second objective basis for the possibility of harmonizing the relationship between man and nature is its "subordination to measure and harmony", about which V. I. Vernadsky wrote.

Finally, the third objective prerequisite for the harmonization of man and nature is the historical practice of their interaction, the fact that human culture itself was formed as a way to resolve contradictions between man and nature. Of course, this practice cannot be interpreted as a straightforward movement towards greater harmony without contradictions. We are talking about various traditions of harmonious interaction between man and nature, which have been accumulated by culture.

Regarding the prospects for finding harmony between man and nature, it should be noted that development, as modern science confirms, goes not only according to rigid laws of a deterministic type. At certain stages of the development of the system, its internal restructuring under the influence of external factors can create a state of objective uncertainty, when it is impossible to accurately predict in which direction the system will develop further, although certain options can be outlined. The "man - natural environment" system is now at just such a point. This is confirmed by the fact that the current ecological situation is characterized by instability, which gives grounds to speak of an ecological crisis. It should be noted that, since the "man - natural environment" system is at a turning point in its development, harmonization appears not as a rigidly determined implementation of a certain law, but as one of the possible projects for the future. There are objective social and natural grounds for the implementation of this scenario. Therefore, harmonization is not just a value setting, it has a very real meaning for determining the ways of ecological development and the future of human civilization.

The need to harmonize the relationship between man and nature is sometimes denied, based on the idea of ​​harmony as something motionless and lifeless and has lost the potential for development. Sometimes they ask why harmony is needed, fearing that a person, having achieved it, will stop improving. One of the heroes of H. Wells' novel "The Time Machine" stated: "A being that lives in perfect harmony with the surrounding conditions turns into a simple machine." But such absolute harmony without contradictions can only be found in fantastic works. In reality, the assertion of harmony requires constant strenuous efforts, and does not fall from the sky, it requires a struggle (at the same time, it is important to always remember the goal of the struggle so that it does not become an end in itself). Harmony is not some kind of static state, but a process of mutually coordinated development, co-evolution, and in the process of this development, consistency increases.

In contrast to unity, harmony is not a given and something easily achievable, but an ideal to which, like a horizon, one can endlessly approach (similar to the endless path of knowledge). Harmonization as a desire for harmony is a value perspective, a norm of behavior that is realized in certain social and epistemological circumstances.

The historically limited nature of this concept itself should be taken into account, since the fundamental nature of the contradiction between man and nature does not make it possible to achieve some absolute and unchanging ideal of harmony between them. The unity of man and nature does not exclude, due to its dialectic nature, dramatic moments due to ontological, epistemological and social reasons. This warns of the illusory nature of hopes for a final "victory" over nature or for the establishment of absolute eternal harmony between man and nature. At each stage of the relationship between man and nature, there are certain contradictions between these two components of a single system; there are prerequisites for their resolution.

The absolute harmony of man with nature is hindered by the fundamental nature of the dialectical contradiction between these two parts of a single system. Man is doomed to struggle with the natural environment and at the same time with himself. Nevertheless, in the process of struggle, understood as a way of self-development of nature and man, it is possible to establish at each stage a more or less harmonious correspondence of social and environmental goals and needs.

Relative harmony is possible, and we must strive for it. We can talk about the discrepancy between biogeological, biospheric, on the one hand, and anthroposocial rhythms, on the other, etc., but this does not prevent these rhythms from being harmonized. Otherwise, the aggravation of contradictions will lead to a catastrophe. The path to harmony, therefore, is determined by the desire to live well and with dignity.

Sometimes, in order to justify the destruction of nature, they refer to Marx's idea that man must fight nature with all modes of production. But the struggle of man with nature has historically always been within the framework of a certain unity and was combined with harmony.

Harmony is such a way of interaction in the system, in which the individual parts retain their specificity and autonomy and are not completely determined by the whole. On the contrary, the whole itself is the result of harmonic interaction, namely, one in which it receives the possibility of optimal development. Unlike a mechanical system, this result is a free interaction ("dialogue") and cannot be deduced deductively from the description of the parts of the whole and the order of their interaction in the system. Integrity appears here not as the basis of parts, but as a product of their interaction. We call such systems, following G. S. Batishchev, harmonic.

Man achieves harmony with nature not at the cost of abandoning his goals and values. This would not be harmonization in the exact sense of the word, since the specificity of one of the partners would come to naught. Harmonization will not be the reduction of man to nature and not his reduction to the state of primitive man, who is in direct unity with nature, not the maximum possible increase in functional ties between man and nature and not pure contemplation of nature by him, but the achievement of agreement between the development of the natural environment and essential potentialities. person. Harmonization of the relationship between man and nature can go neither at the expense of man nor at the expense of nature, but unites social and natural harmony.

Harmonization of man's relationship with the natural environment does not imply copying the strategy followed by individual living beings in their evolution. As I. I. Schmalhausen wrote, “in individual life, organisms “feed” on the negative entropy of the environment, that is, they maintain their orderliness by actively influencing this environment - its disorganization, destruction ... In evolution, organisms reduce entropy, i.e. . increase their orderliness by natural selection of individuals that most successfully destroy the external environment, i.e., increase its entropy "(I. I. Shmalgauzen. Factors of progressive evolution // Patterns of progressive evolution. L., 1972, p. 6). This quote once again shows that man cannot adopt the strategy of natural beings, which, with the current gigantic increase in the scale of human activity, threatens to destroy both humanity and the biosphere.The approach must be specifically human.

Let us add to this that, based on the above prerequisites for harmonization, a person also faces the problem of maintaining harmony in nature itself in the face of ever-increasing involvement of natural systems in the processes of human activity. It is man who now becomes responsible for harmony in external nature, just as he is responsible for the vital activity of his own organism.

The threat of ecological catastrophe reminds man that he must live in harmony with external nature. This position does not contradict the fact that he must follow his inner nature. Moreover, it is precisely the correspondence of man to his inner nature that leads to his agreement with the external world. Internal harmony in the person himself is an essential prerequisite for external harmony. In this sense, the position "To live in harmony with nature", formulated in ancient philosophy, remains true in the broadest sense.

Following one’s inner nature, which implies the rejection of a one-sided consumer life orientation, which is largely characteristic of modern man and the so-called consumer society, an orientation towards the development of all the essential forces of a person would lead to a change in his attitude to external nature, which would become more perfect in cognitive, moral and aesthetic aspects.

The principle of harmonization is closely connected with another important principle for the interaction between man and nature - integrative diversity.

4.5. The principle of integrative diversity

It was said above that diversity is a necessity, not a “seasoning” for life. Diversity is here meant to be integrated in a certain way. Each higher level in nature, being more complex and differentiated, in order to be viable, must include its diversity in a whole with emergent properties. This can be called the principle of integrative diversity. It was also used in the concept of the noosphere, according to which psychogenesis comes to unification at the Omega point.

The principle of integrative diversity allows us to solve the dilemma of aggregation - isolation. "Aggregation enhances competition, but at the same time creates numerous advantages. Separation of individuals in a population reduces competition, but probably leads to the loss of the advantages provided by a group way of life" (Yu. Odum. Osnovy... p. 271). The advantages of aggregation are enhanced, and the disadvantages are reduced if each of the aggregated individuals has its own identity and there is a division of labor, that is, if not the same, but different is integrated. This is true for humans as well. The positive role of the division of labor in society was emphasized by E. Durkheim, and the dangers inherent in the class-conditioned division of labor were revealed by K. Marx.

When applied to a person, the principle of integrative diversity implies a combination of a creative approach aimed at creating something new, with the development of a feeling of love that unites the individual with other people and nature as a whole.

The main problem is not whether or not to transform the natural environment, but how exactly to transform. It is necessary to transform nature - without this, the existence of society is impossible. But, transforming nature, a person should not weaken its generative power, but, on the contrary, receive a creative stimulus from it, influencing nature creatively.

The creative transformation of nature presupposes in each transformational act the creation of a qualitatively new one, and not the replication of something previously invented. In its ecological aspect, creative transformation is one that takes into account the specifics of the landscape and aims to harmoniously fit human activity into a given natural environment. Of course, the point is not that each transformative act is different from the other. This is impossible. It is necessary that it be creative in the integral plan of transformation, and that the goal itself should have a creative character.

A creative approach to any business, and in particular to the transformation of nature, is a way of revealing the essential forces of a person, the realization of his nature, and at the same time, it is necessary to solve an environmental problem, since it is the mass replication of scientific and technological achievements that is largely responsible for environmental difficulties. This example shows that the solution of the environmental problem is not exclusively in the sphere of the system of functional relations between society and the natural environment, but is an integral part of the overall progress of mankind and nature as a whole.

The decrease in diversity in the natural environment leads to a decrease in the stability of ecosystems (in accordance with the laws of their development) and the subsequent negative impact of nature on humanity and its culture. Only the path of cultural development seems to be a reliable way to resolve the contradictions between society and nature. And he assumes as his prerequisite the creative comprehension of being and its creative transformation in terms of not simplification, but rather, on the contrary, the complication and increase in the diversity of ecosystems, which would not reduce, but increase their stability.

However, being creative on its own is not enough. The creative transformation of nature in terms of following the concept of the essential unity of man and nature, expressed in the need for the unity of man both with external and with his own internal nature (which should not be understood only biologically), should be accompanied by a caring, careful attitude towards nature, love for it. . Love for nature and its creative transformation are two points that allow harmonizing the system of relationships between man and nature. It is important that they be in a systemic unity, since creativity without love is flawed and is focused only on the external operation of the object, and love without creativity is spiritually fruitless.

Topic 5. NATURAL BALANCE AND EVOLUTION OF ECOSYSTEMS

The concept of balance is one of the main ones in science. But before talking about equilibrium in living nature, let's find out what equilibrium is in general and equilibrium in inanimate nature.

5.1. Equilibrium and disequilibrium

Synergetics has revealed the following differences between a non-equilibrium system and an equilibrium one:

1. The system responds to external conditions (gravitational field, etc.).

2. The behavior is random and does not depend on the initial conditions, but depends on the prehistory.

3. The influx of energy creates order in the system, and, therefore, its entropy decreases.

4. The system behaves as a whole and as if it were a container of long-range forces (such a hypothesis is known in physics). Despite the fact that the forces of molecular interaction are short-range (they act at a distance of about 10-8 cm), the system is structured as if each molecule were "informed" about the state of the system as a whole.

There are also areas of equilibrium and non-equilibrium in which the system can reside. Its behavior in this case differs significantly, which can be presented in the table.

Being left to itself, in the absence of energy access from outside, the system tends to a state of equilibrium - the most probable state. An example of an equilibrium structure is a crystal.

In accordance with the second law of thermodynamics, all closed systems come to such an equilibrium state, that is, systems that do not receive energy from outside. Opposite systems are called open systems.

The study of non-equilibrium states allows us to come to general conclusions regarding the evolution from chaos to order.

5.2. Features of evolution

The concept of chaos, as opposed to the concept of the cosmos, was known to the ancient Greeks. Synergetics call chaotic all systems that lead to an irreducible representation in terms of probabilities. In other words, such systems cannot be described unambiguously deterministically, i.e., knowing the state of the system at a given moment, it is impossible to accurately predict what will happen to it at the next moment.

Chaotic behavior is unpredictable in principle. Irreversibility, probability and randomness become objective properties of chaotic systems at the macro level, and not just at the micro level, as was established in quantum mechanics.

From the point of view of synergetics, evolution must satisfy three requirements: 1) irreversibility, expressed in the violation of symmetry between the past and the future; 2) the need to introduce the concept of "event"; 3) some events must have the ability to change the course of evolution.

Conditions for the formation of new structures: 1) openness of the system; 2) its being far from equilibrium; 3) the presence of fluctuations. The more complex the system, the more numerous are the types of fluctuations that threaten its stability. But in complex systems, there are connections between different parts. The stability threshold of the system depends on the ratio of stability, provided by the interconnection of parts, and instability due to fluctuations.

Having exceeded this threshold, the system enters a critical state, called the bifurcation point. In it, the system becomes unstable with respect to fluctuations and can pass to a new region of stability. The system, as it were, oscillates between the choice of one of several paths of evolution. A small fluctuation can serve at this moment as the beginning of evolution in a completely new direction, which will drastically change the behavior of the system. This is the event.

At the bifurcation point, randomness pushes the system onto a new path of development, and after one of the possible options is chosen, determinism again comes into force - and so on until the next bifurcation point. In the fate of the system, chance and necessity complement each other.

The vast majority of systems are open - they exchange energy, matter or information with the environment. The dominant role in nature is played not by order, stability and equilibrium, but by instability and non-equilibrium, i.e., all systems fluctuate. At a singular bifurcation point, the fluctuation reaches such a force that the system cannot withstand and collapses, and it is fundamentally impossible to predict whether the state of the system will become chaotic or whether it will move to a new, more differentiated and higher level of order, which is called a dissipative structure. The new structures are called dissipative because they require more energy to maintain than the simpler structures they replace.

Classical thermodynamics of the XNUMXth century studied the mechanical action of heat, and the subject of its studies were closed systems tending to a state of equilibrium. The thermodynamics of the XNUMXth century studies open systems in states far from equilibrium. This direction is synergetics (from "synergy" - cooperation, joint actions).

Synergetics answers the question of what causes evolution in nature. Wherever new structures are created, an influx of energy and exchange with the environment is necessary (evolution, like life, requires metabolism). If we see the result of production in the evolution of celestial bodies, then in synergetics we study the process of nature's creation. Synergetics confirms the conclusion of the theory of relativity: energy creates higher levels of organization. To paraphrase Archimedes, we can say: "Give me energy, and I will create the world."

5.3. The principle of natural balance

The principle of balance plays a huge role in nature. Equilibrium exists between species, and shifting it to one side, say, the destruction of predators, can lead to the disappearance of prey, which will not have enough food. Natural balance also exists between the organism and its inanimate environment. A great many equilibria maintain the general balance in nature.

Equilibrium in living nature is not static, like the balance of a crystal, but dynamic, representing movement around the point of stability. If this point does not change, then such a state is called homeostasis ("homeo" - the same, "stasis" - state). Homeostasis is a mechanism by which a living organism, counteracting external influences, maintains the parameters of its internal environment at such a constant level that it ensures normal life. Blood pressure, pulse rate, body temperature are all driven by homeostatic mechanisms that work so well that we usually don't notice them. Within the limits of the "homeostatic plateau" there is a negative feedback, outside of it there is a positive feedback, and the system perishes.

According to the principle of equilibrium, any natural system with a flow of energy passing through it tends to develop towards a stable state. Homeostasis, which exists in nature, is carried out automatically due to feedback mechanisms. New systems tend to fluctuate wildly and are less able to withstand external disturbances than mature systems whose components have been able to adapt to each other. Truly reliable homeostatic control is established only after a period of evolutionary adjustment. For example, there is a temporary delay in the reactions of the population, which is understood as the time required for birth and death rates to begin to change under adverse conditions associated with overpopulation.

Natural equilibrium means that the ecosystem maintains its stable state and some parameters unchanged, despite the impacts on it. The system is permeable, something constantly enters and leaves it, that is, it is such a stable state of the ecosystem, in which the input of matter and energy is equal to their output.

As an example of the action of homeostatic mechanisms, consider the dynamics of populations. A population is stable if it keeps its size constant. The desire to restore the size of the population, corresponding to the state of equilibrium, is carried out through regulation, which ultimately is a function of the ecosystem, of which the population is a part.

There are two mechanisms for stabilizing the population density at values ​​below the saturation level: 1) territorial behavior in the form of intraspecific competition, and 2) group behavior, expressed, for example, in “pecking order”, “sexual dominance”, etc. To some extent, these mechanisms operate in human society.

Ecosystem regulation can be physical or biological. Number fluctuations occur under the influence of external (for example, climatic) and internal factors. Factors, the influence of which is in direct proportion to the population density, prevent overpopulation and contribute to the establishment of a stable equilibrium. These are predominantly biotic (competition, parasites, pathogenic influences, etc.), rather than climatic factors.

Some ecologists attribute population changes to overcrowding, stress that affects reproductive potential and resistance to disease and other stresses. The complex of such changes often causes a rapid drop in population density - an "adaptation syndrome" that prevents too strong fluctuations that could disrupt the functioning of the ecosystem and threaten the survival of the species. Other ecologists attribute population changes to resource depletion and declining food and nutritional value.

The study of the population dynamics revealed the so-called "bursts" of density with a decreasing amplitude over time, which, according to ecologists, should also be observed in human populations if the regulation of their numbers is carried out only as a result of "self-overpopulation" (i.e., if there is no "external" regulation, such as family planning). This is especially dangerous when the total population of the Earth is growing and a person, as usual, does not think about the future, but acts on the basis of the situation at the moment. At the same time, the human population is the only one for which a positive correlation has been established between population density and growth rate.

The following dependence is also known: population density fluctuations are more pronounced in relatively simple ecosystems, in which few populations are included in the community. Man reduces the species diversity of the biosphere and, therefore, if this dependence applies to him, contributes to an increase in fluctuations in his numbers. This raises concerns that the ecological catastrophe may be more severe for humans than for any other species.

Yu. Odum proposes the following principle: "The higher the level of organization and maturity of the community and the more stable the conditions, the smaller the amplitude of density fluctuations over time" (Yu. Odum. Osnovy... p. 244). This can also be seen as a call to humanity to consciously regulate its numbers.

Population growth curves show that growth suddenly stops when the population exhausts its resources (food, living space), climatic conditions change dramatically, etc. After the outer limit is reached, the population density can either remain at this level for some time, or drop immediately. Moreover, as the population density increases, the effect of unfavorable factors (environmental resistance) intensifies. This is a manifestation of the trigger effect. The same result was obtained by the group of D. Meadows on models of the world (see Chapter 9).

Populations tend to evolve in such a way as to achieve a state of self-regulation. At the same time, natural selection acts in the direction of maximizing the quality of the habitat of an individual and reduces the likelihood of population death. Man does not have such a natural regulation, because natural selection does not act in human society, at least to such an extent, and it must create artificial regulation.

By changing ecosystems, a person violates the regional balance in nature, ecosystems become unstable, incapable of self-maintenance and self-regulation, and cease to provide a person with normal gas exchange, water purification, and nutrient cycles. Man learns very slowly to be a "cautious predator". Biological mechanisms of regulation no longer act on him, but he has not yet learned to consciously regulate his numbers and the amount of resources he consumes. This gap between the weakening of biological mechanisms and the insufficient growth of consciousness is, according to many ecologists, the main cause of the ecological crisis.

5.4. Relationship between balance and evolution

So, in nature there is both balance and evolution. When can evolution be sustainable? The mechanism responsible for the evolution of wildlife is called homeoresis. It makes it possible to move from one stable state to another through non-equilibrium points (as if "from bump to bump"), thereby showing such a distinctive feature of living bodies as their ability to maintain a stable non-equilibrium state. We are talking about sustainable disequilibrium, because, as synergetics has shown, it is precisely disequilibrium that leads to development, i.e., to the creation of a qualitatively new one.

Under the influence of external changes, the system moves from one state of stable equilibrium to another. This is called sustainable development. Numerous scientific data show that the ecological situation on our planet has not always been the same. Moreover, she experienced dramatic changes that were reflected in all her components. One of these global changes apparently occurred at the initial stage of the development of life on Earth, when, as a result of the activity of living matter, the atmosphere changed dramatically, oxygen appeared in it, and thus the possibility of further formation and spread of life was provided. Life has created the atmosphere it needs. In the process of its evolution, living matter, transforming itself and changing inert matter, formed the biosphere. The process of evolution goes through the accumulation and resolution of contradictions between individual components of the biosphere, and periods of sharp aggravation of contradictions can be called ecological crises (in other terminology - "biocenotic crises", "geological catastrophes").

Let us consider in more detail the example with the creation of an oxygen atmosphere. The ultraviolet radiation of the Sun, destructive to life, gave rise to chemical evolution, which led to the emergence of amino acids. The processes of decomposition of water vapor under the influence of ultraviolet led to the formation of oxygen and created a layer of ozone, which prevented further penetration of ultraviolet rays to the Earth. In this case, the same mechanism operates as in succession, when one species creates favorable conditions for the existence of other species. As long as there was no atmospheric oxygen, life could develop only under the protection of a layer of water, which did not have to be very large in order to receive visible radiation and organic food. There was little of it, and selection pressure led to the emergence of photosynthesis. As in stellar systems, one mechanism performs several functions - the stars produce chemical elements and light at the same time - so photosynthesis produces organic matter and oxygen. The first multicellular organisms appeared when the oxygen content in the atmosphere reached 3% of the current one. The creation of an oxygen atmosphere led to a new state of stable equilibrium. Thus, thanks to the ability of the green plants of the sea to produce such an amount of oxygen that exceeded the needs of all organisms in it, it was possible for living beings to populate the entire Earth in a relatively short time. There has been a population explosion. As a result, oxygen consumption has caught up with its formation at around 20%. Then there were ups and downs in oxygen, and the rise in carbon dioxide was the impetus for the creation of fossil fuel reserves. This is also an ecological crisis in the history of the development of life. Subsequently, the ratio of oxygen to carbon dioxide came to a vibrationally stationary state. An excess of carbon dioxide from industrial activity can make this state unstable again. In this regard, the concept of "return to natural balance" appeared.

If by natural equilibrium we understand the preservation of the existing cycles of circulation in nature, then in general terms this is apparently just as impossible as non-interference in nature in general. Return to natural balance is impossible due to the action of the natural laws themselves (for example, the second law of thermodynamics), it is violated in the process of any human activity. A well-known evolutionary law says that evolution is irreversible. Therefore, a return to the natural balance that existed before the appearance of man or even before the second half of the twentieth century is simply impossible.

Advocates of a return to natural balance do not sufficiently take into account the fact that the growing technical power of man increases his ability to withstand natural disasters - earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, abrupt climate changes, etc., with which he is not yet able to cope. More generally, we can say that there have always been and will be impacts from nature on the socio-cultural system, from which society wants to protect itself. This circumstance must always be taken into account, given the active nature of the functioning of nature. In accordance with one of the provisions of cybernetics, if the system does not act on external parameters, they will bring the essential variables of the system out of a stable position. From a cybernetic point of view, society can be represented as a self-governing system that performs two types of behavior. Firstly, it counteracts the desire of external parameters to bring the essential variables of the system out of equilibrium, and secondly, it affects external parameters in order to ensure the implementation of any goals and move to another state. If the main concern of man was "survival", he would limit himself to the first kind of action, but a person sets himself other goals, which may even come into conflict with the goal of "survival".

The position of the supporters of the return to natural balance shows what the literal extrapolation of biological principles to the development of society leads to. The emphasis on the principle of balance in nature is very valuable, but an important question arises: how to ensure balance without abandoning the development of society? Undoubtedly, the ecological approach must be based on deep philosophical foundations that reflect the most characteristic feature of the functioning of mankind - its desire to reorganize the world in accordance with its ideals.

A reminder of the need for a person to maintain his balance with the environment is very timely and is a response to the ecological crisis. A very important question that arises in this connection is the question of whether it is possible to ensure the further development of the human race and the system of its relationships with the natural environment without violating the stability of this system. But first, a few words must be said about what development is. This is especially important because development is sometimes identified with growth and is understood as a simple quantitative increase in what is available. In fact, development is a unity of qualitative and quantitative changes, and qualitative changes can occur automatically at a certain stage of quantitative growth, or they can be the result of purposeful conscious activity of people.

The development of society along the path of achieving its goals is possible only if the global system "man - natural environment" exists, and this implies maintaining a dynamic balance between society and nature. It is dynamic, since human society maintains its integrity in the process of achieving its goals due to its own variability and changes in the environment. In general, the property of living systems is that they change in some parameters and remain relatively unchanged in others. The dynamic balance of living systems with the environment can also be called a stable non-equilibrium, as proposed by E. Bauer. The latter definition is even more preferable, since dynamic equilibrium can be understood too narrowly, as the equilibrium, say, of a "water - steam" system, when at a given time the same number of water molecules passes from a liquid state to a gaseous state and vice versa. Perhaps, if we talk more precisely about the equilibrium of developing systems, then it will be a synthesis of dynamic equilibrium and stable non-equilibrium. The presence of the latter is responsible for the development of the system.

Returning to the ecological problem, we can say that the ecological equilibrium is the equilibrium of life, which maintains a state of low entropy, and not the equilibrium of death at maximum entropy. The principle of balance in nature should not be absolute. Equilibrium is an integral element of the functioning of nature, with which a person must be considered as an objective law and the significance of which he is only beginning to realize. The principle of balance operates in nature, the functioning of the human body is subject to it. It is also true for the "man - natural environment" system. But balance is only a necessary moment of development. Man must support ecological development in nature, but not at the cost of refusing to achieve his goals, not by dissolving in the natural environment.

Homeostatic mechanisms exist in human nature, but his activity is not limited to maintaining balance in his own body. Similarly, in the system "man - natural environment" there must be homeostatic mechanisms, and if society violates some of them, artificial homeostatic mechanisms must be created instead. But human activity in the natural environment is not limited to maintaining balance. The authors of the concept of "return to natural balance" represent the balance of society with the natural environment, often in the form of a single unchanging state to which one must strive. With such an equilibrium, when the system strives for stability within some strictly fixed area, there can be no question of development. Synergetics claims that new structures are formed far from the state of equilibrium. Therefore, for development it is necessary that there are moments of departure from equilibrium. It is only important that non-equilibrium states do not violate the overall stability and do not lead to its decay. Modern science shows that in non-equilibrium situations it is possible to maintain stability. Ecological material confirms these provisions.

