Humanity needed all the knowledge collected by scientists over hundreds of years to begin space flights. And then man was faced with a new problem - for the colonization of other planets and long-distance flights, it is necessary to develop a closed ecosystem, including providing the astronauts with food, water and oxygen. Delivering food to Mars, which is located 200 million kilometers from Earth, is expensive and difficult; it would be more logical to find ways to produce products that are easy to implement in flight and on the Red Planet.

How do microgravity affect seeds? What vegetables would be harmless if grown in heavy metal-rich soil on Mars? How to set up a plantation on board a spaceship? Scientists and astronauts have been looking for answers to these questions for more than fifty years.

The illustration shows Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev hugging plants in the Lada installation aboard the International Space Station, 2014.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky wrote in “The Goals of Astronomy”: “Let us imagine a long conical surface or funnel, the base or wide opening of which is covered with a transparent spherical surface. It is directly facing the Sun, and the funnel rotates around its long axis (height). On the opaque inner walls of the cone there is a layer of moist soil with plants planted in it.” So he proposed artificially creating gravity for plants. Plants should be selected that are prolific, small, without thick trunks and parts not exposed to the sun. In this way, colonizers can be partially provided with biologically active substances and microelements and oxygen and water can be regenerated.

In 1962, the chief designer of OKB-1, Sergei Korolev, set the task: “We need to start developing the “Greenhouse (OR) according to Tsiolkovsky,” with gradually increasing links or blocks, and we need to start working on “cosmic harvests.”

Manuscript by K.E. Tsiolkovsky “Album of space travel”, 1933.

The USSR launched the first artificial Earth satellite into orbit on October 4, 1957, twenty-two years after Tsiolkovsky's death. Already in November of the same year, the mongrel Laika was sent into space, the first of the dogs that were supposed to open the way to space for people. Laika died from overheating in just five hours, although the flight was planned for a week - for this time there would have been enough oxygen and food.

Scientists have suggested that the problem arose due to a genetically determined orientation - the seedling should stretch towards the light, and the root - in the opposite direction. They improved the Oasis, and the next expedition took new seeds into orbit.

The onion has grown. Vitaly Sevastyanov reported to Earth that the arrows had reached ten to fifteen centimeters. “What arrows, what bow? We understand, this is a joke, we gave you peas, not onions,” they said from Earth. The flight engineer replied that the astronauts had grabbed two bulbs from home to plant them beyond the plan, and reassured the scientists - almost all of the peas had sprouted.

But the plants refused to bloom. At this stage they died. The same fate awaited the tulips, which bloomed in the Buttercup installation at the North Pole, but not in space.

But you could eat onions, which cosmonauts V. Kovalenok and A. Ivanchenkov successfully did in 1978: “You did a good job. Maybe now we’ll be allowed to eat an onion as a reward.”

Technology - youth, 1983-04, page 6. Peas in the Oasis installation

In April 1980, cosmonauts V. Ryumin and L. Popov received the “Malachite” installation with blooming orchids. Orchids are attached to the bark of trees and hollows, and scientists believe that they may be less susceptible to geotropism - the ability of plant organs to locate and grow in a certain direction relative to the center of the globe. The flowers fell off after a few days, but the orchids formed new leaves and aerial roots. A little later, the Soviet-Vietnamese crew from V. Gorbatko and Pham Tuay brought with them a grown Arabidopsis.

The plants did not want to bloom. The seeds sprouted, but, for example, the orchid did not bloom in space. Scientists needed to help plants cope with weightlessness. This was done, among other things, using electrical stimulation of the root zone: scientists believed that the Earth’s electromagnetic field could influence growth. Another method involved the plan described by Tsiolkovsky to create artificial gravity - plants were grown in a centrifuge. The centrifuge helped - the sprouts were oriented along the vector of the centrifugal force. Finally, the astronauts achieved their goal. Arabidopsis bloomed in the Light Block.

On the left in the image below is the Fiton greenhouse on board Salyut 7. For the first time in this orbital greenhouse, Thal's rhizoid (Arabidopsis) went through a full development cycle and produced seeds. In the middle is the “Svetoblok”, in which Arabidopsis bloomed for the first time on board Salyut-6. On the right is the on-board greenhouse “Oasis-1A” at the Salyut-7 station: it was equipped with a system of dosed semi-automatic watering, aeration and electrical stimulation of roots and could move vegetation vessels with plants relative to the light source.

"Fiton", "Svetoblok" and "Oasis-1A"

Installation "Trapezium" for studying the growth and development of plants.

Sets with seeds

Flight log of the Salyut-7 station, sketches by Svetlana Savitskaya

The world's first automatic greenhouse, Svet, was installed at the Mir station. Russian cosmonauts conducted six experiments in this greenhouse in the 1990-2000s. They grew lettuce, radishes and wheat. In 1996-1997, the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences planned to grow plant seeds obtained in space - that is, to work with two generations of plants. For the experiment, we chose a hybrid of wild cabbage about twenty centimeters high. The plant had one drawback - the astronauts needed to pollinate.

The result was interesting - the seeds of the second generation were received in space, and they even sprouted. But the plants grew to six centimeters instead of twenty-five. Margarita Levinskikh, researcher at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, tells that the magnificent work of plant pollination was carried out by the American astronaut Michael Fossum.

Roscosmos video about growing plants in space. At 4:38 - plants at the Mir station

In April 2014, SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship delivered the Veggie greens growing facility to the International Space Station, and in March, astronauts began testing the orbital planter. The installation controls light and nutrient supply. In August 2015, on the menu of astronauts, grown in microgravity conditions.

Lettuce grown on the International Space Station

This is what a plantation on a space station might look like in the future.

In the Russian segment of the International Space Station there is a Lada greenhouse for the Plants-2 experiment. At the end of 2016 or beginning of 2017, the Lada-2 version will appear on board. The Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences is working on these projects.

Space horticulture is not limited to zero-gravity experiments. To colonize other planets, humans will have to develop agriculture on soil that differs from that on Earth, and in an atmosphere that has a different composition. In 2014, biologist Michael Mautner cooked asparagus and potatoes on meteorite soil. To obtain soil suitable for cultivation, the meteorite was ground into powder. Experimentally, he was able to prove that bacteria, microscopic fungi and plants can grow on soil of extraterrestrial origin. The material of most asteroids contains phosphates, nitrates and sometimes water.

Asparagus grown on meteorite soil

In the case of Mars, where there is a lot of sand and dust, grinding the rock will not be necessary. But another problem will arise - the composition of the soil. The soil of Mars contains heavy metals, an increased amount of which in plants is dangerous for humans. Scientists from Holland have imitated Martian soil and, since 2013, have grown ten crops of several types of plants on it.

