udk 910.1 V. A. Shalnev

progress and problems of modern

geography at the turn of the century

Successes and challenges of modern

geography at the turn of the century

The article considers the main stages in the history of the development of geographical ideas, reflecting integration approaches in the theory of geography, and the complexity of building a theory of general geography.

Key words: unified geography, zonal-complex concept, anthropogeography, chorological concept, theoretical geography, geoecology, general geography, geoversum.

The article describes the main stages of the history of geographical ideas, reflecting integration approaches in the theory of geography, and the complexity of constructing a theory of general geography.

Keywords: single geography, zonal-integrated concept anthropogeography, chorological concept, theoretical geography, geoecology, general geography, geoversum.

Any science as a form of social consciousness goes through a difficult path of development from the descriptive stage to the stage of theoretical and methodological understanding. The history of any science is not only its achievements and successes, but, first of all, the people who created this history. Their thoughts, feelings, experiences, doubts, searches. This is the aura of that era in which they lived and worked, which they managed to “absorb” and convey in a concentrated manner in their deeds and heritage. V. I. Vernadsky wrote that “each generation of scientific researchers seeks and finds in the history of science a reflection of the scientific currents of its time.”

Geography is an “omnivorous” science, and for several thousand years it has accumulated a huge material of scientific and non-scientific facts that it could not comprehend and, as B. Akhmadulina wrote, “sculpt a heavy tangible object out of the moonlight”. It is impossible to recall in one work all the "sowers" and "seekers of truth" who worked in the field of "geographical fields". Our task here is more modest: firstly, to consider the main achievements in the field of integration approaches of theoretical and methodological understanding and the heritage of geography as a science;

secondly, to recall once again those great geographers on whose shoulders the modern building of geography rests, decrepit in the fluidity of time and requiring major repairs in the area of ​​its foundation - general geography, the integral ideas of its constituent parts.

There are several main stages and integration trends in the history of geography:

Creation of a unified (undivided) geography that described the surface of the Earth, its individual regions

and countries. The accumulated vast factual material required its generalization, and such a way was found in the creation of cartography and maps with their own language and symbols. It was a great time in the history of geography. Cartographic models-images of the Earth's surface, prototypes of future GIS were created. However, such geography could answer only two questions: what is being described and where is the object of description. The explanatory part (why and how?) was absent from it. The spatial approach was realized only in the ideological understanding of the three-term global space: macrocosm (divine layers), mesocosm (terrestrial nature) and microcosm (spiritual essence of man). The dominant feature in such a space was geographical determinism;

An important event at the end of the 19th century and a great contribution to world geography was the Russian zonal-complex concept, at the origins of which was V.V. Dokuchaev. His ideas were realized in the original Russian landscape-geographical school. This was preceded by the emergence of the concept of a geographical complex, which was introduced by A. N. Krasnov for natural objects, where the key to the essence of geography was the “interaction of components”. Later N. N. Kolosovsky will formulate the concept of the production complex. The foundations of landscape science were laid by L. S. Berg, G. N. Vysotsky, G. F. Morozov and others. L. S. Berg combined the doctrine of landscape with the concept of zoning by publishing Landscape Zones of the USSR. Then the work of N. A. Solntsev and A. G. Isachenko gave a serious impetus to field landscape research and landscape mapping of morphological units. A process direction has also taken shape. B. B. Polynov laid the foundations of geochemistry, and D. L. Armand - the geophysics of landscapes. The works of S. V. Kalesnik played a decisive role in overcoming

gap between general geography and landscape science [Isachenko, 2000]. The strengthening of synthesis in physical geography was facilitated by the teachings on the geosystem of V. B. Sochava and the landscape sphere of F. N. Milkov. The objects of study of physical geography were also clearly defined. The general object is a geographic envelope. Private objects - a set of individual regional TPK (from the geographical zone, the mainland to the landscape), as well as morphological units of the landscape, studied by typological methods;

An attempt to be realized in anthropogeography, where with the help of biological determinism and possibilism

the role of the natural factor in the life of a person (mankind) was considered. This was most clearly reflected in LN Gumilyov's theory of ethnogenesis, when the landscape forms the ethnos as the substance of the biosphere. Here, the natural-ecological and natural-social feature of culture (K. Ritter's line), ethnic cultural genesis is also manifested. This explained the mechanism of arrangement of natural space by man within the framework of the concept of geographical determinism. In the future, with the development of trends in the globalization of society, the socio-regulatory part of culture, its spiritual, mental and intellectual components become the leading one. A new paradigm about the natural and social object of geography begins to take shape, called the cultural landscape (K. Sauer, O. Schluter, Yu. A. Vedenin), the mechanism for understanding which is the processes of cultural genesis of an industrial society and the position of anthropocentrism with the leading role of the laws of development of society . However, on the whole, these ideas led to a consolidation in geography only in the form of biogeography (the doctrine of the biosphere and the natural landscape based on the ideas of vitalism) and the doctrine of the sociosphere;

There was a change in methodological positions in geography associated with the rejection of geographical and biological determinisms. This led to the other extreme - indeterminism, when the free will of man became dominant. In social philosophy and, as a result, in geography, the ideas of anthropocentrism began to assert themselves. Man entered the arena of history as a force competing with the forces of nature. In the middle of the 20th century, the concept of "technological optimism" appeared, at the origins of which was the slogan of transforming

childbirth. In geography, the chorological concept (A. Gettner, R. Hartshorne) is becoming popular, associated with the description of a multitude of individual filled spaces and localities. At the end of the 20th century, it was transformed into a post-chorological concept (D.N. Zamyatin, E.L. Feibusovich, B.B. Rodoman, A.N. Lastochkin, M.M. Golubchik) with an application in the form of theoretical geography. Its basis was geotopological determinism, where the knowledge of a complex object is reduced to an extremely simplified model (geotopological reductionism). The chorological anthropocentrism of R. Hartshorne also affected the views of Soviet (Russian) representatives of social geography, who, hypertrophying the role of human activity and scientific and technological progress, considered social patterns in the “nature-society” system to be decisive, therefore, all of their geography turns into a humanitarian science ;

the development of domestic socio-economic geography in the second half of the twentieth century was greatly influenced by the ideas of the Anglo-American school, which reflected "revolutionary events": a quantitative revolution (quantification), a theoretical revolution (avant-garde geomodernism), the creation of radical geography, etc. This contributed to the use systems approach, mathematical methods, modeling methods in geographical research and attempts to create theoretical geography. However, an unambiguous approach to the foundations of theoretical geography has not developed. Two approaches have been identified: first, in a broad sense, when the general theory of geography is understood as the totality of all theories, teachings, and concepts of modern geography. This approach is summarized in the work of V.P. Maksakovskii (1998). Secondly, in a narrow sense, when theoretical geography is understood as a general theory of geographic spatial systems. This direction was realized by the efforts of V. Bunge, P. Haggett, V. M. Gokhman, B. L. Gurevich and others in the block of social and geographical sciences, in particular, the theory of location and the spatial aspect of human activity. Yu. G. Saushkin wrote about theoretical geography as a new science that explores spatial systems at the most abstract level (1976). According to B. B. Rodoman, this geography constructs landscape networks, their interweaving at the level of civilizations and the biosphere (1999). He associates it with metageogra-

fiey. However, the consolidation of geographical ideas did not happen, since there was no place for physical geography in it. R. Johnston noted this with regret, saying that there are fewer and fewer points of contact between sociogeography and physical geography (1988);

The emergence of unifying trends in geography with the identification of an ecological approach that gained popularity in the second half of the 20th century. The appearance of geoecology was preceded by a lively discussion with a large number of participants. However, unfortunately, not professional geographers played on this field. In addition, without the presence of a theory of general geography, it was impossible to create a qualitative theoretical foundation for geoecology. Therefore, social ecology has become a “flux” in foreign geography. Russian geoecologists made an attempt to adapt geoecological ideas to the general geography heritage. The regional concept of the territorial organization of society did not help either, since the geoecological paradigm had not yet been implemented in its fundamental provisions, such as the doctrine of the geographical environment;

a historical review of the achievements of individual scientists in the development of the theory and methodology of geography led to a surprising conclusion that the most interesting ideas and new conceptual provisions in geography were most often formulated by scientists who did not have a basic geographical education (I. Kant, V.V. Dokuchaev, L. S. Berg, A. A. Grigoriev, V. I. Vernadsky, V. B. Sochava, N. N. Baransky, N. N. Kolosovsky and others). Apparently, the education system that developed in the universities of the world and Russia (USSR) in the 20th century with in-depth immersion in highly specialized areas with large amounts of information to remember does not justify itself. “A mediocre student of a special class of the lyceum,” wrote A. de Saint-Exupery, “knows more about nature and its laws than Descartes and Pascal. However, is such a student capable of thinking like them? Modern curricula in the specialty "Geography" provide extensive knowledge about the branch sciences and integral disciplines of certain groups of sciences (general geography, biogeography, general socio-economic geography), but do not provide integral knowledge about the general object and subject of geography. The final course "Theory and Methodology" does not solve these problems either.

geographic science” [Golubchik et al., 2005[. The theoretical foundations of geography outlined in it did not compete with the biospheric concept, which is widespread in the world community, since they do not reveal the fundamental foundations of the geographical approach;

One cannot but be alarmed by the trends in the loss of the culture of scientific discussions in the geographical community, their openness and uncompromisingness, the growth of corporate approaches and the decrease in professional demands on the quality of scientific research. V. S. Preobrazhensky wrote about this at the end of the 20th century: “Science, after all, will not survive by avoiding professional exactingness in assessments ... in an atmosphere of complacency (excellently reflected in the reviews of opponents and parent organizations) ... You cannot escape decay ... Dullness not only a genetic, but also a social phenomenon ... And the genetic code of social memory is formed not by someone, but by us with our tolerance for poor quality of work (if only “there are more numbers ...”)” .