Odum points to the existence of a number of levels, or steps, of ecological balance (the so-called homeostatic plateau). The transition to each subsequent stage does not lead to the disintegration of the system, however, in order to achieve a secure position at each of these stages, a period of evolutionary adaptation is necessary. K. Waddington believes that for biological systems, not the concept of homeostasis is more applicable, but the concept of homeoresis. The balance of human society with the natural environment is also not a point, but a set, a certain set of states from which it can choose the most desirable at the moment. It makes sense to talk about the possibility of a conscious transition from one level of balance of the "man - natural environment" system to another through a corresponding transformation of the environment and the internal environment of a person. On this path, it is possible to ensure development without violating the stability of the "man - natural environment" system.

Society leaves the sphere of necessity, among other things, also because the number of its degrees of freedom in relation to the natural environment increases, the number of alternative equilibrium states in which it can be with external nature. And at present there is no hard dilemma - an ecological catastrophe or a reduction in human impact on nature. Humanity must choose and create from all the alternatives of its future the one that best suits its true desires and needs (this is what ensures its development). This will turn out to be ecologically feasible and even the most beneficial if a person really strives to fulfill his true desires and needs, since they do not contradict either his internal or external nature.

The equilibrium states in which the society will be with the natural environment will be the states of artificial equilibrium. Here the word "artificial" means man-made (similar to "artificial intelligence"). This phrase expresses both the activity of society (artificial) and its subordination to the objective laws of nature (balance), forming a kind of unity, although the nature-transforming activity of a person is not limited to artificial balance, just like the concept of "natural balance" does not fully reflect the situation in nature untouched by man, since development is also present in it.

Undoubtedly, a person will not refuse transformative activity, for example, the creation of synthetic materials with new properties unknown in nature. Man will increasingly disturb the natural balance, but in return for this he must create artificial cycles in nature. For example, he must create methods of decomposition of new synthetic substances unknown to nature. The development of human society can and should, among other things, be achieved by consciously changing the area in which it is in balance with the natural environment. Under such conditions, a person is able to control his evolution both in the social and in the biological sense. Evolution can also occur due to a change in the area of ​​achieving equilibrium, independent of man. The rates of these natural changes are for the most part insignificant compared to the rate of change in the human natural environment, but they must be taken into account.

The concept of "artificial balance", being a moment of the general concept of ecological development, makes it possible to reconcile the evolution of society with the preservation of the natural environment and the activity of transformative activity with the subordination of its objective laws. The concept of "artificial balance", as follows from the above, should not give rise to thinking about the existence of one ideal state of the system "man - natural environment" to which one should strive. It speaks of the development of a given system as a unity of qualitative and quantitative changes, variability and stability, growth and balance.

"The rule of socio-ecological balance was formulated: society develops as long as and insofar as it maintains a balance between its pressure on the environment and the restoration of this environment - natural and artificial" (N. F. Reimers. Hopes ... p. 147 ). This rule establishes the ratio of balance and development.

Topic 6. MODERN ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS

Without studying the current state of the relationship between man and nature, as well as without studying their history, it is impossible to create a socio-ecological theory, which is necessary in order for the nature-transforming practice of man to be successful. The study of the current state (the empirical basis of social ecology), together with the study of history (the historical basis of social ecology) and ecology as a science of the interaction of living organisms with the environment, constitute three cornerstones on which socio-ecological concepts are built.

6.1. Scientific and technological revolution and the global ecological crisis

The anthropogenic period, that is, 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.

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.

It would seem that a person is becoming less and less dependent on nature, subordinating it to his influence, transforming it in accordance with his goals. However, the words “nature protection”, “environmental crisis”, etc. are heard more and more often. It turned out that the growth of human power leads to an increase in the negative consequences for nature and, ultimately, dangerous for human existence, the consequences of his activity, the significance of which is only now beginning to be realized.

Numerous scientific data show that the ecological situation on our planet has not always been the same. Moreover, she experienced dramatic changes that were reflected in all her components. One of these global changes apparently occurred at the very initial stage of the development of life on Earth, when, as a result of the activity of living matter, the atmosphere of our planet changed dramatically, oxygen appeared in it, and due to this, the possibility of further formation and spread of life was provided. Living beings have created the atmosphere they need. In the process of its evolution, living matter, transforming itself and at the same time changing inert matter, formed the biosphere - an inseparable integral system of living and inert components of our planet. The process of its formation goes through the identification and resolution of contradictions between individual components, and periods of sharp aggravation of contradictions can be called ecological crises.

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 were relentlessly accompanied, like a shadow, by 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. Ancient hunters could, having exterminated animals in any territory, move to another place; ancient farmers could, if the soil was eroded and its productivity decreased, to develop new lands. True, such migrations were often accompanied by social upheavals (which became more and more dramatic with each new era), but nevertheless, theoretically and practically, they were feasible.

At present, the point of view seems to be justified, according to which the population density of the Earth is approaching a critical one. The world's population is growing exponentially, as Malthus warned. At the beginning of our era, there were 250 million people on Earth. It took 1,5 thousand years for it to double. By the beginning of the 1th century, the world's population reached 1987 billion, and already in 5, 12 billion people lived on Earth, and it took only 6 years to add the last billion. The world population is now over XNUMX billion.

The current growth rates are such that in order to ensure even those conditions of existence that are now on Earth, each newly emerging generation is obliged to build (and, therefore, consume the corresponding amount of biosphere resources) a new technostructure equal to that which currently exists on Earth. The challenges are unprecedented. How feasible are they? The anxiety experienced in connection with this is quite justified if, say, the rational limit of the expansion of agriculture is estimated at 2,7 billion hectares. There are very optimistic statements that the Earth can feed up to 700 billion people. But most scientists believe that the optimal number of inhabitants of the planet should not exceed 12-20 billion. Some demographers believe that more than the optimal "golden billion" already lives on Earth.

The problem of an unprecedented increase in the pressure on the biosphere of the growing population of the planet is becoming more acute. The picture is especially complex and sad at the level of individual regions and countries, where millions of people die of hunger every year. Raising the standard of living of the population of these areas, which are often characterized by the highest rates of population growth, is one of the main tasks of mankind, the difficulty of which is explained, if only by the fact that even with the preservation of the current population of the planet, a hundredfold an increase in the material benefits received and a multiple increase in food production. At the same time, in other areas of the Earth, characterized by a high level of pressure on the biosphere, too little population growth or even its decline is a concern.

In our country, despite its huge size and natural wealth, the population is declining by 1 million a year, and the average life expectancy of men has decreased to 58 years, which in general indicates a process of depopulation.

In some other countries, targeted family planning efforts are underway to reduce population growth.

To the feeling of modern man of the temporal limitations of life, an awareness of the spatial limitations of our habitat has been added, although the consequences of human activity both in space and in time are becoming more prolonged and impressive every year.

A characteristic feature of our time is intensification и globalization human impact on the natural environment, which is accompanied by previously unprecedented intensification and globalization of the negative consequences of this impact. And if earlier mankind experienced local and regional ecological crises that could lead to the death of any civilization, but did not prevent the further progress of the human race as a whole, then the current ecological situation is fraught with a global ecological collapse, since modern man destroys the mechanisms of the integral functioning of the biosphere in the planetary scale. There are more and more crisis points, both in the problematic and in the spatial sense, and they turn out to be closely interconnected, forming an increasingly frequent network. It is this circumstance that makes it possible to speak about the presence of a global ecological crisis and the threat of an ecological catastrophe.

Let us consider in more detail the current ecological situation on our planet. The processes of human life can be generally represented as follows. A person takes the substances, energy and information he needs from the natural environment, transforms them into useful products (material and spiritual) and returns to nature the waste of his activity, which is formed both during the transformation of the initial substances and the use of products made from them. The material and production part of human activity is expressed in an open circuit:

Each of these elements entails, among other things, negative consequences that can be divided (of course, to some extent conditionally) into real negative consequences that are now felt (for example, environmental pollution, soil erosion, etc.) and potential hazards (depletion of resources, man-made disasters, etc.).

6.2. Modern environmental disasters

The fact that the global environmental crisis is the reverse side of the scientific and technological revolution is confirmed by the fact that it was precisely those achievements of scientific and technological progress that served as the starting point for the announcement of the onset of the scientific and technological revolution that led to the most powerful environmental disasters on our planet. In 1945, the atomic bomb was created, testifying to the new unprecedented possibilities of man. In 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant was built in Obninsk, and many hopes were pinned on the "peaceful atom". And in 1986, the largest man-made disaster in the history of the Earth occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as a result of an attempt to "tame" the atom and make it work for itself.

As a result of this accident, more radioactive materials were released than during the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Mankind has faced such man-made disasters that may well claim the status of super-regional, if not global.

The peculiarity of a radioactive lesion is that it can kill painlessly. Pain, as you know, is an evolutionarily developed defense mechanism, but the "trick" of the atom is that in this case this warning mechanism is not activated.

The Chernobyl accident affected more than 7 million people and will affect many more. Radiation contamination affects not only the health of those living today, but also those who are to be born. The funds for the liquidation of the consequences of the catastrophe may exceed the economic profit from the operation of all nuclear power plants in the territory of the former USSR.

Chernobyl resolved the debate about whether we can talk about the ecological crisis on our planet or just about the ecological difficulties experienced by mankind, and how appropriate the words about ecological disasters are. Chernobyl was an environmental disaster that affected several countries, the consequences of which are difficult to fully predict.

The second largest catastrophe on a super-regional scale is the drying up of the Aral Sea. A few decades ago, newspapers glorified the builders of the Karakum Canal, thanks to which water came to the barren desert, turning it into a flowering garden. But a little time passed, and it turned out that the victorious reports about the "conquest" of nature turned out to be reckless. The beneficial effect of irrigation was far from the calculated one, the soils on the vast territory turned out to be saline, the water in numerous canals began to dry up, and after that a catastrophe approached, which, unlike Chernobyl, did not happen instantly as a result of the accident, but gradually picked up over the years in order to appear in all its terrifying form.

At present, the area of ​​the Aral Sea has decreased by 1/2, and the winds have brought toxic salts from its bottom to fertile lands thousands of kilometers away. "So many chemical discharges got into the drinking water that mothers in the Aral Sea region cannot breastfeed their children without exposing them to the risk of poisoning" (M. Feshbakh, A. Friendly. Ecocide in the USSR. M., 1992, p. 2 ). It will not be possible to save the Aral Sea, and this negative experience of transforming the face of the Earth in its own way confirms Vernadsky's conclusion that man has become the greatest geological force on our planet.

In order not to create the impression that environmental disasters occur only on the territory of the USSR, let us mention the catastrophe caused by the deforestation of Brazil's tropical forests, which can affect climate change on the planet with consequences that are difficult to imagine in full.

6.3. Real environmental impacts

Now let's move on to other real environmentally negative consequences. The problem of environmental pollution is becoming so acute both because of the volume of industrial and agricultural production, and in connection with the qualitative change in production under the influence of scientific and technological progress. The first circumstance is due to the fact that only 1-2% of the used natural resource remains in the final product, and the rest goes to waste, which - this is the second circumstance - is not absorbed by nature.

Many of the metals and alloys that humans use are not found in nature in their pure form, and although they are to some extent subject to recycling and reuse, some of them dissipate, accumulating in the biosphere in the form of waste. The problem of pollution of the natural environment in full growth arose after in the XX century. man significantly expanded the number of metals he used, began to produce synthetic fibers, plastics and other substances with properties that are not only unknown to nature, but even harmful to the organisms of the biosphere. These substances (the number and variety of which is constantly growing) after their use do not enter the natural circulation. Wastes from industrial activities are increasingly polluting the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere of the Earth. The adaptive mechanisms of the biosphere cannot cope with the neutralization of the increasing amount of substances harmful to its normal functioning, and natural systems begin to collapse.

There are a great many specific examples of environmental pollution in the literature. The main sources of pollution are known - cars, industry, thermal power plants. The most important pollutants - carbon monoxide, lead compounds, asbestos dust, hydrocarbons, mercury, cadmium, cobalt and other metals and compounds - have been identified and studied.

Usually they talk about pollution of soil, water, air, plant and animal organisms. It is quite clear, however, that in the final analysis this is reflected in the individual. The growth rate of the negative consequences of human activity calls into question not only the ability of nature to cope with them, but also the adaptive capabilities of man himself.

All somatic and neuropsychic features of the human body are the result of evolutionary development, the result of the formative influence of stable natural factors. A sharp change in these conditions in the modern era, the presence of physical and chemical factors with which the organism has never interacted in the course of evolution, can lead to the fact that the mechanisms of biological and social adaptation will not be able to work. “Technical progress has brought to life a lot of new factors (new chemicals, various types of radiation, etc.), before which a person, as a representative of a biological species, is practically defenseless. He does not have evolutionarily developed mechanisms for protecting against their effects” (G.I. Tsaregorodtsev, Socio-hygienic problems of scientific and technological progress // Dialectics in the sciences of nature and man, vol. 4. M., 1983, p. 412).

Much data has been obtained on the role of environmental pollution in the occurrence of various diseases. Air pollution in industrial centers, according to experts from the World Health Organization, is the main cause of the spread of chronic bronchitis, catarrhs ​​of the upper respiratory tract, pneumonia, emphysema and one of the causes of lung cancer.

It is not easy to trace a clear causal relationship between environmental pollution and diseases, because there are always many reasons, but nevertheless it is possible to indirectly determine the impact of environmental pollution, since, for example, residents of especially dusty places and workers in hazardous industries get sick more often. The statistics of ecologically caused diseases is kept.

There are even more disturbing calls. The Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), created after the UN Conference on the Environment in 1972, M. Tolba writes: "The periods of action of various carcinogenic environmental pollutants on humans have been lengthening all the time, and now experts believe that in -60% of cases can be seen as a direct or indirect relationship between cancer and the environment. Carcinogenic factors are found in air, water, production materials, foods, tobacco products "(when it comes to food, we mean primarily various food additives) . "It is known that many chemicals are carcinogens; apparently, even medicines act in this role" (M. Tolba. Man and the environment: causes and consequences // Health of the world. 90, p. 1978).

It should be noted various occupational diseases associated with working in a polluted environment, because pollutants primarily suffer from those who directly produce them.

It is sometimes difficult to see to what extent the natural environment is to be blamed for, say, an increase in mental illness, cardiovascular disease, reduced life expectancy, etc. You cannot blame everything on the natural environment, but the environment does make a difference. Although it seems that a person is accustomed to, say, the intense rhythm of city life, overcrowding, but this ultimately contributes to stressful situations and illnesses.

Alarming data have been obtained on the impact of environmental pollution on the human genetic apparatus. In places with a high degree of environmental pollution, children began to be born with congenital jaundice, etc.

Pollution of the natural environment has led to the emergence of new diseases, such as minamata disease caused by mercury poisoning, and itai-itai disease caused by cadmium poisoning.

The situation is especially acute for residents of metropolitan areas. In large cities, the volume of solid waste increases sharply, reaching 1 ton per year per inhabitant. The burning of urban waste containing significant amounts of components that are not subject to mineralization in the soil (glass, plastic, metal) leads to additional air pollution, which, as a rule, exceeds the maximum allowable concentrations (MAC) for most agents.

70 million inhabitants of 103 cities of the former USSR inhale air containing toxic substances 5 times higher than the MAC. In 66 cities, the level of pollution is 10 times higher (for 40 million).

“Urbanization disrupts biogeochemical cycles, as the city receives products collected from a vast area, removing many substances from fields and pastures, but not returning them back, because most of these substances end up in wastewater and waste after use. others pass through sewers with sewage, bypassing fields, into groundwater, into rivers and, finally, accumulate in the ocean" (Man and his environment // Questions of Philosophy, 1973, No. 3, p. 55).

Some of the effects of urbanization are still difficult to assess. These include, for example, the subsidence of the central regions of cities built up with high-rise buildings, with compensating surface elevations in the suburbs.

One of the ways to prevent pollution of the natural environment is to try to hide the waste as far as possible (as a continuation of the strategy of "high pipes"). Relevant proposals (for example, the elimination of waste by dumping it in a compressed form into tectonically active zones of the oceans so that they subsequently sink into the mantle, as well as other similar proposals) cannot but suggest whether this will lead to even greater difficulties?

More than half of all cultivated land in the countries of the former USSR is in serious danger: they are either saline, or subject to erosion, or waterlogged and waterlogged, or oversaturated with pesticides.

The alarming consequences of scientific and technological progress include a change in fundamental physical parameters, in particular an increase in background noise and radiation levels.

6.4. Potential environmental hazards

Among the potential environmental hazards, we first note those that may become actual in the future while maintaining the existing trends in technical and economic development. These include the dangers of depletion of traditional types of natural resources, thermal overheating of the planet, destruction of the ozone shield, reduction in the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere, etc.

Let us consider in more detail the problem of the depletion of natural resources. All resources of nature can be divided (to some extent conditionally) into renewable и non-renewable. If the resources of living nature are naturally renewable, then only a small part of the resources of inanimate nature can be classified as such. Of the non-renewable natural resources, minerals, i.e., minerals, are of paramount importance, which, at this stage in the development of productive forces, can be extracted from the Earth technologically and economically to meet the needs for mineral raw materials.

The growth rate of productive forces largely depends on the degree of knowledge and intensity of development of mineral deposits. Under the conditions of unprecedentedly high rates of development of industry and agriculture in the era of the scientific and technological revolution, the demand for mineral raw materials is rapidly increasing. Consumption of minerals is noticeably ahead of population growth. It is assumed that in the future the consumption of mineral raw materials will outpace the growth of the world's population.

The practical non-renewability in a natural way of most minerals poses a raw material problem for humanity. After all, nature takes many thousands of years to accumulate reserves, for example, of coal burned by man in 1 year. Of course, only discovered deposits are taken into account in forecasts or the possibility of a slight increase in reserves is taken into account. It is at least premature to speak of the exhaustion of all minerals when only an insignificant part of the radius of the globe has been explored. Theoretically, all the matter of the Earth can be considered as a potential mineral resource, since, in principle, iron, non-ferrous metals, gold, etc. can be obtained from ordinary granite. In practice, the problem of natural resources and protection of the subsoil from depletion (due to the finiteness of the available reserves and the scarcity of certain types of mineral raw materials) can be quite acute, and this is quite true for the modern era.

Some of the negative aspects of the intensification of mining operations are affecting at the present time. This is primarily the destruction of the soil cover by mine workings. But not only. The extraction of solid minerals in mines and the pumping of oil and water through wells lead to surface settlement. In the Moscow and Donetsk basins, the surface above the workings has settled by more than 2 m. Injecting water into wells to stimulate oil production in oil fields can cause earthquakes with a magnitude of 6.

We can also note such negative aspects as an increase in the cost of exploration and mining, since it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a mineral and deposits with poorer ores, which are also in more difficult geological conditions, have to be involved in development. Scientific and technological progress requires the widespread use of non-ferrous and rare metals. But their content in the ore usually does not exceed 1-3%. In addition, the recovery factor for these metals is 50-70%, and for rare metals - 4-20%. The rest of the rock accumulates in dumps, increasing the already vast expanses of the so-called "lunar landscape".

A significant improvement in the results can be achieved with the complex extraction of useful components from the ore. In some enterprises, these issues are resolved, but this is not the case everywhere. Ore losses are reduced with open-pit mining, and a large concentration of mining enterprises creates conditions for the development of deposits with low production costs and high labor productivity.

An economically open method of mining is more profitable than a mine, but it also entails negative consequences. In order to extract minerals in this way, more and more waste rock must be removed every year, which increases the area withdrawn from land use and the amount of waste rock in the dumps. Due to the dustiness of the area with open mining, the yield of agricultural crops in the surrounding areas decreases.

Much better, it would seem, is the situation with renewable resources. However, it was precisely their renewability that caused complacency and led to the fact that, exterminating valuable species of animals and plants, a person did not think and often prevented their natural renewal. In total, since 1600, 226 species and subspecies of vertebrates have disappeared (moreover, over the past 60 years - 76 species) and about 1000 species are under threat of extinction (R. L. Smith. Our home is planet Earth. M., 1982, p. .188).

Technical means of fishing are constantly being improved, while the possibilities of natural reproduction of renewable resources remain at the same level, and if they grow, then not to the extent necessary. Therefore, further intensification of animal trapping can lead to more and more unfavorable environmental consequences.

Reproducible resources also include fresh water. Their reserves on the globe are large, but the demand for them in industry, agriculture, housing and communal services is growing with great speed. The production of widely used new metals (such as titanium) and especially the production of chemical products (for example, synthetic fibers) uses several or even several tens of times more water than the production of steel. In modern houses with all conveniences, water consumption is much higher than in houses without running water. Intensive water extraction (especially in large cities, where dense buildings prevent natural flow and, consequently, the natural replenishment of the upper aquifers of groundwater most valuable to humans) leads to a decrease in the level and gradual depletion of reserves.

Groundwater shortage is felt in many parts of the world, for example, in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland. The same situation in some regions of Russia and may spread to others. For several years, studies have been carried out on the problem of transferring part of the flow of the waters of the northern and eastern rivers of the USSR to the south, but this problem is not only technically, but especially environmentally extremely complex. It has been suggested that turning rivers could slow the Earth's rotation due to the displacement of huge masses of water. Perhaps the most positive environmental event of recent decades is the abandonment of this suicidal step.

Reproduction of forests does not keep pace with deforestation. It takes 1 day to cut down a forest area of ​​1 hectare, and it takes 15-20 years to grow such a site. In addition, intensive deforestation can lead to landslides, floods and other destructive natural phenomena. Excessive deforestation, as well as errors in irrigation construction, overgrazing, etc., has been a source of environmental difficulties in the past and even one of the reasons for the weakening and death of civilizations. This fact suggests that over the many centuries of its existence, man has not become ecologically wiser and is not very capable of learning from the mistakes of his ancestors.

Summing up the consideration of the raw material problem, it should be concluded that the value of each type of resource increases more and more with the growth of demand for it. Therefore, the importance of protecting the natural environment from depletion is also increasing.

Special mention should be made of the problem of providing energy resources. The main incoming part of the fuel and energy balance is the energy obtained from the combustion of mineral fuels. But oil and natural gas reserves, according to experts, may be exhausted in the near future. Prospects are associated with the development of nuclear energy, which is capable of providing mankind with a huge amount of cheap energy. Nuclear energy is more favorable in terms of protecting the natural environment from thermal and chemical pollution, but its development entails an incalculable risk.

Nuclear power is fraught with the second main type of potential hazards - those that can be actualized at any moment as a result of random circumstances. This refers to the danger of intense radioactive contamination of the natural environment, which can occur not only as a result of the use of atomic weapons, but also due to accidents at nuclear power plants. There are no technical systems with XNUMX% reliability, so although it is difficult to predict where new accidents will occur, there is no doubt that they will occur. The problem of disposal of radioactive waste is also still not solved.

There is another danger ahead. With the current growth rate of energy generated on Earth, it should be expected that its amount will soon become commensurate with the amount of energy received from the Sun. Scientists point to the danger of thermal overheating of the planet and exceeding the energy barriers of the biosphere.

The danger of thermal overheating of the planet is also increasing due to an increase in the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which leads to the so-called greenhouse effect. Combustion of fuel contributes annually to the atmosphere at least 1000 tons of carbon dioxide. Calculations show that an increase in carbon dioxide content can cause a global increase in temperature on Earth with all the ensuing consequences - ice melting, etc.

A number of scientists, on the contrary, speculate about the coming cooling on our planet under the influence of anthropogenic activities associated with atmospheric dusting, etc. In any case, abrupt climate changes (the events of recent years indicate that such processes are already taking place) can cause catastrophic results. Here it is appropriate to recall the presence of a "trigger effect" in nature, when a minor impact can lead to huge changes. We must not forget that ecological processes are exponential and changes in nature occur not only evolutionarily. There are thresholds (energy, etc.), the excess of which threatens with sharp qualitative transformations.

Potentially dangerous are those processes that now lead to real environmentally negative consequences. Pollution of the natural environment not only brings losses that cannot be fully accounted for, but creates the risk of even greater troubles, especially if we take into account the effect of accumulation. So, for example, DDT, radioactive substances, even after a considerable period of time after entering the natural environment, do not lose their harmful properties, but, on the contrary, accumulate in living tissues. The risk of soil depletion and winnowing of its fertile layer also increases as the depth of plowing increases and the impact on the land intensifies.

Potential dangers are more important than those that are already in full growth before humanity. The real negative effects can be reduced, and we are witnessing the success of some countries in the fight against environmental pollution. Potential dangers are more insidious because they lie in wait unexpectedly and not only do not decrease, but also tend to increase as the scale of human activity increases. Generally speaking, the benefits of a nature-transformation project are achieved quite quickly, since it is carried out for this purpose, while, as a rule, time is needed for the full manifestation of negative consequences. The larger and more complex the project, the more time passes before the manifestation of side effects, the more significant they are and the more troubles threaten with malfunctions in the implementation of this project and the functioning of the created object. So, along with the traditional problems that can be attributed to the category of environmental - food shortages in underdeveloped countries, the prevention of natural disasters, etc. - humanity is faced with new environmental challenges. It did not get rid of the old troubles, but new ones, no less dangerous, came.