As a result of the experiment, scientists found that the content of heavy metals in peas, radishes, rye and tomatoes grown on simulated Martian soil is not dangerous for humans. Scientists continue to study potatoes and other crops.

Researcher Wager Wamelink inspects plants grown in simulated Martian soil. Photo: Joep Frissel/AFP/Getty Images

Metal Content of Crops Harvested on Earth and in Simulated Moon and Mars Soils

One of the important tasks is to create a closed life support cycle. Plants receive carbon dioxide and crew waste, in return they give oxygen and produce food. Scientists have the possibility of using single-celled algae chlorella as food, containing 45% protein and 20% fat and carbohydrates. But this theoretically nutritious food is not digested by humans due to the dense cell wall. There are ways to solve this problem. Cell walls can be broken down using technological methods using heat treatment, fine grinding or other methods. You can take with you enzymes developed specifically for chlorella, which astronauts will take with food. Scientists can also develop GMO chlorella, the wall of which can be broken down by human enzymes. Chlorella is not currently used for nutrition in space, but is used in closed ecosystems to produce oxygen.

The experiment with chlorella was carried out on board the Salyut-6 orbital station. In the 1970s, it was still believed that being in microgravity did not have a negative effect on the human body - there was too little information. They also tried to study the effect on living organisms using chlorella, whose life cycle lasts only four hours. It was convenient to compare it with chlorella grown on Earth.

The IFS-2 device was intended for growing fungi, tissue cultures and microorganisms, and aquatic animals.

Since the 70s, experiments on closed systems have been carried out in the USSR. In 1972, the work of “BIOS-3” began - this system is still in effect. The complex is equipped with chambers for growing plants in controlled artificial conditions - phytotrons. They grew wheat, soybeans, chufu lettuce, carrots, radishes, beets, potatoes, cucumbers, sorrel, cabbage, dill and onions. Scientists were able to achieve an almost 100% closed cycle in water and air and up to 50-80% in nutrition. The main goals of the International Center for Closed Ecological Systems are to study the principles of functioning of such systems of varying degrees of complexity and to develop the scientific basis for their creation.

One of the high-profile experiments simulating a flight to Mars and return to Earth was. For 519 days, six volunteers were kept in a closed complex. The experiment was organized by Rocosmos and the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the European Space Agency became a partner. There were two greenhouses “on board the ship” - lettuce grew in one, peas grew in the other. In this case, the goal was not to grow plants in conditions close to space, but to find out how important plants are for the crew. Therefore, the greenhouse doors were sealed with an opaque film and a sensor was installed to record each opening. In the photo on the left, Mars 500 crew member Marina Tugusheva works with greenhouses as part of an experiment.

Another experiment on board “Mars-500” is GreenHouse. In the video below, expedition member Alexey Sitnev talks about the experiment and shows a greenhouse with various plants.

The person will have many chances. It runs the risk of crashing during landing, freezing on the surface, or simply not making it. And, of course, die of hunger. Plant growing is necessary for the formation of a colony, and scientists and astronauts are working in this direction, showing successful examples of growing some species not only in microgravity conditions, but also in simulated soil of Mars and the Moon. Space colonists will definitely have the opportunity.

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Every living organism in nature is found only where it finds all the conditions for life: warmth and light, protection from enemies, enough food and water. This is his habitat. A living organism feels at home in it, but in another place it can easily die. Bear - in the forest Cactus - in the desert Shark - in the sea Sundew - in the swamp WHO IS COMFORTABLE WHERE

2 slide

Different living beings inhabiting the same habitat are closely related. Many of them cannot do without each other. Organisms living together and the piece of land where they feel at home together form an ecological system, or simply an ecosystem. The ecosystem is designed extremely wisely: there is everything you need for life, and there is nothing superfluous. The secret of an ecosystem lies in the food connections of its inhabitants. In nature, organisms of one species serve as food for organisms of another species.

3 slide

The main role in the ecosystem belongs to plants. They supply organic substances to all inhabitants of the ecosystem. Since plants create organic substances from light, air, water and minerals. Plants serve as a source of food for the rest of the inhabitants of the ecosystem, which is why they are called “breadwinners”. In addition, plants purify the air by releasing oxygen necessary for living organisms to breathe.

4 slide

Animals cannot convert minerals into organic matter. They feed on plants or other animals and obtain the necessary organic substances from their food. Therefore, animals are called “eaters” - this is their main role in the ecosystem. In addition, animals breathe, taking oxygen from the air and releasing carbon dioxide.

5 slide

If among living beings there were only “breadwinners” and “eaters,” then a lot of garbage would accumulate in the ecosystem: last year’s grass, fallen leaves and branches, and animal remains. But they do not accumulate, but are quickly destroyed by fungi, microscopic bacteria, as well as small animals living under fallen leaves. They all process natural waste and turn it back into minerals that can be used again by plants. Therefore, these living organisms are called “scavengers.” The broken down remains of plants and animals add fertility to the top layer of earth, called soil.

6 slide

Substances in an ecosystem pass from one organism to another in a circle. Substances are processed, change their properties, but do not disappear, but are used again and again. The ecosystem needs nothing but sunlight. Thanks to this, she can live for a very long time if nothing interferes. Plants do not need to be watered, fertilized or weeded. Animals don't need to be fed. There is no need to clean up waste after them - “scavengers” do that.

7 slide

An ecosystem is a “commonwealth” of living and inanimate nature in which all inhabitants feel at home. Organisms in an ecosystem perform three roles: “breadwinners,” “eaters,” and “scavengers.” An ecosystem has everything its inhabitants need to live. They only receive light from space from the sun. There is nothing superfluous or unnecessary in an ecosystem: everything that is produced is fully used by its inhabitants. An ecosystem can exist for as long as desired without outside help.

Subject:“Man and his place in nature.”

Goals.

Educational:

• continue systematic work on the formation of an elementary holistic picture of the world among younger schoolchildren;
• introduce artificial ecosystems of cities and villages as places of human life (habitat);
• teach to see the difference in the economies of ancient people and modern people, to understand the specifics of artificial ecosystems;
• teach students to find contradictions between the human economy and nature and propose ways to eliminate them;
• to form a concept of an ecological type of economy that is harmoniously combined with nature.

Educational:

• develop the ability to cognize and understand the world around us, meaningfully apply the acquired knowledge to solve educational, cognitive and life problems;
• develop speech and logical thinking;

Educators:

• to cultivate a caring attitude towards the nature around us, economical use of natural resources, and a caring attitude towards the world.

Lesson type: lesson of learning new material.

Type of training: problematic.