General geography can become the core of new integral approaches [Isachenko, 2000; Shalnev, 2000, 2013; Lastochkin, 2008; Trofimov and Sharygin, 2008; Rozanov, 2010] with its global and regional aspects. Its qualitative content should answer the complex questions of the fundamental provisions of the theory of the system of geographical sciences:

1. What is geographical reality or geographical world? What are the main stages of cognition of this reality?

2. How were the worldview positions of philosophy reflected in the theory of geographical sciences when changing social formations from the standpoint of the categories of interaction, the whole and the part, as well as the general, singular and special?

3. Is it possible to form in the scientific community an idea of ​​an idealized limiting object (image) and its particular objects of study in geography from the positions of the evolutionary approach in complicating their structure?

4. What are the features of the subject of study of geography, taking into account evolutionary changes in the structure of the ultimate object of general geography and the characteristics of the interaction of man (mankind) and nature?

5. What is the role of activity approaches and processes of cultural genesis of society in the formation of a complex modern global geospace and its structures of different hierarchies?

6. What general scientific and geographical theoretical and methodological foundations are important in the creation of general geography?

7. What are the difficulties in constructing the theory of general geography, its categorical apparatus and laws.

The central position in this list of problems is occupied by the concept of the general object of geography. There have been many attempts to designate such an object of study in geography. V. I. Vernadsky proposed the noosphere for these purposes, E. Reclus, L. I. Mechnikov, N. A. Gvozdetsky, N. K. Mukitanov - the geographical environment, G. P. Vysotsky - the geosociosphere, V. M. Kotlyakov and V. S. Preobrazhensky called the geographical shell. In our opinion, such an object can be the geoverseum, or the geographical shell of human history. Such an object of general geography is the geographical reality of the planet Earth, a complex global geosystem:

Emerged and developing in the spatio-temporal parameters of the solar system and the planet Earth, but limited from them by the environment of its geospace, its system of circulation of energy, matter and information;

Having its own vertical (set of geospheres) and horizontal (set of territorial geosystems) structure;

Possessing unique properties due to the presence of living matter and the culture of human society, which change its natural essence and create a modern geographical picture of the world (Shalnev, 2000, 2013).

From the standpoint of philosophical and mythological understanding

geoversum - this is the space of the Earth, where nature has created an earthly paradise, and humanity has created purgatory and hell.

And yet, summing up the discussion about the trends of integration processes in geography, I would like to think about geography with optimism and recall the words of V. S. Preobrazhensky: “The romance of difficult and distant roads, the romance of a field fire, has not disappeared in geography. New things are added - the joy of the elegance of the formula, the romance of reflection, the theoretical search. The era of great theoretical discoveries in geography is ahead” (1988).

REFERENCES 1. Golubchik M. M., Evdokimov S. P., Maksomov G. N., Nosonov A. M.

Theory and methodology of geographical science. M.: Publishing house Vlados, 2005.

2. Isachenko A. G. General geography in the system of geographical knowledge// Izvestia of the Russian Geographical Society. T. 132. 200. Issue. 2.

3. Lastochkin A. N. The purpose of general geography in the modern world // Geography and geoecological aspects of nature and society. St. Petersburg: Publishing house of St. Petersburg State University, 2008.

4. Maksakovskiy V. P. Geographical culture. M.: Publishing house Vlados, 1998.

5. Preobrazhensky V. S. Being a geographer // Newspaper geography, 1998. No. 23.

6. Preobrazhensky VV I am a geographer. M.: Izd-vo GEOS, 2001.

7. Rodoman B. B. Theoretical areas and networks. Essays on theoretical geography. Smolensk: Oikumene Publishing House, 1999.

8. Rozanov L. L. General geography. Moscow: Drofa Publishing House, 2010.

9. Saushkin Yu. G. History and methodology of geographical science: a course of lectures. M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 1976.

10. Trofimov A. M., Sharygin M. D. General geography (questions of theory and methodology). Perm, 2008.

11. Shalnev V. A. History and methodology of general geography. Stavropol: SGU Publishing House, 2000.

12. Shalnev V. A. History, theory and methodology of geography. Stavropol: Izd-vo SKFU, 2013.

12. Jonston R. J. Fragmentation around a defenden core: the territory of geography. Geogr. J. 1988, No. 2. P. 146.

Federal University", Doctor of Geography, Professor of the Department of Physical Geography and Landscape Science, tel.: 8-962-44705-24, e-mail: [email protected]

Shalnev Viktor Alexandrovich, North Caucasus Federal University, doctor of geographical sciences, professor in the Department of physical geography and landscape

MODERN PROBLEMS OF GEOGRAPHICAL EDUCATION IN SCHOOL.

Annotation.

This article presents the author's understanding of the problems of geographical education at school. The role and necessity of geography in the system of school disciplines is considered. Reasons for the decline in the prestige of the subject, problems and solutions to this issue.

Since the time of Eratosthenes and Ptolemy, geography has faithfully served humanity, helping it to learn and understand the world in which it lives. Geography arose in ancient times in connection with the practical activities of people and was descriptive. Gradually, mankind accumulated and systematized knowledge about the Earth, thanks to which we begin to understand the mechanisms of the natural and natural-anthropogenic systems. Now geography is a complex of fundamental geographical sciences that are engaged in research, finding geographical laws and forecasting. It is based on modern satellite, geographic information systems, Earth sounding systems, methods of analysis in the natural and social spheres.

Value school geography lies in the fact that it is one of the school subjects of an ideological nature, which forms in students a comprehensive, systemic and socially oriented idea of ​​the Earth as a planet of people. It is also the only subject that introduces them to the territorial approach as a special method of scientific knowledge. This subject can be attributed to those classical school subjects that have a special responsibility for the formation of a humanistic worldview in schoolchildren, the education of patriotism and love for the Motherland, the skills of orientation and socially responsible behavior in the world around. Geography occupies a unique place among the sciences, playing the role of a kind of "bridge" between the natural and social sciences. The value of geographical knowledge in the formation of a personality makes it possible to formulate the general goal of geographical education, which consists in mastering by students a complete system of geographical knowledge and skills, as well as the possibilities of their application in various life situations.

In accordance with the main goal, the teaching of geography is based on two main provisions. First, it proceeds from the need to preserve the orientation of students towards acquiring fundamental knowledge and skills that form the basis of their worldview, towards the comprehensive development of their geographical thinking; secondly, it proceeds from the fact that school geography is not only a certain set of natural and humanitarian knowledge, but is also one of the foundations of practical everyday life.

Unfortunately, school geography, like all education in our country, experienced not only periods of upsurge, but also recessions, and now geography as a school subject has been pushed to the sidelines of secondary education. But ignorance of this subject leads not only to environmental disasters, but also to political and demographic problems. The crisis ecological situation that has developed almost everywhere is evidence of ignorance and non-compliance with the laws of nature. There are many examples of this when economic necessity goes against the laws of nature and common sense.

Why is the prestige of school geography falling?

Modern students have become much more rational and, accordingly, intensively study such subjects that will be useful not even in life, but when entering universities. Geography is not one of those subjects. Science, which should form the basis of economic, geographical specialties in universities, for some reason is completely ignored by them. Although, in my opinion, a manager needs geography more than social science. Even when entering a pedagogical university for a specialized specialty, we do not see geography, but all the same social science.

In a wide range of educational disciplines, geography is given little space in the core curriculum. For example, in the sixth grade, this is only one hour per week (excluding the regional component). In the seventh, eighth and ninth - two hours a week, in the tenth and eleventh - one hour a week, provided that the class is general education. And if the class has a certain profile, geography may not be studied at all. There are 9-10 hours left for all parallels instead of 17-20. The regional component has practically disappeared, children pay little attention to studying their own small homeland. Modern geographical problems are covered very poorly in school geography, so the content of geography must be seriously and thoroughly updated.

Some topics from geography were moved to the "Social Studies" subject, for example, "Political Map", or were completely abolished, for example, the country studies course in grades 10-11. Reduction of hours for school geography, threats to liquidate the subject itself or replace it with other subjects (economic geography for economics, and “combine” physical geography in a very truncated form with chemistry, physics, biology, natural science) - all this creates a nervous atmosphere among parents and leads to to the fact that geography is studied on a residual basis.

In the second generation standard, the approach to the study of subjects changes. main goal education is called the development of the personality of students, taking into account their interests and capabilities. Geographical knowledge is applied in nature and should be used in various fields of human activity.

GEF does not determine the number of teaching hours in subjects. Only in the supporting documents of the standard there are exemplary curricula that are advisory in nature. It is on them, as a rule, that the authors of teaching materials and the creators of work programs are guided. According to the approximate curriculum, the number of hours allocated for the study of geography is increased by one hour per week in the fifth grade. That is initial course geography, divided into two one-hour courses in grades 5 and 6. At the same time, children will study such a complex topic as “scale” in grade 5, and fractions in mathematics are studied in grade 6, a year later. There is no correspondence in intersubject communications.

One of the main problems is the lack of a single standard in the educational and methodological complex. In modern market conditions, the transition to a plurality of lines of textbooks has led to disorientation of teachers and students, a lack of continuity in the transition from one educational institution to another, and a decrease in the quality of what is presented. educational material in a significant part of published publications and, as a result, a decrease in the level of geographical education.