6.5. The complex nature of the environmental problem

Certain regions of the planet, which are at different stages of economic development, are experiencing various difficulties: for developing countries, this is a traditional problem of food shortages, for developed countries, the prospect of depletion of natural resources and pollution of the natural environment. It seems that different regions of the Earth face opposite tasks. Thus, in the countries of Southeast Asia, one of the most important problems is the problem of declining birth rates, while in many African and some Western countries, population growth is considered necessary for the development of industry and agriculture. In fact, all these seemingly disparate problems are internally interconnected, and it is the latter circumstance that gives the qualitative originality of the current environmental situation.

The specificity of the threat of global ecological collapse lies not only in the lack of food - this problem has always been, and not only in the depletion of natural resources - this was written back in the XNUMXth century. To these two, new ones were added, and the main one is environmental pollution, which arose as a global problem in the XNUMXth century. This has created a qualitatively new state of relations between society and the natural environment, one of the most significant properties of which is the interweaving and mutually reinforcing effect of environmental difficulties on each other. Thus, a sharp decrease in water resources is a consequence of both their intensive extraction in excess of natural growth and water pollution. Another example. Burning a huge amount of fuel, cutting down forests, pollution of the ocean with oil products and pesticides (leading to the death of vegetation in it - the main supplier of oxygen to the atmosphere) - all this together reduces the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere.

A disturbing synergistic effect has been noted when two or more substances are introduced into the medium. "DDT is slightly soluble in sea water, and, therefore, its concentrations are not too dangerous for marine organisms. But DDT is very soluble in oil. Therefore, oil, as it were, concentrates DDT in the surface layer of the ocean, where many marine organisms spend part of their life cycle. And as a result, the overall effect of oil and DDT exceeds the influence of each of them separately" (J. P. Holdren, P. R. Ehrlich. Man and environmental anomalies // UNESCO Courier. 1974, Aug. - Sept., p. 25) . The concept of synergy is closely related to synergetics - the science of the organization and evolution of inanimate structures. Synergism leads to a bifurcation point, after which either the collapse of the system, or its transition to a new quality. Synergetics is associated with ecology by the trigger effect and autocatalytic positive feedback loops.

The intertwining of environmentally negative impacts hinders attempts to solve any particular environmental problem. With appropriate efforts, it can be solved, but this leads to the emergence and exacerbation of other problems. There is not a final solution, but, as it were, a "shift of problems."

Consider the problem of increasing food production. The desire to get more agricultural products stimulates the creation of artificial monoculture systems to replace natural ones. But monocultures are more vulnerable to weeds, insect pests, disease, and are particularly sensitive to climate.

Selective destruction or a significant reduction in the amount of renewable natural resources violates the subtle and intricate relationships in ecosystems, which leads to their depletion and degradation, disruption of the ecological balance. Artificial biogeocenoses created by man are not as stable as natural ones. To increase their resistance to agricultural pests, it is necessary to use chemical plant protection products. However, "the widespread use of pesticides and other pesticides in agriculture in some cases leads to serious environmental consequences: the death of insects (especially bees) and birds, a threat to the fauna of rivers, lakes and marine reservoirs. The increasing content of pesticides in livestock feed, as well as in food products leads to their accumulation in the human body "(F. G. Krotkov. Environmental pollution and hygiene problems // Priroda. 1975, No. 4, p. 64).

In the last decade, the solution of the food problem was associated with the so-called "green revolution" - the breeding of new high-yielding plant varieties. However, the "green revolution" requires a huge amount of mineral fertilizers, the use of which also causes negative environmental effects. In addition, new breeding varieties are more susceptible to viral diseases and produce products, although they are high in calories, but do not have the same high content of protein and other components necessary for the human body. Any increase in the productivity of ecosystems by humans leads to an increase in the cost of maintaining them in a stable state, up to a certain limit, when further increase in productivity becomes unprofitable due to excessive cost growth. The American ecologist L. Brown believes that, in principle, one can get as much food as needed, but this will cause such pressure on the biosphere that it cannot withstand. It turns out that it is necessary to strive to achieve not the maximum, but some compromise option, which is optimal.

This example not only demonstrates the complex nature of the environmental problem, but also helps to reveal the contradiction between the modern strategy of human impact on the environment and environmental patterns. To obtain the required amount of food, a person seeks to maximize the productivity of ecosystems, but this desire is contrary to the direction of their development. "If civilization tends to maximize productivity, then nature tends to strive for maximum stability, and these goals are incompatible. Ecological studies show that the most complex and, therefore, the most stable ecosystems provide the least productivity. It can be increased only by reducing the stability of ecosystems" (J (P. Holdren, P. R. Erlich, op. cit., p. 21).

Thus, the solution of a particular ecological problem turns out to be half-hearted or leads to a shift in problems. You can get an unlimited amount of food and manufactured goods, but there will be a problem of pollution; it is possible, by developing nuclear power engineering, to obtain an infinitely large amount of energy, but the problem of entropy growth, thermal overheating of the planet, exceeding the energy barriers of the biosphere arises.

Generally speaking, achieving an ideal state of absolute harmony with nature is basically impossible. Just as impossible is a final victory over nature, although in the process of struggle a person discovers the ability to overcome the difficulties that arise. The mythical Antaeus could not get off the ground. Modern "Antey" soars into the sky. Does this mean that man has won a victory over nature in the sense that we speak of winning a football match when it is over and the rivals go home? No, the interaction of man with nature (his "game", so to speak, about very serious things) never ends, and when it seems that man is about to get a decisive advantage, nature increases resistance. However, it is not infinite, and its "overcoming" in the form of the suppression of nature is fraught with the death of man himself.

Modern "Antei" soar into the sky, but still they are inextricably linked with the earth and dependent on the natural environment. Moreover, the current success of man in the fight against the natural environment has been achieved by increasing the risk, which should be considered in two ways: the risk of possible adverse environmental events due to the fact that science cannot give an absolute forecast of the consequences of human impact on the natural environment, and the risk of random disasters. associated with the fact that technical systems and the person himself do not have absolute reliability. Here, one of Commoner's propositions, which he calls the "laws" of ecology, turns out to be true: "nothing comes for free."

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

A fundamentally important concrete scientific provision that imposes restrictions on human activity is the "law of necessary diversity" formulated in cybernetics. In accordance with it, effective management is possible only when the internal diversity of the management system is not inferior to the internal diversity of the managed system. Mankind sets itself the task of managing nature, and for this it must either reduce the diversity in external nature, or increase its internal diversity (by developing science, culture, improving the mental and psychosomatic characteristics of a person).

The first way seems to be easier, and humanity often prefers it. But its ease is deceptive, and it can lead to collapse, since the decrease in diversity in nature reduces the stability of ecosystems. If culture begins to simplify nature, then nature responds in kind. A particular example is the destruction of cultural monuments under the influence of environmental degradation, atmospheric pollution, etc.

Both of the ways noted above seem to be useful for the purposes of management, but only the second way - the development of human culture - seems to be a reliable way to resolve the contradictions between man and nature. Unfortunately, modern science and practical nature-transformation activities, instead of playing a negentropic role in relation to the natural environment, often contribute to a decrease in diversity in nature.

Thermodynamic and cybernetic regularities are fundamental. Taking them into account is of great importance for the development of a nature-transforming strategy for mankind. Trying to circumvent these restrictions in the most "easy" way, a person violates the fundamental principles of the functioning of ecological systems, thereby undermining the natural foundations of his existence.

According to Odum, one of the most important properties of ecosystems is "the lag in heterotrophic utilization of autotrophic metabolic products" (Yu. Odum. Fundamentals of Ecology... p. 41). Man "begins to accelerate the processes of decomposition in the biosphere, burning organic matter stored in the form of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas), and intensifying agricultural activity, which increases the rate of decomposition of humus" (Ibid., p. 47). The reducing activity of man begins to surpass the productive activity of the biosphere - this is another reason for the threat of an ecological catastrophe.

The current ecological situation shows that the influence of nature on a person depends on the objective laws of its development, and this makes us pay close attention to the study of the mechanisms of its integral functioning. Since in nature "everything is connected with everything", it is impossible to influence a part of the system without consequences for the entire system (for the biosphere, as well as for an individual organism). The system can compensate for the absence or damage of several links, but if many of them are broken or the most significant of them are affected, the system ceases to exist. The more complex it is, the more compensated connections it has, which allows it to be destroyed for a long time with impunity. But then, when the threshold of adaptation is passed, irreversible changes occur, which is what is happening to the biosphere in our time. How responsible are science, which is called upon to learn the laws of nature, and technology, which transforms the natural environment, responsible for this? These issues are the subject of the next topic.

Topic 7. ENVIRONMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The ecological crisis is directly caused by modern production, to the greatest extent by those parts of it that are based on modern technology, the source of which, in turn, is science. It is science and technology that we must consider as the underlying causes of environmental difficulties.

7.1. Natural-scientific roots of ecological difficulties

The development of science, like any other branch of culture, is determined by the goals that are set for it, the methodology it uses, and the organization of activities. Accordingly, the ecological significance of science depends on these three components.

Science in its modern sense arose in modern times. Freed from religious dogmas, humanity set itself the task of "becoming masters and masters of nature" (the words of Descartes), and here science was needed as a tool for knowing the forces of nature in order to counteract them and use them (recall the aphorism of F. Bacon "knowledge is power") .

One of the examples of science that determined its path for several centuries to come was Newton's classical mechanics. Note that the word "mechanics", which for many years became the standard of science, comes from the Greek mehane - a means, a trick. Scientists, as it were, tried, with the help of what Hegel later called "the cunning of the mind", to trap nature in a network of mathematical formulas and experiments and subordinate it to "human needs, whether as an object of consumption or as a means of production" (K. Marx, F Engels, Op. 46, part I, p. 387).

In the science of modern times, an experimental method was formed, aimed at extorting nature's secrets from nature. Defining the tasks of experimental research, F. Bacon used the concept of inquisition - investigation, torment, torture (cf. the Russian word "naturalist"). With the help of the scientific "inquisition" discovered the laws of nature.

It is generally accepted that the experimental method is the most important feature that distinguishes modern science from, say, ancient science. The application of this method is closely connected with a new understanding and attitude towards nature, which did not exist either in ancient times or in the East. In ancient China, for example, medicine achieved great successes that are striking today, but it developed in different ways than in the West, largely because vivisexia was banned.

New European science is based on a certain paradigm of attitude towards nature, which itself depended on the success of science. It was determined by the needs of the development of capitalist society, namely: the formation of commodity production, the class-conditioned division of labor, the development of technology and the system of machines. There were no slaves that could be dominated, and scientifically controlled nature and the technology created on its basis acted in their role.

The influence of Christianity on science was manifested in the fact that, beginning with the classical mechanics of Newton, the world appeared as a kind of clockwork, operating according to eternal unchanging laws. Let us recall Galileo's winged words that the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics. The search for self-movement, self-development of the world was superfluous, as long as there is a Higher Being who once and for all started the mechanism of nature. Man is not able to penetrate into the motives of this Being, but he can learn the structure of the clock mechanism and through this control it, which, apparently, is achievable, since man is created in the image and likeness of God. However, having learned the eternal laws, a person can take on the functions of God, and the need for the latter disappears. The scientist thus appropriates divine attributes to himself.

This is how the scientific picture of the world was formed, which lasted until the XNUMXth century, and many people imagine the development of the world in this way. Everything goes according to immutable eternal objective laws that a person can use, but which he cannot cancel. There is a picture in which there is no place for man, and there is man himself, who has known the laws of nature. Such an understanding of the world caused endless disputes about the free will of man, which could not be resolved.

Classical science embodied the main theme of Western philosophy, focused on the dominance of man over nature. The very image of nature was a function of the striving for dominance. It is easier to dominate and morally easier to defeat something that is not like you, of which you are not a part, with which dialogue is impossible, that passively obeys laws that can be learned and used.

The positive value of the objectivity of scientific knowledge (in the sense that the results of the study are the laws of nature with the exclusion of the influence of the human factor on them) is generally recognized. But the reverse side of objectivity is often an impersonal character (“science ... strives to become, as far as possible, impersonal and abstracted from a person” (B. Russell. Human knowledge: its scope and boundaries. M., 1957, p. 87), which understood as the dignity of science in its scientistic interpretation.This downside of scientific objectivity received little attention until the negative ecological consequences of such an approach to the study of nature were revealed.The impersonal nature of science is partly responsible for environmental difficulties, primarily because man becomes one of the main factors changes in the natural environment; studies that do not take into account the human factor turn out to be inadequately reflecting the current situation.

The inclusion of the human factor in research is far from trivial; it greatly complicates the research process. The object of study, which includes a social system as a subsystem, cannot be described by strictly deterministic laws. The difficulty lies in the need to take into account the freedom of choice that the most environmentally transforming society has. The increase in the possibilities of science in this area implies, among other things, a significant enrichment of its logical apparatus, the development of specific tools adapted to the scientific comprehension of the environmental problem.

Modern man has extended his influence from individual processes occurring in nature to their aggregates, closely intertwined, thereby affecting the mechanisms that determine the integral functioning of the natural environment. Science must grasp the new situation and respond to it.

The basis of the structure of scientific knowledge (which is especially characteristic of the most developed branches of natural science) is the analysis of the subject of study, i.e., the selection of abstract elementary objects and the subsequent synthesis of these abstract elements of a single whole in the form of a theoretical system. According to Russell, "scientific progress is carried out through analysis and artificial isolation. It is possible, according to quantum theory, that there are limits to the legitimacy of this process, but if it were not usually correct, at least approximately, scientific knowledge would be impossible" (There same, p. 71). The situation in the field of studying the ecological problem in practical terms, as well as the situation in quantum mechanics in terms of theory, casts doubt on the legitimacy of the absolutization of the process of artificial isolation and analysis, and many scientists consider these features of science to be responsible for environmental difficulties.

The analytical orientation of science was assessed mostly positively. Science begins with the analytical division of the Universe; in the areas that are most accessible to such a division (such as physics), science achieves the greatest success, and these areas become, as it were, standards of knowledge. The analytical method, which was considered the main one in science by such minds as T. Hobbes, is, in essence, a modification of the well-known slogan "Divide and rule!". In other words, science deals with private fragments of reality, with objects of knowledge, which are singled out by a certain projection onto the object of study.

Analyticism, which lies at the very foundation of the scientific approach to reality, fully corresponds to the desire of a person to practically master the objective world, since the transformational activity itself is also predominantly analytical in its essence. A person subjugates the world through his cognition (primarily scientific), but this cognition, and therefore the mastery of the objective world, cannot be absolute, since the prerequisite for cognition of an object is its ideal destruction, idealization. “A person strives in general to cognize the world, to take possession of it and subjugate it to himself, and for this purpose he must, as it were, destroy, that is, idealize, the reality of the world” (G. Hegel. Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences. Vol. 1. M., 1975, p. 158). Science previously "destroyed" the world ideally, but now it is beginning to contribute to the real destruction of the world (suffice it to recall the discussions among geneticists about the dangers of experimenting with strains of bacteria).

So, one of the roots of the ecological crisis (from the point of view of scientific knowledge of the relationship between man and the natural environment) - over-analysism of scientific thinking, which, in an effort to penetrate further into the depths of things, is fraught with the danger of a departure from real phenomena, from a holistic view of nature. The artificial isolation of any fragment of reality makes it possible to study it in depth, but this does not take into account the connection of this fragment with the environment. Such a circumstance, which may seem insignificant, entails important environmental negative consequences when the results of the study are involved in the practice of human nature-transformation activities. The analytical aspiration of science must be balanced by a synthetic approach, which is very important now in connection with the awareness of the holistic nature of the functioning of ecosystems and the natural environment as such. The increase in the importance of such synthetic disciplines as ecology in modern science indicates that positive shifts in this direction are outlined.

Analyticism within specific scientific disciplines continues in the analytical direction of the development of science as a whole as a special form of comprehension of the world. The fundamental feature of the structure of scientific activity, arising from its predominantly analytical nature, is division of science into separate disciplines. This, of course, has its positive aspects, since it makes it possible to study individual fragments of reality, but the connections between them are overlooked. The disunity of science is especially hampering now, when in the era of the rapid differentiation of scientific knowledge, the need for integrative studies of the natural environment has become clear.

The roots of environmental difficulties are also connected with the gap between the sciences, the unevenness of their development, which is determined both by the internal specifics of science and the influence of social needs. It is important to keep in mind that it is not a specific scientific achievement that is "to blame", but the fact that after it there are no corresponding changes in other areas of knowledge, the scientific system as a whole is not modified. Science lacks the flexibility that is inherent in the biosphere. Just as a person is inferior to a computer in speed, so he is inferior to the biosphere (which a person seeks to control) in flexibility. The uneven development of science against the backdrop of a tremendous increase in the total amount of knowledge is one of the reasons why the contradictions between the ability of a person to make a change in the natural environment and the understanding of the consequences of this change do not fade, but, on the contrary, become more acute, dramatic, giving rise to calls to return to the time when there was a single, undifferentiated science.

The current stage of the relationship between society and nature is characterized by the fact that one cardinal discovery in any advanced field of knowledge and its subsequent practical use can have an unprecedentedly powerful impact on the entire planet as a whole, and not just on its individual parts. Under these conditions, close contact between the fundamental sciences of the physical and chemical cycle, the technical sciences and the sciences that study the biosphere and individual biogeocenoses is of great importance. Meanwhile, there is still no close connection between them, especially between the sciences that study the natural environment (such as geology, geography, biology), and the sciences designed to develop ways to transform the natural environment (technical ones).

Until the end of the XNUMXth century, technical sciences, quite closely related to physical and chemical sciences, developed for the most part separately from environmental sciences. At the beginning of our century, when mankind embarked on the implementation of gigantic projects for the transformation of the natural environment, a large amount of natural scientific data was required to ensure the functioning of the natural ones created on the spot and to replace their technical systems (hydraulic structures, etc.). This contributed to the docking of the data of the physical and chemical sciences and the sciences of the natural environment, but the latter played a secondary role in this synthesis, since their function was subordinate - to provide data for the implementation of the technical project.

This form of connection between the technical sciences and the sciences of the natural environment did little to raise the theoretical level of the latter, and this circumstance to some extent explains the unpreparedness of science in general, and above all the sciences of the natural environment, to the current environmental situation.

Although the strengthening of the connection between the technical sciences and the environmental sciences was generally positive for the latter, since it stimulated interest in this cycle of sciences, the subordinate position of disciplines striving for a holistic study of the natural environment had a negative impact on the direction of research in them. It is essential that all branches of the sciences, including the social sciences, act as equal partners in determining the prospects for the transformation of our planet.

7.2. Greening science trend

Despite the fact that the very structure of science and its relations with other public institutions contain the prerequisites for environmental difficulties, that science does not have absolute truth in the last instance, cannot predict all the consequences of human activity and reacts to a change in the situation with a delay, it nevertheless less is a necessary tool for a person to reflect reality in terms of harmonizing his relationship with the natural environment.

Science provides man with the most reliable resource - information. If in the matter-energy plan a person encounters such natural restrictions as the law of conservation of matter-energy and the second law of thermodynamics, then in the information plan there are no such restrictions. Information in its subjective aspect contributes to the growth of human knowledge of nature, while in the objective aspect it is one of the resources of mankind, moreover, it has advantages over material and energy resources. Energy is inevitably dissipated in the process of its use, the substance is crushed during its separation, while information can be transmitted ideally without loss, creating huge opportunities in this aspect. Accumulating information and transmitting it (and thus multiplying), it is possible to overcome material-energy barriers. Mankind, as Maxwell's demon, processing information, is able to counteract the increase in the entropy of the system. Science, therefore, provides an opportunity to increase the amount of order extracted by man from the natural environment, and cognition is, in particular, the process of revealing order in nature.

But the role of modern science in terms of information and entropy is dual. The paradox of the situation lies in the fact that scientific and technical information, which is designed to have a negentropic effect on the natural environment, actually leads to clearly entropic consequences. Acquiring information in the process of cognition, a person uses it voluntarily or involuntarily to increase the entropy of the natural environment. The desire for quantitative growth is achieved by reducing the diversity in nature, which serves as a source of its self-development. Thus, the quantitative growth of modern production is often ensured at the expense of development potential, and this threatens with environmental disasters. In order for science to successfully fulfill its negentropic role, it is necessary to increase the amount of information about the natural environment at a faster pace than the decrease in information in the natural environment itself due to its transformation. In any case, the growth of man's cognitive and transformative capabilities should not be accompanied by a simplification of nature to satisfy his material needs.

Strengthening the relationship between the cognitive and transformative aspects of human activity is of paramount importance. The higher the technical level, the more strong and important connections in nature can be broken and the more urgent is the need for scientific recommendations to choose an alternative in each particular case: either try to facilitate the adaptation of the natural environment to technical innovations, or change and even abandon the planned transformation plan. . Thus, science faces new challenges: study of the system of adaptation of the biosphere to the conditions created by man, the study of the mechanisms and possibilities of adaptation of the person himself to the changing natural environment and, in a broader sense, the elucidation of new systemic patterns that are generated by the combination of the primary biosphere and industrial and technical elements into an integral system.

In general, science is not only a means of transforming nature or its external reflection. Science develops not only under the influence of external goals and internal logic. Changing nature by man is one of the powerful impulses for the development of science. The environment is changed by man, and this change determines the direction and speed of the development of science. And since experimentation raises the theoretical status of the sciences, the transformation of the natural environment, which is, in fact, large-scale experimentation, leads to an increase in the theoretical status of environmental sciences.

An urgent need of the modern stage of the relationship between man and nature is the conduct of comprehensive environmental studies. In addition to the relationship of the social, physical, chemical and technical sciences with the earth sciences and biology, their close connection with medicine is necessary. The feedback loop that exists between social changes, environmental changes and changes in human biology should be reflected in science as a form of social consciousness.

The new position of man in relation to the natural environment, the growth of his technical power and the transformation of his activity into a "geological force" require a significant modification of science if it wants to adequately reflect this situation. How far this will become possible, the future will show, but it should be noted that in modern science there are processes that are a reaction to new tasks arising in accordance with the intensive compaction of the field of functional relations between society and the natural environment. For science, its reorientation is becoming characteristic, which can be called the trend of greening.

One of the main forms of this trend is the development of sciences that are transitional from ecology to other sciences of the biological cycle (evolutionary ecology, paleoecology), to the earth sciences (environmental geology, or ecological ecology), to the sciences of the physicochemical cycle (geochemical ecology, radioecology) , technical and agricultural sciences (space ecology, agricultural ecology), medicine (ecological human physiology, ecology of human diseases, medical ecology, geohygiene, medical geography), social sciences (social ecology).

The development of the noted scientific directions proceeds within the framework of the trend of greening human activity. In general terms, greening is understood as taking into account the possible consequences of human impact on the natural environment in order to minimize the negative results of environmental transformation activities. This trend is an urgent need of our time, and its development is designed to solve the environmental problem both at the global and regional and local levels.

The desire for a comprehensive study of the behavior of natural systems in their interaction with society is one of the most characteristic features of the ecologization of science. Ecologization contributes to overcoming conflicts between the cognizing and transforming human activities. Ecological trends in natural science are essentially theoretical and applied disciplines. Their task is not only to register the consequences of scientific and technological progress that are unfavorable for the biosphere and the human body, but the more general task of harmonizing the relationship between man and the natural environment. The path of fouling ecology with directions adjacent to this science, developing in many specific scientific disciplines, seems to be one of the most promising for solving the environmental problem. An important feature of the ecologization of science is the increase in the theoretical level of research into the relationship of society with the natural environment, which is closely related to the practice of human nature-transformation activities.

An essential aspect of the ecologization of science should be a loving and creative attitude to the subject of research. This thesis stems from the fact that a loving and creative attitude towards nature is important for all forms of social consciousness, including, therefore, for science. With regard to science, we will consider it.

Regarding creativity, the question does not seem to arise. Creativity is something taken for granted in science, although, as the works of T. Kuhn and other modern methodologists of science show, there is also something to think about here. One thing is obvious: the more creative scientific activity in the field of solving an environmental problem (as, indeed, in any other), the higher the ecological significance of science.

As for the love of nature, its connection with the ecological significance of science does not seem obvious. It can be assumed that the scientist explores reality completely dispassionately, striving for the knowledge of objective laws. Such a view, however, would be a very superficial adherence to once fashionable positivist dogmas. Even discovering the objective laws of nature that act independently of the will and desire of people, the scientist does not remain impassive. According to A. Einstein, universal laws "can be obtained only with the help of intuition based on a phenomenon similar to intellectual love for objects of experience" (Quoted in: K. Popper. Logic and the growth of scientific knowledge. M., 1983, p. 52). Apparently, we are talking about a certain state of rational-sensory unity, in which creative and loving moments are intertwined. It can be assumed that insofar as such a rational-sensual loving-creative unity is formed, the knowledge brought by science has an ecologically and socially beneficial meaning.