Main stages of the lesson:

1. Introduction of new knowledge based on previous experience.
2. Reproduction of new knowledge.

Equipment:

• video recordings to demonstrate the ecosystem of the city and village;
• work page;
• reference diagrams;
• illustrations of a reasonable combination of civilization and nature.

DURING THE CLASSES

I. Activation of knowledge and formulation of the problem.

1. Guys, today we have the first lesson of the last section of our textbook and our entire course “The World and Man”. The title of this section is, in my opinion, a little unusual. What makes it so unusual?

There is a note on the board: “How should we live?”

It turns out that this question worries many people on our planet, regardless of what country they live in and what language they communicate with each other. But the main thing is that these people are not indifferent to the fate of our planet, our common home.

I am convinced that you and I should not stand aside and try to look for the answer to this question.

Do you know what it is conference? And is it possible to call our lesson “ lesson-conference”?

Dictionary: “Conference- a meeting, meeting of various organizations, including educational ones, to discuss some special issues.”

(Children read the interpretation of the word “conference” on the work page and discuss the question posed).

And now I propose, reflecting on our special question “How do we live?" And " Man and his place in nature”, remember what we know and have studied.

2. Blitz – quiz “Test your knowledge”:

1. The Ural Mountains separate Europe and Asia;
2. America was discovered by Christopher Columbus;
3. The Volga, Ob, Yenisei, Lena, Amur are the rivers of our country;
4. There are other continents south of Antarctica;
5. If you are careful with the use of water, light, i.e. save energy, then nature will be preserved and people will live easier;
6. The Sahara Desert is located in South America;
7. Travelers visited each other from island to island on foot;
8. Collecting edible plants and hunting wild animals is the oldest human activity;
9. An ecosystem is a community of living and inanimate nature on earth in which everyone feels at home.
10. An ecological system is a cell of the living shell of the Earth.

(Children listen to these statements and put “+” in the table on the work page if they agree with the statement, and “-” if they disagree with the statement. After completing the task, the teacher hangs a checklist on the board, and students conduct self-monitoring and self-checking of the completed task.).

3. Solving the crossword puzzle in pairs.

1. Scientist who studies ecosystems.
2. Living organisms that eat other organisms.
3. The smallest “scavengers”.
4. Organisms that “eaters” feed on.

4. Problem dialogue.

Yes, these are our friends Lena and Misha. Let's listen to them...

Lena: Man, developing science and technology, violates natural ecosystems. So he can live without them?

Misha: No, Lena, you're wrong. A person, like any other organism, needs other members of his ecosystem, because he must breathe, eat, and participate in the cycle of substances.

And again, for the third time, we hear the same word. How many of you paid attention to him? Indeed this is the word "Ecosystem". (Posted on the board).

What is an ecosystem?

(Children consult the dictionary on the work page and give different definitions.)

What types of ecosystems are there?

– Natural– natural;
– artificial are ecosystems created by human hands.

Give an example of natural ecosystems; artificial ecosystems.

5. Statement of the problem.

Children, what do you think, in which of the ecosystems you listed is there a place for humans, for you and me?

II. Collaborative discovery of knowledge.

1. Let us consider at our conference the issues that we have to study and discuss:

• two person households;
• where does a person live;
• how achievements of science and technology affect people’s lives, how they are useful, why they are harmful, and what dangers lurk in their use.

2. Independent acquaintance with two types of human economy from the pages of a textbook.

3. Collective work with the class through problem-solving conversation in order to systematize the acquired knowledge:

• What did ancient people do?
• Did they differ from wild animals in the way they obtained food?
• If they appropriated ready-made natural resources, then what could their farm be called? Form a word from the verb “to appropriate” that answers the question what kind of farm? (Appropriating).
• Why did people later learn to breed domestic animals and cultivated plants?
• Where did people start living?
• What became their main occupation?
• If people began to produce food and other products necessary for life, then what can their economy be called? Form a word from the verb “to produce” that answers the question what type of farm? (Producing)

4. Demonstration of two ecological pyramids:

• Which of them symbolizes the appropriating economy, and which the producing economy?
• Which of them can be correlated with a natural ecosystem, and which with an artificial ecosystem?
• What would you call this ecosystem?

(Ecosystem of a field, garden, barnyard, poultry house, livestock farm - agricultural ecosystem)

This is the first artificial ecosystem created by people. Peasants engaged in agricultural work live here.

The second artificial ecosystem created by people for their own lives is the city ecosystem.

If fields, gardens, and farmyards resemble natural ecosystems, then the city is striking in its inconsistency with the natural environment. Instead of the rustling of leaves and the singing of birds, in the city we hear the noise of engines, the creaking of brakes, the knock of tram wheels on the rails. On the plain, stone mountains rise from multi-story buildings. Unfortunately, there are few green plants in the city. It is precisely because of the lack or absence of greenery that people - city dwellers on weekends try to leave the city to the countryside, to the forest, to breathe fresh air, to take a break from the city noises. Sometimes people believe that modern man is almost independent of nature. This is a very dangerous misconception.

Remember! Man in the past, present and future is connected with nature by many invisible threads. Take care of her!

But, despite everything, the city is an ecosystem that people have created for living in it.

5. Complete task 2 on page 59.

• What opportunities did humans gain by creating artificial ecosystems?
• What is the relationship between natural and artificial ecosystems? Why?
• What is human strength?
• Has this always benefited humans and the environment?
• Is the cycle in nature closed or not?
• What happens under the influence of human management? (Environmental pollution, extinction of plants and animals, reduction in soil fertility, lack of fuel, etc.)

6. Complete task 3 on page 59.

• What are the consequences of a person's use of the power he possesses?
• What does this lead to?
• What needs to be fixed?
• If the cycle becomes closed, then this type of economy can be called... (ecological).
• What to do? Can we help?

Let's return to the concept "ecosystem".

(The definition is posted on the board)

Ecosystem- this is such an interconnection (commonwealth) of living and inanimate nature, in which all its inhabitants feel at home.

7. Work on keywords:

• Commonwealth
• Live nature
• Inanimate nature
• All? Who's everyone?
• How are you at home?

III. Workshop on independent application and use of acquired knowledge.

• Answers to questions on page 59.
• Complete 2–3 optional tasks (1, 4, 5, 7, 8).
• Fill out the table on the work page. Calculate your points and you will find out how well you take care of nature in the city's ecosystem.

		1
		1
		1
		1
I fed the birds all winter.		2
I don't disturb the birds at the nest.		1
I made a residential nesting house for birds.		3
		1
I planted a tree.		5

13–16 points - you are a great fellow, a conservationist. Everyone can follow your example.

9–12 points – you know how to be friends with nature.

Less than 9 points - you have something to think about. Try to be more careful about the nature around you.