In Russian school teaching materials in geography, there is a very meager practical part. There has always been a system of practical work, but the topics of practical work do not always correlate with the seasons of the year. For example, the study of soils and the river of one's area falls on February. Obviously, it is impossible to study these topics in practice in winter. Thus, the real practical component is reduced to zero and does not correlate with the regional features of the territory.

In addition, part of the practical work requires equipment. Most of classrooms in geography is not sufficiently equipped with modern teaching aids. There are not enough instruments for carrying out practical work, including in the field. There are no modern devices, such as GLONASS receivers.

The issue of raising the methodological level of teachers of geography deserves attention. Over the past two decades, a significant part of veteran teachers have left the school, but, unfortunately, the best graduates of pedagogical universities have not come to their place. Along with this, there was also an active curtailment of the system of advanced training institutes. Teachers are usually sent to courses once every five years, listening to a course of 105 hours. Due to the fact that active changes are taking place in economic, physical geography, the education system and in life in general, this is not enough. A more qualitative adjustment of knowledge is needed, rather than formal advanced training.

The problematic situation of school geography forces teachers and the public to unite, who, like no one else, see gaps in modern education. In 2011 at Moscow State University. The All-Russian Congress of Teachers of Geography was held, in which more than 600 specialists from different regions of Russia took part (the first after a break of almost 100 years).

In order for geography to take its rightful place in education, it is necessary to correct the issues of the significance of the subject for the younger generation, including adults; geography must be a compulsory subject at school for at least 2 hours a week in all programs of basic general, secondary general (complete), primary and secondary vocational education; geography should be included in the list of mandatory exams for universities (especially for those specialties that are directly related to it); geography should be an independent subject, and not be in a very abbreviated form as part of such subjects as "Natural Science", "Social Science", "Russia in the World".

Also, the state should take education under its wing, and not give it to the market, take care of the social and material status of the Russian teacher.

The school does not have the task of preparing specialists - mathematicians, physicists, biologists, geographers. In 1918, speaking to teachers, People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Vasilievich Lunacharsky noted that it was necessary to know the basics of all sciences, and compared an educated person with an orchestra player who plays his musical instrument perfectly in an orchestra, but at the same time hears the sounds of the entire orchestra, which merge for him into one harmony, which we call culture.

Bibliographic list.

1. “Geography. Planet Earth grade 5-6 "academic school textbook for educational institutions. - M.: Enlightenment 2011.

2. Exemplary programs in the academic subjects "Geography grades 6-9" Moscow "Enlightenment" 2010.

3. "The fundamental core of the content of general education" Paul ed. , Moscow "Enlightenment" 2009.

4. http://www. rgo. ru Russian Geographical Society.

5.http://www. edu. ru/db-mon/mo/Data/d_10/m1897.html Federal state educational standard for general education.

6. http:///dok/akt/8752 Clarifications and application of the certification procedure for teachers of state and municipal educational institutions.

PLAN

INTRODUCTION .................................................. .......................………………….
SECTION 1. MODERN VIEW ON GLOBAL PROBLEMS….
1.1. Intersocial problems.....……………………………………...
1.1.1. Global Security……………………………………..
1.1.2. Politics and power in a globalizing world…………..
1.1.3. The global economy is a challenge for national economies…………..
1.2. Ecological and social problems……………………………………
1.2.1. The ecological crisis is the main challenge of civilization……...
1.2.2. Endowment with natural resources…………………...
1.2.3. Exploration of the World Ocean……………………………………
1.3. Sociocultural problems…………………………………………
SECTION 2. STRATEGY AND METHODOLOGY FOR SOLVING GLOBAL PROBLEMS..……...
SECTION 3. WAYS TO SOLVING GLOBAL PROBLEMS: THE GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECT
3.1. Optimization natural environment………………………........………..
3.2. Geographic forecasting…………………………...………..
3.2.1. Principles………………………………………………………
3.2.2. Methods…………………………………………………………
3.3. Geoinformation technologies …………………………………….
CONCLUSION................................................. .………...........……….
BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................ ...........……….........………

INTRODUCTION

In the course of the development of civilization, complex problems have repeatedly arisen before mankind, sometimes of a planetary nature. But still, it was a distant prehistory, a kind of "incubation period" of modern global problems. These problems manifested themselves in full measure already in the second half and, in particular, in the last quarter of the 20th century, that is, at the turn of two centuries and even millennia. They were brought to life by a whole complex of reasons that clearly manifested themselves precisely during this period.

The twentieth century is a turning point not only in world social history, but also in the very fate of mankind. The fundamental difference between the outgoing century and all previous history is that humanity has lost faith in its immortality. He became aware of the fact that his dominance over nature is not unlimited and is fraught with the death of himself. In fact, never before has humanity itself grown by a factor of 2.5 in the lifetime of only one generation, thereby increasing the strength of the “demographic press”. Never before has humanity entered a period of scientific and technological revolution, has not reached the post-industrial stage of development, has not opened the way to space. Never before had so many natural resources been required for its life support, and the waste it returned to the environment was also not so great. Never before has there been such a globalization of the world economy, such a unified world information system. Finally, never before has the Cold War brought all of humanity so close to the brink of self-destruction. Even if we manage to avoid the world nuclear war, the threat to the existence of mankind on Earth still remains, because the planet will not withstand the unbearable load that has been formed as a result of human activity. It is becoming more and more obvious that the historical form of human existence, which allowed him to create a modern civilization, with all its seemingly limitless possibilities and conveniences, has given rise to many problems that require cardinal solutions - and, moreover, without delay.

The purpose of this essay is to give modern ideas about the essence of global problems and the nature of their interrelations, about the role and tasks of science in general, and geography in particular, in developing a strategy and methodology for their solution.

SECTION 1. MODERN VIEW ON GLOBAL PROBLEMS

In the process of the historical development of human activity, obsolete technological methods are breaking down, and with them the obsolete social mechanisms of interaction between man and nature. At the beginning of human history, predominantly adaptive (adaptive) mechanisms of interaction operated. Man obeyed the forces of nature, adapted to the changes taking place in it, changing his own nature in the process. Then, as the productive forces developed, the utilitarian attitude of man to nature, to another man, prevailed. The modern era raises the question of the transition to a new path of social mechanisms, which should be called co-evolutionary or harmonic. The global situation in which humanity finds itself reflects and expresses the general crisis of human consumer attitudes towards natural and social resources. Reason is pushing humanity to realize the vital need to harmonize connections and relationships in the global system "Man - Technology - Nature". In this regard, understanding the global problems of our time, their causes, interrelationships, and ways to solve them is of particular importance.

global problems they name (Maksimova et al. 1981; and others) those problems that, firstly, concern all mankind, affecting the interests and destinies of all countries, peoples and social strata; secondly, they lead to significant economic and social losses, and in case of their aggravation, they can threaten the very existence of human civilization; thirdly, they require cooperation on a global scale, joint actions of all countries and peoples for their solution.

The above definition can hardly be considered sufficiently clear and unambiguous. And their classifications according to one or another feature are often too vague. From the point of view of a review of global problems, the most acceptable, in our opinion, is the classification of M.M. Maksimova et al. (1981), which combines all global problems into three groups:

1. Problems of economic and political interaction of states (intersocial) . Among them, the most topical are: global security; the globalization of political power and the structure of civil society; overcoming the technological and economic backwardness of developing countries and establishing a new international order.

2. Problems of interaction between society and nature (environmental and social) . First of all it is: prevention of catastrophic environmental pollution; providing humanity with the necessary natural resources (raw materials, energy, food); exploration of the oceans and outer space.

3. Problems of relationships between people and society (sociocultural) . The main ones : the problem of population growth; the problem of protecting and strengthening people's health; problems of education and cultural growth.

All these problems are generated by the disunity of mankind, the unevenness of its development. The conscious principle has not yet become the most important prerequisite for humanity as a whole. Negative results and consequences of uncoordinated, ill-conceived actions of countries, peoples, individuals, accumulating on a global scale, have become a powerful objective factor in world economic and social development. They have an increasingly significant impact on the development of individual countries and regions. Their solution involves the unification of the efforts of a large number of states and organizations at the international level. In order to have a clear idea of ​​the strategy and methodology for solving global problems, it is necessary to dwell on the characteristics of at least the most topical of them.

1.1. Intersocial problems

1.1.1. Global Security

In recent years, this topic has attracted particular attention in political and scientific circles, and a huge number of special studies have been devoted to it. This in itself is a testament to the awareness of the fact that the survival and possibility of the development of mankind are under threats such as it has never experienced in the past.

Indeed, in the old days, the concept of security was identified mainly with the defense of the country from aggression. Now, it also means protection from threats associated with natural disasters and man-made disasters, the economic crisis, political instability, the spread of subversive information, moral degradation, the impoverishment of the national gene pool, etc.

All these vast problems are rightfully the subject of concern both in individual countries and within the world community. It will be considered in one way or another in all parts of the research undertaken. At the same time, it remains, and in some respects even increases, military threat.

The confrontation between the two superpowers and military blocs has brought the world close to a nuclear catastrophe. The cessation of this confrontation and the first steps towards real disarmament were undoubtedly the greatest achievement of international politics. They proved that it is fundamentally possible to break out of the cycle that was inexorably pushing humanity into the abyss, turn sharply from inciting hostility and hatred to attempts to understand each other, take into account mutual interests, and open the way to cooperation and partnership.