In the study of an ecological problem, science must act as a whole. Unity is based on the unity of the goals facing researchers - to provide knowledge for harmonizing the relationship of society with the natural environment - and the unity of the subject of research (the practice of nature-transformation activities). Both foundations of unity presuppose the unity of the methodology of cognition of the relationship between man and the natural environment. Such a methodology should incorporate the features and achievements of the methodology of social and natural science knowledge, since ecological knowledge occupies an intermediate and connecting position between the sciences of nature and the sciences of man. Ecological cognition brings its partly self-destructive character closer to social cognition (foreseeing an ecological crisis can help prevent it). The methodology of ecological knowledge should include a normative aspect and use the methods of anticipatory reflection and transformation (in an ideal form) of reality. At the same time, it must preserve all the features of natural science methodology, taking into account human activity as a whole as the most important factor in the change and development of the biosphere, as well as (as it is taken into account in the methodology of social cognition) the social and individual characteristics of man transforming nature.

Modern science cannot yet repeat after the poet: "Not what you think, nature: Not a mold, not a soulless face - It has a soul, it has freedom, It has love, it has a language ..." but she goes to meet it. A new scientific picture of the world is emerging. Man and nature appear as two relatively independent, but interdependent subjects that can conduct a "dialogue". Moreover, nature appears cognizable precisely through dialogue with it.

Modern science makes it possible to reach agreement with nature. And how a person will use it and whether he will use it depends on him. To do this, it will be necessary to change the entire structure of relations between individual scientific disciplines. However, just as at the beginning of the century geology and geography played a subordinate role in the system of sciences, so now knowledge about the natural environment is in an unequal position in relation to knowledge about the transformation of the world. There is a fierce battle over science priorities, and transformative industries, often closely tied to military needs, have the upper hand.

Such a direction in the development of modern science especially sharply raises in our time the question of the relationship between scientific truth and moral values, although even Plato in his "State" connected the cognizability and truth of things with the good, stating that things can be known only thanks to the good, which represents the essence of becoming things. . The authoritative ancient Chinese philosophical treatise "Zhu An Tzu" argued that only if there is a real person, there is true knowledge, and L. Tolstoy in his work "So what should we do?" emphasized: "It is not a science that does not aim at the good."

7.3. The ideal of science as a holistic integrative-diverse harmonious system

The subordination of living labor to capital, which exercises power over it, is facilitated by a system of machines, and the creation of such requires an appropriately organized science. Scientific analysis and the division of labor are the source and means of the mechanization of production. All this pursues the goal of subordinating man and nature.

The division of sciences as one of the directions of the division of labor leads to excessive specialization of scientists. Society produces a stratum of scientific workers who sometimes see nothing beyond their narrow specialty, the private disciplines into which science is divided.

Nowadays it is often noted that the growing differentiation hinders the progress of science, and this is true, although, on the other hand, can any scientific discovery, even if it promotes differentiation, be to the detriment of scientific progress? The answer to this question requires a preliminary definition of what is the desired progress.

A contradiction arises if the progress of science is considered the study of individual aspects of reality in their isolation. How justified is this approach? A person seeks to know the world in its entirety, and the knowledge of individual aspects of reality is justified only insofar as it takes into account the significance of this fragment in the functioning of the whole. True knowledge, therefore, is inextricably linked with integrity and integrativity.

The following grounds for the integration of knowledge can be distinguished: ontological (the unity of the world), epistemological (the unity of human consciousness and the laws of thinking), methodological (the presence of general scientific research methods), social (the integrity of a person). The latter determines the need for epistemological and methodological support for the integration of knowledge.

The particular relevance of knowledge integration is also caused by the fact that integration acts as a way to increase the flexibility of science in conditions when environmental changes are becoming more and more large-scale and lead to more and more tangible and diverse consequences.

However, it should be borne in mind that various forms of knowledge integration can take place. Integrative processes are inextricably linked with differential ones, but often integration is either delayed or proceeds in a predominantly unscientific form. Integration should be within the limits of science itself and timely. This is the goal of interdisciplinary research.

Further. Integration should not only be carried out within science, but also cover as many branches of knowledge as possible, i.e., be comprehensive. This happens, but far from enough. At the same time, it is again important that the complexity of research should be assumed by the very structure of scientific knowledge.

And one more thesis, which seems significant. Not only integration and even not just complex integration of knowledge is needed. It is important that it be based on ensuring the harmony of the relationship between man and the natural environment. Here we move from purely methodological problems of integration to social problems. Speaking about the possibilities and needs of a person, which underlie the integrative processes in science, we must have in mind a holistic, harmoniously developed personality. In this case, the progress of cognition turns out to be inextricably merged with social progress, and the social problems of science receive their adequate solution. It is important to remember that the social significance of the integration of knowledge is determined not only by the fact that it contributes to a holistic knowledge of being, but also by the fact that it helps the formation of a holistic personality.

A society striving for the formation of an integral, harmoniously developed personality must also form science as an integral, harmoniously developed system. The division of labor in general and in science in particular can be perceived positively to the extent that it contributes to the disclosure of individual human abilities. It is now becoming clear, moreover, that the more split a science is, the more environmentally dangerous it is, and the less creativity and universality it has. However, even Schelling said that only when a connection is established between the various phenomena of nature, between the sciences that existed separately, do the sciences begin their true life. Engels noted that the most valuable discoveries are made at the intersection of sciences. However, the trend towards the isolation of scientific disciplines prevails to this day. The existing system of organization of science with rigid divisions does not meet modern social and environmental requirements and must be replaced by a more flexible and mobile one. It is useful to recall the scientific traditions of Russian culture, which manifested themselves from Lomonosov to Dokuchaev and Vernadsky precisely in the striving for a holistic grasp of reality.

In recent years, it has been increasingly realized that in order to solve an environmental problem, it is necessary to develop a holistic view of the functioning of the human environment and its place in it. The contradiction between traditional science, divided into rigidly isolated disciplines, and the need for a holistic knowledge of reality stimulates the formation of a new type of organization of science.

Of course, integrity in itself cannot be the highest and only criterion for the progress of science. The question of the importance of integrity in the development of scientific knowledge cannot be resolved if we consider science linearly on a scale of "differentiation - integration". It becomes necessary to introduce at least two more coordinates. One of them is the needs of society. The other is variety.

When people speak positively about the differentiation of scientific knowledge, they mean, in essence, an increase in its diversity. The growth of the latter is a positive phenomenon when it is associated with integration. Differentiation in itself, on the one hand, increasing diversity, on the other hand, can also impede its growth, if the techniques and ways of thinking, new techniques and methods developed in one discipline do not apply to others. If by differentiation we mean an increase in diversity, then the latter really underlies the development of individual disciplines, but not the progress of science as a whole. For the latter, the integration of knowledge is also needed.

It can be assumed that the processes of differentiation prevail in science if the diversity of science grows, and the degree of its integration remains the same. The ultimate conceivable step here is the collapse of the system. The opposite process of integrating knowledge while maintaining diversity at the same level or even reducing it can hardly be recognized as the progress of science either.

Of all the options for the correlation of integration and diversity, the most favorable is the option of their coordinated growth. The integration of knowledge leads to an increase in diversity, since results obtained in other areas are included in some sciences. But the speeds of the two processes can be different. Hence the dissonances in the development of science as a whole. The task of coordinating the parameters of the growth of integration and diversity remains to be solved.

The development of science as a whole is determined by the degree of integrated diversity rather than by any of its individual achievements. The progress of science as a whole can be considered the coordinated growth of its diversity, integration and satisfaction of social needs. On the basis of the principle of integrative diversity, which determines its overall progress, science is advancing along the path of becoming an integral, integrative-diverse harmonious system.

The need to have not only an integratively diverse, but also a holistic and harmonious system of science arises, on the one hand, from the desire to know the world as a whole and the role of science in the formation of a holistic, harmoniously developed personality, and on the other hand, from the needs of the modern stage of the relationship between man and nature. Moreover, if a certain attention was paid to the problem of the integrity of the knowledge of nature and the person interacting with it, then the problem of the harmonious development of science was clearly not given enough attention.

Meanwhile, there is an urgent ecological need for the notion of a hierarchy of sciences to be replaced by an idea of ​​a circle of sciences (as K. Levi-Strauss says, "the earth of scientific knowledge is round"). Accordingly, the classification of sciences should not be built on the principle of hierarchy (usually this is understood as the subordination of some sciences to others) and consistent fragmentation (aimed at division, and not at the union of sciences and, in its implementation, leading to infinity of differentiation, not balanced integration). It is more correct to build a classification in the form of a circle with a feedback loop, similar to the interaction of the natural processes themselves in the biosphere. This idea is illustrated in the diagram below.

This diagram does not claim to be complete, but simply illustrates the principle. Not marked on it, in particular, the so-called transitional sciences, such as geochemistry, geophysics, biophysics, biochemistry, etc., whose role in modern science, including for solving the environmental problem, is extremely important. Increasing the total number of sciences, they contribute to the differentiation of knowledge, and on the other hand, cement the entire system, embodying the complexity and inconsistency of the processes of "differentiation - integration" of knowledge. This scheme clearly shows how important the "connecting" sciences - ecology and social ecology - are for the integrity of scientific knowledge. In contrast to the sciences of the centrifugal type (physics, etc.), they can be called centripetal. These sciences have not yet reached the proper level of development precisely because not enough attention has been paid to the connections between the sciences and it is very difficult to study them.

If the knowledge system is built on the principle of a hierarchy with pronounced leaders (a special discussion topic), then there is a danger that some sciences will reduce interest and hinder the development of others, and at present this is dangerous from an environmental point of view. It is especially ecologically important that the prestige and importance of the sciences of the natural environment be no less than the prestige of the sciences of the physicochemical and technical cycles.

It is rightly asserted that biologists and ecologists have accumulated a lot of data that testify to the need for a much more careful, careful attitude to the biosphere than is the case at present. This is true, but such an argument sounds weighty only from the standpoint of a separate consideration of branches of knowledge. In fact, science is a sufficiently coherent mechanism for the use of the data of some sciences to be directly dependent on others. If the data of the sciences conflict with each other, preference is given to sciences that enjoy great prestige, i.e., at present, the sciences of the physicochemical cycle.

On the whole, science should approach not the same degree of integration as a mechanical system or a biological organism, but the degree of a harmonious system. What is needed is not integration to the maximum extent possible, but the maximum possible harmonic integration at the moment. In this way, harmonized science will help create a harmonious system of relationships between man and nature and ensure the harmonious development of man himself.

Science contributes to the progress of society along with other branches of culture, and is not an industry that is radically different from all the others. Ensuring the integrity of knowledge requires a reorientation of science in the direction of synthesis with other branches of culture. An ecological approach can serve as the basis for a cultural synthesis that goes beyond science and connects it with other branches of culture. Such a synthesis is no less important than the greening of science. Since science cannot be an end in itself, its value reorientation is an integral part of the reorientation of the whole culture, the whole society.

The attitude to the natural environment as integrity presupposes the integrity of culture as a prerequisite, and therefore, the close and harmonious connection of science with art, philosophy, etc. Moving in this direction, science will move away from focusing exclusively on technical progress, responding to deep-seated requests societies - ethical, aesthetic, as well as those that affect the definition of the meaning of life and the goals of the development of society.

To help achieve the unity of man and nature, science must discover the internal laws of nature that express its soul, language, freedom, love, achieving the unity of comprehension and experience, knowledge and love.

7.4. Ecological significance of technology

The essence of technology, which can be defined as a form of materialization of the potentials of man and nature in all their diversity, should be distinguished from its real modern content, that is, the totality of potentials that have been realized. It is also important to take into account not only what and how a person produces, but also for what he produces, what he wants to achieve in the process of transformation. Technique acts both as a means of the formation of the essential forces of man, and as a way of suppressing nature by a single exploiter (it’s not for nothing that the word “exploitation” in relation to nature is still in use), which itself breaks up into exploiters and exploited (the latter also gets something from the general exploitation nature).

At present, there is an aggravation of the contradictions between man-made technology and the natural environment.

Acting as a means of ensuring transformative goals, technology contributes to the formation of human production and consumption potentials and influences the attitude to reality in a corresponding way, giving rise to standardization of thinking and materialism. There is production for the sake of consumerism - a flawed goal, which, of course, also affects a person, but rather in a negative way. The feeling of burdensomeness and unacceptability of standardization grows with the growth of the scale and importance of technology. The sameness of cars can be endured, and the monotony of buildings becomes depressing, creating psychological discomfort. Technology makes an impressive contribution to the aggravation of the contradictions between man and the natural environment, because if earlier man was forced to adapt to the natural environment, not having sufficient strength to fight it, now it is possible to ignore many of its features (landscape, diversity of life types, etc.). .p.), and man uses this to the detriment of nature and aesthetics.

At the present stage of development of technology, the realization of the goal of bringing it closer to nature and to its original meaning of art seems doubtful. Sometimes they refer to the fact that modern technology cannot meet environmental and aesthetic requirements, because it operates using standard structures and economic considerations prevail in it. However, even earlier economic considerations were taken into account and standard designs were used. Nevertheless, when asked how high the building is supposed to be, the builders answered: "As measure and beauty command." Isn't it more correct to think that economic considerations should be in harmony with environmental and aesthetic ones, which, perhaps, is optimal even from the point of view of the economy?

L. Tolstoy called nature the direct expression of goodness and beauty. Such should be the technique to come into harmony with nature. The real way to this is true creativity as a harmonizing factor in man and in his relationship with nature. Just as technology, in order to become a means of harmonizing the relationship between man and nature, must remember its original meaning of art, which comes from the ancient world, so production in general (not only spiritual, but also material) must remember the meaning of "work" (poema). It is necessary to create not instead of living nature, but together with it.

The development of science and technology, isolated from the individual and nature, led to the fact that scientific and technological progress began to be understood in a narrow sense as a set of achievements in science and technology. It is clear that such an understanding is socially and ecologically negative, since in this case the invention of new types of weapons and the technological destruction of the natural environment will have to be called progress. There is an imperceptible at first glance substitution. When they talk about scientific and technological progress, they mean, as a matter of course, that it obviously has a beneficial effect on man and nature; the results are often quite the opposite.

Each individual achievement of science and technology is undoubtedly a progress in a given branch of knowledge and practice. But whether it will be the progress of culture as a whole is already a question, since it can have a negative impact on the development of society. And even more so it is a question in relation to the state of nature. Scientific and technological progress is then ecologically beneficial when its achievements are in harmony with the direction of evolution and the possibilities of nature. In order to combine scientific and technological progress with social and natural progress, it is necessary to follow three principles for introducing the achievements of science and technology:

1. There is, as a rule, not one, but several options for transforming nature, from which the best one has to be chosen, including from an environmental point of view. In order for the choice to be complete, it is necessary to work out the available options with the involvement of the entire set of cash (the principle of alternatives). Therefore, before the implementation of any project that entails certain environmental consequences, it is necessary to create complex design and research groups, composed of specialists in various fields and developing alternatives to the goals set.

The work of such organizations should consist not only in studying the situation in a given area, but also in natural and mathematical modeling of future situations. These organizations need to closely cooperate with each other, and their work should be coordinated by a single center, which would receive all the information about the state of the "man - natural environment" system and in which global models would be built based on the development models of individual regions.

2. Taking into account the limited possibilities of modern methods for predicting the consequences of human impact on nature and the growing risk of negative environmental issues, it is necessary to create large scientific and technical testing grounds on which for a long time (two or three generations, so that the consequences fully reveal themselves, because, according to geneticists, they can manifest themselves precisely in subsequent generations) all new scientific and technical developments would be tested, including in the field of nuclear energy, chemicalization, etc. (the principle of verification). These peculiar scientific and technical reserves should be removed from places where the population accumulates, and scientists should test scientific and technological innovations on themselves and on volunteers who are aware of the possible consequences.

If the consequences of their inventions were experienced by the scientists themselves (real, and not in quotes, physicists and chemists), science, firstly, would again turn from a profitable business into a rather dangerous enterprise, and secondly, it would be in a less difficult situation. natural environment.

3. It is up to the people living in the given region to decide whether to introduce into wide practice after a comprehensive and lengthy verification of the achievements of science and technology or not, in an atmosphere of complete environmental transparency (the principle of referendums). The condition of access to all the information necessary for making a genuine choice is, of course, a must. Similar referendums are already being held in many countries (for example, on the construction of nuclear power plants). This is the actual exercise of power by the people, direct ecological democracy.

Topic 8. MODELING IN ECOLOGY AND THE CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

8.1. Mathematical modeling in ecology

The first ecosystems to be studied quantitatively were predator-prey systems. The American A. Lotka in 1925 and the Italian V. Volterra in 1926 created mathematical models of the growth of a separate population and the dynamics of populations connected by relations of competition and predation. The study of "predator-prey" systems showed that a typical evolution for a population of prey is an increase in the birth rate, and for a population of predators - an improvement in the methods of catching prey.

In the future, the method of mathematical modeling was used in ecology more and more widely, due to its great potential. Modeling provides a preliminary explanation and prediction of the behavior of ecosystems in conditions where the theoretical level of research into the natural environment is not high enough. In this aspect, modeling will always complement theoretical constructions, since the gap between the practical impact on nature and the theoretical understanding of the consequences of such an impact remains, and all qualitatively new options for restructuring the biosphere must be modeled.

The model as a means of transformation is characterized not only by its correspondence with the object to be transformed. It is consistent with the planning activity of man, and consequently, with the instruments of labor that society possesses. In the model, a unity of properties is formed, which are similar to the properties of the prototype, and properties that express the target setting of a person.

For example, you can use as a full-scale model in the study of a site for the construction of a structure a site on which construction has already been carried out. The lack of similarity of the model (in its final stage) to the prototype is not an obstacle to modeling. The results of modeling activities at each segment of the simulation are compared with the results of operating the original, taking into account the ultimate goal of transforming the prototype.

Modeling after setting a rigid target set justified itself until humanity began to carry out huge transformations in large areas of the globe. The larger the territory, the more diverse the ways of its change can be. In this regard, it is advisable to use modeling to select the goals for transforming a vast territory, not excluding its use for choosing the goals for transforming the biosphere as a whole. The peculiarity of the modern period of modeling lies in the fact that, until recently, the goals and means of transformation, as a rule, did not depend on the results of modeling, but now the feedback from modeling to the goals and means of transformation has begun to be taken into account, and modeling of the subject of transformation has been considered in unity with modeling the goals and means of transformation.

The conscious choice of ways to transform nature requires the use of various types of modeling and types of models. All types of modeling aimed at understanding nature are used in the transformation of the biosphere. The use of various types of models and types of modeling contributes, on the one hand, to an increase in the theoretical status of science and the synthesis of knowledge, and on the other hand, provides the much-needed coordination of the transformative and cognitive aspects of human activity in our time.

Ideal models of the required future are always formed in the human brain. The larger the transformation plans, the more multifaceted these models are. Man's dependence on the objective laws of the development of nature gives rise to the need to build material models of behavior and the required future.

In the methodological literature, it is customary to divide all models into two large groups: interpretation models that prevail in mathematics, and description models that are characteristic of the natural sciences. In the model as a means of transforming the natural environment, both of these types act in unity. The ideal model of the necessary future is formed on the basis of the study of reality and is more abstract than the prototype. The material model of the required future, built on the basis of the ideal one, can be referred to as interpretation models, since it is more specific than the prototype.

A scale model is needed when one wants to determine the consequences of human activity over a time interval greater than the lifespan of one generation. Scale modeling avoids excessive risk when scaling up human activities. The same purpose is served by full-scale modeling in natural conditions. It can be carried out to study any isolated process, but a complex study with the participation of representatives of natural, technical and humanitarian sciences is much more productive, which also makes it possible to model the links between the processes occurring in a given territory. In this case, the natural model can be used to optimize a large area.

When developing ways to transform natural systems, the internal causal mechanism of functioning of which is not clear, methods of physical, mathematical and cybernetic modeling are applicable. To optimize the relationship of society with the natural environment, a type of modeling is needed that would make it possible to take into account a huge number of interrelated variables and would allow us to combine data from many disciplines. In addition, it is necessary not only to sum up individual processes, but also to take into account the interactions between them. This can be done by computer simulation. It gives a quantitative forecast of the long-term consequences of making various alternative decisions. Studying the behavior of the model helps to find effective ways to achieve the optimal result on the original.

The advantages of computer simulation compared to a real experiment include its relatively low cost and the possibility of modifying the model with minimal effort. The computer makes it possible to model the process in time and include elements of the system's history in the model, which is especially important for modeling irreversible processes. It is possible to switch to computer modeling at the earliest stages, and in the process of work, the picture at the “output” of the machine suggests what experiments need to be carried out and how exactly the model should be modified so that it becomes more adequate to the prototype.

If the model as a means of knowledge is used to obtain a forecast of the functioning of a process, then the model as a means of transformation is necessary primarily for process control. The forecast, which is used in this case, is of a normative nature. Accordingly, modeling of this kind can be called normative. Information in cybernetic systems, living organisms, populations and human society is not only perceived, but also transformed with the formation of a normative model on its basis, which is then embodied in reality. The use as a normative mathematical and other types of models significantly expands the transformative capabilities of a person.

Speaking about the general importance of computer modeling for solving an environmental problem, it should be noted that the search for the most acceptable solution is accelerated. Mankind gets the opportunity, as it were, to accelerate its adaptation to nature. Guided in its activities by the only, in essence, trial and error method (if it is understood in the broadest sense), humanity must make many trials on many models before making one real trial, since with the growth of technical capabilities, the damage from error increases.

Computer modeling by no means cancels the previous methods of modeling, which are widely used and on which the planning of human activity has been and is being built. It complements other types of modeling in terms of those parameters in which the computer is superior to humans: it is possible to quickly and logically flawlessly calculate a huge number of options for the development of the system.

In the wide use of computer modeling to solve the problems of cognition and transformation of the natural environment, one can see a combination of two trends characteristic of modern science - cybernetization and ecologization. Computers are currently used to select the optimal options for the use of various types of resources, to predict the consequences of environmental pollution, etc. Complex models of ecosystem management, up to models of rational nature management within entire regions, are becoming more widespread. In particular, the large water basin resource system management program takes into account such factors as the yield from the irrigated area; the amount of electricity generated; damage that could be caused by floods and that could be prevented by the construction of dams; use of rivers and reservoirs for recreation, etc. The machine models the behavior of many variables, selecting such a sequence and combination of processes in the system that maximizes the function represented by the indicator of economic efficiency of a multi-purpose system of water resources operated for several years.

There is a tendency to build models of more and more complex and larger regions. The fact is that the criterion for optimizing a system of any resources depends on the strategy for using resources in general and on many other factors associated with the transformational activity of a person. Therefore, the optimal variant of using this type of resource may not be optimal within the framework of a more general problem. In this regard, modeling not only individual fragments of the natural environment, but also the biosphere as a whole, seems to be the most appropriate, because the results obtained in this way allow us to better study models of natural systems located at lower structural levels. Since the biosphere is considered as a single whole, the actions of a person in its cognition and transformation (this also applies to modeling) must be in a certain unity.

In recent decades, attempts have been made to consider the state and trends of the global development of the system of relations between society and the natural environment using computer modeling.

8.2. Global Simulation

The first attempts to create global models were carried out by J. Forrester and the group of D. Meadows on the basis of the method of system dynamics developed by J. Forrester, which makes it possible to study the behavior of a complex structure of interrelated variables. The world models consisted of five sectors (levels) connected with each other by direct and feedback links: population, industrial production, agricultural production, natural resources, and the state of the natural environment.

Previously, formal models of individual aspects of reality were built - economic development, population growth, etc. But identifying the links between these trends (in accordance with the concept of the biosphere as a single system) is just as important as studying them separately. In the models of the world created by J. Forrester and the group of D. Meadows, five main trends in world development - rapid population growth, accelerated industrial growth, widespread malnutrition, depletion of irreplaceable resources and environmental pollution - were considered in conjunction with each other.

Computer modeling conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) showed that in the absence of socio-political changes in the world and the preservation of its technical and economic trends, the rapid depletion of natural resources around 2030 will cause a slowdown in the growth of industry and agriculture and, as a result, a sharp drop in the number of population - a demographic catastrophe. If we assume that the achievements of science and technology will provide the possibility of obtaining an unlimited amount of resources (as was assumed in the second scenario of the model analysis), the catastrophe comes from excessive pollution of the environment. Assuming that society can solve the problem of nature conservation (the third scenario), population growth and output will continue until the reserves of arable land are exhausted, and then, as in all previous scenarios, collapse occurs. A catastrophe is inevitable, because all five trends dangerous for humanity are growing exponentially, and trouble can sneak up unnoticed and become actual when it is too late to do anything. Exponential growth is an insidious thing, and humanity can find itself in the position of a raja who easily agreed to pay the inventor of chess an exponentially growing number of grains (one grain for the first field, two for the second, four for the third, etc.), and then he bitterly repented of this, since all his reserves were not enough to give back the promise.