IV. Summing up the lesson - conference.

• Exchange of opinions on completing tasks;
• What new did you learn in the lesson?
• Why is human power a big threat to the entire world around us?

A person has two paths. The first is for all people to fly into space together and settle on other planets. But if this becomes possible, it will not be very soon, maybe in hundreds and hundreds of years.

The second way is to adapt to nature, learn not to destroy it, not to disrupt an established economy, and try to begin to restore what has been destroyed and damaged. And treat the current nature with care, protecting what remains. Perhaps this path is the only possible one.

V. Homework.

Lesson No. 12, task 6.

ANNEX 1

WORK PAGE

Student(s)______________________________

TOPIC: “How should we live?
Man and his place in nature.”

Plan.

1. Two man's farms.
2. Where does a person live?
3. How should we live?

Exercise 1. Blitz - quiz.

Task 2. Crossword.

1. Scientist who studies ecosystems.
2. Living organisms that eat other organisms (plants and animals).
3. A gas necessary for breathing by all living organisms.
4. What does the ecosystem receive from space?
5. The smallest “scavengers”.
6. Organisms that process waste and remains of living organisms.
7. The organ of a plant in which the transformation of inanimate substances into organic material for all organisms occurs.
8. Fertilizing to increase plant yield.
9. Organisms that eaters feed on.
10. The top fertile layer of soil from which the plant receives water and nutrients.

Task 3. Discovery of new concepts.

1.____________________

2.____________________

3.____________________

4.____________________

5.____________________

6.____________________

7.____________________

8.____________?_______

Task 4. Table - test.

Useful stuff	Completion sign	Points
I turn off the light when I leave the room.		1
I turn off the tap when I leave the bathroom.		1
I try not to pick flowers in the forest and park.		1
I don’t break trees for a fire, but take dead wood.		1
I fed the birds all winter.		2
I don't disturb the birds at the nest.		1
I made a bird nesting house.		3
I take care of house plants and animals.		1
I planted a tree.		5

APPENDIX 2

DICTIONARY.

CONFERENCE - a meeting of various organizations, including educational organizations, to discuss some special issues.

ECOSYSTEM– living organisms living together and that piece of land on which they feel at home.

ECOSYSTEM- a small part of the biosphere. In this system you can find many elements of the biosphere: air, soil, water, rocks.

ECOSYSTEM– the unity of living and inanimate nature, in which living organisms of different professions are able to jointly maintain the circulation of substances.

ECOSYSTEM – it is a community of living organisms in unity with the place in which they live.

ECOSYSTEM – This is such a relationship between living and inanimate nature, in which all inhabitants feel at home.

Doctor of Economic Sciences Y. SHISHKOV

We see the bottomless blue sky, green forests and meadows, hear birds singing, breathe air consisting almost entirely of nitrogen and oxygen, swim along rivers and seas, drink water or use it, sunbathe in the gentle rays of the sun - and we perceive all this as natural and the ordinary. It seems that it cannot be otherwise: it has always been so, it will be so forever! But this is a deep misconception, born of everyday habit and ignorance of how and why planet Earth became the way we know it. Planets structured differently from ours not only can exist, but actually exist in the Universe. But are there planets somewhere in the depths of space with environmental conditions more or less close to those on Earth? This possibility is highly hypothetical and minimal. The earth is, if not unique, then, in any case, a “piecemeal” product of nature.

The main ecosystems of the planet. Mountains, forests, deserts, seas, oceans - still relatively pure nature - and megacities are the focus of life and activity of people who can turn the Earth into a complete dump.

The Earth is seen so beautiful from space - a unique planet that gave birth to life.

Science and life // Illustrations

The figure shows the stages of the evolution of planet Earth and the development of life on it.

These are just some of the negative consequences caused by human activities on Earth. The waters of the seas and oceans are polluted with oil, although there is more than one way to collect it. But the waters are also clogged with common household waste.

There is no inhabited continent where factories and factories do not smoke, changing the surrounding atmosphere for the worse.

Science and life // Illustrations

The picture is typical for any major city on Earth: endless lines of cars, the exhaust fumes of which make people sick, trees die...

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Environmentally friendly production is the only thing that will make it possible, if not to make the planet cleaner, then at least to leave it the way we got it.

The long development of the Earth's ecosystem

First of all, let us recall how the evolution of the Solar System proceeded. About 4.6 billion years ago, one of the many swirling gas and dust clouds within our Galaxy began to condense and transform into the Solar System. Inside the cloud, a main spherical, then still cold, rotating clump formed, consisting of gas (hydrogen and helium) and cosmic dust (fragments of atoms of heavier chemical elements from previously exploded giant stars) - the future Sun. Under the influence of increasing gravity, smaller clumps of the same cloud began to orbit around it - future planets, asteroids, comets. The orbits of some of them turned out to be closer to the Sun, others - further, some were built from large clumps of interstellar matter, others - from smaller ones.

At first it didn't matter much. But over time, gravitational forces increasingly densified the Sun and planets. And the degree of compaction depends on their initial mass. And the more these clots of matter were compressed, the more they heated up from the inside. In this case, heavy chemical elements (primarily iron, silicates) melted and sank to the center, while light ones (hydrogen, helium, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen) remained on the surface. Combining with hydrogen, carbon turned into methane, nitrogen into ammonia, oxygen into water. At that time, cosmic cold reigned on the surface of the planets, so all compounds were in the form of ice. Above the solid part was a gaseous layer of hydrogen and helium.

However, the mass of even such large planets as Jupiter and Saturn turned out to be insufficient for the pressure and temperature in their centers to reach the point when a thermonuclear reaction begins, and such a reaction began inside the Sun. It heated up and about four billion years ago turned into a star, sending into space not only wave radiation - light, heat, X-rays and gamma rays, but also the so-called solar wind - streams of charged particles of matter (protons and electrons).

Tests have begun for the forming planets. They were hit by streams of thermal energy from the Sun and the solar wind. The cold surface of the protoplanets warmed up, clouds of hydrogen and helium rose above them, and icy masses of water, methane and ammonia melted and began to evaporate. Driven by the solar wind, these gases were carried into space. The degree of such “undressing” of the primary planets determined the distance of their orbits from the Sun: those closest to it evaporated and were blown by the solar wind most intensely. As the planets "thinned out," their gravitational fields weakened and evaporation and deflation increased until the planets closest to the Sun were completely dispersed into space.

