My Environmental Worldview

Now at the turn of the two centuries the mankind comes to grips with the sharpest global problems of the modern world menacing to the existence of a civilization and even of the life on our planet.

Inability to foresee and to prevent negative consequences of scientific and technical revolution threatens to cause to fall the mankind into thermonuclear, ecological or a social disaster.

In many cities and rural areas the present state of the environment can be called as an ecological disaster.

And the number of these cities and rural areas is still being increased. We are almost on a threshold of the close global catastrophe. If the mankind doesn't give a priority to the problems of ecology and multiply efforts on preservation and restoration of the natural environment in its activity, probably it will soon collide with irreversible processes not only in the nature, but also in the evolution of the human being as a part of the nature.

Everyone should know the problems facing to the mankind: Human population growth, waste management, sustainable development, energy, depleting forests, mineral, water, soil resources etc.

Exactly the Earth topsoil represents the major component of the Earth biosphere.

The significant value of the soil consists in accumulation of organic matter, various chemical elements, and also energy. The topsoil performs functions of a biological absorber, the destroyer and neutralizer of different contaminations. If this link of the biosphere gets damaged, the fully developed functioning of biosphere will be irreversibly disturbed. For this reason, studying of the global biochemical value of the topsoil, its present condition and change under the influence of an anthropogenous activity is extremely important.

Almost all polluting substances which have originally got to the atmosphere finally appear on a surface of the land and water.

Soil becomes polluted by various chemical matter, pesticides, and waste products of agriculture, industry and household enterprises. Chemical compounds getting to the ground accumulate and lead to its gradual alteration of chemical and physical properties, reduce number of living organisms, worsen its fertility.

I think protection of the topsoil is one of the major mankind problems, as any harmful compounds placed in soil, sooner or later get to our organism.

First, there is a constant washing away of the pollution to open reservoirs and subsoil waters which can be used by people for drinking and other needs.

Second, pollution from the soil moisture, subsoil waters and open reservoirs gets to the organisms of animals and the plants using this water, and however on a food chains gets to the human organism.

But it isn't a unique problem connected to the soil. In the world there is a process of reduction of the cultivable lands in agriculture. One of major concerns is desert invasion. Deserts of South-West Asia, Northern and Southern America, Sahara are growing.

I think that the first step in the decision of this problem is to protect the soil against erosion and the second one is increasing of its fertility.

Land improvement (amelioration) is a set of measures to improve soil and to raise its long term fertility. It includes: irrigation, draining, erosion control, a flooding, and fertilization.

Land improvement must be carefully considered otherwise it can bring more harm, than advantage. Draining works should be carried out very cautiously; differently the shallowing of the rivers and lakes that receive nourishment from bogs can take place. The dry woods can be lost.

It is necessary to observe norms and a mode of applying fertilizers both mineral, and chemical, differently there will be an intoxication of the soil with mineral salts surplus, washout of salts to reservoirs, blooming of reservoirs, fish kill. But there will be excessive harmful nitrates content to the human in cultural plants.

Water is a basis of a life. Its main function is life support. Fresh water consists only 3 % from the total amount of hydrosphere on the planet and it is also distributed irregularly. Not only Africa suffers from the lack of fresh water, but also large cities of Europe, America and Asia.

Water used by the human finally comes back to the natural environment. Thus there is a pollution of fresh water reservoirs - rivers, lakes, land and coastal sites of the seas. According to the calculations of scientists, 25 thousand km3 of fresh water, or practically all accessible resources of such drain can be demanded for the dilution of these waste waters! For this reason and not because of the growth of a direct water intake this is the main reason of an aggravation of a problem of fresh water.

Now many rivers belong to a number of strongly polluted: Rhine, Danube, Seine, Ohio, Volga, Dnepr, Dnestr, etc. Pollution of the World Ocean grows. And here not only pollution by runoff plays the essential role, but also a plenty of mineral oil penetration to seas and oceans. In whole, the most polluted inland seas are - Mediterranean, Northern, Baltic, and also the Bay of Biscay, the Persian and Mexican gulfs.

There are three kinds of water pollution - biological, chemical and physical. In my opinion, resources of fresh waters can be increased by use of the closed circulating water supply at the enterprises. It is a blasphemously to use drinking water for the industrial purposes. Scientists suggest the desalination of sea water, runoff of river, gathering rain and thawed water in underground storehouses. I'm sure that closed in time water tap can bring its contribution to the struggle for preservation of water resources.

In my opinion huge advantage in struggle for the water purification, can do nanotechnologies. For example, Petersburg scientist Petrik suggests using the absorbent created in his laboratory for clearing reservoirs of various kinds of pollution right up to radiation. In Petersburg tests of this substance at clearing waters of the river Neva from oil and fuel spots have passed. Productivity of this absorbent was the best.

There is a natural resource which is necessary for the human as a land and water it is an air. But there is no, perhaps, such resource, except air, which absence would become an insoluble problem for the human less than in minute after its disappearance.

It is known, that pollution of the atmosphere occurs basically as a result of the industrial, transport and other activity, which annually throws out in air more than billion solid and gaseous particles.

Nowadays the basic polluters of atmospheres are carbon oxide and sulfur dioxide gas. But, certainly, it is impossible to forget about chlorofluorocarbon