Based on their results, the model makers make the following recommendations in the final chapter of their book, The Limits to Growth, to avert the impending danger. They propose in the shortest possible time to stabilize the population of the planet and at the same time production at a modern level. Such a global balance, according to D. Meadows and his colleagues, will not mean stagnation, because human activity that does not require a large expenditure of irreplaceable resources and does not lead to the degradation of the natural environment (in particular, science, art, education, sports) can develop unlimited.

Such a concept is not new if we think of Plato, Aristotle and Malthus. A hundred years ago, the English philosopher and economist D. S. Mill predicted that at the end of the progressive development of industry and agriculture, there must certainly come, as he called it, a “stationary state”, in which population and production are maintained at a constant level. Mill associated the "golden age" of mankind with this "immobile state". Now this concept has received a new impetus due to the deterioration of the environmental situation on the planet.

The concept of "limits to growth" has a positive meaning in the socio-political sense, since it is aimed at criticizing the fundamental principle of capitalism - orientation towards the unrestrained growth of material production and consumption. However, the assumption that the governments of all countries can be persuaded or forced to maintain the population at a constant level is clearly not realistic, and this, among other things, implies the impossibility of accepting the proposal to stabilize industrial and agricultural production. One can speak of limits to growth in certain directions, but not of absolute limits. The task is to anticipate the dangers of growth in any direction and to choose ways of flexible reorientation of development.

In methodological terms, too high a degree of aggregation of variables characterizing the processes taking place in the world was criticized. For example, the Meadows model presents the average growth rate of the world's population, and not the growth rate in individual countries, the average level of environmental pollution, and not specific indicators in different parts of the globe, etc. All these values ​​vary greatly. Using mean values ​​of variables that differ greatly from each other in magnitude can lead to erroneous results. For example, the maximum population growth rate on the planet exceeds the minimum by many times, but the average value is presented in the model.

Experiments with the Forrester model showed that if we single out at least two groups of countries - developed and developing - in the model, then we should expect not one global catastrophe, but two regional ones - first in developed countries, and then in developing ones. If the model is broken down into more parts, the number of environmental disasters will increase accordingly.

The Meadows model hardly represented scientific and technological progress. This was argued by the fact that nothing is known about the science and technology of the future. The authors of The Limits to Growth acknowledge that perhaps the stock of human knowledge, as well as the world's population and economy, is growing exponentially, but it does not follow, in their opinion, that the technological application of knowledge is also growing exponentially. For example, doubling the crop does not create preconditions for its next doubling. To assume that technological progress develops exponentially, and to include this assumption in a formal model, is, according to Meadows and his associates, to misunderstand the nature of exponential growth. Although it is difficult to foresee exactly what technical innovations will be made in the coming decades, it is nevertheless absurd to doubt, based on past experience, that they are inevitable. The point, however, is not even that. Modeling can and should show what the role of technology should be in averting the threat of a global catastrophe.

R. Boyd changed the Forrester model in such a way that it reflected the point of view of "technological optimism". He added the variable "technology" to the model, as well as coefficients expressing the impact of scientific and technological progress on other variables of the model. His experiments showed that in order to prevent a global ecological catastrophe, it is necessary that technological progress should match the growth of the population and the consumption of industrial and agricultural products.

Experiments with models of the world have shown that humanity, in determining its future, can operate with a wider range of possibilities than the "growth-balance" dilemma.

The assumptions of the Meadows group about the exponential nature of the main trends in world development and the rigid physical limits that the biosphere imposes on this development have been criticized. It was pointed out that the models of the world do not represent the possibility of a targeted impact on the socio-economic system in the event of its development in an undesirable direction. The Forrester and Meadows models have many feedback loops between variables, but no social feedback. In methodological terms, it is important to take into account changes in the structure of the economy of modern society. The Forrester and Meadows models do not take into account the effect of real adaptation mechanisms, especially in the economy, where their role is very significant (for example, the pricing mechanism). In general, the behavior of society is programmed as immutable. The absence of social feedback in the model did not allow us to present in it protective mechanisms that prevent a catastrophe.

Orlemans, Tellings and de Vries introduced social feedback into the environmental pollution sector, presenting the relationship between the level of environmental pollution and the amount of costs for its protection. The natural resources sector was similarly modified. The Dutch group's experiments showed that if social feedback is introduced into the sectors of natural resources and environmental pollution, a global catastrophe does not become inevitable.

A critical analysis of the Forrester and Meadows models revealed the positive and negative aspects of their work, which in general should be assessed as negative modeling, showing what threatens humanity if certain negative trends in technical and economic development persist and develop in the absence of fundamental scientific, technical and sociocultural changes in the world. However, Forrester and Meadows lack what can be called the most important methodological principle of positive modeling, the constructive transformative aspect. The important principle of taking into account the hierarchical structure of the biosphere was also not taken into account (the Meadows model corresponds to this principle only partially in the sense that several particular models were built separately to clarify the specific details of global models). It was also not taken into account that the model should be designed in such a way that it takes into account not only the probability of a given development of events (more precisely, the possibility of implementing several options with varying degrees of probability), but also, so to speak, the desirability of this reconstruction of the natural environment.

Despite serious criticism of world models, attempts at global modeling continued. M. Mesarovich and E. Pestel built a regionalized model based on the methodology of "hierarchical systems", in which the world is divided into 10 regions, taking into account economic, socio-political and ideological differences. Each of these regions, in turn, is divided into interacting hierarchical spheres, or strata: ecological, including anthropogenically transformed inanimate nature and the entire living world, except for man; technological - a set of created equipment and its impact on the natural environment; demoeconomic, influencing the development of technology; socio-political, which includes "formal organizations" - governments, official institutions, etc., as well as "informal organizations" - religious and political movements that influence the activities of formal organizations; finally, the individual stratum, which covers the conditions of the physical and psychological development of a person.

Such a model is more realistic and is able to provide a more detailed and acceptable system of recommendations for different parts of the world. The model of Mesarovic and Pestel contains about one hundred thousand relationships (there were several hundred of them in earlier models of the world). Mesarovic and Pestel came to significantly different conclusions than Forrester and the Meadows group. The results of their modeling showed that we can expect not one global, but several regional catastrophes. Modeling options (or, as they are called, scenarios) predict primarily a food crisis in Southeast Asia due to the growth rate of food production lagging behind population growth. According to Mesarovic and Pestel, the stabilization of the population of this region in 50 years will not make it possible to overcome the food crisis, and stabilization in 25-30 years will have a positive impact if the economy of this region is provided with appropriate assistance.

In their book "Humanity at the Turning Point", M. Mesarovich and E. Pestel note that the main cause of environmental dangers is the desire for quantitative exponential growth without qualitative transformations of the economic system. The authors believe that the world system should be considered as a single whole, in which all processes are so interconnected that the industrial growth of any regions without taking into account changes in other regions can bring the world economic system out of a stable state. The global modeling by Mesarovic and Pestel showed that the threat of ecological catastrophe is receded by the organic, balanced growth of the entire world system. The most acceptable were the model options for interaction between regions, in which the action developed according to scenarios of cooperation.

Comparing Forrester's methodology with that used by Mesarovich and Pestel, we note that if system dynamics can only give a planar quantitative picture of the situation, then the theory of hierarchical systems, due to the introduction of a third dimension (hierarchy of levels), is able to provide a spatial picture, to represent the evolution of the world system not only in the form of an exponential curve, as in Forrester and Meadows, but also in the form of a kind of "tree" capable of quasi-organic growth. The possibilities of "organic" growth, of course, are greater than those of one-dimensional growth, but they depend on how multidimensional "organic" growth turns out to be, understood, of course, not only as literally organic.

The concepts of "limits to growth" Mesarovic and Pestel opposed the concepts of "organic growth", believing that environmental difficulties can be overcome without giving up the growth of the world economic system if the growth is balanced and organic, like, say, the growth of a tree.

These concepts are not diametrically opposed. There are limits to growth, but its possibilities increase if it is balanced, and this requires qualitative changes. As a purely quantitative indicator, growth cannot be infinite. Not equilibrium, but development as a unity of qualitative and quantitative changes is a true alternative to growth, although equilibrium, like growth, is an integral moment of development, so that growth in one direction presupposes an equilibrium state of other parameters. The general condition for ensuring development is the preservation of stability in the presence of qualitative changes.

The concept of "organic growth" is attractive, but humanity has not reached such a degree of integrity to consciously grow organically like a tree, although man's technical capabilities have reached such a level that he can destroy all the trees on Earth.

The methodology of global modeling is an extrapolation of the methods of system analysis of various areas of reality to the study of the world system as a whole. In this regard, the work on global modeling carried out by a group of UN experts headed by V. Leontiev should be noted. If Forrester and Meadows used the method of system dynamics, developed for the analysis and design of industrial systems, and Mesarovic and Pestel - the method of hierarchical systems, which was formed primarily in biology, then the UN group applied the "cost-output" method developed by V. Leontiev for the analysis of economic systems, based on the construction of a matrix that reflects the economic structure of intersectoral flows. The work of V. Leontiev's group was a certain step towards increasing the constructiveness of global modeling, since it was mainly focused on considering options for improving the existing ecological and economic situation on our planet.

8.3. The concept of sustainable development

Disputes around the possibilities and limitations of growth have led to the creation of a concept that currently claims to be the main one in the relationship between man and nature - the concept of sustainable development. Sustainable development is defined as such economic development that does not lead to the degradation of the natural environment.

The concept of sustainable development assumes that certain parameters must remain constant, namely: 1) physical constants; 2) gene pool; 3) areas of all major ecosystems in their original form (otherwise it is impossible to judge the changes made by man); 4) public health. Thus, the protection of the natural environment, like healthcare, is an integral part of this concept. The purpose of nature conservation is twofold: 1) to ensure the preservation of such qualities of the environment that should not change; 2) to ensure a continuous harvest of useful plants, animals, as well as the resources necessary for man by balancing the cycle of withdrawal and renewal. What and how much can be removed from the biosphere, and what cannot be determined using modeling.

The withdrawal of the maximum amount leads not only to the exhaustion of the resource, but also to a deterioration in the quality of the product. Deforestation, which achieves the maximum amount of wood obtained, causes a decrease in the size of trees and a deterioration in the quality of wood. Orientation to "have" opposes the orientation "to be", meaning that it degrades the quality of both man and the natural environment. It is impossible to achieve both the maximum quantity and the best quality at the same time. Restrictions on the use of land, water and other resources are the only way to avoid overpopulation or excessive depletion of the planet's resources. In relation to wildlife, man must turn from a reckless predator into a prudent owner. If this happens, then sustainability can also be understood in the sense of continuity of development. Both values ​​converge, because if some parameters remain unchanged, then development can become continuous.

An alternative to the reasonable regulation of the relationship between man and nature is the action of negative feedback (an increase in population density enhances the action of mechanisms that reduce this density) in a different form - the poverty of most of the planet's population, the aggravation of the struggle between states, wars, etc. The concept of sustainable development allows you to combine biological concepts of sustainable development and evolution, as well as to satisfy the human desire for creation.

True, not everything is so smooth, not only in practical but also in theoretical sense. There is a discrepancy between the conclusions of synergetics, according to which all new structures are formed in conditions far from equilibrium, and the concept of sustainable development. Perhaps this contradiction will be overcome in such a way that society will learn to move from one non-equilibrium state to another without destroying itself and the natural environment.

Topic 9. CONSEQUENCES OF THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY

In this chapter, the environmental situation will be considered in three directions: 1) decisions taken by the world community to prevent the negative consequences of the global environmental crisis; 2) the real ecological situation on the planet; 3) the optimal ecological future of mankind.

9.1. Prospects for sustainable development of nature and society

In 1992, an international conference was held in Rio de Janeiro, in which the heads of 179 states took part. The conference recommended the concept of sustainable development as the basis for the development of the world community and thus marked the onset of the third stage of social ecology - the stage of concerted actions in the name of solving the environmental problem.

At a conference in Rio, its chairman M. Strong proclaimed that the capitalist model of development is not sustainable, and, therefore, a substantially different one is needed. The principle of sustainable development adopted by the Rio conference is the principle of the development of all nature, as modern science understands it.

Back in the 30s, the Soviet biologist E. Bauer wrote that "all and only living systems are not in balance and experience continuous changes in their state, leading to work against the equilibrium expected under given conditions (the principle of stable disequilibrium)". Later, the English scientist Waddington, in addition to the concept of homeostasis, which characterizes the property of a system to return to its original stable state, introduced the concept of homeoresis, which characterizes the system's ability to develop, i.e., the transition from one stable state to another without its destruction. The system, as it were, jumps from one stable state to another, as if from bump to bump. The moments of the jump are the most difficult and dangerous, and they must be calculated correctly.

Turning to the "man - natural environment" system, we are talking about sustainability on a planetary scale. Has she been before? Undoubtedly, but only because the person was not able to "shake" it. Now it can. The situation is similar to looking into the abyss. When you come close to it, the danger becomes obvious, and to go further forward means to die.

In connection with the global impact on the environment, a person now needs what he, according to S. Lem, is very far from - "homeostasis on a planetary scale" (S. Lem. Sum of technology. M., 1968, p. 25 ). But since mankind cannot refuse development, we can talk about homeoresis, that is, about development that maintains stability at all its stages.

Development must be sustainable, because otherwise not any civilization will perish, as before, but the Earth as a whole. There is no other way. But how to move within this framework depends on many circumstances, including the balance of power in various regions of the planet.

The Rio Conference adopted several outcome documents. Three of them - "Statement of Principles on Forests", "United Nations Convention on Climate Change" and "Convention on Biological Diversity" - by their very names indicate the most painful points in the system "man - natural environment" - the reduction of biodiversity, forest area and climate change.

These documents invite all countries to take part in "greening the world"; in the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at such levels that will not have a dangerous impact on the global climate system (there is a process of warming by 0,2 °C in 20 years - the so-called greenhouse effect); in preventing the reduction of biological diversity, which is necessary for the evolution and conservation of life support systems of the biosphere.

Rio's flagship document, Agenda 21, is a program of action to make development socially, environmentally and economically sustainable. The text emphasizes that the environment and environmental and social development cannot be treated as isolated areas. The two goals - a high quality of the environment and a healthy economy for all the peoples of the world - must be considered in unity. The principles and recommendations articulated in Agenda 21 are:

1) making development sustainable means ensuring that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs;

2) a sustainable balance between population, consumption and the Earth's ability to support life;

3) economic development must be safe for the environment;

4) economic growth must fit within the limits of the ecological possibilities of the planet;

5) ensuring economic growth while reducing the consumption of energy, raw materials and waste production;

6) determination of balanced consumption patterns for the whole world, which the Earth can withstand for a long time;

7) slowdown in urbanization and centralization of production;

8) taking measures to preserve biological diversity;

9) counteracting global warming, which can, in particular, lead to a rise in sea levels (and the majority of the world's population lives within 60 km from the sea coastline);

10) clarification of the danger to human health and the environment of chemicals, since such data are not available for most substances;

11) replacement of pesticides with biological plant protection products;

12) reduction in the level of production of waste, including radioactive;

13) recognition of the value of traditional knowledge and methods of using resources used by the indigenous population;

14) stimulation of clean production;

15) development of new development indicators, since such an indicator as GNP does not provide sufficient information about the sustainability of ecosystems;

16) revision of existing international legislation to improve its effectiveness;

17) similarity of laws and regulations in different countries;

18) accounting for the full cost of natural resources;

19) consideration of land and natural resources as gross national wealth;

20) the price of the good produced should reflect the relative scarcity and total cost of resources;

21) recycling, reducing the volume of packaging materials;

22) ecological expertise prior to project implementation;

23) development by scientists of a code of action and guidelines for harmonizing human needs and the interests of protecting the environment;

24) 0,7% of the GNP of developed countries should go to help the development of the whole world;

25) increase in the number of scientists in developing countries, including their return;

26) stopping the "brain drain" from developing countries;

27) transfer of environmentally friendly technologies to developing countries;

28) financial assistance should be provided to solve environmental problems and meet the basic needs of the poor and needy;

29) "a little is better for all than a lot for some";

30) the activity of people should be stimulated by giving them rights to own land and providing them with resources, finances and means of promoting their products to markets at fair prices;

31) accounting for the cost of unpaid work, including housework;

32) ensuring the rights of the population to information about the environment;

33) applying environmental information to product labels and other information informing the public about the impact of products on their health and the environment;

34) stimulation of the production of environmentally friendly products;

35) "the one who pollutes must bear the responsibility and expenses for the elimination of pollution";

36) providing more resources to community groups and non-governmental organizations and more opportunities for local training centers;

37) education and the inclusion of the concepts of development and environmental protection in all curricula with an analysis of the causes that cause the main problems;

38) involvement of schoolchildren in local environmental studies;

39) participation of the general population in the development of a development strategy;

40) development by 1996 by each authority of the local "Agenda for the 21st century";

41) development of national action plans in all countries with the participation of the general public.

As a theoretical scheme, the concept of sustainable development is a way to harmonize the relationship between man and nature and the path to the creation of an ecological society. But as a concrete practical program, it has been criticized from several sides.

Opponents noted that more financial assistance to developing countries and greater concreteness in decisions are needed, without which all good words will remain unfulfilled; decisions are needed on the protection of nature in developed countries as the main pollutants; it is necessary to discuss the negative consequences of the market mechanism and the activities of transnational corporations. The question of the fundamental possibility of sustainable development of a class society remains open, since, as N. Wiener pointed out in his "Cybernetics", homeostasis is impossible in such a society. The utopianism of the concept of sustainable development is that there is no single center that would guarantee sustainable development, and there is no "pre-established harmony" that would lead to success. There are no natural reasons not to cope with the threat of an ecological catastrophe, but there is also no inevitability of correcting the situation. Everything depends on the actions of a person and on his moral qualities.

"Each genuine resolution in favor of peace can only consist of listing the sacrifices that must be made to preserve peace," W. Heisenberg wrote (W. Heisenberg. Physics and Philosophy. Part and Whole. M., 1989, p. 121). Each genuine resolution in favor of ecology, by analogy, can only consist of listing the sacrifices that must be made to save the planet. Viewed from this point of view, Rio's papers do little more than commit suicide. Their implementation would have made more sense 30 years ago, when the ecological crisis was just beginning, but now they seem to be insufficient.

9.2. Environmental policy: cooperation and struggle

One of the main features of human impact on the natural environment is its global nature. Vernadsky was the first to clearly realize this. "For the first time, a person really understood that he is an inhabitant of the planet and can-should think and act in a new aspect, not only in the aspect of an individual, family or clan, state or their unions, but also in a planetary aspect," he wrote in his diary. (V. I. Vernadsky. Archive of the Academy of Sciences, f. 518, och. 1, item 149, fol. 23-24).

Globalization is an objective process caused by the fact that nature has no boundaries and is a single ecosystem. Therefore, the activities of international environmental organizations - both formal, like the UN program "Man and the Biosphere", and informal, like "Greenpeace", as well as the activities of various industrial corporations, are becoming global in nature.

This process has both positive and negative sides. The criterion of progress is, as already mentioned, the degree of integrative diversity. Globalization strengthens integrative tendencies, but they will have a positive effect if the diversity of the social system does not decrease, as is currently the case in nature and society.

It is dangerous to admire the process of globalization. Dialectics warns that any progress in one direction is a regression in others. The process of unification of the planet is going on, and we must especially take care that the originality of cultures does not disappear, the diversity of life on Earth does not decrease. We must approach this natural-historical process with a moral yardstick.

The buzzword "globalization" often hides the introduction of superficial American standards. A kind of social "cloning". This is justified by the need for world stability, but the latter is not achieved by placing everyone in a Procrustean bed. Stability stems from the traditions of each people and must be based on the invariants inherent in all cultures.

The solution of global problems does not consist in forgetting national characteristics, but, on the contrary, in their awareness by each nation, which can solve global problems only on the basis of its national character and the forms of community life that have emerged from it, which in their external manifestation are universally human, such as, for example, the well-known in all cultures the "golden rule" of ethics.

Without awareness of their national potentials, a people always remains a material that can be used. Glimpses of awareness of one's mission appear in the era of spontaneous popular action that did not turn into a revolt, senseless and cruel. Awareness requires an atmosphere of spiritual freedom, and awareness itself leads to physical freedom.

The real unification of people goes along the line of discovering in other cultures close to you, and not familiarizing with the values ​​of more enterprising and wealthy peoples. The "disclosure" called for by K. Popper in "Open Society" will lead to rich nations becoming even richer, and poor nations even poorer, which we observe in the example of developing countries and the countries of the former USSR.

According to Popper, the inhabitants of these countries from socialism fell into feudalism. If so, it would still be nothing. But they will have to "etch a slave out of themselves" for a long time to come to a bright feudal future. And speaking quite seriously, the famous "five-membered" formations of K. Marx are too abstract even for the West, on the basis of which it was created, and apparently has even less relation to Russia and other regions.

Popper exploits the fear of totalitarianism for ideological purposes, just as the ecological ideologists of the West exploit the fear of ecological catastrophe. Both are quite real, which is why ideological speculation is so fashionable.

In the conditions of the invasion of transnational corporations on the entire planet as a whole, each nation faces the task of preserving its national identity and thereby saving the diversity of world culture.

How to deal with global ideological expansion? Respect for the traditions of folk life. To develop immunity to the invasion of mass ideologized culture, it is useful to read Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and other outstanding writers. The tendencies of ideological colonialism and the pressure of transnational corporations seeking to destroy biological and cultural diversity in order to facilitate the management of the world must be opposed by ecological humanism.

9.3. Ecological society as a type of social structure

So, at present there is no unified environmental policy that would create conditions for the transition of the world system to sustainable development. Neither developed nor developing countries have taken the path of self-restraint, and the struggle for natural resources is becoming more and more acute. The necessary, but already belated decisions of the conference in Rio de Janeiro remain unrealizable, since there is no single influential body to implement them. Now we are talking not only about the causes, but also about the socio-economic consequences of the global environmental crisis, which add a special drama to globalization trends.

History develops according to its cruel logic, which is affected by the lack of significant environmentally friendly changes in world politics. And during the last 10 years there has been a "shift of problems", but in a different plane. Namely, the developed countries sought to shift their environmental problems onto the developing countries by moving environmentally harmful industries to their territory. The result was a deterioration of the ecological situation in developing countries.

The concept of the "golden billion", according to which only one billion people can be provided with ecologically favorable conditions on earth, has ceased to be only scientific. It begins to materialize in life, and this materialization has tragic consequences. Two trends - globalization and ecologization - collided, and the struggle for entry into the "golden billion" sharply intensified. There are more and more victims in this struggle. Nevertheless, the question of the ideal relationship between man and nature, of course, has not lost its significance.

Above, we spoke about the initial unity of man and nature and the subsequent gap between these two components of a single system. The newly formed unity at a new level can be called an ecological society. Three circumstances contribute to the formation of an ecological society: the ecological crisis, ecological patterns discovered by science, and the moral sense of man.

Modern futurologists imagine the future post-industrial society differently. The most common ideas about the coming information society, characterized by the fact that information becomes the most important resource in it. It seems, however, that the determining factor in society is not the specifics of its resources, but the main contradiction of its development and the main goals and tasks that it faces in connection with the need to overcome this contradiction.

One of the well-known adherents of the information society, A. Toffler, argues that "industrialization undermines agriculture - this is the conflict of the first wave. The development of industry leads to an increase in environmental pollution - this is the conflict of the second wave. And when the bourgeois worldview comes into conflict with feudal interests - this is already conflict of the third wave" (A. Toffler. Interview. - "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" from 7.06.1994/XNUMX/XNUMX). At first, Toffler's thought is quite consistent. He calls the first complete revolution the agricultural revolution, the second - the industrial revolution, which appears as a result of resolving the contradiction between industrialization and agriculture. But if the conflict of the second wave is a consequence of an increase in environmental pollution, then it is logical to assume that it is resolved precisely in an ecological society.

The concept of D. Bell and the ideas about the post-industrial information society that developed from it are analyzed in sufficient detail to refer to them here. We only note that the concept of "post-industrial" is too vague; it indicates that something will come after, and what exactly remains unclear. The concept of "information" at least to a lesser extent, but also leaves a feeling of dissatisfaction, since information of a certain quantity and quality, like matter and energy, is a means of building something, and by no means the goal of society's development. Such in the era of the global ecological crisis should be the harmony of mankind with its natural environment, achieved in an ecological society.

As it is easy to see, each scheme of social development is built on a certain basis, which shows that this researcher is considered the main one. These are social classes in the Marxist scheme, the level of technology in various technocratic schemes, etc. Since we are talking about an ecological society, the relationship of man to nature is taken as the basis.

An ecological society is based on the integrity of the "man-environment" system, which includes the integrity of culture, society and man. The integral culture of the future is the culture of the meeting of its various branches, when the ditch between them is filled with material that is ontologically no less significant than each of them, and a true unity is formed. Separate branches are not lost in it; on the contrary, they are penetrated by creative currents from everywhere and acquire a new strength and quality. This is a joint collective creativity, co-creation of various branches of culture.

The prototypes of such a synthesis are provided by mythology, and they come to us in the form of archetypes, in the terminology of C. Jung, when the collective unconscious is transformed into individual consciousness. These are not only archetypes, but also symbols of a future integral culture, and therefore they can be called futurotypes. At the same time, a holistic consciousness replaces a split consciousness. Such a holistic consciousness is the basis of a holistic personality and a holistic planet as a single organism - Gaia (a modern natural science hypothesis with an ancient Greek name).