Mercury, the closest surviving planet to the Sun, is a relatively small, very dense celestial body with a metallic core but a barely noticeable magnetic field. It is practically devoid of atmosphere, and its surface is covered with sintered rocks, which in the daytime are heated by the Sun to 420-430 o C, and therefore there cannot be liquid water here. Venus, which is more distant from the Sun, is very similar in size and density to our planet. It has an almost as large iron core, but due to its slow rotation around its axis (243 times slower than the Earth), it lacks a magnetic field that could protect it from the solar wind, which is destructive to all life. Venus, however, has retained a fairly powerful atmosphere, consisting of 97% carbon dioxide (CO 2) and less than 2% nitrogen. This gas composition creates a powerful greenhouse effect: CO 2 prevents solar radiation reflected by the Venusian surface from escaping into space, which is why the surface of the planet and the lower layers of its atmosphere are heated to 470 ° C. In such an inferno, there can be no talk of liquid water, and therefore of living organisms.

Our other neighbor, Mars, is almost half the size of Earth. And although it has a metal core and rotates on its axis at almost the same speed as the Earth, it has no magnetic field. Why? Its metal core is very small, and most importantly, it is not molten and therefore does not induce such a field. As a result, the surface of Mars is constantly bombarded by charged fragments of hydrogen nuclei and other elements, which are continuously ejected by the Sun. The atmosphere of Mars is similar in composition to Venus: 95% CO 2 and 3% nitrogen. But due to the weak gravity of this planet and the solar wind, its atmosphere is extremely rarefied: the pressure on the surface of Mars is 167 times lower than on Earth. At this pressure there cannot be liquid water there either. However, it is not on Mars because of the low temperature (average minus 33 o C during the day). In summer at the equator it rises to a maximum of plus 17°C, and in winter at high latitudes it drops to minus 125°C, when atmospheric carbon dioxide also turns into ice - this explains the seasonal increase in the white polar caps of Mars.

The large planets, Jupiter and Saturn, do not have a solid surface at all - their upper layers consist of liquid hydrogen and helium, and their lower layers are made of molten heavy elements. Uranus is a liquid ball with a core of molten silicates, above the core lies a hot water ocean about 8 thousand kilometers deep, and above all this is a hydrogen-helium atmosphere 11 thousand kilometers thick. The most distant planets, Neptune and Pluto, are equally unsuitable for the origin of biological life.

Only the Earth was lucky. A random combination of circumstances (the main ones being the initial mass at the protoplanet stage, the distance from the Sun, the speed of rotation around its axis and the presence of a semi-liquid iron core, which gives it a strong magnetic field that protects it from the solar wind) allowed the planet to eventually become what we are used to see her. The long geological evolution of the Earth led to the emergence of life only on it.

First of all, the gas composition of the earth's atmosphere has changed. Initially, it apparently consisted of hydrogen, ammonia, methane and water vapor. Then, interacting with hydrogen, methane turned into CO 2, and ammonia into nitrogen. There was no oxygen in the Earth's primary atmosphere. As it cooled, the water vapor condensed into liquid water and formed oceans and seas that covered three-quarters of the earth's surface. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere decreased: it dissolved in water. During continuous volcanic eruptions, characteristic of the early stages of Earth's history, part of the CO 2 was bound in carbonate compounds. The decrease in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere weakened the greenhouse effect it created: the temperature on the Earth's surface decreased and began to differ radically from what existed and exists on Mercury and Venus.

The seas and oceans played a decisive role in the biological evolution of the Earth. Atoms of various chemical elements dissolved in water interacted to form new, more complex inorganic compounds. From them, under the influence of electrical discharges of lightning, radioactive radiation of metals, and underwater volcanic eruptions in sea water, the simplest organic compounds arose - amino acids, those initial “building blocks” from which proteins are composed - the basis of living organisms. Most of these simple amino acids disintegrated, but some of them, becoming more complex, became primary single-celled organisms such as bacteria, capable of adapting to their environment and reproducing.

So, about 3.5 billion years ago, a qualitatively new stage began in the geological history of the Earth. Its chemical evolution was supplemented (or rather, pushed into the background) by biological evolution. No other planet in the solar system knew this.

About another one and a half billion years passed before chlorophyll and other pigments appeared in the cells of some bacteria, capable of carrying out photosynthesis under the influence of sunlight - converting molecules of carbon dioxide (CO 2) and water (H 2 O) into organic compounds and free oxygen (O 2). Now the light radiation of the Sun began to serve the endless growth of biomass, the development of organic life went much faster.

And further. Under the influence of photosynthesis, which absorbs carbon dioxide and releases unbound oxygen, the gas composition of the earth's atmosphere changed: the share of CO 2 decreased, and the share of O 2 increased. Forests covering the land accelerated this process. And about 500 million years ago, the simplest waterfowl vertebrates appeared. After about another 100 million years, the amount of oxygen reached a level that allowed some vertebrates to reach land. Not only because all land animals breathe oxygen, but also due to the fact that a protective layer of ozone (O 3) has appeared in the upper layers of the atmosphere at an altitude of 25-30 kilometers, absorbing a significant part of the ultraviolet and X-ray radiation of the Sun, which is destructive for land animals.

The composition of the earth's atmosphere had acquired by this time extremely favorable properties for the further development of life: 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon and very little (0.03%) carbon dioxide, hydrogen and other gases. With such an atmosphere, the Earth, receiving quite a lot of thermal energy from the Sun, about 40% of it, unlike Venus, reflects into space, and the earth's surface does not overheat. But that's not all. Thermal solar energy, almost freely reaching the Earth in the form of short-wave radiation, is reflected into space as long-wave infrared radiation. It is partially retained by water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxide and other gases contained in the atmosphere, creating a natural greenhouse effect. Thanks to it, a more or less stable moderate temperature is maintained in the lower layers of the atmosphere and on the surface of the Earth, which is approximately 33 o C higher than it would have been if the natural greenhouse effect had not existed.

Thus, step by step, a unique ecological system suitable for life was formed on Earth. The large, half-molten iron core and the rapid rotation of the Earth around its axis create a sufficiently strong magnetic field, which forces streams of solar protons and electrons to flow around our planet, without causing significant harm to it even during periods of increased solar radiation (even if the core is smaller and harder, and If the Earth's rotation were slower, it would remain defenseless against the solar wind). And thanks to its magnetic field and significant mass, the Earth has retained a fairly thick layer of atmosphere (about 1000 km thick), creating a comfortable thermal regime on the surface of the planet and an abundance of liquid water - an indispensable condition for the origin and evolution of life.

Over the course of two billion years, the number of different species of plants and animals on the planet has reached approximately 10 million. Of these, 21% are plants, almost 76% are invertebrate animals and a little more than 3% are vertebrates, of which only a tenth are mammals. In each natural and climatic zone, they complement each other as links in the trophic, that is, food, chain, forming a relatively stable biocenosis.

