Environmental security is an important concept that affects the he alth of the population, the welfare of the state. The term "ecology" was coined by the German naturalist Ernst Haeckel over 100 years ago. In Greek, oikos means house, and logos means science.
Ecology has a systematic interdisciplinary scientific direction. Appearing on the basis of biology, it includes the basic laws of chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Despite this, ecology can also be attributed to the humanities. After all, environmental safety affects the fate of the biosphere, that is, the existence of the entire human civilization.
Directions
Depending on what specific environmental problems need to be solved, certain applied areas are distinguished:
- chemical;
- medical;
- engineering;
- cosmic;
- human ecology.
The subject of this science is the organization and functioning of living systems. The environmental security of the world is a task, the solution of which requires the joint actions of all countries.
Types of environmental pollution
To ensure its existence, humanity needs water, food, shelter, clothing. The production of all products and goods is associated with the receipt of various kinds of waste entering the environment. Responsible industrial planning is essential to prevent serious and irreparable damage to the environment.
It is important to combine the satisfaction of human needs through natural resources with the protection of the environment from the destructive actions of human civilization.
Ensuring environmental safety is a chance to avoid environmental pollution, preserve its original appearance for future generations.
For example, every day water enters the city sewer, which contains fly ash, organic pollutants, solid waste. In order to keep citizens safe, wastewater can be treated to sludge for growing agricultural products.
Any activity of human civilization has an impact on earth's resources. Due to the fact that our planet receives new energy from the Sun, the resources of the Earth do not run out. Human activity is associated with environmental damage, therefore, environmental safety is associated with minimizing these harmful effects.
There is a classification of environmental pollution, consisting of several groups:
- physical, associated with different types of radiation, vibrations;
- chemical, in which toxicvapors and gases appear in the air, soil, water.
Sustainability concept
Environmental security involves a system of measures to ensure the protection of humanity and the biosphere. At the state level, certain laws are being developed that protect the state from threats arising from anthropogenic and natural impacts on the environment.
The environmental security of Russia implies a system of regulation and management that allows foreseeing, preventing, and, if it occurs, eliminating the further development of dangerous situations.
Such actions should be implemented at the regional, global, local levels.
Modern trends
Rules of environmental safety appeared only in the second half of the last century. It was during this time period that global climate change was observed, the greenhouse effect began to be felt, the ozone screen was being destroyed, and the World Ocean was becoming polluted.
The essence of global management and control is to restore and preserve the natural mechanism of reproduction of the biosphere by the environment. All actions are related to the functioning of living organisms included in the biosphere.
Management of defense mechanisms
Environmental and industrial safety is the prerogative of interstate relations at the level of international states: UNESCO, UN, UNEP.
Government methods at this levelimply the development of special acts for the protection of nature on a scale of the biosphere, the implementation of international environmental programs, the creation of interstate structures specializing in the elimination of the consequences of environmental disasters of an anthropogenic and natural nature.
For example, the international community has succeeded in banning nuclear weapons testing in any environment, except for underground activities. Thanks to the global agreement to ban whale fishing, as well as the creation of legal interstate regulation of the catch of seafood and valuable fish, it was possible to save rare inhabitants of the water element.
The world community is jointly studying the Antarctic and the Arctic, its biospheric natural areas that are not affected by man, comparing them with areas that have been transformed by human activity.
The international community developed and adopted in 1972 the Declaration on the ban on the production of Freon refrigerants, which lead to the destruction of the ozone layer.
Within the regional level, environmental safety classes consider large economic or geographical zones. In some cases, the territories of several states are analyzed.
Management and control of compliance with the rules of environmental safety is carried out at the level of the government of the country, as well as through international relations.
Specific control system
Certain environmental safety signs are being developed to createlegislative framework for environmental protection. At this level, it includes:
- innovative environmentally friendly technological processes;
- greening the economy;
- search for economic growth rates that do not interfere with the restoration of environmental quality, contributing to the rational use of natural resources.
The local level of environmental safety is associated with districts, cities, enterprises of the oil refining, chemical, metallurgical industries, and the defense industry. They also include the control of effluents, emissions.
In this case, environmental safety management occurs at the level of the administration of the district, city, enterprise, with the involvement of those services that are responsible for environmental protection and sanitary conditions.