The diversity of culture must be preserved, but it must become as unified and harmonious as nature. Not only science, but also the culture of the ecological society as a whole should be a holistic integrative-diverse harmonious system.

In the same way, the integrity of society should not be understood in such a way that all people will achieve exactly the same position, but in terms of overcoming social antagonisms and moving towards real social equality. The crisis in the relationship of man with nature is a reflection of the crisis in the relationship of man with man, and ecological alienation is a reflection of social alienation. Nowadays, nature has become a bargaining chip in the fierce struggle of companies and states for sources of raw materials and space for waste disposal, which leads to instability in the world. A social system, like an ecosystem, must, for its sustainability, strive for maximum diversity, which must be coordinated, i.e. here, too, the degree of integrity, integrative diversity and harmony should serve as a criterion.

The ecological society of the future is a society of meeting between people who profess the same moral principle, known at all times and in all cultures and called the "golden rule" of ethics: "treat people the way you want to be treated." On this path, the false dilemma "individualism - collectivism" is overcome, more precisely, everything valuable is taken from both: the value of the individual and the value of communication.

The creation of an ecological society presupposes a change in the structure of the personality from an aggressive-consumer to a loving-creative one. Its formation will lead to the establishment of harmony both in the relationship of man with man, and in his interaction with nature.

The main task of the ecological society is to increase the degree of orderliness of the biosphere as a whole as a sphere of unity between man and nature. This should lead to an increase in the diversity and sustainability of the "man - natural environment" system.

An ecological society unites man with nature and puts on a pedestal a higher moral imperative - the equivalence of all living things and the "golden rule" of ecology: "treat nature the way you want to be treated."

To solve the ecological problem, it will be necessary to move from a consumer civilization to an alternative type of civilization based on self-limitation of needs, which, in order to be effective, must be based not on coercion, but on conscious will. This is possible only with the moral self-improvement of a person and the formation of a loving-creative type of personality. Ecological humanism is present here in the form of a person's sense of responsibility for the state of the natural environment and the development of the creative aspects of human nature, which make it more human and complete.

Topic 10. ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANISM

In personal terms, the main cause of the ecological crisis are the values ​​that guide modern man. Is it possible to change them, how to do it and what should be the new values ​​- these are the main environmental issues at the level of human qualities.

10.1. Aggressive-consumer and love-creative personality types

What are the desires and aspirations of modern man? This is the main, target aspect of social ecology.

The underlying cause of the ecological crisis that began in our time in a certain part of the planet is the consumer orientation of modern Western civilization, which is in conflict with the fundamental laws of nature. The problem that arises is that if we put material well-being above all else, then material needs, in principle, can grow indefinitely, while the possibilities of satisfying them by the biosphere at any given moment of time are limited and finite. If you still try to satisfy them, then the spirit of rivalry and violence arises and strengthens, and the exploitation of some people by others and nature by everyone inevitably begins, leading to ecological and other crises of civilization.

Consumer civilization is at the same time a civilization of violence, even if it is dominated not by coarse, direct, but by mild "civilized" violence. The latter, in the conditions of fierce competition between countries, is reduced to the creation of extremely aggressive variants in which violence begins to overshadow consumerism. The communist ideology, which opposed itself to the capitalist one, sought to redistribute property in a revolutionary way. The same was true of the fascist ideology, which was also the result of a consumer orientation determined by national priorities.

The very same consumer civilization is not the result of some objective process that takes place outside and in addition to the will of people, but a consequence of the formation of an aggressive consumer structure of personality. Such a personality creates a civilization fraught with all sorts of crises. The philosopher Nietzsche expressed the essence of such a civilization - the will to power, the economist A. Smith formulated its economic interests - to produce as many goods as possible, the psychologist Freud determined that its desires are rooted in the human subconscious.

Aggression and consumerism impoverish the nature and culture of the exploited peoples and landscapes, thereby making the world less sustainable, as sustainability under the laws of ecology grows with diversity. Man as a person becomes simpler and loses his integrity and stability, pushing the world and approaching collapse himself.

Answering the question of who is to blame for the current socio-ecological crises, one should name, firstly, the ruling oligarchic class, which makes decisions and exploits all other segments of the population through monetary violence and its cruder and more direct forms; secondly, the aggressively consumerist ideology implanted by this class and absorbed by the rest of society; thirdly, the low spiritual and moral level of the population, which does not allow resisting the dominant ideology. Hence, as a consequence, ecological ignorance, and the undeveloped ecological theory, and the weakness of the ecological movement.

It is not known whether there are any mechanisms within man as a species that would guarantee his salvation from disaster. Legal laws are important, but there are also no guarantees for their enforcement, especially in the environmental sphere, in which you cannot see the actions of every person. The transition from the primacy of the interests of society to the interests of the individual, or vice versa, will not solve the problems. The concepts of "sustainable development" can remain a set of words that everyone understands in their own way and which in a class society often serve as a smokescreen.

A sense of personal responsibility for the state of the natural environment is necessary, which arises only with an increase in the moral level of a person and includes a non-violent struggle against an aggressive-consumer ideology and non-cooperation with the oligarchic class.

Analysis of the current environmental situation allows us to draw three conclusions:

1. In order to save the world, it is necessary to move from an aggressive-consumer civilization to an alternative type of civilization, the essential feature of which will be the disclosure of the deep potentials of human being, and not just the cultivation of needs.

2. Self-limitation of needs and violence, in order to be effective, must be based not on coercion, but on the free will of individuals.

3. This is possible only with the formation of a love-creative personality structure and lifestyle.

The XNUMXth century was famous for violence and world wars. At the same time, it was in the XNUMXth century that we witnessed a vivid call for non-violence and attempts to implement it in practice both in interhuman relations and in relation to man and nature. This makes us think about the complexity of the human phenomenon and not lose faith in its future.

The fact that the aggressive-consumer structure is not the only one, that there are theoretical and practical confirmations of the possibility of a different personality structure, indicates that aggressive consumerism does not constitute the nature of a person, but is only one of the alternatives to his behavior. The great moral teachers of mankind prove with their lives that there is a personality structure that can be called loving and creative. Its components are the mercy of ancient philosophy, the ahimsa of Indian culture, the moral humanism of Confucius, the creative humanism of the Renaissance.

The sermons of the moral teachers of past eras were taken up in our day by L. Tolstoy and M. Gandhi. They theoretically substantiated and practically implemented the principles of non-violent development. Since violence against nature is one of the most important causes of the ecological crisis, the views of those who opposed violence as such are very relevant, especially since Tolstoy and Gandhi themselves extended nonviolence to nature as well.

Tolstoy and Gandhi criticized modern civilization precisely because they saw its violent nature. The latter, paradoxically, manifested itself in an attempt to eliminate violence by the forcible establishment of a communist dictatorship. In this sense, both communist and fascist ideologies are the flesh of the flesh of modern civilization in terms of the means that they used, and in a cruder form. They responded to evil with evil, creating more evil.

The morality of Western society is anthropocentric and puts a person on the highest step of the pedestal, allowing him everything. Creating a new morality, Tolstoy (later continued by Gandhi) carried out a synthesis of Eastern and Western traditions. Having received, like all children of families of the "high society", a Western upbringing and following Russian traditions, expressed primarily in agricultural peasant labor, Tolstoy at the same time absorbed the deep ideas of Eastern culture, which led to the fact that Gandhi, who also received European education, but remaining a Hindu, called Tolstoy his teacher. Gandhi also sought to synthesize Western and Eastern thought, and here he needed Tolstoy.

Gandhi wrote that if pets could talk, their account of our crimes against them would shock the world. This is exactly what Tolstoy did in the story "The Strider". People who knew Tolstoy said that it seemed to them that he understood what animals thought.

In the culture of every nation - from the ancient Chinese to modern Eskimos - the "golden rule" of ethics is alive: "treat other people the way you want to be treated." Tolstoy at the beginning of the century of violence against man and nature, facilitated by the outstanding achievements of science and technology, added one word to this: "Not only do people not have to do what you don't want them to do to you, but also animals." Now, in the era of the ecological crisis, when the close interdependence of all elements of nature has been discovered, this rule can be extended to nature as a whole: "treat all nature as you would like to be treated". This will be the "golden rule" of ecology.

The goal of development, according to Tolstoy, is "to destroy the struggle and bring unity where there was discord. First between people, then between people and animals, then between animals and plants" (L. N. Tolstoy. Complete. collected works. Vol. 63, p. 440).

As about worthy of imitation, Gandhi wrote about Tolstoy's self-restraint, "because only it can bestow true freedom" (Otkrytie India. M., 1987, p. 258). Like the Cynics, Gandhi declared: "Now I see that we feel much freer when we do not burden ourselves with the tinsel of 'civilization'" (Ibid., p. 234).

Gandhi, like Tolstoy, condemned bourgeois civilization as the power of money and the rich and called for turning "the iron of selfish imperialism into the gold of humanism." He shared the old popular, mainly peasant, dreams of a society of free and equal working people. Without equality between people, equality between man and nature and overcoming the ecological crisis is impossible.

Proposed by Tolstoy and Gandhi is a radical approach to the prevention of ecological catastrophe, based on the synthesis of Western, Eastern and Russian thought. The traditional Western version is more or less "soft" violence against nature; an alternative to Tolstoy and Gandhi is the rejection of violence in favor of love (one of Tolstoy's works is called "The Law of Violence and the Law of Love").

One of the highlights of Hinduism is the cult of the cow, which is so surprising to those who come to India. Indeed, Gandhi called it the most amazing phenomenon of human evolution. The cow was for him a symbol of all the "smaller brothers", standing in their development below man. Through the cult of the cow, according to Gandhi, a person is prescribed to realize his unity with all living things. The protection of the cow and other animals is especially necessary because they are dumb and cannot protect themselves.

Gandhi formulates his attitude to the religion of his ancestors - Hinduism, based on the place of animals in it. In his opinion, a religion that established the veneration of the cow cannot approve and support a cruel boycott of human beings. Based on this comparison, Gandhi requires the modification of Hinduism in terms of the attitude towards the untouchables in Indian society. The ecological aspect of religion is recognized by Gandhi as dominant in Hinduism, and the rest of his conclusions must be consistent with it.

Gandhi justifies his Hindu orthodoxy by the fact that he will not yield to anyone in caring for a cow. He believes that the ancient founder of religion only started with a cow, and then, following his example, a similar attitude should be extended to other animals.

Gandhi's proposals for the reform and purification of Hinduism are based on the fact that the great ancient principles began to be forgotten. Professing the religion of cow protection, which in India was man's best friend - it gave milk and made agriculture possible, Gandhi writes, "we enslaved the cow and her offspring and became slaves ourselves." The current ecological crisis requires not only a return to ancient principles, but also the formation of a new, ecological ethics.

10.2. Environmental and global ethics

Ethics has never been divorced from nature. Many moral requirements found their confirmation in nature. The Proverbs of Solomon advised sloths to go learn to work with ants. Representatives of a whole trend in ancient Greek ethics - cynics - got their name from the animal, whose behavior they took as a model. The need for joint work and social harmony was substantiated by examples from the life of social animals. The social structure of mankind was likened to a living organism, in which different layers and classes perform the functions of the head, hands, etc. Darwin's theory of the struggle for existence and survival of the fittest as a way of forming new types of life was used by social Darwinists to justify wars, and by evolutionists - to confirm the possibility of social progress.

In contrast to Darwin's concept, the Russian scientist and revolutionary P. A. Kropotkin argued that "the struggle in nature is mostly limited to the struggle between different species; but that within each species, and very often also within groups made up of different species living together, mutual help is the general rule... Mutual help is the predominant factor of nature... Finally, it can be considered fully proven that while the struggle for existence equally leads to development both progressive and regressive, that is, sometimes to the improvement of the breed, and sometimes and to its deterioration, the practice of mutual assistance is a force that always leads to progressive development" (P. A. Kropotkin. Ethics. M., 1991, p. 32). Hence Kropotkin concludes that "the moral principle in man is nothing but the further development of the instinct of sociability, characteristic of almost all living beings and observed in all living nature" (Ibid., p. 265). Modern ethology and the concept of co-evolution largely confirm Kropotkin's thoughts.

In the era of the scientific and technological revolution, when man received sufficient power to do whatever he pleases with the natural environment, the problem of man's responsibility for nature and establishing harmony with it arose to its full potential. Its solution corresponds to a new direction in ethics - environmental ethics.

"The development of ethics can be expressed not only through philosophical, but also through ecological concepts. Ethics in the ecological sense is a restriction of freedom of action in the struggle for existence" (O. Leopold. Sandy County Calendar. M., 1983, p. 200). This is how the creator of the first version of ecological ethics understood ethics, which he called Earth ethics.

Concern for nature, most often expressed in the form of prohibitions, was inherent in primitive religions based on the universal animation of natural phenomena. In some parts of the world, this attitude has persisted to this day. If a Nenets hunter "meets a bear, he does not immediately kill him, but first enters into a conversation with him, begins to praise his virtues, asks why he met him, asks him not to scratch him with his sharp claws." After a “conversation”, during which the bear allegedly agrees to be killed, the hunter kills him and “considers himself justified in his actions against the bear’s relatives, who could avenge the death of their member” (Nature and man in the religious ideas of the peoples of Siberia and the North. M., 1976, p. 26). Talking to animals was a consequence of the belief that animals understood human speech. Its content is also interesting.

Northern peoples traditionally treated plants and animals as a kind of people, extending intrasocial moral norms to them. True, the basis of an ethical attitude towards plants and animals was more fear than awareness of responsibility for the fate of nature, when, say, the Nivkhs saw sea people in seals or when they believed in the existence of "forest" people. The source of fear is rooted in ideas about the connections of animals with higher powers, master spirits (grouse, for example, with the spirit of the sky, a bear with the owner of the taiga, etc.). Similar forms of behavior have been preserved among many peoples living on Earth.

The reason for the deification of the bear by the Nivkhs could be the belief in the transition of the soul of a person killed by a bear into a bear. When they killed a big old bear, they said: he killed his grandfather (uncle), etc. The Nanais had ideas about the relationship of the killed bear with the person who found the lair. Thus, one reason for the careful handling of animals and plants has to do with the idea of ​​reincarnation.

Another reason is of a genetic order, connected with the idea of ​​the origin of the human group from an animal or plant called a totem. According to the ideas of one of the Nivkh clans, they originate from larch. To a thick tree that stood out among others in the taiga, Nanai hunters bowed if they had to get lost in an unfamiliar place.

In one of the oldest books of the Buddhist canon "Sutta-Nipate" in the "Sutta on Friendliness" there are the following lines: "And just as a mother, not sparing her own life, takes care of her only son, so one should cultivate an immense feeling for all living beings. Friendliness to all living things must grow in oneself "(Poetry and prose of the Ancient East. M., 1983, p. 448-449). "All living things must be pitied" - a similar principle is characteristic of Hinduism and its roots go back to the most authoritative monument of the ancient Indian epic "Mahabharata", which speaks of compassion for all living things and non-harm to all beings by deed, word, thought.

The traditional society was fundamentally different from the industrial one in the ecological sense, not only in that the main emphasis was shifted from agricultural to industrial production, but also in the fact that the traditional society is based on religious and moral prohibitions, while the industrial one is not. In this sense, we are dealing with two different socio-ecological types of societies. Totemic morality, animism, the mythological unity of man with nature worked out certain restrictions on the impact of man on the natural environment, and these were intrahuman restraint mechanisms.

The era of the Renaissance became the turning point for the liberation of man from religious dogmas. This does not mean, however, that man has freed himself from understanding himself as the master of nature. He used his release just to implement this idea. Spinoza wrote in the Ethics: "Considerations of our benefit do not require the preservation of what exists in nature, except for people, but teach us to preserve, destroy or use it for what we need, in accordance with the various benefits that can be derived from this" ( B. Spinoza, Ethics, part III). However, Spinoza himself warned: "But the human ability is very limited, and it is infinitely surpassed by the power of external causes; and therefore we do not have the absolute possibility of adapting things external to us for our benefit" (Ibid.).

The concept of human responsibility for the transformed nature is close to existentialists. Even before the onset of the ecological crisis, but after the creation of atomic weapons, A. Camus said: the task of my generation "is to prevent the world from perishing" (A. Camus. A rebellious person. M., 1990, p. 360). The Little Prince, created by the imagination of the French writer A. Saint-Exupery, is advised to be responsible for all whom he has tamed.

The main principle of his philosophy is "reverence for life" - A. Schweitzer reveals as "an unlimited responsibility for all life on earth" (A. Schweitzer. Reverence for life. M., 1992, p. 36). It is no coincidence that Schweitzer is recognized as the most prominent representative of environmental ethics.

Along with responsibility, the core of environmental ethics is love for nature. Often, love for nature is considered something frivolous, almost an invention of writers. How can one love the whole of nature, in which there are species that are harmful to man? In fact, as W. Wundt rightly noted, feeling leads to altruism rather than reason. "Pure altruism, not based on egoism, naturally, could develop only during the transition from rational morality to morality of feeling, on the assumption that direct feelings of sympathy and love are the foundations of an altruistic act" (W. Wundt. Introduction to Philosophy. St. Petersburg, 1903 , p. 299). It is difficult for reason to overcome considerations of its own benefit, but for a feeling of love, pity, compassion, a moment is enough. Therefore, the path to environmental ethics is closer through a feeling of love than through calculation, through reverence for nature, than through the adoption of environmental legislation, which still needs to be learned to be implemented. Here, as in relations between people, it is better if everything is based, as Confucius suggested, on morality, and not on coercion. In this regard, much attention in the environmental literature is paid to the concept of environmental sensitivity, which is understood as a more subtle penetration with the help of human feelings into the natural world.

The need for a more loving and responsible attitude to nature is also justified in the mysticism of the 3th century. In chapter 1991 of "The Roses of the World", "Attitude to the Animal Kingdom", D. Andreev writes: "The material or spiritual value of any object, material or spiritual, increases along with the amount of effort expended on making it become what it is "(D. L. Andreev. Rose of the World. M., 99, p. XNUMX). From this it follows that "the value of the ciliate is less than the value of the insect, the value of the insect is less than the value of the mammal, the value of this latter is still far from the value of man" (Ibid.). But in contrast to the principle of spiritual value, there is the principle of moral duty, which can be formulated as follows: “Starting from the level of man, the duty of a being in relation to the lower ones increases as it ascends further levels” (Ibid.). Thus, ecological ethics is possible, even if we leave aside the debatable issue of the equivalence of all living things due to the incommensurable intrinsic value of each being.

“A duty was already assigned to primitive man in relation to tamed animals. And it did not consist in the fact that a person had to feed and protect them ... The ethical duty of primitive man consisted in the fact that he owed the animal that he tamed and which I used, to love" (ibid.). At present, when a person can destroy all life on Earth, this is not enough. "Are we not in a position to love those animals from which we do not receive immediate benefit - wild animals, at least those that do not harm us?" (Ibid., p. 100).

"It will seem even stranger when it comes to not living animals, but some children's toys. I mean the well-known teddy bears, hares and similar knick-knacks. In childhood, each of us loved them, and each experienced longing and pain when he started understand that these are not living beings, but simply human products. But the joy is that it’s not us who are more right, but children who firmly believe in the living nature of their toys and even that they can speak "(Ibid., p. 101 ). Not only living, but also inanimate nature can be an object of love. Here we are moving from ecological ethics to global ethics, according to which man is responsible for all, and not just living nature. Even in ancient Greece, man was considered as a "microcosm", which includes the whole Universe as a "macrocosm" or cosmos as a part. These ideas were adopted by the ancient Roman Stoics; they are also known in Russian philosophy. What is necessary for a person today? Not only feel like a part of the Universe, but also feel responsible for everything around it. This is the essence of ecological and global ethics.

10.3. The evolution of humanism

Tolstoy and Gandhi did not abuse the term "humanism," but they were concerned with what is at the core of humanism, the problem of non-violence. If we talk about humanism proper, then its first historical form was the moral and ritual humanism of Confucius.

The social crisis in China in the 6th century BC created Confucius, who accepted the challenge of the times. Oddly enough, the lack of a pantheon of gods in China, which would have prompted a mythological answer, helped him. Confucius had to turn to the human person, that is, to use the means that are necessary for the development of a humanistic doctrine. The mystical-religious orientation of the thinking of the ancient Indians and the rational-philosophical orientation of the thinking of the ancient Greeks prevented the emergence of humanism in India and Greece, and the social crisis among these peoples in the conditions of the functioning of small states was, apparently, not so acute. One way or another, the choice fell on China.

The main argument of Confucius: in human communication, not only at the level of the family, but also the state, morality is most important. The main word for Confucius is reciprocity. This starting point raised Confucius above religion and philosophy, for which faith and reason remained the basic concepts.

The family was the ideal state structure for Confucius. Rulers should treat their subjects like good fathers, and they should honor them. The higher ones should be noble men and show the lower an example of philanthropy, acting in accordance with the "golden rule" of ethics.

Morality, according to Confucius, is incompatible with violence against a person. To the question: "How do you look at the killing of people deprived of principles in the name of approaching these principles?" Kung Tzu answered: "Why, while ruling the state, kill people? If you strive for goodness, then the people will be kind" (Lun Yu. 12, 19).

To the question: "Is it right to return good for evil?" the teacher answered: "How can one respond with kindness? Evil is met with justice" (Lun Yu. 14, 34). Although this does not reach the Christian "love your enemies," it shows that in response to evil, violence should be used. Non-violent resistance to evil will be just.

Confucius called philanthropy the restraint of oneself in order to comply with the requirements of the ritual in everything. For Confucius, the ritual of sacrifice is above pity for animals. This is the preecological character of his humanism. The basis of Confucius's humanism is respect for parents and respect for elder brothers. But now the concern for "our smaller brothers" comes to the fore. It is new and at the same time old.

Ultimately, Christianity conquered the ancient world not by violence, but by fortitude and sacrifice. The commandments of Christ are quite capable of being extended to nature. Thus, the fifth Gospel commandment, which Tolstoy considers to apply to all foreign peoples, may well be expanded to "love nature."

But, having won and created a powerful church, Christianity turned from the martyrdom of the righteous to the torment of the Inquisition. People came to power for whom the main thing was power, and not Christian ideals, and they discredited faith in Christianity, contributing to turning the eyes of subjects to antiquity. The Renaissance came with a new understanding of humanism.

New European humanism is the joy of the flowering of creative individuality, which from the very beginning was overshadowed by the desire to conquer everything around. This undermined the creative-individualistic Western humanism and led to a gradual loss of confidence in it.

J. - P. Sartre gives two definitions of humanism, which, from his point of view, are completely different. "Humanism can be understood as a theory that considers a person as a goal and the highest value" (Twilight of the Gods. M., 1989, p. 343). Such humanism, according to Sartre, leads to fascism. Let's add - to the ecological crisis. Anyone who sets himself the task of dominating the world becomes a slave - both of the world and of technology, with the help of which the world is conquered.

The second understanding of humanism, according to Sartre, is that a person is constantly in the world, realizing himself in search of a goal outside, which may be liberation or other specific self-realization. Of course, there is not much humanity in such humanism either.

Sartre's announcement of existentialism as a fashionable philosophical trend of the XNUMXth century, which establishes the priority of individual human existence, humanism was caused by M. Heidegger's "Letter on Humanism", in which he criticized the concept of humanism in Western culture of the New Age with pejorative criticism.

To walk the path from "man - that sounds proud" to "man is responsible for himself" and to consider this the stages of humanism means to sign his failure. Such humanism is akin to a sense of guilt for everything that a person has done, and repentance. It is unlikely that when he said "man - that sounds proud," Gorky's hero had in mind a person's ability to self-accusation, which is so correlated with the ability to self-deceive.

The deep thinker Heidegger realized that allowing a person to do whatever he wants is not yet humanism, because it does not guarantee humane behavior. This is a condition of humanism, but no more.

Answering the question: "How can one return some meaning to the word" humanism "", Heidegger defines humanism as "thinking about and caring about how a person would be human, and not inhuman," inhuman ", i.e. fallen away from his own essence" (The problem of man in Western philosophy. M., 1988, p. 319). But what is the essence of man? - asks Heidegger and returns to the Greco-Roman "cultivation of humanity".

According to Heidegger, "the highest humanistic definitions of a human being do not yet reach the true dignity of a person" (Ibid., p. 328). In the philosophy of modern times, humanism, in essence, was understood as anthropocentrism, which in its self-affirmation came to the denial of everything that is outside of it.

Heidegger's humanism is "a humanism that thinks of the humanity of a person from closeness to being. But it is also humanism, in which not a person is put at the forefront, but the historical essence of a person with its source in the truth of being" (Ibid., p. 338). Berdyaev is close to Heidegger's position. “The paradoxical truth is repeated that a person acquires himself and asserts himself if he submits himself to the highest superhuman principle and finds a superhuman shrine as the content of his life” (N. A. Berdyaev. Philosophy of creativity, culture and art. T. I. M. , 1994, p. 402). "Humanism and individualism could not decide the fate of human society, they had to disintegrate" (Ibid., p. 394).