The biosphere that emerged on Earth gradually fit into the ecosystem and became its integral component, participating in the geological cycle of energy and matter.

Living organisms are active components of many biogeochemical cycles, which involve water, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulfur, iron, potassium, calcium and other chemical elements. From the inorganic phase they pass into the organic phase, and then, in the form of waste products from plants and animals or their remains, return to the inorganic phase. It is estimated, for example, that a seventh of all carbon dioxide and 1/4500 of oxygen pass through the organic phase annually. If photosynthesis on Earth were to stop for some reason, free oxygen would disappear from the atmosphere within about two thousand years. And at the same time, all green plants and all animals would disappear, with the exception of the simplest anaerobic organisms (certain types of bacteria, yeast and worms).

The Earth's ecosystem is self-sustaining thanks to other cycles of substances not related to the functioning of the biosphere - let us recall the water cycle in nature, known from school. The entire set of closely interconnected biological and non-biological cycles forms a complex self-regulating ecological system that is in relative balance. However, its stability is very fragile and vulnerable. Proof of this is repeated planetary catastrophes, the cause of which was either the fall of large cosmic bodies to Earth, or powerful volcanic eruptions, due to which the supply of sunlight to the earth's surface decreased for a long time. Each time, such disasters carried away from 50 to 96% of the earth's biota. But life was reborn again and continued to develop.

Aggressive Homo sapiens

The appearance of photosynthetic plants, as already mentioned, marked a new stage in the development of the Earth. Such a dramatic geological shift was generated by relatively simple living organisms that do not have intelligence. From humans, a highly organized organism endowed with powerful intelligence, it is natural to expect a much more tangible impact on the Earth’s ecosystem. The distant ancestors of such a creature - hominids - appeared, according to various estimates, from about 3 to 1.8 million years ago, Neanderthals - approximately 200-100 thousand, and modern Homo sapiens sapiens - only 40 thousand years ago. In geology, even three million years fit within the limits of chronological error, and 40 thousand is only one millionth of the age of the Earth. But even during this geological moment, people managed to thoroughly undermine the balance of its ecosystem.

First of all, for the first time in history, the growth of the Homo sapiens population was not balanced by natural limitations: neither a lack of food nor human-eating predators. With the development of tools (especially after the industrial revolution), people practically fell out of the usual trophic chain and gained the opportunity to reproduce almost indefinitely. Just two thousand years ago there were about 300 million, and by 2003 the earth's population had increased 21 times, to 6.3 billion.

Second. Unlike all other biological species that have a more or less limited habitat, people have settled across the entire earth's surface, regardless of soil-climatic, geological, biological and other conditions. For this reason alone, the degree of their influence on nature is not comparable with the influence of any other creatures. And finally, thanks to their intelligence, people do not so much adapt to the natural environment as adapt this environment to their needs. And such an adaptation (until recently they proudly said: “conquest of nature”) is acquiring an increasingly offensive, even aggressive character.

For many millennia, people felt almost no restrictions from the environment. And if they saw that in the immediate area the amount of game they were exterminating had decreased, the cultivated soils or meadows for grazing were depleted, then they migrated to a new place. And everything was repeated. Natural resources seemed inexhaustible. Only sometimes did such a purely consumerist approach to the environment end in failure. More than nine thousand years ago, the Sumerians began to develop irrigated agriculture in order to feed the growing population of Mesopotamia. However, the irrigation systems they created over time led to waterlogging and salinization of the soil, which was the main reason for the death of the Sumerian civilization. Another example. The Mayan civilization, which flourished in what is now Guatemala, Honduras and southeastern Mexico, collapsed about 900 years ago, mainly due to soil erosion and silting of rivers. The same reasons caused the fall of the ancient agricultural civilizations of Mesopotamia in South America. These cases are only exceptions to the rule, which says: draw as much as you can from the bottomless well of nature. And people drew from it without looking at the state of the ecosystem.

To date, people have adapted about half of the earth's land for their needs: 26% for pastures, 11% each for arable land and forestry, the remaining 2-3% for the construction of housing, industrial facilities, transport and the service sector. As a result of deforestation, agricultural land has increased sixfold since 1700. Of the available sources of fresh fresh water, humanity uses more than half. At the same time, almost half of the planet’s rivers have become significantly shallower or polluted, and about 60% of the 277 largest waterways are blocked by dams and other engineering structures, which has led to the creation of artificial lakes and changes in the ecology of reservoirs and river mouths.

People have degraded or destroyed the habitats of many representatives of flora and fauna. Since 1600 alone, 484 species of animals and 654 species of plants have disappeared on Earth. More than an eighth of the 1,183 bird species and a fourth of the 1,130 mammal species are now threatened with extinction from the face of the Earth.

The world's oceans have suffered less from humans. Humans use only eight percent of its original productivity. But even here he left his evil “trace”, catching two-thirds of marine animals to the limit and disrupting the ecology of many other sea inhabitants. During the 20th century alone, almost half of all coastal mangrove forests were destroyed and a tenth of coral reefs were irreversibly destroyed.

And finally, another unpleasant consequence of the rapidly growing humanity is its industrial and household waste. Of the total mass of extracted natural raw materials, no more than a tenth is converted into the final consumer product, the rest goes to landfills. Humanity, according to some estimates, produces 2000 times more organic waste than the rest of the biosphere. Today, the ecological footprint of Homo sapiens outweighs the negative environmental impact of all other living beings combined. Humanity has come close to an ecological dead end, or rather, to the edge of a cliff. Since the second half of the 20th century, the crisis of the entire ecological system of the planet has been growing. It is generated by many reasons. Let's consider only the most important of them - pollution of the earth's atmosphere.

Technological progress has created many ways to pollute it. These are various stationary installations that convert solid and liquid fuels into thermal or electrical energy. These are vehicles (cars and airplanes are undoubtedly the leaders) and agriculture with its rotting waste from agriculture and livestock. These are industrial processes in metallurgy, chemical production, etc. These are municipal waste and, finally, the extraction of fossil fuels (remember, for example, constantly smoking flares in oil and gas fields or waste heaps near coal mines).

The air is poisoned not only by primary gases, but also by secondary ones, which are formed in the atmosphere during the reaction of the former with hydrocarbons under the influence of sunlight. Sulfur dioxide and various nitrogen compounds oxidize water droplets that collect in clouds. Such acidified water, falling in the form of rain, fog or snow, poisons the soil, water bodies, and destroys forests. In Western Europe, lake fish are dying out around large industrial centers, and forests are turning into cemeteries of dead, bare trees. Forest animals in such places almost completely die.