Through the solution of specific local problems, it is possible to achieve the set goal, to manage such a situation at the regional as well as at the global level.
Developed symbols for the rules of environmental safety greatly simplify the control procedure.
In the scheme of managing emerging problems at any level, there is an analysis of resources, finance, economy, administrative measures, culture and education.
What is an emergency
Various signs of environmental safety are used to identify an emergency. It is customary to mean a violation of the normal life and activities of the human community associated with an epidemic,environmental disaster, catastrophe, accident, military actions that led to material and human losses.
An emergency can also be imagined as an unexpected, sudden situation characterized by uncertainty, economic and environmental damage, loss of life, serious human and material costs for evacuation and rescue operations, minimization of consequences.
Specific environmental safety signs are used to indicate the level of danger.
Classification of emergencies
There are certain criteria by which the status of an emergency situation is determined. The nature of its occurrence is chosen as the basis for the classification. The entire set of analyzed situations is divided into two large groups:
- deliberate situations;
- unintended occurrences.
Another approach is also applied, in which emergencies are divided by type of occurrence:
- artificial (man-made);
- natural (natural);
- mixed.
By intentionality, situations are divided into several groups:
- deliberate, including socio-political conflicts;
- unintentional: earthquakes, floods, etc.
An important characteristic of any emergency is the pace of its development. Depending on the interval - from the onset to the culmination point, currently there are "explosive" and "smooth" options. The first typeduration ranges from a few seconds to a couple of hours. Such situations include man-made disasters: accidents at oil pipelines, nuclear power plants, chemical plants.
The duration of the second type can reach several decades. For example, due to the activities of petrochemical corporations, toxic substances can enter water bodies for decades.
For example, in the USA there was a situation when in the area of the Love Canal (Niagara Falls) oil refining residues containing dioxin and other poisons were buried. After 25 years, they got into the soil, ended up in tap water. As a result, there was a serious threat to the life and he alth of the population.
In August 1978, US President D. Carter declared a national emergency, and the entire population of the city was urgently evacuated.
Modern furnishings
By virtue of his nature, a person strives for security, tries to create the most convenient conditions for existence around him.
But at the same time, humanity is under threat due to numerous criminogenic elements, is at risk of falling ill with deadly infectious diseases, suffering from accidents.
Many preventive measures are being taken to resolve such situations.
It is the unfavorable state of the environment that has become the main threat to the comfortable and safe existence of mankind. As the main criterion for environmentalsecurity is the average life expectancy of people. And this figure is not so great.
Conventional signs of environmental safety are used for mathematical calculations, the development of effective measures to eliminate sources of pollution.
This term is firmly established in a person's life, and its relevance is growing from year to year.
Conclusion
The concept of "environmental safety" is applicable to various realities. For example, a separate city, district, enterprise, service sector, area of international relations is analyzed. The company assumes environmental design, during which the development of special documentation on the use of production waste, as well as on their consumption. For example, a waste passport and their limits are drawn up, as well as a procedure for controlling emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere, an assessment of the amount of discharges into water bodies.
Ecological safety is being implemented at the regional, global, local level. It includes a system of settlement and management, which allows you to assume, and in case of occurrence, eliminate the development of an emergency.
The problem lies in balancing nature and human activities. There is a significant reduction in fertile land, which is caused by the construction of transport and industrial facilities, the growth of large metropolitan areas.
About 20% of the land is currently under the threat of complete desertification, and almost halftropical forests destroyed.
The issue of fresh water is escalating every year, the “water hunger” is gradually increasing. For example, in Africa, people are dying from lack of drinking water.
In our country, there is also a trend of environmental degradation. For example, biologists and environmentalists are sounding the alarm about the state of the Ob, Volga, and Don. In large metropolitan areas - Moscow, St. Petersburg, the MPC in terms of the level of harmful substances in the atmosphere is 10 times higher than the norm. Enterprises associated with the extraction and processing of natural resources also pose a danger.
The number of large settlements is increasing much faster than food resources. The demographic problem is connected with the constant movement of the population, as well as with its migration.
Environmental security includes issues related to reducing child mortality, increasing life expectancy, and combating illiteracy. All of them will be included in a special program implemented with the support of departmental structures.
Only with an integrated approach of government agencies, large companies and individuals can we count on improving the environmental situation in a particular country and around the world.