The results of this policy cannot be overestimated. Chief among them is the absence of an immediate danger of a world war with the use of means of mass destruction and the threat of the general extermination of life on Earth. But can it be argued that world wars are now and forever excluded from history, that such a danger will not arise again after some time due to the emergence of a new armed confrontation or the spontaneous expansion of a local conflict to world proportions, a technical failure, an unauthorized launch of missiles with nuclear warheads, and other cases of this kind? This is one of the most important global security issues today.

Another, no less important problem is the prospects for preventing armed conflicts, and where they broke out - in their localization and speedy settlement. Contrary to the opinion that spread at one time that the Clausewitz formula was outdated and war ceased to be a “means of continuing politics”, in contrast to all sorts of agreements and declarations about the need to exclude the use of force and the threat of force, in recent years there has been almost no day when no one on the planet there was a war. Are the armed conflicts in the Balkans, the Caucasus, and Central Asia a passing consequence of the collapse of the bipolar system, do they end a bygone era, or, on the contrary, open a chain of new wars for the creation of independent states, territorial conquests and spheres of influence?

The next fundamental question concerns arms problems. Obviously, it is impossible to curb war, let alone exclude it completely from the life of modern society, as long as significant nuclear and chemical arsenals continue to be preserved, mountains of so-called conventional, moreover, constantly improved weapons are produced, remain at the same level in most countries, and in in some cases even increased military spending. Militarism has become a "cancerous tumor" of humanity. Suffice it to say that a quarter world scientists involved in preparations for war. The military-industrial complex diverts huge labor, material and financial resources from constructive goals. Nuclear powers have accumulated such an amount of fissile materials that it is enough to repeatedly destroy all life on the planet. And finally, military spending is the main obstacle to a positive solution to all global problems.

On the agenda today is the solution of specific problems, in particular, the ratification of Russian-American agreements on nuclear missile disarmament. But a more general question arises: how realistic is it in the near future to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, to join the disarmament efforts of other nuclear powers? Is it possible, if not to eliminate completely, then at least to limit arms trade which, while making a profit today, will inevitably result in high costs and threats tomorrow?

All these aspects of the problem of war and peace are acquiring a new dimension in a globalizing world. Not only environmental, economic, informational, but also military security can be provided to a lesser extent by national means, and more and more requires collective efforts. From this point of view, strengthening the United Nations, expanding its powers and capabilities, supplementing the existing structure of international security with continental and regional bodies capable of quickly and efficiently dealing with complex conflict situations and resolving local disputes are of great importance.

The strengthening of the global security system is hampered by the desire of a number of states to solve these problems by forming military blocs. Can such blocs become an organic part of the global system, or, on the contrary, will they push other states to form similar military alliances, that is, to the danger of a new split in the world, a second edition of the Cold War, and a revival of the arms race?

Worthy of consideration is the question of fate of neutrality. Under the new conditions, this concept, previously reduced to non-participation in military groups, could be filled with richer content: in exchange for reliable security guarantees from the world community, states could refuse to create their own defense systems, switching military spending to peaceful purposes. There are currently many other initiatives that should be subjected to careful scrutiny and recommended to authoritative international bodies.

The problem of conflicts arising on the basis of inter-confessional rivalry requires special attention. Are traditional geopolitical contradictions hiding behind them or the world is facing the threat of a revival of jihads and crusades inspired by fundamentalists of various persuasions? No matter how unexpected such a prospect may seem in an era of widespread democratic and humanistic values, the dangers associated with it are too great not to take the necessary measures to prevent them.

To the number actual problems security also applies joint fight against terrorism, political and criminal, crime, distribution of drugs.

Thus, the efforts of the world community to create a system of global security should follow the path of advancing towards: collective security universal type, covering all members of the world community; security complex type covering, along with the military, other factors of strategic instability; security long-term type meeting the needs of a democratic global system as a whole.

1.1.2. Politics and Power in a Globalizing World

As in other areas of life, globalization entails fundamental changes in the field of politics, structure and distribution of power. The ability of humanity to keep the process of globalization under control, using its positive aspects and minimizing negative consequences, adequately responding to economic, social, environmental, spiritual and other challenges of the XXI century.

The starting point for the disclosure of the topic is the rapid expansion of the sphere of global politics. It originated quite a long time ago, but throughout the entire previous development it occupied a narrow “stripe” in the interaction of states, it was reduced mainly to the regulation of issues of war and peace by the norms of international law.

The “compression” of space due to the revolution in the field of communications and the formation of a world market, the need for universal solidarity in the face of impending threats are steadily reducing the possibilities of national politics and multiplying the number of regional, continental, global problems. As the interdependence of individual societies increases, this trend not only dominates the foreign policy of states, but also makes itself felt more and more in domestic political issues.

Meanwhile, sovereign states remain the basis of the "organizational structure" of the world community. Under the conditions of this “dual power”, a reasonable balance between national and global politics, an optimal distribution of “duties” between them, and their organic interaction are urgently needed.

How realistic is this pairing, whether it will be possible to overcome the opposition of the forces of national and group egoism, to use the unique chance that is opening up to form a democratic world order - this is the main subject of research.

The experience of recent years does not allow an unambiguous answer to this question. The elimination of the division of the world into two opposing military-political blocs did not lead to the expected democratization of the entire system of international relations, to the elimination of hegemonism or to a reduction in the use of force. The temptation is great to start a new round of geopolitical games, a redistribution of spheres of influence. The process of disarmament, which was given impetus by new thinking, has noticeably slowed down. Instead of some conflicts, others flared up, no less bloody. In general, after a step forward, which was the end of the Cold War, half a step back was taken.

All this does not give grounds to believe that the possibilities of democratic reorganization of the international system have been exhausted, but it does indicate that this task is much more difficult than it seemed ten years ago to the politicians who dared to undertake it. It remains an open question whether the bipolar world will be replaced by a new version of it with the replacement of the Soviet Union by some kind of superpower, monocentrism, polycentrism, or, finally, democratic management of the affairs of the world community through generally acceptable mechanisms and procedures.

Along with the creation of a new system of international relations and the redistribution of power between states, other factors that are actively influencing the formation of the world order of the 21st century are becoming increasingly important. International financial institutions, transnational corporations, powerful information complexes such as the Internet, global communications systems, associations of kindred political parties and social movements, religious, cultural, corporate associations - all these institutions of the emerging global civil society may in the long term acquire a strong influence on the course of world development. Whether they become vehicles of limited national or even selfish private interests or an instrument of global politics is a matter of great importance that needs in-depth study.

In connection with the consequences of globalization in the political sphere, the world community should focus on the following key issues.

1. This is primarily a problem political leadership. Despite the fact that there are some of its features that are common to all eras and civilizations, the specificity of our time lies in the fact that never before have rulers had such a powerful arsenal of means of power (up to the “nuclear suitcase”) at their disposal and, therefore, never the price of an error in the choice of goals and means to achieve them was so great. Can the current generation of leaders politicians to make unprecedented decisions dictated by the formation of a global system; to what extent the assertions are true that transformations of this magnitude cannot be successful without the use of authoritarian methods, whether new pretenders to world domination will appear in the 21st century; What should be the system of training and nomination of political leaders capable of reaching the level of the requirements of the time, organically combining national and global interests?

2. No less important question about the fate of democracy. Its victorious march at the end of the 20th century did not at all remove a whole range of complex problems from the agenda. Some democratic institutions, which had been serving properly for centuries, began to fail in the conditions of pervasive information, the creation of sophisticated technologies for manipulating minds, the emergence of a real danger of implementing the anti-utopias of G. Wells, E. Zamyatin, O. Huxley, D. Orwell and others.

The authorities, especially in countries with an unstable political regime, are increasingly unable to curb corruption, crime, terrorism, and ensure full protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens. Today, when a global system of governance is being formed, there is a real danger that, along with tried and tested democratic methods, the vices of the traditional political system will also be transferred to this level. How can this threat be counteracted so that the process of globalization does not turn into a political catastrophe and contributes to the humanization of power and governance both on a national and global scale?

3. A new, acute problem for politics and power is posed pervasive informatization of modern social life. It opens up unprecedented opportunities for the development of any democratic procedures, self-government, political freedom. But it has a downside - the possibility of using powerful technical means for selfish interests, subordinating and fooling people, spreading superstitions, hatred and enmity. How democratic power at the national and international levels can counteract this without infringing on the natural, inalienable rights of citizens is another puzzle of this topic.

Thus, the emerging global system needs a reasonably organized legitimate government that expresses the collective will of the world community and has sufficient authority to solve global problems.

1.1.3. The global economy is a challenge for national economies

In economics, science, and technology, globalization manifests itself most intensively. Transnational corporations and banks, uncontrolled financial flows, a unified global system of electronic communication and information, modern transport, the transformation of the English language into a means of “global” communication, large-scale population migration - all this blurs the national-state partitions and forms an economically integrated world.

At the same time, for a huge number of countries and peoples, the status of a sovereign state is a means of protecting and ensuring economic interests.

The contradiction between globalism and nationalism in economic development is becoming an urgent scientific and political problem. Are national states really losing their ability to determine economic policy, and to what extent, giving way to transnational corporations? And if so, what are the consequences for the social environment, the formation and regulation of which is still carried out mainly at the national-state level?

Politicians and business people need a clear idea of ​​what characteristics driving forces economic globalization - transnational corporations, foreign investment, communication and information systems, transport networks. In what spheres of life will they establish themselves faster, and what consequences will this entail for humanity?

With the end of the military and ideological confrontation between the two worlds, as well as progress in the field of disarmament, globalization received a powerful additional impetus. The relationship of market transformation in Russia and throughout the post-Soviet space, in China, the countries of Central and of Eastern Europe, on the one hand, and economic globalization, on the other, is a new and promising area of ​​research and forecasting.