These catastrophes caused by anthropogenic pollution of the atmosphere, although they are universal, are still more or less localized spatially: they cover only certain areas of the planet. However, some types of pollution acquire planetary scale. We are talking about emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere, which enhance the natural greenhouse effect. Emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere create about 60% of the additional greenhouse effect, methane - about 20%, other carbon compounds - another 14%, and the remaining 6-7% comes from nitrogen oxide.

Under natural conditions, the content of CO 2 in the atmosphere over the past several hundred million years is about 750 billion tons (about 0.3% of the total weight of air in the surface layers) and is maintained at this level due to the fact that its excess mass is dissolved in water and absorbed plants during the process of photosynthesis. Even a relatively small disturbance of this balance threatens significant shifts in the ecosystem with difficult to predict consequences both for the climate and for the plants and animals that have adapted to it.

Over the past two centuries, humanity has made a significant “contribution” to disrupting this balance. Back in 1750, it emitted only 11 million tons of CO 2 into the atmosphere. A century later, emissions increased 18-fold, reaching 198 million tons, and a hundred years later, they increased 30-fold, reaching 6 billion tons. By 1995, this figure had quadrupled to 24 billion tons. The methane content in the atmosphere has approximately doubled over the past two centuries. And its ability to enhance the greenhouse effect is 20 times greater than CO 2.

The consequences were immediate: in the 20th century, the average global surface temperature increased by 0.6°C. It would seem like a trifle. But even such an increase in temperature is enough for the 20th century to be the warmest in the last millennium, and the 90s to be the warmest in the last century. Snow cover on the earth's surface has decreased by 10% since the late 1960s, and the thickness of ice in the Arctic Ocean has decreased by more than a meter over the past few decades. As a result, the level of the World Ocean has risen by 7-10 centimeters over the past hundred years.

Some skeptics consider man-made climate warming to be a myth. They say that there are natural cycles of temperature fluctuations, one of which is being observed now, and the anthropogenic factor is far-fetched. Natural cycles of temperature fluctuations in the near-Earth atmosphere do exist. But they are measured in many decades, some in centuries. The climate warming observed over the last two-plus centuries not only does not fit into the usual natural cyclicity, but also occurs unnaturally quickly. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, collaborating with scientists around the world, reported in early 2001 that human-caused changes were becoming increasingly clear, that warming was accelerating and its effects were much more severe than previously thought. It is expected, in particular, that by 2100 the average temperature of the earth's surface at different latitudes may increase by another 1.4-5.8 ° C, with all the ensuing consequences.

Climate warming is distributed unevenly: in northern latitudes it is more pronounced than in the tropics. Therefore, in the current century, winter temperatures will increase most noticeably in Alaska, Northern Canada, Greenland, northern Asia and Tibet, and summer temperatures in Central Asia. This distribution of warming entails a change in the dynamics of air flows, and therefore a redistribution of precipitation. And this, in turn, gives rise to more and more natural disasters - hurricanes, floods, droughts, forest fires. In the 20th century, about 10 million people died in such disasters. Moreover, the number of major disasters and their destructive consequences are increasing. There were 20 large-scale natural disasters in the 50s, 47 in the 70s, and 86 in the 90s. The damage caused by natural disasters is enormous (see graph).

The first years of this century were marked by unprecedented floods, hurricanes, droughts and forest fires.

And this is just the beginning. Further climate warming in high latitudes threatens the thawing of permafrost in northern Siberia, the Kola Peninsula and the Subpolar regions of North America. This means that the foundations under buildings in Murmansk, Vorkuta, Norilsk, Magadan and dozens of other cities and towns standing on frozen soil will float (signs of an approaching disaster have already been noted in Norilsk). However, that's not all. The permafrost shell is defrosting, and an outlet is opened for the huge accumulations of methane stored under it for thousands of years, a gas that causes an increased greenhouse effect. It has already been recorded that methane in many places in Siberia is beginning to leak into the atmosphere. If the climate here warms up a little more, methane emissions will become massive. The result is an increase in the greenhouse effect and even greater climate warming throughout the planet.

According to the pessimistic scenario, due to climate warming, by 2100 the level of the World Ocean will rise by almost one meter. And then the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the western coast of Africa, South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives), all coastal countries of Southeast Asia and the coral atolls in the Pacific and Indian Oceans will become the scene of a natural disaster. In Bangladesh alone, the sea threatens to drown about three million hectares of land and force the displacement of 15-20 million people. In Indonesia, 3.4 million hectares could be flooded and at least two million people displaced. For Vietnam, these figures would be two million hectares and ten million displaced people. And the total number of such victims around the world could reach approximately one billion.

According to UNEP experts, the costs caused by the warming of the Earth's climate will continue to increase. Costs for defenses against rising sea levels and high storm surges could reach $1 billion a year. If the concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere doubles compared to pre-industrial levels, global agriculture and forestry will lose up to $42 billion annually due to droughts, floods and fires, and the water supply system will face additional costs (about $47 billion) by 2050.

Man is increasingly driving nature and himself into a dead end, from which it is increasingly difficult to get out. The outstanding Russian mathematician and ecologist Academician N. N. Moiseev warned that the biosphere, like any complex nonlinear system, may lose stability, as a result of which its irreversible transition to a certain quasi-stable state will begin. It is more than likely that in this new state the parameters of the biosphere will be unsuitable for human life. Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that humanity is balancing on a razor's edge. How long can it balance like this? In 1992, two of the most authoritative scientific organizations in the world - the British Royal Society and the American National Academy of Sciences - jointly stated: “The future of our planet hangs in the balance. Sustainable development can be achieved, but only if the irreversible degradation of the planet is stopped in time. The next 30 years will be decisive." In turn, N.N. Moiseev wrote that “such a catastrophe may not happen in some uncertain future, but perhaps already in the middle of the coming 21st century.”

If these forecasts are correct, then, by historical standards, there is very little time left to find a way out - from three to five decades.

How to get out of a dead end?

For many hundreds of years, people were absolutely convinced: man was created by the Creator as the crown of nature, its ruler and transformer. Such narcissism is still supported by the main world religions. Moreover, such a homocentric ideology was supported by the outstanding Russian geologist and geochemist V.I. Vernadsky, who formulated in the 20s of the last century the idea of ​​​​transition of the biosphere into the noosphere (from the Greek noos - mind), into a kind of intellectual “layer” of the biosphere. “Humanity, taken as a whole, becomes a powerful geological force. And before him, before his thought and work, there arises the question of restructuring the biosphere in the interests of free-thinking humanity as a single whole,” he wrote. Moreover, “[a person] can and must rebuild the area of ​​his life through work and thought, rebuild radically in comparison with what was before” (emphasis added. - Yu. Sh.).