In the humanism of the New Age, a substitution took place, and he went into individualism, and then into consumerism with the reactions of the socialist and fascist. Nihilism and self-denial lead to the triumph of aggressive-consumer values, and in this sense, the result of Western culture is logical.

Violence creates walls - visible and invisible - that must be destroyed. But they can be destroyed not by violence, but by abandoning the very foundation, the foundation on which the walls stand, that is, from violence as such. Only non-violence can save humanism, but not ritual and not individualism. Both historical forms of humanism were imperfect because they did not have the core of humanity - non-violence. In the humanism of Confucius, ritual was above pity for animals; in the humanism of the Renaissance, creativity was oriented towards dominance over nature.

For humanism, individuality is important, because without personal awareness, action has no meaning. The humanism of Confucius enclosed itself in a ritual, and it became necessary to appeal to a person who decides for himself what she needs. But in its appeal to itself, the new European humanism rejected the surrounding being.

Liberation from fettering rituals is beneficial, but without prejudice to morality, from which, in its aggressive consumer permissiveness, the humanism of the New Age was moving further and further away. Western humanism is the antithesis of Confucianism, but along with the subordination of the individual to social order, he splashed out humanity. There was a substitution of humanism under the influence of the development of Western material civilization, which replaced the humanistic desire to "be" with an aggressive consumer desire to "have".

Heidegger is right that European humanism has exhausted itself in individualism and aggressiveness. But humanism is not only a Western brainchild. Other ways of development of civilization are possible. They are laid and preached by Tolstoy, Gandhi, Schweitzer, Fromm. Heidegger realized that modern humanism was unacceptable, but what he proposed instead, and what Schweitzer formulated as "reverence for life," is also humanism in the sense of a humanity rooted in ancient humanity.

10.4. Principles of ecological humanism

As soon as violence against man began to decrease in civilized countries as a result of the achievements of science and technology, thanks to them, the violence of man against nature increased. The exploitation of nature, as it were, partially replaced the exploitation of man. Therefore, ecological humanism, that is, extended to the natural environment, became necessary.

What is needed is a concept that could respond to the challenge of the century, to all the current crises taken together - environmental, social, intrapersonal. Such an answer is intended to be ecological humanism, the main idea of ​​which is the rejection of violence against nature and man.

Modern civilization does not teach the ability to live in peace with people and nature, and in this sense it is wrong. A radical rejection of the aggressive-consumer orientation is needed. The latter, with its desire to take from nature everything that a person wants, has led to an ecological crisis. The new civilization, the impulse to which comes from the current ecological situation, is a loving-creative civilization.

The traditional understanding of humanism, according to Heidegger, is metaphysical. But being can give itself, and a person can treat it with reverence, which brings together the approach of Heidegger and Schweitzer. Schweitzer appeared when it was time to change the human attitude to nature. Nature enters the sphere of morality as a consequence of the increased scientific and technical power of man.

The trouble with Western civilization, according to Schweitzer, is that it tried to be satisfied with a culture divorced from ethics. But the ultimate goal should be the spiritual and moral perfection of the individual. New European culture believed that spirituality would come with the growth of material well-being, but this did not happen.

Reviving the ancient principle of ahimsa, Schweitzer wrote: "For a truly moral person, every life is sacred, even that which, from our human point of view, seems inferior" (A. Schweitzer. Reverence for life. M., 1992, p. 30). Following Tolstoy and Gandhi, who spoke about the law of love, Schweitzer writes about the will to love, which seeks to eliminate the self-divided will to live.

Heidegger revealed the insufficiency of the humanism of the Renaissance in our time. Criticizing modern humanism, Heidegger essentially led to the need for a synthesis of Confucius's humanism with New European humanism. This synthesis will not be a simple combination of both, but a qualitatively new formation, corresponding to our time. The synthesis of Western and Eastern humanism must combine the adherence to moral maxims with the creation of the new.

Humanism now means, if we decide to keep this word, only one thing: the essence of man is essential for the truth of being, however, in such a way that everything comes down just not just to man as such "(M. Heidegger, op. cit., p. 340- 341) Humanism comes from Homo, in which not only "man", but also "earth" ("humus" as the most fertile layer of the earth). And man is Homo from the earth, and not only men from the mind and "anthropos" himself in itself. In these three words - three concepts of man. In men and "anthropos" there is nothing either from the earth or from humanity. Humanism, therefore, by the origin of the word is understood as earthly, ecological. And ecology is understood as the house of man, his life in the broadest sense of the word.

Berdyaev spoke about punishment for the humanistic self-affirmation of a person. It lies in the fact that a person opposed himself to everything around him, while he had to unite with it. Berdyaev writes that humanistic Europe is coming to an end. But in order for the humanistic world to flourish. The humanism of the Renaissance cherished individualism, the new humanism must be a breakthrough through individuality to being.

Ecological humanism fulfills the Heideggerian task of familiarizing with being. Entry into being is carried out through the practice of human nature-transforming activity. However, a person is not determined by the technological path he follows. He can move along an ecological path that will bring him more quickly into being. Non-existence leads a person, and the roads he chooses determine whether he will come to being or not.

Ecological and social crises require practical humanism, but they also force humanity to rise to a new theoretical level. The path to a truly global consciousness and world culture lies not through the suppression of some cultures by others, not through the rational construction of some new systems, but through the unification of people and nations on the basis of universal moral wisdom. The unification of people into tribes and nations probably once followed the same path. The Christian Tolstoy and the Indian Gandhi were united by the invariants of ethics, which turned out to be more important than national and religious differences. And so the world must unite nonviolently to solve global environmental problems.

The new ecological thought must be combined with traditional humanism, which is based on non-violence. This is what gives ecological humanism, representing the humanism of Confucius, Socrates, Christ, and the Renaissance, extended to nature, the sprouts of which are in the philosophy of Tolstoy, Gandhi and others. Ethics must enter culture, nature must enter ethics, and through ethics culture in ecological humanism is connected with nature.

Environmental humanism lies at the intersection of Eastern and Western traditions. The West can give a lot in scientific and technical terms to solve environmental problems, India - the spirit of ahimsa, Russia - the traditional patience and gift of self-sacrifice. Such ecological convergence is certainly beneficial. The synthetic power of ecological humanism is also expressed in the synthesis of the branches of culture that took part in its creation. It is art, religion, philosophy, politics, morality, science.

The ethics of ecological humanism is the ethics of ahimsa, spread throughout the world, the "golden rule" of ecology. Ecological humanism requires a change in attitude towards nature (protection of animals, protection of the environment from pollution, etc.), towards people (preservation of cultural and individual diversity), towards the Universe. Environmental humanism combines the attitude towards man and the attitude towards animals, overcoming the paradox that people can fight for the rights of animals and not pay attention to violence against people. The rights of animals and people in it are equally sacred.

Ecological humanism is based on the principle of harmony between man and nature and the recognition of the equivalence of all living things. "An attempt to establish generally significant value differences between living beings goes back to the desire to judge them depending on whether they seem to us to be closer to a person or further away, which, of course, is a subjective criterion. For who among us knows what value another living thing has being in itself and in the world as a whole? (A. Schweitzer, op. cit., p. 30).

In practical terms, ecological humanism includes appropriate behavior and even nutrition, i.e. non-violence and vegetarianism, which follow from the principle of ahimsa and the commandment to protect the cow in Hinduism.

If we want to overcome the ecological crisis, we need to learn non-violent interaction with nature, first of all, to give up the desire to conquer it. Life is impossible without violence, but not wanting it and striving to reduce it is in our power. To those who say that nothing depends on our own behavior, it can be objected that we must act on the assumption that our personal action still has meaning and significance.

To free himself from the power of nature, man resorted to violence. Now he is free (by and large he only thinks so), and nature is defeated, and further violence is dangerous. People begin to understand that violence against nature turns against them. And humanity in relation to nature will be another argument in justifying the need to refrain from violence in interpersonal relationships.

Why is it necessary to be humane from an environmental point of view? The preservation of the existing diversity preserves the world, and not only the material world, which is the more stable the more diverse it is, but also the human soul, as modern psychology in the person of Fromm confirms. Add to this the argument of karma, which in Christianity is interpreted as a punishment for sins. By renouncing violence, we save nature and our souls.

The rationale for non-violence in relation to nature is similar to that given by Tolstoy in relation to people. We do not know the universal truth, therefore, until it is found, we must not use violence against people. With regard to nature, we can say: we do not know the absolute truth, therefore, until it is discovered, we should not use violence against nature.

But the situation in the ecological field has its own specifics. Man must regulate the forces of nature, as N. F. Fedorov demanded, but with love, and not with violence, as he is doing now. The concept of love for nature, which is opposed to the desire to dominate it, remains important, despite the use of scientific terminology "regulation", "optimization", etc.

The material progress of a consumer civilization cannot but lead to a crisis, because, as already emphasized, material needs can, in principle, grow indefinitely, coming into conflict with the possibilities of the biosphere to satisfy them. Ecological humanism makes it possible to weaken the antagonism of this contradiction. Environmental humanism as a modern form of humanism combines the struggle for social justice and anti-war actions, the "green movement" and the movement for animal rights, viganism and charity. Its principles:

1. Harmony of man with nature.

2. The equivalence of all living things.

3. Non-violence (ahimsa).

4. Self-restraint instead of consumerism.

5. Formation of a loving and creative personality.

6. The need for moral self-improvement.

7. Personal responsibility for the world.

8. "Golden rule" of ecology.

9. Non-cooperation with the exploiting classes.

10. Preservation of the diversity of nature, man and culture.

All the great conductors of ecological humanism have been eminently striving not only to think, but also to act. In ecological humanism, we come to the realization of being not only theoretically, but also practically - in our behavior. Humanism breaks through the framework of spiritual culture and enters the expanse of being.

The new relation of man to nature, which is here called ecological humanism, also has an impact on environmental law, that is, the system of legal norms that legally regulate the interaction between man and nature. Environmental law can be understood in two main senses. First of all, this is the right of people to a healthy natural environment, to compensation for damage to specific people and the state by polluting enterprises, to environmental publicity, that is, to complete information about the state of the natural environment, to unite in various environmental organizations, to environmental rallies, meetings , demonstrations, pickets, etc. This is one side of environmental law, which is, as it were, an ecological addition to the basic rights of the individual, which has become necessary in connection with the expansion of the scale of human activity.

There is another side, less traditional. These are the rights of the animals themselves, legally formalized. So, in some countries, for example, in Sweden, laws have been passed that prohibit cruelty to animals, ungrazing livestock, etc. This area of ​​environmental law is still in its infancy and is the subject of heated discussion in the press.

Topic 11. ECOLOGY AND CULTURE

Human values ​​change in the process of transformation of the natural environment. But the situation itself changes if the new values ​​become the property of the broad masses, that is, if the corresponding ideology and culture appear.

11.1. Ecological ideology

Ecological humanism in its development, expanding its sphere of influence, turns into an ecological ideology, on the basis of which an ecological culture is created.

The phrase "ecological ideology" may seem strange and inappropriate in our time, when the communist ideology that dominated and seemed until recently unshakable seems to be defeated, while others are in no hurry to declare themselves and try to enter our house in an inconspicuous way.

It's time to ask the question: is any ideology needed in society at all? One can recall the sarcastic lines from the classic’s letter: “Ideology is a process that the so-called thinker performs, although with consciousness, but with a false consciousness. The true driving forces that impel him to activity remain unknown to him, otherwise it would not have been It would be an ideological process. He creates for himself, therefore, ideas about false or apparent motivating forces "(K. Marx, F. Engels. Izbr. soch. M., 1979, p. 547).

Strongly said, which did not stop Marx and Engels from creating one of the most influential ideologies in the world. However, we will resolve the contradiction that has arisen if we remember that in Hegel's philosophical system, which became the basis of Marxist ideology, "false" means "partially true" - for a given time and place. Arguing from the standpoint of the horizon of the Absolute Idea, ideology as a system of views that expresses the interests of a class, nation, etc., cannot but be false, as it is limited by certain needs and demands. On the other hand, an individual as an integral person must be able to formulate his own personal views and interests, overcoming class, national and other restrictions.

But this is ideally, when every cook will be able to manage the state and it will generally die out as unnecessary. And at the moment, in the current conditions of the existence of the present person? What, say, can result from the weakening of the state or even declaring it dead? Only to a fierce battle between rival mafia groups, which will have to be suppressed by the troops of neighboring states. What can the announcement of de-ideologization lead to, up to the name of ideology as such false and obsolete? Only to the fact that a fierce, sometimes invisible struggle will unfold between various ideologies that will strive to occupy the vacant place.

Yes, ideally, every person should be a conscious citizen, and the state only interferes with this. Ideally, everyone creates his own ideology, which suits him better in accordance with his desires and conscience. But in practice, both are needed. As the state is necessary not only for the enslavement of the masses by the ruling class, but also for the fight against criminals within the country and aggressors outside it; how religion is necessary not only as an "opium for the people", but also as a joint search for ways to move from this world to another world; so is ideology not only a false consciousness, but also a spiritual staff for living together in this world, a system of views that helps people to unite in the name of common this-worldly goals.

No matter how de-ideologization is preached, ideologies really exist, and in these conditions it is better if each person is able to navigate what ideologies are present and fighting at the present time in order to make a conscious choice, and not play into the hands of forces that, without declaring openly their goals, they are trying to win over to their side and force gullible inhabitants to serve themselves.

What types of ideologies really exist at the present time and what is an ecological ideology?

Ideology as a mass system of views is based on a set of ideas that contribute to the unification of the whole society or part of it. Among the second type, depending on who unites with whom, one can single out the ideologies of class solidarity - socialist, communist; ideologies of national solidarity - fascist, Nazi; and ideologies of religious solidarity - Hinduism, Islam, Catholicism, Orthodoxy. However, religion turns to the generic in man, claims the universal character of its values ​​and turns into an ideology only when it divides all people in relation to the acceptance of its dogmas into "true" and "unfaithful".

As for the ideologies of the first type, which are too "soft" to go as far as opposing people and remain on the basis of universal human interests, they can be conditionally divided into two varieties: consumer - referring to the "stomach" as a universal value and moral - referring to universal human values. values ​​of mind, spirit, conscience. The latter include the teachings of Confucius, Socrates, Plato, etc.

This also includes ecological ideology. Its novelty and specificity lies in the fact that it overcomes not only class, national and religious differences, but also the anthropocentrism inherent in all existing ideologies, focusing not only on universal, but also, so to speak, common life values ​​that are common to man and nature. Ecological ideology is the ideology of life, solidarity between man and nature. Of the ideologies of the first type, it is undoubtedly closer to the moral than the consumer variety, since a person who has solidified with nature has to abandon the dominance of private needs.

In their time, Marx and Engels distinguished between Christian socialism, conservative socialism, and so on. This is what happens in the period when an ideology is born. And now we can count several environmentalisms - ethical, totalitarian, etc. And yet we can identify common sources and components of ecological ideology.

This is a philosophy that, in the face of existentialism, primarily Jaspers and Heidegger, who called for the rejection of the division of being into subject and object inherent in modern European thought and put forward the task of “questioning being”, approached in the XNUMXth century to understanding the crucial importance of the natural environment for existence and development of mankind. Heidegger's exit to being is the philosophical basis of ecological ideology.

Not only traditional philosophical trends have been affected by the environmental situation. Within the framework of a broad understanding of philosophy as love for wisdom, A. Schweitzer with his concept of "reverence for life" can be called one of the founders of ecological ideology.

We can also talk about ecological philosophy proper as a direction of research with the concept of "deep ecology" that characterizes it. The terms ecosophy, noosophy, vitosophy, etc. are proposed; based on philosophical grounds, they try to formulate some "rules of life" as a set of environmental commandments.

In specific sciences, the ecological significance of which is dual - they both help to pollute and even destroy the natural environment, and provide means for preventing and eliminating the consequences of a negative human impact on the natural environment - not only ecological directions develop within the framework of ecology as a science of the relationship of organisms with environment (section of biology), but there is a reorientation of the entire methodological arsenal of natural science. New methodological tools that emerged in the XNUMXth century, such as the systems approach, demonstrate the importance of a holistic vision of the world, in which everything is interconnected and necessary for the functioning of the Universe. The systematic vision of the world led to the formation of such meaningful concepts as synergetics and Vernadsky's theory of the biosphere, which are the natural scientific basis of the ecological movement.

The latter is a reaction of the public to the aggravation of contradictions between man and nature in the XNUMXth century, characterizing a shift in consciousness towards taking into account interests and ensuring the preservation of the natural environment. Having arisen spontaneously under the influence of the ecological crisis, the ecological movement gradually expanded, taking shape in the form of organizations and "green" parties, which became a noticeable political force in some countries. Not only new ones, like Greenpeace and the Peace Watch, but also traditional associations, like the vegetarian societies, which arose long before the ecological crisis, poured into the broad stream of the "green movement" in streams.

Ideology is a combination of rational and irrational moments, and in this sense it is, as it were, a transitional one from philosophy, in which the rational moment clearly prevails, to religion, in which it can be pushed into the background. The rationality of science is mixed in ecological ideology with mysticism like "The Rose of the World" by D. Andreev and other less refined intellectual currents like the system of P. K. Ivanov, who has many followers in our country.

The attraction of new concepts of Eastern philosophy, such as "ahimsa" - non-violence and non-harm to the living, and "tao" - the natural path of development, inform the ecological ideology of a deep historical change. From the ancient Eastern systems of thought to the recent surge of counterculture, we trace the historical roots of an ecological ideology, which, nevertheless, as a whole is a product of the XNUMXth century and a response to the challenge of a dangerous situation in the interaction of man with his environment, which man himself created.

Let's try to formulate the principles of ecological ideology. First of all, this is taking into account in all spheres of human activity the reaction of the natural environment to changes made to it; activity is not instead nature, breaking its cycles of substances, trophic levels and destroying its constituent parts, and activity together with nature, taking into account its capabilities and laws of functioning.

This principle of activity receives its legal continuation in the concept of the rights of nature, which is being intensively discussed at the present time. It is based on the idea of ​​the equivalence of all forms of life, despite the obvious differences in the complexity of the structure and levels of organization. From the "crown of nature", which he has been revered since the Renaissance, man is turning into one of the species that do not have value advantages over others. Anthrocentrism is being replaced by eccentricity.

The legal principle of equality finds a moral justification and completion in ecological ethics, which makes it possible to formulate what can be called the "golden rule" of ecology.

Three principles - practical, legal and moral, without exhausting the essence of ecological ideology, give a clear idea of ​​it.

The concept of "ecology", which appeared in the last century to designate a certain scientific direction in biology, has now expanded its meaning, so that they speak of the ecology of culture, spirit, etc. And this is a natural process called by Hegel "self-development of the concept."

Ecological ideology is not confined within the framework of human interaction with the natural environment, but incorporates all the main problems of human existence. There can be no peace and harmony in the soul without environmental relations becoming human in the highest sense of the word, just as there can be no peace and harmony between man and nature without consent in society.

In the programs of the "green" parties, we find the answer to all the main ideological needs of the population, and this is natural for the ideology, as well as the fact that such an expansion implies intensive feeding of the ecological ideology from other, more developed ideologies. Being independent, ecological ideology takes some general social principles from other ideological currents. In terms of economic and transformational ecological ideology gravitates towards the socialist ideas of free joint labor, and here its connection with the left ideological circles is undeniable. In terms of political and legal environmental ideology tends to forms of direct substantive democracy - the participation of the population in direct decision-making, and not to the so-called formal democracy, limited to the filing of votes. It is closer to the idea of ​​democracy that was inherent in its "fathers" - the ancient Greeks, and in Rus' it is known as the veche and the Cossack circle. Finally, ecological ideology affirms the primacy of morality over forms of economic and political organization. "Three pillars" of the general social part of ecological ideology: community, veche, morality.

Ecological ideology considers the development of society as having passed through two stages: the unity and harmony of man with nature and the gap between them. Now humanity faces an urgent need to return at a new level to the harmony of man with nature - the creation of an ecological society. The ideal to which the ecological ideology calls - the ecological society formed on its principles - cannot be realized automatically. But in any case, the future cannot but include an ecological dimension, since the scientific and technical power of man has made man so "big" that he resembles an elephant in a china shop and is forced to conform his movement to the "house" in which he lives.

11.2. ecological culture

The three stages of the development of society in its relationship with nature, which were mentioned above, correspond to three stages in the development of culture: the mythological stage of a holistic culture, the stage of culture split into separate branches, and the stage of a new holistic ecological culture, in which various branches and types of culture.

The current tense environmental situation requires an in-depth consideration of the essential features of man's relationship to nature in different cultures. Under culture in its highest dimension rises the process and result of creative comprehension and transformation of the surrounding world by man. The word "culture" is ecological in itself and goes back to the cultivation of the land (hence the concept of agricultural culture). The links between culture and nature, between social and ecological behavior, are fundamental and enduring. Thus, the culture's attitude to dominance over nature and its use primarily for utilitarian-consumer purposes, even if the action being performed does not fall under environmental law, closely correlates with the attitude towards people around them as things and the desire to use them, it can also be formally quite legal but morally wrong.

The close connection between culture and nature makes the task of synthesizing environmentally positive trends of all types of cultures relevant in terms of harmonizing the relationship between man and nature, which ensures the harmonious development of world culture. The latter, of course, does not mean that various branches and types of culture will merge into some kind of amorphous whole. The problem lies in their coordinated development, guided by basic human goals and desires.

A broad cultural synthesis is necessary because an environmentally positive attitude towards nature is inherent in different degrees and directions in different sectors and types of culture. So, in Western culture, the predominance of the rational over the sensual is noticeable, in the Eastern - on the contrary. What is needed (socially and ecologically) is the harmony of both in the integral comprehension and creation of the world and oneself. Ecological cultural synthesis, representing a way for a holistic person to holistically cognize nature and their relationship with it, is at the same time an essential moment in a person's self-development and gaining social harmony.

Ecological culture in the narrow sense of the word, similar to the practical return of a person to unity with nature, should be a form of theoretical return, with overcoming that rational thinking, which, starting with the formation of art, through mythology in philosophy, comes to self-awareness. Both material and spiritual culture take part in the creation of ecological culture, the changes of which we will dwell on in more detail.

All branches of spiritual culture, being modified, can contribute to the creation of ecological culture. Historically, the first branch of spiritual culture was the invisible culture - mysticism. The danger of an ecological catastrophe, actualized in the current ecological situation, contributed to the revival of mystical views, which have always followed on the heels of the discovery of human weakness before the forces of nature. The essentially dialectical proposition "everything is connected with everything" promoted by modern ecologists (the 1st law of ecology, according to Commoner) is transformed by natural philosophers to the idea of ​​a supernatural integrity, the One.

Within the framework of the first civilizations, mythological cultures were formed. The very appearance of mythology was explained by the desire of man, at least in an ideal form, to return to the original unity with nature. Thus, mythology is inherently ecological.

Also, all ancient religions are based on the deification of natural phenomena (the sun, light, etc.). The modern ecological movement in the conditions of the weakness of the theoretical base cannot but be based on faith, which is the most important moment of religion. In other words, the contemporary environmental movement cannot but be essentially a religious movement. Many principles of ecological ethics - the principle of equivalence of all kinds of life, etc. - are an object of faith.

Science is inherently ecological in the sense that it is aimed at studying nature. Ecological science and technology based on it can be understood in two senses: firstly, in terms of the priority given to the study of the patterns of interaction between man and nature, and, secondly, in terms of the restructuring of all science and technology as a system of knowledge, activity and social institution in order to liken it to the biosphere, which has such properties as feedback, adaptation to environmental changes, etc.

11.3. Environmental philosophy

Philosophy is the search for absolute truth in rational form, and historically is the first branch of culture that realized the rational nature of human culture, trying to use this rationality as a means.

Regarding the role of philosophy in solving the environmental problem, various views were expressed, up to the denial of this role, since this problem is purely practical. However, one of the reasons why the ecological problem has not been solved is the lack of attention to its philosophical aspects. In not so distant times, there was a belief that philosophy is not needed to improve the ecological situation, you just need not to pollute the natural environment. Nowadays, one can come across statements that philosophy as such, due to its predominantly rational orientation, is in principle unable to help solve the environmental problem, since other, irrational methods of thinking are required (the name of ecosophy is proposed instead of philosophy).

However, philosophy is important for the ecological problem not only because the relationship between man and nature has always been the subject of close philosophical attention. It can be said that ecology is something transitional between specific sciences and philosophy in terms of subject matter, just as methodology is transitional from specific sciences to philosophy in terms of methodology. Philosophy, like ecology, is aimed at a holistic consideration of the complex structure of subject-object relations, in contrast to the striving for strictly objective knowledge prevailing in modern natural science and the tendency prevailing in modern art to express predominantly subjective experiences of the author.