Apparently, a new sphere of confrontation between two powerful forces is opening up: the national bureaucracy (and everything that stands behind it) and the international economic environment, which is losing its national “registration” and obligations.

The next layer of problems is the attack of the globalizing economy on the institutions of social protection created over many decades, the welfare state. Globalization sharply exacerbates economic competition. As a result, the social climate inside and outside the enterprise worsens. This also applies to transnational corporations.

It is necessary to impartially evaluate theories according to which economic globalization in itself leads to equalization of the level of development of various countries, to the mitigation of the North-South opposition. So far, the lion's share of the benefits and fruits of globalization go to rich and powerful states. What adjustments does the open economy model require in this regard?

The danger of global economic shocks is growing noticeably. The global financial system is particularly vulnerable, as it breaks away from the real economy and can become a victim of speculative scams. The need for joint management of globalization processes is obvious. But is it possible and in what forms?

Finally, the world will apparently have to face the dramatic need to rethink the basic foundations of economic activity. This is due to at least two circumstances. First, the rapidly deepening environmental crisis requires significant changes in the dominant economic system both nationally and globally. A "market failure" in pollution control could indeed be the "end of history" in the not too distant future. Secondly, a serious problem is the “social failure” of the market, which manifests itself, in particular, in the growing polarization of the rich North and the poor South.

All this puts the toughest questions, regarding the place in the regulation of the future world economy of the classical mechanisms of market self-regulation, on the one hand, and the conscious activity of state, interstate and supranational bodies, on the other.

1.2. E social problems

The essence of this range of global problems lies in the disruption of the balance of biospheric processes that is dangerous for the existence of mankind. In the 20th century, technological civilization came into a threatening conflict with the biosphere, which for billions of years was formed as a system that ensured the continuity of life and the optimal environment. Without solving social problems for the majority of mankind, the technogenic development of civilization has led to the destruction of the habitat. Ecological and social crisis has become a reality of the twentieth century.

1.2.1. The ecological crisis is the main challenge of civilization

It is known that life on Earth exists in the form of biotic cycles of organic matter based on the interaction of the processes of synthesis and destruction. Each type of organism is a link in the biotic cycle, the process of reproduction of organic matter. The function of synthesis in this process is performed by green plants. Destruction function - microorganisms. Man in the early stages of his history was a natural link in the biosphere and the biotic cycle. The changes he introduced into nature did not have a decisive influence on the biosphere. Today man has become the greatest planetary force. Suffice it to say that annually about 10 billion tons of minerals are extracted from the bowels of the Earth, 3-4 billion tons of plant mass are consumed, about 10 billion tons of industrial carbon dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere. More than 5 million tons of oil and oil products are dumped into the World Ocean and rivers. The problem of drinking water is getting worse every day. The air atmosphere of a modern industrial city is a mixture of smoke, toxic fumes and dust. Many species of animals and plants are disappearing. The great balance of nature has been disturbed to such an extent that a gloomy forecast of "human ecological suicide" has appeared.

Voices are heard more and more loudly about the need to abandon any industrial interference in the natural balance, to stop technical progress. However, to solve the ecological problem by throwing humanity back to a medieval state is a utopia. And not only because people will not give up the achievements of technological progress. But, on the other hand, many in the world of science and politics still rely on an artificial mechanism for regulating the environment in the event of a deep destruction of the biosphere. Therefore, science is faced with the task of finding out whether this is real or is it a myth generated by the “Promethean” spirit of modern civilization?

This dilemma follows from a more general dilemma: either the inertia of the existing development trends, camouflaged by the miracles of science and technology, supposedly capable of providing a solution to any global problems, or a decisive overcoming of these trends on the paths of planetary reformation. Today, technological civilization still prevails in the world culture: it dominates ideologically, organizationally, politically, economically. Satisfaction of mass consumer demand is recognized as the most important factor of internal socio-political stability. And this is put by influential political and economic elites above global environmental security.

In this regard, a whole range of questions arise.

1. What are the prospects for the transition from sociocentrism to ecocentrism or “cosmism” as the main principle of activity?

2. How to combine the strategy of social development and the need to preserve the natural environment? Won't the environmental stabilization strategy turn out to be a challenge to society, since any attempts to limit economic growth can be perceived as an end to the fight against poverty, inequality, etc.?

3. How to avoid a return to the geopolitical redistribution of space and a fierce struggle for resources in the conditions of a shortage of resources and an aggravation of the ecological and social crisis?

Today, a socio-cultural and value “rehabilitation” of nature is needed, the status of which has been called into question by technological civilization.

Unfortunately, a biospheric catastrophe is quite possible. Therefore, an honest awareness of the scale of the environmental threat and intellectual fearlessness in the face of this challenge to humanity is necessary. The fact is that changes in the biosphere, including catastrophic ones, have occurred and will continue to occur independently of man, so we should not talk about complete obedience to nature, but about the harmonization of natural and social processes based on the humanization of scientific and technological progress and a radical reorganization of the entire system of social relations.

1.2.2. Endowment with natural resources

Mineral resources

Despite acute crises that have occurred from time to time in developed countries and countries with economies in transition, the global trend is still characterized by further growth industrial production accompanied by an increase in the demand for minerals. This stimulated the growth in the extraction of mineral resources, which, for example, over the period 1980-2000. in total exceeds by 1.2-2 times the production for the previous twenty years. And as forecasts show (Countries and peoples, 1985, etc.), this trend will continue. Naturally, the question arises: are the resources of mineral raw materials contained in the bowels of the Earth sufficient to ensure the indicated enormous acceleration in the extraction of minerals in the short and long term. This question is logical especially because, unlike other natural resources, mineral resources are non-renewable on the scale of the past future history of mankind, and, strictly speaking, limited and finite within our planet.

The problem of limited mineral resources has become especially acute because, in addition to the growth of industrial production, which is associated with an increasing demand for mineral raw materials, it is exacerbated by an extremely uneven distribution of deposits in the subsoil. earth's crust across continents and countries. Which, in turn, exacerbates economic and political conflicts between countries.

Thus, the global nature of the problem of providing humanity with mineral resources predetermines the need for the development of broad international cooperation here. The difficulties experienced by many countries of the world due to the lack of certain types of mineral raw materials in them could be overcome on the basis of mutually beneficial scientific, technical and economic cooperation. Such cooperation can be very effective when jointly conducting regional geological and geophysical studies in promising zones of the earth's crust or through joint exploration and exploitation of large mineral deposits, by assisting in the industrial development of complex deposits on a compensation basis, and finally, through the implementation of mutually beneficial trade in mineral raw materials. and his products.

Land resources

The features and properties of the land determine its exclusive place in the development of the productive forces of society. The relationship "man - earth" that has developed over the centuries remains at the present time and in the foreseeable future one of the determining factors of world life and progress. Furthermore, land availability problem due to the trend of population growth will be constantly exacerbated.

The nature and forms of land use in different countries differ significantly. At the same time, a number of aspects of the use of land resources are common to the entire world community. This is first of all protection of land resources, especially land fertility, from natural and anthropogenic degradation.

Modern trends in the use of land resources in the world are expressed in a wide intensification of the use of productive land, the involvement of additional areas in the economic turnover, the expansion of land allotments for non-agricultural needs, and the strengthening of activities to regulate the use and protection of land at the national level. At the same time, the problem of economical, rational use and protection of land resources should be under more and more close attention of international organizations. The limited and indispensable nature of land resources, taking into account population growth and the continuous increase in the scale of social production, require their effective use in all countries of the world with ever closer international cooperation in this area. On the other hand, the land simultaneously acts as one of the main components of the biosphere, as a universal means of labor and as a spatial basis for the functioning of the productive forces and their reproduction. All this determines the task of organizing a scientifically based, economical and rational use of land resources as one of the global ones at the present stage of human development.

food resources

Providing food for the ever-growing population of the Earth is one of the long-term and most complex problems of the world economy and politics.

According to experts (Countries and peoples, 1985, etc.), the aggravation of the world food problem is the result of the combined action of the following reasons: 1) excessive pressure on the natural potential of agriculture and fisheries, which prevents its natural restoration; 2) insufficient rates of scientific and technological progress in agriculture in those countries that do not compensate for the declining scale of natural renewal of resources; 3) the ever-increasing instability in world trade in food, fodder, and fertilizers.

Of course, scientific and technological progress and an increase in the production of high-quality agricultural products, incl. and food crops can allow in the future to double and triple. Further intensification of agricultural production, as well as the expansion of productive land, are real ways to solve this problem on a daily basis. But, the key to its solution lies all the same in the political and social plane. Many rightly note that without the establishment of a fair economic and political world order, without overcoming the backwardness of most countries, without socio-economic transformations in developing countries and countries with economies in transition that would correspond to the level of requirements of accelerating scientific and technological progress, with mutually beneficial international mutual assistance - the solution the food problem will remain the lot of the distant future.

Energetic resources

A characteristic feature of the future development of the world energy sector will be the constant growth of the share of converted energy carriers in the final use of energy (primarily electric energy). The increase in prices for electricity, especially basic electricity, is much slower than for hydrocarbon fuels. In the future, when nuclear power sources play a more prominent role than at present, one should expect stabilization or even a reduction in the cost of electricity.

In the future, the share of world energy consumption by developing countries is expected to grow rapidly (up to 50%). The shift in the center of gravity of energy problems during the first half of the 21st century from developed countries to developing ones puts forward completely new tasks for humanity in the social and economic restructuring of the world, which must be started now. With a relatively low supply of energy resources to developing countries, this creates a complex problem for humanity, which can develop into a crisis situation during the 21st century if appropriate organizational, economic and political measures are not taken.