In fact, as already mentioned, we do not have a transition of the biosphere into the noosphere, but its transition from natural evolution to unnatural, imposed on it by the aggressive intervention of mankind. This destructive intervention applies not only to the biosphere, but also to the atmosphere, hydrosphere and partly to the lithosphere. What kind of kingdom of reason is there if humanity, even having realized many (though not all) aspects of the degradation of the natural environment it has generated, is unable to stop and continues to aggravate the environmental crisis. It behaves in its natural habitat like a bull in a china shop.

A bitter hangover has set in - an urgent need to find a way out. Its search is difficult, since modern humanity is very heterogeneous - both in terms of the level of technical, economic and cultural development, and in mentality. Some people are simply indifferent to the future fate of world society, while others adhere to the old-fashioned logic: we haven’t gotten out of such troubles, but we’ll get out of it this time too. Hopes for "perhaps" may well turn out to be a fatal miscalculation.

Another part of humanity understands the seriousness of the impending danger, but instead of participating in a collective search for a way out, it directs all its energy to exposing those responsible for the current situation. These people consider liberal globalization, selfish industrialized countries, or simply “the main enemy of all mankind”—the United States—responsible for the crisis. They vent their own anger on the pages of newspapers and magazines, organize mass protests, take part in street riots and enjoy breaking windows in cities where forums of international organizations are held. Need I say that such revelations and demonstrations do not advance the solution of a universal problem one step further, but rather hinder it?

Finally, the third, very small part of the world community not only understands the degree of the threat, but also concentrates its intellectual and material resources on finding ways out of the current situation. She strives to discern a perspective in the fog of the future and find the optimal path so as not to stumble and fall into the abyss.

Having weighed the real dangers and resources that humanity has at the beginning of the 21st century, we can say that there is still some chance of getting out of the current impasse. But an unprecedented mobilization of common sense and the will of the entire world community is required to solve many problems in three strategic directions.

The first of them is a psychological reorientation of world society, a radical change in the stereotypes of its behavior. “In order to get out of the crises generated by technogenic civilization, society will have to go through a difficult stage of spiritual revolution, as in the Renaissance,” says academician B. S. Stepin. “We will have to develop new values... We must change our attitude towards nature: we cannot regard it as a bottomless pantry, like a field for remaking and plowing." Such a psychological revolution is impossible without a significant complication of the logical thinking of each individual and a transition to a new model of behavior for the majority of humanity. But, on the other hand, it is impossible without fundamental changes in relations within society - without new moral norms, without a new organization of micro- and macro-society, without new relationships between different societies.

Such a psychological reorientation of humanity is very difficult. We will have to break stereotypes of thinking and behavior that have developed over thousands of years. And first of all, we need a radical revision of the self-esteem of man as the crown of nature, its transformer and ruler. This homocentric paradigm, preached for thousands of years by many world religions, supported in the 20th century by the doctrine of the noosphere, should be sent to the ideological dustbin of history.

In our time, a different value system is needed. The attitude of people towards living and inanimate nature should not be based on the opposition - “we” and “everything else”, but on the understanding that both “we” and “everything else” are equal passengers of the spaceship called “Earth”. Such a psychological revolution seems unlikely. But let us remember that in the era of the transition from feudalism to capitalism, a revolution of precisely this kind, although on a smaller scale, occurred in the consciousness of the aristocracy, which traditionally divided society into “we” (people of blue blood) and “they” (common people and just the rabble). In the modern democratic world, such ideas have become immoral. Numerous “taboos” regarding nature may well and should appear and take hold in individual and public consciousness - a kind of ecological imperative that requires balancing the needs of the world society and each person with the capabilities of the ecosphere. Morality has to go beyond interpersonal or international relations and include norms of behavior in relation to living and inanimate nature.

The second strategic direction is the acceleration and globalization of scientific and technological progress. “Since the brewing ecological crisis, threatening to develop into a global catastrophe, is caused by the development of productive forces, achievements of science and technology, a way out of it is unthinkable without the further development of these components of the civilization process,” wrote N. N. Moiseev. “In order to find a way out ", it will require the utmost effort of the creative genius of mankind, countless inventions and discoveries. Therefore, it is necessary as soon as possible to liberate the individual as much as possible, to create opportunities for any capable person to reveal their creative potential."

Indeed, humanity will have to radically change the structure of production that has developed over centuries, extremely reducing the share of the extractive industry in it, polluting the soil and groundwater of agriculture; move from hydrocarbon energy to nuclear energy; replace automobile and aviation transport that runs on liquid fuel with some other, environmentally friendly one; significantly restructure the entire chemical industry in order to minimize pollution of the atmosphere, water and soil by its products and waste...

Some scientists see the future of humanity in moving away from the technogenic civilization of the 20th century. Yu. V. Yakovets, for example, believes that in the post-industrial era, which he sees as a “humanistic society,” “the technogenic nature of late-industrial society will be overcome.” In fact, to prevent an environmental disaster, maximum intensification of scientific and technical efforts is required in order to create and implement environmental technologies in all spheres of human activity: agriculture, energy, metallurgy, chemical industry, construction, everyday life, etc. Therefore, post-industrial society is becoming not post-technogenic, but, on the contrary, super-technogenic. Another thing is that the vector of its technogenicity is changing from resource absorption to resource conservation, from environmentally dirty technologies to environmental protection ones.

It is important to keep in mind that such qualitatively new technologies are becoming increasingly dangerous, since they can be used both for the benefit of humanity and nature, and for the detriment of them. Therefore, steadily increasing caution and caution are required here.

The third strategic direction is to overcome or at least significantly reduce the technical, economic and socio-cultural gap between the post-industrial center of the world community and its periphery and semi-periphery. After all, fundamental technological changes must occur not only in highly developed countries with large financial and human resources, but also throughout the developing world, which is rapidly industrializing mainly on the basis of old, environmentally hazardous technologies and has neither the financial nor human resources to implement environmental protection technologies. technologies. Technological innovations, which are currently being created only in the post-industrial center of the world community, must also be introduced on its industrial or industrializing periphery. Otherwise, outdated, environmentally hazardous technologies will be used here on a growing scale and the degradation of the planet’s natural environment will accelerate even more. It is impossible to stop the process of industrialization in developing regions of the world. This means we need to help them do this in a way that minimizes damage to the environment. This approach is in the interests of all humanity, including the population of highly developed countries.

All three strategic tasks facing the world community are unprecedented both in their difficulty and in their significance for the future destinies of mankind. They are closely interconnected and interdependent. Failure to solve one of them will not allow you to solve the others. By and large, this is a test of the maturity of the species Homo sapiens, which happened to become the “smartest” among animals. The time has come to prove that he is really smart and capable of saving the earth’s ecosphere and himself in it from degradation.