The importance of philosophical analysis of the ecological problem is also determined by the fact that philosophical tools are able to reveal the underlying prerequisites for environmental difficulties by studying the contradictions between consciousness and matter, spirit and body, and in the spirit itself, and it is these contradictions, aggravated by social and epistemological reasons, that contributed to the aggravation of contradictions between man and nature in the era of scientific and technological revolution. The main environmental challenges are determined by the nature of modern production and, more generally, lifestyle. Production, in turn, depends on the socio-political characteristics of society and the development of science and technology, influencing them according to the feedback principle. The social structure and the development of science and technology are determined to some extent by the philosophical climate of the era, in particular, by the way of solving the philosophical problems of the relationship between individual and social goals, the rational and sensual components of cognition, etc. Although overcoming the ecological crisis is a matter of practice, a preliminary change in the conceptual apparatus, and in this process philosophy must play the main role of critic and interpreter of scientific and cultural revolutions. Philosophy helps the ecological reorientation of modern science, influences socio-political decisions in the ecological field and contributes to the value modification of public consciousness.

In the period when philosophy was just formed and claimed to replace in full the holistic cultural functions that mythology performed, its ecological role was rather positive. Among the forerunners of ecological philosophy, one can name the Pythagoreans, who were vegetarians and observed "the prohibition to destroy any living creature and many restrictions so as not to commit any violence and keep human thoughts pure" (A.F. Losev, A.A. Takho-Godi. Platon, Moscow, 1977, p. 48). Plato perfectly expressed the unifying role of nature. "He was the first to give a definition of beauty: it includes both laudable, and reasonable, and useful, and appropriate, and comely, and combines their agreement with nature and following nature" (Diogenes Laertes. On the life, teachings and sayings of famous philosophers. M. , 1979, p. 172). In turn, according to Cicero, "everyone who wants to live in harmony with nature must take the entire universe and its management as a starting point" (Anthology of World Philosophy: In 4 vols. Vol. 1, p. 497).

Ancient Greek philosophers understood that the needs of people can grow indefinitely, and the possibilities of satisfying them are always limited. Therefore, they considered it wise to limit needs. Eat to live, not live to eat, Socrates advised. "The less a person needs, the closer he is to the gods" (Diogenes Laertsky, op. cit., pp. 111-112). This line was continued by the Cynics. Hearing someone object that the highest good is to have everything you want, Menedemos objected: "No, it's much higher to want what you really need" (Ibid., p. 147). And the opponents of the Cynics, the Cyrenaics, believed that "the best lot is not to abstain from pleasures, but to rule over them, not obeying them" (Ibid., p. 127). "The advantage of the sage is not so much in the choice of goods as in the avoidance of evils," concluded the Hegesians (Ibid., p. 134). Epicurus put the last point in this by classifying desires into natural necessary, natural unnecessary and unnatural. However, Epicurus thought only of people. He also owns the following words: “In relation to all living beings who cannot conclude agreements not to harm each other and not to endure harm, there is nothing just and unjust” (Lucretius Car. On the nature of things: In 2 vols. T. 2, p. 603). Indeed, was it possible to talk about animal rights in a slave society?

In the Middle Ages, the ecological significance of philosophy did not go beyond the Christian attitude to nature, and only in the Renaissance did philosophy try to take the lead again and become an independent branch of social consciousness.

Was the direction of domination over nature the only one in modern times? No. He was opposed by Pascal's pessimism with his original view of the relationship between man and nature: "The merit of man, in his innocence, was to use creatures and dominate them, and now it consists in separating from them and subordinating himself to them" (B. Pascal. Thoughts, with 211). The position of the German and American romantics of the XNUMXth century is close to this. But it did not turn out to be dominant, and therefore it can be said that, to a certain extent, the modern ecological crisis is the result of the predominant orientation of new European thinking to domination over nature.

The representative of the Frankfurt school of "negative dialectics" T. Adorno wrote in "Dialectic of Enlightenment" that with the transition of myth into knowledge, and nature into pure objectivity, people pay for the increase in their power by alienation from that on which they exercise this power - from nature. The two tasks of ecological philosophy are the solution of an ecological problem and the return to a holistic being. Whether it will be able to retain its disciplinary specificity or whether it will actually become, say, ecosophy or something else is an open question.

The basic principle of ecological philosophy is the principle of harmony between man and nature. Much has been said in the history of culture about harmony in nature - from the idea of ​​nature as an "organized whole", "harmony of spheres" in Ancient Greece to its understanding by modern art and science. “An imperturbable system in everything, a complete consonance in nature,” these are the words of F.I. Tyutchev, the creator of the doctrine of the biosphere, V.I. Vernadsky, who argued that “everything is taken into account in the biosphere and everything adapts ... with the same harmony, which we see in the harmonious movements of celestial bodies and are beginning to see in systems of atoms of matter and atoms of energy", it was not by chance that he took the first essay of the Biosphere as an epigraph (V. I. Vernadsky. Selected works. T. 5. M. , 1960, p. 24).

The harmony of man with nature was discussed in antiquity as harmony between the microcosm - Man and the macrocosm - the Universe. Harmony is understood not only in a psychological sense, but as a real thing. What lies between man and nature is no less important than man and nature as such. Between the subjects of harmony is not a partition, but a sphere of interaction that turns them into a single whole. It is not at the beginning or at the end, but becomes in the process of development. Only on the basis of this philosophical premise can the ecological problem be solved. The ecological problem is the problem of the meeting of man and nature, their deep communication, which transforms both sides of the interaction. It was as such a whole that the ancient Greek philosophers understood the cosmos, and modern ecologists understood the sphere of human interaction with the environment.

Philosophical conclusion from here: it is dangerous to move too far from nature and exalt itself above it. This destroys the whole, and a crack passes not only in nature, but also in man, disturbing his heart.

The symbol of harmony between man and nature is the mythical sphinx. Solving the environmental problem together with other branches of culture, philosophy itself is transformed. Rational teachings tend to put man above other beings, so the synthesis of philosophy with less rationalized areas of culture can have a positive ecological meaning.

11.4. environmental art

The genesis of any art, as Aristotle noted, is largely determined by the desire of a person to imitate nature and thus harmonize their relationship with it. This is obvious for the most ancient rock carvings, which Porshnev interpreted by the general ability of primitive man to imitate the environment in order to achieve the necessary results. This means that art is initially environmentally friendly.

Art can help solve environmental problems in several ways. Firstly, it is associated with harmony, which should be restored in the relationship between man and nature. A work of art affects us with its beauty, and beauty, according to Alberti, is a strict proportionate harmony of all parts.

The soul of the artist, the romantics believed, should be harmoniously tuned to reflect the harmony of nature. Also, a person must be internally harmonious in order to harmoniously interact with nature. Art creates a prototype of the harmony that must be established in the relationship of man with nature.

Once upon a time, the concept of harmony played an important role both in the practical and cognitive spheres of various cultures. According to the architect I. Zholtovsky, the theme of harmony is the only one that keeps human culture alive. On the example of the ancient world, this was perfectly shown by A.F. Losev in the multi-volume History of Ancient Aesthetics.

Actually, aesthetics itself as a special discipline was formed when the beautiful left the most important practical and cognitive branches of culture, and it had to be given a special, not at all red corner. And it left because, with the internal inconsistency of man and his alienation from nature, it became difficult to perceive beauty. K. Marx wrote that a mineral dealer "sees only mercantile value, and not beauty and not the peculiar nature of a mineral," and only a harmoniously tuned soul, according to Schelling, is truly capable of perceiving art (let's add, beauty in general).

The consequences of the separation of practice and aesthetics are still felt in the demands of specialists involved in specific areas of the transformation of nature not to interfere in their affairs, say, writers, i.e. people working in the most aesthetically significant branches of culture. Such demands, which are quite understandable historically, are fundamentally unjustified, since aesthetic, as well as ethical, considerations are not something extraneous in relation to practical and cognitive goals, but, on the contrary, their most essential moment.

Speaking of the aesthetic, we remember, first of all, works of art, although beauty is present both in nature itself and in man as a natural being. The beautiful in works of art is often a reflection of the beauty of nature and man (a "reflection" of beauty as the first phenomenon, according to Goethe), while remaining at the same time the creation of a qualitatively new world, the inner harmony of which corresponds to the harmonic orientation of the artist's soul. Schelling distinguished between the organic work of nature as representing the original undivided harmony and the work of art - the harmony recreated by the artist after its dismemberment. The artist recreates the world as a work of art.

Art, by its very essence, is a means of harmonizing the psychophysiological processes of human life, a compensatory way of balancing a person with the outside world. All this is already present in the cave paintings of the ancients.

Is it possible in this case to argue that art, like science and technology, should be restructured in terms of greening at the present stage of the relationship between man and nature? What does this mean? The emergence of a new ecological genre or a change in the content of traditional genres? Both.

In modern fiction, as S. P. Zalygin noted, speaking of V. P. Astafiev's "Tsar Fish", nature begins to act as an active, active principle. Nature in a fairy tale is an active character in the plot, and not just a scene and environment; she helps the hero, sympathizes with him, empathizes with him, or, conversely, actively opposes him. The same thing reappears in modern writings.

Of course, in order to successfully resolve the contradiction between man and nature, it is not enough that the sphere of fiction and art be subjected to greening. Environmental friendliness can and should be inherent in culture as a whole. The ecologization of architecture is especially important, since the latter is initially one of the ways of subject-spatial organization of the external environment for a person, his house in the broad sense of the word. Architecture is one of the main forms of creation of humanized nature, and this determines its importance for harmonizing the relationship between man and his environment. According to the literal meaning of the word (primordial creation), architecture is called upon to carry out the synthesis of various types of arts, to link art, science, technology and utilitarian function together, and, affirming the integrity of culture, to contribute to the formation of a holistic personality in its holistic relationship to the world around. Architecture is a prototype of the harmony of a person with the world precisely because of the harmony in it of various branches of culture.

In different eras, architecture performed its synthesizing task in different ways. There was a time when "they built in unity with nature, did not draw preliminary plans on parchment or paper, but made a drawing directly on the ground and then made corrections and clarifications during the construction itself, looking closely at the surrounding landscape" (D. S. Likhachev. Notes about Russian, Moscow, 1981, p. 13).

Architecture expresses the soul of culture (or its soullessness) in stone. This is her visible symbol. We judge past epochs by what remains of them. Should we strive to ensure that the way of our life, expressed in architecture, is perceived by posterity as a gray, monotonous straightforwardness of grounded utilitarianism, slightly tinted with the ceremonial monumentality of official buildings? The future architecture is designed to reflect all the diversity of the inner world of the individual in its harmonious interaction with nature, culture and other people, that is, it must become harmonious and environmentally friendly in the full sense of the word.

The penetration of the ecologization trend into art and architecture, which reflect and to a certain extent create a system of relationships between man and nature, creates the prerequisites for the convergence of aesthetics and ecology, but does not solve the problem of harmonizing the relationship between man and nature in general. It is required that aesthetic moments become significant for the entire system of ecological relationships. Harmony is an aesthetic category, and just as "there is nothing beautiful without harmony" (Plato), so there is no harmony without beauty. That is why harmonization means the introduction of an aesthetic principle into the relationship between man and nature, primarily in technology, which now constitutes an essential component of environmental relations.

There are obviously no fundamental differences between art and other forms of human activity. Just as different art forms reflect and create life, the process of creativity in the field of human formation of matter consists in studying the object, developing an ideal plan for transformation and bringing it to life. Therefore, for the ancient Greeks, say, a positive answer to the question of whether the activity associated with the creation of a subject-material environment of a person has aesthetic significance was as obvious as the answer to the question about the aesthetic significance of the world itself. It is no coincidence that in Greek "craft" and "art" are indistinguishable even terminologically. There was also no fundamental separation of art and nature in antiquity.

Only in modern times in Western culture did the division of the thing and the beautiful occur (due to which the term and science of aesthetics appeared), which meant a gap between being and beauty. Moreover, the creation of beauty became the lot of separate rather closed branches of spiritual culture, and being itself was considered as aesthetically neutral. This circumstance seems to be one of the underlying environmental difficulties of today, and its overcoming is of great importance.

In order to harmonize the relationship between man and nature, technology can and must become aesthetic. Harmony is goodness and beauty, and as long as there is technology between man and nature, the latter must be goodness and beauty.

Accounting for aesthetic moments is important for the integrity of the person himself and the integrity of his relationship to nature. Beauty, however, also has an ontological meaning in itself, since it is associated with the completeness and diversity of the world, which is necessary for its stability. This is as true as the fact that harmony is created by diversity. Goethe expressed the ontology and at the same time the epistemological significance of the beautiful: “The beautiful is the manifestation of the secret laws of nature; without its occurrence, they would forever remain hidden” (I. V. Goethe. Maxims and reflections. Collected works: In 10 vols. T. 10. M., 1979, p. 427).

Aesthetic insight opens up new possibilities in reality, which it actualizes, giving them concrete forms. The beautiful is both the free creation of the artist and an attribute of the objective world. Being present in these two spheres, it is undoubtedly possible in the sphere of relations between man and nature.

By creating the beautiful, the artist creates a stable, i.e. harmonious. This is the ecological significance of art as a model for the transformation of nature. To understand that beauty is an essential aspect of the transformation of nature and that it is one of the sides of diversity is the main thing in the aesthetic moments of the ecological problem.

Art as a whole can be regarded as the creation of a new living integral world (human and human). Then art in the now prevailing narrow sense appears as a creation of an ideal world, and art in a broad sense - as a creation of not only spiritual, but also material reality. This role can and ecologically must be assumed by technology, which becomes art. At the same time, it is not so important that in art, as it is now understood, objective reality is elevated to the ideal, while in art in a broad sense the ideal materializes. In the process of synthesis of science, technology and art, the scientist becomes both a designer and an artist, so to speak, a director of reality.

Such a formulation of the problem is not new, and we can recall from recent history interesting attempts to develop applied art, for example, in Abramtsev's workshops. One of the goals pursued by the founder of the workshops, S. I. Mamontov, was to ensure that ordinary everyday objects surrounding a person were beautiful and through them a person joined the beautiful.

Design, artistic construction and now demonstrate examples of expanding the boundaries of the aesthetic. I would like to emphasize that artistry should be not only in the external form, but also inside the thing. Technical aesthetics often emphasizes the predominantly subjective side of the need for beauty, namely that it is more pleasant to deal with beautiful objects, although through the subjective there is a transition to objective things - work in a more beautiful environment, since it corresponds to the integral nature of a person, contributes, as experiments have shown , improving labor efficiency. I would like to emphasize the objective side of the aestheticization of technology, which consists in the fact that technology, in order to become a means of harmonizing the relationship between man and nature, must regain its original meaning of art, and production (not only material, but also of the person himself) - the meaning of the poem. At the same time, beauty is not added to the already created technique, but is created along with it, it is its original, and not an incidental moment, its attribute, determining its type and goals. In other words, what is required is not the outer decoration of the technique, but its inner beauty.

In the history of the relationship between man and nature, the lines of harmonious (and, therefore, beautiful) interaction are actually preserved. D. S. Likhachev noted that the Russian peasant, with his centuries-old labor, created the beauty of his native nature, "the aesthetics of parallel lines running in unison with each other and with nature, like voices in ancient Russian chants" (D. S. Likhachev. Notes on Russian. .. pp. 22-23). It is about the beauty of the relationship between man and nature. It must be implemented by the science, technology and art of the future, created by a person responsible for the harmony of truth, goodness and beauty.

Dostoevsky wrote that "beauty will save the world", and this statement is of paramount ecological importance. N. K. Roerich added one word: "The awareness of beauty will save the world." If we try to give an ecological interpretation of Dostoevsky's maxim, we can say: the creation of beauty will save the world. Creation is not only in the ideal sense of creating works of art proper, but the material creation of the world "according to the laws of beauty." And it will save the world by virtue of its ontological potentials, and also because the creation of beauty is inextricably linked with truth, goodness, love for man and the world, the formation of a holistic personality and the assertion of the harmony of man and nature.

Finally, another environmentally positive purpose of art is that the main cognitive purpose of art is to create possible life situations. In this sense, works of art explore, as it were, ideal models that help in choosing the most optimal strategies for the interaction between man and nature.

Ecologization of various types and branches of culture leads to the creation of an ecological culture, which is the basis of the ecological movement and the oases of the ecological society.

Glossary of terms

abiotic environment (from the Greek. a and bioticos - living) - a set of inorganic living conditions for organisms.

Autotrophs (from the Greek autos - itself, trophe - nutrition) - organisms that can feed on inorganic compounds.

Adaptation (from lat. adapto - fit) - adaptation of the structure and functions of the body to the conditions of existence.

Amensalism - a form of interaction in which one population suppresses another, but does not itself experience a negative influence.

Anthropogenic - caused by human activity, associated with human activity.

Anthropocentrism (from the Greek anthropos - man, kentron - center) - the view that man is the center of the universe and the ultimate goal of the universe.

Areal (from lat. area - area) - the area of ​​\uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbdistribution of a given taxon (species, genus, family) in nature.

Autecology - a branch of ecology that studies the interaction of individual organisms and species with the environment.

Biogeochemical cycles - cycles of substances; the exchange of matter and energy between various components of the biosphere, due to the vital activity of organisms and having a cyclical nature.

Biogeocenosis - an ecological system that includes a community of different species in certain geological conditions.

Biodiversity - number of living organisms, species and ecosystems.

Biomass - the total mass of individuals of a species, group of species, related to the area or volume of the habitat.

Biosphere (from the Greek bios - life, sphire - ball) - the shell of the Earth, in which the living interacts with the non-living.

Biotope - the space that the biocenosis occupies.

Biocenosis (from the Greek bios - life, koinos - common) - a set of populations adapted to live together in a given territory.

View - a natural biological unit, all members of which are connected by participation in a common gene pool.

Herbicides - chemicals used to control plants - pests of agriculture.

Heterotrophs (from Greek heteros - different, trophe - food) - organisms that feed on plants and animals.

Global (from lat. globus - ball) - covering the entire Earth.

Humanism (from lat. humanus - humane) - a worldview based on the principles of equality, justice, humanity.

Degradation (from French degradation - stage) - deterioration, loss of qualities.

Demography (from Greek demos - people, grapho - I write) - the science of population.

Defoliants - chemical substances that cause the fall of leaves of plants.

Divergence - increased differences between closely related species.

Living matter - the totality of all living organisms at a given moment.

Pollutants - Substances entering the environment that lead to disruption of the functioning of ecosystems.

Reserve - a protected area in which the performance of the function of nature protection is combined with limited economic activity.

Reserve (from "command") - a protected area in which economic activity is prohibited.

Industrial society (from lat. industria - activity) - the stage of development of society, one of the main characteristics of which is industrial, commodity, machine production.

Insekticidы - chemicals used to control harmful insects.

Information - a measure of the inhomogeneity of the distribution of matter.

Acid rain - rains containing nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide.

Commensalism - a form of interaction in which one of the two interacting populations benefits.

Convergence - reduction of differences between species under the influence of the evolutionary process.

Consuments - (from lat. consumo - consume) - heterotrophic organisms, mainly animals that eat producers.

Cooperation - a form of interaction in which both interacting populations benefit.

co-evolution - the co-evolution of two or more species of life.

Red Book - a set of descriptions of rare and endangered species of plants and animals.

Crisis (from the Greek. krisis - decision, turning point, outcome) - a predicament.

culture (from lat. cultura - cultivation) - the totality of everything specifically human that is created by him as a species of Homo sapiens.

Landscape - the main category of territorial division of the geographic shell of the Earth.

Limiting factor - a factor that limits the existence of an organism.

Local (from lat. localis - local) - relating to a small area.

Reclamation of - improvement of natural lands.

Habitat - a site occupied by a part of the population and having all the conditions necessary for its existence.

Метаболизм - exchange of substances of the body with the environment. Modeling is a research method in which not the object of research itself is studied, but another object (model) that is in a certain relationship with it.

Monitoring (from the English monitor - warning) - an observation system, on the basis of which an assessment of the state of the biosphere and its individual elements is given.

Mutation (from Latin mutatio - change) - a change in the genetic code that is inherited.

Mutualism - a form of interaction in which both populations benefit, and they are completely dependent on each other.

Neolithic (from Greek neos - new, litos - stone) - a new stone age (10-6 thousand years ago).

Neolithic revolution - a fundamental change in the way of farming, expressed in the transition from a hunting and gathering economy to an agricultural and cattle breeding.

Niche ecological - a set of conditions necessary for the existence of a given species.

Noosphere (from the Greek noos - mind, sphaire - ball) - the sphere of the mind, which becomes as a result of the appearance of a person on Earth and his interaction with the natural environment.

Obligation - forced connection, without which the population cannot exist.

Ozone screen - atmospheric layer lying at altitudes from 7 km at the poles to 50 km (with the highest ozone density at altitudes of 20-22 km) with an increased concentration of O3 molecules.

Organic compounds - Substances containing carbon.

Paleolithic (from the Greek palios - ancient, litos - stone) - the ancient stone age (from 2-3 million years ago).

Greenhouse effect - an increase in the concentration in the atmosphere of the so-called greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, etc.), absorbing the thermal radiation of the earth's surface, which leads to climate warming.

Pesticides - Substances used to control agricultural pests.

Population (from lat. populus - people) - a set of individuals of the same species that inhabit a certain area of ​​\uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbarea for a long time.

Maximum Permissible Emissions (MAE) - the maximum amount of harmful substances that can enter the environment from the territory of the enterprise.

Maximum Permissible Concentrations (MAC) - the amount of any harmful substance that can be in the environment without significant damage to human health.

Maximum Permissible Amounts (PDS) - the total indicator of the harmful effects of polluting factors.

Maximum Permissible Levels (MPL) - the level of harmful physical impact (for electromagnetic and noise pollution).

Natural assimilation potential - the ability of the natural environment without prejudice to itself (i.e., to the mechanisms of its functioning and self-healing) to give the products necessary for a person and to produce useful work for him.

Natural resource potential - a part of natural resources that can be really involved in economic activity given the technical and socio-economic capabilities of society, subject to the preservation of the human environment.

Productivity - the total amount of biomass formed over a given period of time.

Producers (from lat. producentis - producing) - autotrophic organisms that create food from simple inorganic substances.

Equilibrium - a state in which the individual parameters of the system are unchanged or fluctuate around a certain average value.

Regional (from lat. regionalis - regional) - relating to a particular territory.

Reducers (from lat. reducentis - returning) - heterotrophic organisms, mainly bacteria and fungi, destroying complex organic compounds and releasing inorganic nutrients suitable for use by producers.

Recreational resources - all phenomena that can be used for recreation: climatic, water, hydro-mineral, forest, mountain, etc.

Reclamation - return of lands to a cultural state capable of yielding a crop, or to a natural state.

Recycling - reuse of production waste.

Symbiosis - a form of interaction in which both species benefit.

Synecology - a section of ecology that studies the interaction of communities with their environment.

Community The totality of living organisms that make up an ecosystem.

Medium resistance - a set of factors aimed at reducing the population.

Habitat - a set of conditions in which a given individual, population or species exists.

  Structure (from lat. structura - structure) - a set of connections between the elements of the system.

succession (from Latin successio - continuity) - the process of development of an ecosystem from its inception to death, accompanied by a change in the species existing in it.

Toxic substances (from the Greek. toxikon - poison) - substances that cause certain diseases and disorders.

Tolerance (from lat. tolerantia - patience) - the body's ability to endure the influence of environmental factors.

Trophic - pertaining to food.

Urbanization - the process of growth in the number of cities and an increase in the number of urban residents.

Phyto - Pertaining to plants.

Fluctuation - change of any indicator under the influence of external or internal factors.

ecological pyramid - graphic representation of the ratio of trophic levels. It can be of three types: abundance, biomass and energy.

Environmental factor - any element of the environment that can have a direct impact on living organisms.

Ecology (from the Greek oikos - house, logos - teaching) - a science that studies the interaction of living organisms with the environment.

Ecosystem - the system that makes up the community and its environment.

Ecotop - the habitat of the community.

Этика (from the Greek. etos - custom, disposition) - one of the philosophical disciplines that studies human behavior.

List of recommended reading for the entire course

1. Vernadsky V. I. Biosphere. M., 1975.

2. Berdyaev N. A. Man and machine // Philosophy of creativity, culture and art. T. 1. M., 1994.

3. Global problems and universal values. M., 1990.

4. Commoner B. Closing circle. L., 1974.

5. Krut I. V., Zabelin I. M. Essays on the history of ideas about the relationship between nature and society. M., 1988.

6. Leopold O. Sandy County Calendar. M., 1983.

7. Meadows D. et al. Limits of growth. M., 1991.

8. Methodological aspects of the study of the biosphere. M., 1975.

9. Mechnikov L. I. Civilizations and great historical rivers// Geographical theory of development of modern societies. M., 1995.

10. Odum Yu. Fundamentals of ecology. M., 1975.

11. One world for all: the contours of global consciousness. M., 1990.

12. Porshnev BF About the beginning of human history. M., 1974.

13. Program of action. Agenda for the XXI century and other documents of the conference in Rio de Janeiro. M., 1993.

14. Peccei A. Human qualities. M., 1985.

15. Reimers N. F. Hopes for the survival of mankind: conceptual ecology. M., 1992.

16. Teilhard de Chardin P. The phenomenon of man. M., 1973.

17. Schweitzer A. Reverence for life. M., 1992.

18. Feshbach M., Friendly A. Ecocide in the USSR. M., 1992.

19. Ecological anthology. M. - Boston, 1992.

20. Ecology of Russia. Reader. M., 1996.

Author: Gorelov A.A.

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