One of the priorities in the energy development strategy in the region of developing countries should be an immediate transition to new sources of energy that can reduce the dependence of these countries on imported liquid fuels and put an end to the unacceptable destruction of forests, which serve for these countries (Stands and peoples, 1985) fuel.

In view of the global nature of these problems, their solution, as well as those listed above, is possible only with the further development of international cooperation, by strengthening and expanding economic and technical assistance to developing countries from developed countries.

1.2.3. Exploration of the oceans

The problem of the development of the World Ocean has acquired a global character due to a set of reasons: 1) a sharp aggravation and transformation into global problems such as the above-described raw materials, energy, food, in the solution of which the use of the resource potential of the ocean can and should make a huge contribution; 2) the creation of powerful technical means of management in terms of productivity, which determined not only the possibility, but also the need for a comprehensive study and development of marine resources and spaces; 3) the emergence of interstate relations of resource management, production and management in the maritime economy, which turned the declarative thesis of a collective (with the participation of all states) process of ocean development into a political necessity, caused the inevitability of finding a compromise with the participation and satisfaction of the interests of all major groups of countries independently on geographical location and level of development; 4) awareness by the overwhelming majority of developing countries of the role that the use of the ocean can play in solving the problems of underdevelopment, in accelerating their economic development; 5) transformation into a global environmental problem, the most important element of which is the World Ocean, which absorbs the main part of the pollutants.

From the ocean, man has long received food for himself. Therefore, it is very important to study the vital activity of ecological systems in the hydrosphere, to identify the possibility of stimulating their productivity. This, in turn, leads to the need for knowledge of very complex and hidden for direct observation and far from known biological processes in the ocean, the study of which requires close international cooperation.

And in general, there is no other alternative to the division of vast spaces and resources than broad and equal international cooperation in their development.

1.3. Sociocultural issues

In this group, the priority is population problem. Moreover, it cannot be reduced only to the reproduction of the population and its gender and age composition. We are talking here primarily about the relationship between the processes of reproduction of the population and social methods of production of material goods. Dialectical-materialistic social philosophy rejects the Malthusian concept of population growth, the biological approach to explaining its reproduction. However, in Malthusianism there is, although negatively expressed, a healthy idea about the need for the progress of society to outstrip the growth of production of goods in relation to population growth. If the production of material goods lags behind population growth, then the material situation of people will worsen. Conversely, if population growth is declining, then this ultimately leads to population aging and a reduction in the production of material goods.

The rapid population growth observed at the end of the 20th century in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America is associated primarily with the liberation of these countries from the colonial yoke and their entry into new stage economic development. A new "demographic explosion" has exacerbated the problems generated by the spontaneity, unevenness and antagonistic nature of human development. All this was expressed in a sharp poor nutrition and health population. To the shame of civilized mankind, more than 500 million people (one in ten) are chronically malnourished every day, lead a half-starved existence, and this is mainly in countries with the most favorable conditions for the development of agricultural production. As the analysis carried out by UNESCO experts shows, the causes of hunger in these countries must be sought in the dominance of monocultures (cotton, coffee, cocoa, bananas, etc.) and the low level of agricultural technology. The vast majority of families employed on all continents of the planet agriculture, still cultivate the land with a hoe and plow. Children suffer the most from malnutrition. According to the World Health Organization, 40,000 children under the age of 5 who could have been saved die every day. This is about 15 million people a year.

An acute global problem remains the problem education. Currently, almost every fourth inhabitant of our planet over the age of 15 remains illiterate. The number of illiterates is increasing annually by 7 million people. The solution to this problem, like others, rests on the lack of material resources for the development of the education system, while at the same time, as we have already noted, the military-industrial complex absorbs huge resources.

No less burning are the questions that in their totality fix cultural, religious and moral issues globalization process.

1. What are the prospects for the formation of a planetary post-industrial society in the conditions of uneven socio-economic development of countries and regions, existing inter-civilizational differences?

2. What is the prospect in the field of civilizational and cultural development: will it be possible to combine the process of globalization, the formation of an integral universal culture with the preservation of the diversity and multicolor of the world?

3. On what basis is possible mutual understanding and cooperation of cultures and confessions, coexistence of different ways of life, traditions and value preferences?

4. What spiritual values ​​and priorities can be put forward by the global society as an acceptable antithesis to the spirit of separatism, national and regional selfishness?

5. Is there an objective possibility of implementing the principle of equality and international justice in the relations between civilizations, cultures and confessions?

The key idea in understanding these issues could be the idea of ​​culture-centrism.

In terms of value, the question arises about the priority of culture, spiritual principles over material ones, about the prospects and possibilities for the transition from an economic to a “post-economic” society.

In methodological terms, cultural centrism is an alternative to technocracy and economism, which lower the status of a person in the world, more and more take public and private life beyond the norms of morality. Meanwhile, the future of the global world most likely depends on the revival and strengthening of moral principles - in the relationship between people (at all levels) and in their relationship to Nature.

In political terms, cultural centrism acts as an alternative to uniformitarianism and hegemonic strategies for organizing the world according to one model.

Is it possible to interpret the existing national and world cultures as complementary and mutually correcting factors in saving the human future, in overcoming the threat of ecological, military-political and spiritual catastrophe? And can (and how) new cultural attitudes be converted into new industrial and social technologies, freeing them from destructive properties in relation to the natural and spiritual environment?

We have to determine our attitude to the question of the possibility of forming a global planetary morality. It is clear that it cannot be “composed”, artificially constructed. But it is important to find out what shifts and trends in the sphere of morality are really viable and have a future. It will be necessary to carry out a deep analysis of the main religious and scientific heritage in the field of moral norms and imperatives, “codes” of conduct, etc.

The idea of ​​international justice can be declared as the basic principle of coexistence and free development of civilizations and cultures. The problem of transferring the principles of democracy as a tool for coordinating interests and organizing cooperation to relations between countries, peoples, and civilizations becomes topical in the process of globalization of the world.

SECTION 2. STRATEGY AND METHODOLOGY OF THE SOLUTION

GLOBAL PROBLEMS

The globalization of world development processes implies international cooperation and solidarity within the world scientific community, an increase in the social and humanistic responsibility of scientists. Science for man and mankind, science in order to solve the global problems of modernity and social progress - this is the true humanistic orientation that should unite scientists from all over the world. This implies not only a closer unity of science and practice, but also the development of the fundamental problems of the future of mankind, the development of the unity and interaction of sciences, the strengthening of their worldview and moral foundations, corresponding to the conditions of global problems of our time.

The strategy for solving global problems, facing the future, cannot but combine the scientific, social and humanistic approaches to these problems. And it cannot but have a single “reference point”, which is a person and his future. Only such a humanistic orientation creates a solid foundation for the future of man and human culture as a whole. The latter has a wider meaning, since humanism is connected not only with science. And from this point of view, both the absolutization of the importance of science in the life of man and mankind, in the development of the humanistic culture of the future, and attempts to belittle it, or even simply “debunk” it, presenting it as an inhumane force, are equally dangerous. Science acquires true meaning only in connection with other forms of human activity that form the material and spiritual culture of mankind. Therefore, the moral, humanistic foundations of science and all human culture are becoming increasingly important today and in the future, since, apparently, without this only the darkness of lack of culture and non-existence, the spiritual and physical collapse of mankind are possible.

And in this regard, scientifically reliable forecasting, closely related to a more specific definition of the goals of the socio-economic and cultural development of civilization, is now one of the most important areas for the concentration of efforts of representatives of many sciences, including geographical ones, not to mention social sciences.

Forecasting has different objects and is carried out using a variety of methods, among which the most common is - at least - in relation to global problems that make up an essential part of world development - modeling in general and global in particular and in particular. Of essential importance here, however, is the methodological basis on which this effective method research, as well as its theoretical interpretation. It is known that modeling, already by its epistemological nature, is effective only in connection with the theoretical knowledge of the object. Moreover, it serves as an auxiliary research tool of the latter and in its final conclusions must obey him. And this applies in particular to global modeling, which deals with extremely complex and, for the most part, conditionally isolated objects, which, of course, are the processes of world development. Here, of course, all the characteristics related to any integral system are preserved, but to a greater extent than anywhere else, a complex interrelation of components, ambiguity of cause-and-effect relationships between subsystems and their elements is revealed.

Let us now consider the extent to which the most influential concepts (paradigms) in modern global studies meet these requirements. It should, in our opinion, be immediately noted that among the concepts presented below, the current focus is on the reports of the Club of Rome and the concept of sustainable development. The remaining points of view, although they claim to be of general validity, have a sharply subordinate significance. Nevertheless, the analysis includes all those paradigms of modern global studies within which organized research teams work.

Limits to Growth

The theme of the reports of the Club of Rome, founded in 1968, is the problem of the limits of economic growth. The founders of the Club of Rome, working in various transnational organizations, practically faced common difficulties in implementing “narrow and private projects”. In contrast to the past, these difficulties have begun to be recognized as systemic global effects, and local efforts to overcome them are assessed as ineffective.

In modeling world dynamics, five interrelated variables were considered: population, capital investment, use of non-renewable resources, pollution, and food production. Testing the hypothesis about the dysfunctionality of the global system, the authors of the Club of Rome came to the conclusion that if the current growth trends continue in the conditions of a finite planet, the next generations of mankind will reach the limits of demographic and economic expansion.

The limits of growth are seen not so much in planetary resource limitations as in the “internal limits” of humanity – this is the egocentrism of corporations, the sovereignty of a chaotic multitude of quarreling states, the spirit of elitism of Western civilization, the complacency and carelessness of the layman. Critically evaluating the Old Humanism, A. Peccei formulates the program of the New Humanism, the essence of which is in the "human revolution" - in the formation of a world community capable of collective efforts to plan the common future of mankind, because the alternative would be the absence of any future.

Sustainable development

The paradigm was developed under the leadership of L.R. Brown by researchers from the Institute for World Observations (Washington). The Institute, founded in 1975, became widely known in the 1980s for the publication of the State of the World themed yearbooks. The proposed approach was the basis for the report of the International Commission on Environment and Development "Our Common Future" (1987). As a result of the work of the commission, on December 11, 1987, the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution “Environmental Outlook to the year 2000 and beyond”, according to which sustainable development should become the guiding principle of the activities of the UN, governments and private institutions, organizations and enterprises.

Recognizing the conclusion about the planetary limits of economic growth, L. Brown drew attention to the underdevelopment of traditional societies - the cause and effect of excessive demographic growth. The critical threshold of society's stability has already been surpassed, as humanity consumes significantly more resources than the laws of stable functioning of ecosystems allow. Exposing the myth that dominates in developing countries about the infinity of demographic growth is no less important task than criticizing Western-style economic growth.

The shift of analysis towards a complex of ecological problems not only opened up a number of phenomena, such as the "wood" crisis in medieval Europe and modern Africa, but also stimulated research in the field of the ecological history of civilizations. This made it possible to take a more sober attitude towards the eschatologically colored forecasts of the Club of Rome and propose gradual, evolutionary changes more acceptable to the world community. The goal of the sustainable development program is to find a new way that would ensure the progress of mankind not in a few places and over several years, but throughout the planet and in the long term.

Universal evolutionism

The paradigm is being developed under the guidance of N.N. Moiseev on the basis of the Computing Center of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the State Committee for Science and Technology since 1972. The research was stimulated by the lectures of N.V. Timofeev-Resovsky about the teachings of V.I. Vernadsky. It was noted that the reports to the Club of Rome described only passive changes in the characteristics of nature as a result of human activity. But nature can be considered not only as a passive background, but also as a self-organizing system, the reactions of which are unpredictable due to the presence of still little-known critical thresholds. Therefore, model forecasts that do not take into account the feedback of the biosphere and extrapolate the current dynamics are reliable only in the short term.

The concept of sustainable development is assessed as one of the most dangerous misconceptions of our time, since "humanity will still have to go through a long and thorny path filled with tragedies on a planetary scale." The situation in the world is much more serious and “talking about sustainable development resembles the behavior of an ostrich hiding its head in the sand” .

Human impact on nature can be assessed not only negatively. Man stimulates the evolutionary process and promotes the expansion of a number of biogeocenoses. The spontaneous joint development of man and the biosphere can be purposeful and coordinated. As a result of co-evolution, the noosphere is formed.

The development of noospheric research is envisaged in two directions: global ecology and the theory of collective decisions (compromise). In the field of global ecology, the consequences of large-scale human actions were evaluated. By 1983, the development of the version of the system of mathematical models "Gaia", which simulates the functioning of the biosphere as a single organism, was completed. The version describes the hydrothermodynamics of the atmosphere and the ocean and makes it possible to evaluate climatic characteristics and biota parameters. Human activity is set as an exogenous factor. The Gaia system has been successfully tested in modeling the consequences of a nuclear war. Descriptions of "nuclear night" and "nuclear winter" became the subject of lively discussion in official circles in the US and the USSR. The mathematical development of the sociology of compromise has shown the feasibility of agreements of a cooperative type, combining the efforts and resources of sovereign subjects to solve common problems. Institutions of consent at the global level will make it possible to achieve sustainable and effective compromises.

Mitosis of biospheres

With the death of A. Peccei in 1984, the Club of Rome passed its peak of popularity, which was largely due to the “academic” nature of his research. On the agenda is the issue of the transition from “well-understood anxiety” to scientific and practical activities to rationalize the interaction of mankind with the environment. Increasingly famous is the Ecotechnical Institute, a club-type non-governmental organization (chairman M. Nelson), established by a group of enthusiasts in 1969, which since 1976 has been holding conferences in the Le Marronier estate near the city of Aix-en-Provence in France.

The genesis of the paradigm of the Institute of Ecotechnics is due to the needs of practical astronautics in the creation of artificial biospheres. A natural consequence of the experience of designing biospheres with desired properties was the desire to enrich and improve Biosphere-I. The accumulated experience was comprehended on the basis of the doctrine of the noosphere. In the interpretation of the Institute of Ecotechnics, the essence of the noosphere is a harmonious synthesis of the biosphere and the technosphere. The technosphere is understood as "globaltech" - a type of culture that has a planetary market as its distribution area. The rest of the species diversity of crops competing in the biosphere (about 3.5 thousand) is characterized by the relative stability of the distribution area and the achieved balance within the occupied econiches.

From the point of view of biospheric culturology, the fact of the expansion of “globaltech” into space means that ecological balance is achievable only when going beyond Biosphere-I. The area of ​​environmentally sustainable "globaltech" is space, in which the technosphere reproduces its other - Biosphere-II. The opening of the Cosmos for biospheric mitosis and the generation of many competing biospheres means the transformation of the noosphere into a factor in the evolution of the Universe.

global development

Since 1977, under the leadership of D.M. Gvishiani and V.A. Gelovani, on the basis of the All-Union Research Institute for System Research of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the State Committee for Science and Technology, the research program “Modeling of Global Development” is being implemented. The purpose of the program is to create a human-machine system for modeling alternatives to global development, including the development of quantified ideas about alternative options for long-term, interconnected development of countries and regions of the world and the development of recommendations for choosing optimal control strategies.

The axiomatics of the concept contains critical assessments of the ideas of the Club of Rome. It is noted that the idea of ​​“limits to growth” has long been developed by Marxism-Leninism in the theory of the general crisis of capitalism. At the beginning of the 20th century, when analyzing imperialism, Marxists criticized the mechanistic and biologizing concepts of balance and survival, systematically described the world economy, its disequilibrium, crisis conditions and dynamics. The positivist approach underestimates the importance of the theoretical development of the categories of globalistics, which are indefinite and ambiguous. The utopianism of abstract humanism is obvious. The socialist alternative is ignored, the split along the North-South axis is accentuated, while the problem of preventing a nuclear war between East and West is more urgent. There is a lack of sectoral approaches (environmental, economic, demographic) to the study of global problems. Globalistics is proposed to be developed from the standpoint of general sociological theory.

The paradigm is being developed according to the principle of the social subjectivity of science, which means the study of alternatives to global development from the point of view of Soviet society. The formation of the world system is presented as a process of destruction of local, relatively closed communities, followed by integration into the global community based on dependency relations. Understanding the global system as a world market, supporters of the paradigm argue that its formation was completed by the end of the 19th century. Global problems are assessed as “current tensions” associated with the uneven socio-economic and political development of the regions. The transition to the information society is seen as the main way to solve global problems.

World-systems analysis

The paradigm is being developed under the guidance of I. Wallerstein at the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economics, the History of Systems and Civilizations at the University of New York (Binghamton). Since 1977, the Center has been publishing the Review magazine.

The end of the 20th century is seen as a point of bifurcation - a crisis of transition from the capitalist world-system, which has dominated the planet since 1500, to a world-system of an as yet undetermined type. The capitalist world-system is the first historical form of the global system, which develops in the interaction of the core, periphery and semi-periphery, undergoing crises with a frequency of 50–100 years.

Critics view world-systems analysis as a product of the decay of the New Left ideology, containing many “fundamental ambiguities”, and is often defined as neo-Marxism with an emphasis on history. Thus, capitalism is described as a "historical, contradictory, diverse and heterogeneous reality." The paradigm is the most influential among sociologists: since 1994, I. Wallerstein has been president of the International Sociological Association.

The available critical reviews lead to the following conclusions regarding the concepts characterized:

1) the landscape of modern global studies is “multi-conceptual”;

2) each of the concepts (paradigms) is focused on a specific scientific discipline;

3) the effect of a double star is noticeable - i.e. interpenetration and interweaving of different paradigms based on the basic concept (for example, “noosphere”);

5) the divergence of the basic concept is determined by the socio-practical experience of the local subject of the world community;

6) certainty in discussions is achieved by using the language of a systematic approach;

7) the range of reflective communication in modern globalistics is limited to the Christian world.

Thus, we can talk about the uniformity of the methodology for developing these concepts, often based on the absolutization of individual facts of social development, their isolation from the entire context of the dynamics of social ties that take place in the modern world at the turn of the millennium. As a result, however, the discovery of a certain significance of the factors rejected in the starting point can lead to the fact that they, and not the previously absolutized factors, begin to be recognized as the main, decisive ones. In addition, a common drawback for the leading global concepts is rigid determinism, which creates the illusion of historical fatalism (optimistic or pessimistic). The fact that "guaranteed history" is really an illusion has been proven by recent historical practice, including ours.

Therefore, researchers should not forget the well-known fact that any of the concepts, whether it is already existing, whether it is newly created, must have a clearly defined range of primary questions, and the answers to them obtained in the analysis of facts in full accordance with the laws of formal and dialectical logic, should serve as the basis for setting goals for the next logical level.

On the other hand, the current situation in global studies itself, by its ambiguity, fully reflects the exceptional complexity of cause-and-effect relationships in global processes, which thus still requires the implementation of an adequate, integrated approach to correct existing and create new viable concepts, with all closer integration and interaction of sciences, both natural sciences and technical profiles, as well as social sciences, human sciences. Moreover, one should not forget, "... the integration of knowledge is not a merger, not a mutual dissolution of sciences, but their interaction, mutual enrichment in the interests of jointly solving complex problems, each of which is studied by a special science in one aspect" .

At the same time, it should also be taken into account that the complexity of the dynamics of the development of global processes is aggravated by the presence today, within the framework of an interdependent and interconnected world, of a contradiction between the objective necessity and the subjective unwillingness of various states, peoples and regions to cooperate with each other due to existing civilizational, ethnic, ideological barriers. Moreover, the very unity of the world can become a card in the game of modern hegemonism, provoking, as already mentioned, an increase in the resistance of those who want to defend their political or cultural identity. The alternativeness of options for the further development of the global world can, of course, also have other, yet unknown to us, reasons.

And one more aspect. Unfortunately, many of these theories and concepts are cultivated by states that represent Western, essentially technocratic civilization and do not fully reflect the rich ideological and cultural heritage of all the peoples, cultures and religions that make up modern humanity. For example, the development of conceptual foundations, principles, norms and mechanisms through which the processes of globalization would be regulated could only be enriched if elements of the rich philosophical and moral and ethical heritage of Russian thinkers were taken into account, who in their work were far ahead of their time and put forward a whole a number of reformist ideas of a planetary, civilizational scale and significance.

That the constructive ideas put forward in different time Russian scientists and thinkers are becoming increasingly relevant when choosing guidelines for the future for the entire world community, the following statements can testify.

The famous Russian philosopher N.O. Lossky names such character traits of the Russian people that make him indifferent to the results of the activities of mankind as a whole: religiosity, a sensitive perception of the mental suffering of other people, the ability for higher forms of experience, sensuality and will, love of freedom, kindness, talent, messianism. BUT. Lossky especially emphasizes: "The Russian person has a particularly sensitive distinction between good and evil; he vigilantly notices the imperfection of our actions, morals and institutions, never being satisfied with them and never ceasing to seek the perfection of good." He also draws attention to Russia's attempts to apply the principles of Christianity to international relations, which is expressed in the desire, as the Russian philosopher Vl. Solovyov, apply one of the commandments of Christ to the relations of peoples to each other: "love all other peoples as your own."

In his original work "Philosophy of the Common Cause", the original thinker and religious philosopher of the 19th century N.F. Fedorov expressed an idea that is extremely relevant for the liberation of world space activities from the mistakes of the first decades of confrontations and excessive militarization: "We must set one common goal for humanity and assert the need, possibility and obligation to establish expediency not by word, but by common deed" .

Confidence that the future of mankind on the planet and in space is unity, the conscious building of harmonious relations in society with technology and nature sounds in one of the last works of Academician V.I. Vernadsky: “It is impossible to go against the principle of the unity of all people as a law of nature with impunity ... Mankind, taken as a whole, becomes a powerful geological force. And before him, before his thought and work, the question of restructuring the biosphere in the interests of free-thinking humanity as a single whole is raised ".

In the philosophical heritage of K.E. Tsiolkovsky has a number of provisions that are far ahead of him and our time. They relate to the problems of a very distant future, when the construction of a harmonious union of civilizations in the Universe will become relevant: public organizations". Just like V.I. Vernadsky, K.E. Tsiolkovsky considered the construction of an integral harmonious civilization to be the natural task of mankind, knowing and improving itself as an organic component of the Earth's biosphere and the infinite Universe: "Unification must be, because this is required by benefits creatures. If they are mature, then they are reasonable, and if they are reasonable, they will not harm themselves. Anarchy is imperfection and evil."

One way or another, through the prism of the studied concepts, two main alternatives in global development are seen: will it be reduced to the next round of the scientific and technological revolution and new achievements in the economy, or will it be associated with a spiritual reformation concerning the system of values, priorities, life orientations and meanings.

In doing so, three important factors must be taken into account.

Firstly, scientific and technological revolution, which, through the automation of production, the intellectualization of technology, radically changes the place and role of man in the technological process.

Secondly, the scientific and technological revolution assumes such an employee who, by the level of his intellectual development and versatility, is able to form an artificial environment worthy of a person for his life activity (noosphere). The need for a universal, harmoniously developed, creatively active and socially responsible person is not an invention of philosophers. The formation of a man of a new formation acts as a technological, ecological and economic necessity. Without such a person who would measure all his decisions and deeds with the interests and deeds of all mankind, social progress is impossible.

Therefore, thirdly, people must master a new way of thinking, move on to a new type of rationality. The rationalization of society, one-sidedly oriented towards the growth of the production of things or the extraction of profit, turns into irrational catastrophic consequences for humanity as a whole and for each individual. Such rationality must be replaced by the rationality of harmonious development.

At the same time, obviously, the harmonization of the human community itself, the relationship between the individual and society, is impossible without the development by mankind of a scientifically based strategy for its behavior in the natural environment. This follows from the very essence of the dialectic of the social and natural-biological. For a person in his natural biological quality is no longer just a “part” of nature, but its organic element, which is in interaction and mutual influence with other elements and parts that make up some dialectically contradictory unity, integrity. Because, as K. Marx said, “Man lives by nature. This means that nature is his body, with which a person must remain in the process of constant communication in order not to die. In this sense, a person is rather an organ of such a whole, and he has proved this, perhaps for the time being, to a greater extent by a destructive function in nature as in his “body”. Without taking this into account, humanity cannot resolve the following key contradiction. On the one hand, the further build-up of man-made pressure on the natural environment is tantamount to suicide, and on the other hand, progress and prosperity of mankind are unthinkable without intensive exploitation of the natural environment. It is impossible to stop the progress of society, to turn its history back, “back to the cave”, but it is also unacceptable to continue increasing the pace of production due to the spontaneous progressive plunder of natural resources and deterioration of the habitat. And that is why, in order for the developed concepts (or paradigms) of global development to adequately respond to the current dynamics of global processes and thereby increase the reliability of world development forecasts, one cannot do without geographical bases, without a geographical view of the unity and integrity of the geographical shell, without geographical methods for studying its structure and functioning.

The latter is also relevant because the systematic approach in the described concepts of global development is implemented mainly through the prism of the results achieved in the field of social and humanitarian disciplines. Without detracting from the significance of these achievements, it is nevertheless necessary to note the obvious underestimation of the contribution to system analysis made by the natural sciences. For example, for the same physical geographer, it is quite obvious that the structure of connections in the built-up system of global problems should have a hierarchical spatio-temporal architecture, which, however, is not yet clearly reflected in existing correlation schemes (for example, in Yu.N. Gladkiy (1994 )). Taking into account the principle of hierarchical subordination would undoubtedly make it possible to significantly facilitate the construction of a system of cause-and-effect relationships of global problems and make it more purposeful.

SECTION 3. WAYS TO SOLVING GLOBAL PROBLEMS:

GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECT

The problem of deepening an interdisciplinary approach to solving global problems is typical not only for science in general, but also for geography in particular. Its relevance for geography is due to the fact that there is a certain gap between its natural and social "blocks". The independence of the physical-geographical and social-geographical sciences is beyond doubt - it is based on the difference in the subjects of study. In physical and geographical sciences, these are natural geosystems of different levels and their components, and in socio-economic geography, various territorial systems of settlement and economy. However, it is recognized that the specialization of the geographical sciences has gone so far that physical and economic geographers have ceased to understand each other.

In the existing definitions of socio-economic geography, its chorological character is especially emphasized. Usually its main task is seen in the study of the location or territorial differentiation of various phenomena related to the population and economy. Moreover, the range of these phenomena is not limited by anything: territorial differences in data on subscriptions to periodicals, on crime, on the results of elections to government bodies, etc. are studied. For a representative of socio-economic geography, the only criterion for an object to belong to geography is the presence of territorial differences in it; in practice, the concepts of “geographical” and “territorial” are considered as synonyms.

The physiographic sciences are dominated by a fundamentally different approach to the objects under study, which has nothing in common with chorology. Not a single definition of physical geography emphasizes location, territorial differences, and, on the contrary, it is emphasized that natural complexes and their components - relief, soils, water bodies, etc. - are studied in all respects as spatio-temporal systems, and their study is necessarily assumed. general (global) regularities.

Meanwhile, there is a way out of the impasse. It is indicated to us by a truly interdisciplinary problem of the interaction of nature and society, which is reflected in the presence of a relationship between the very objects of study of both "geographies". It is emphasized that between the territorial systems of settlement and production, on the one hand, and natural geographical systems, on the other hand, there are quite complex, diverse connections, and no one except a geographer is able to understand these connections. The sphere of contact and overlap of these systems determines the area of ​​contacts between the physical-geographical and social-geographical sciences, which can fully ensure real, practical cooperation of the geographical sciences in solving global problems on the ways of optimizing and predicting the relationship between man and nature.

3.1. Optimization of the natural environment

optimization The natural environment is called a set of measures for its rational use, protection, improvement and enrichment. The concepts of "nature protection", "nature management" have a narrower content and cover only particular aspects of optimization. Mankind has to protect nature in conditions of intensive use. It can afford to keep intact (as reserves) only an insignificant fraction of the earth's surface. At the same time, one cannot do without active intervention in natural processes in order to improve the habitat and increase its resource potential. The protection of nature does not at all imply its complete conservation and a ban on economic use.

Conventionally, all measures to optimize the natural environment can be divided into two groups. The first includes what seems already quite obvious and is largely dictated by common sense, without requiring fundamental scientific developments or fundamentally new technical solutions. This concerns, first of all, the rational and prudent use of natural resources in the face of their growing scarcity, as already mentioned in the previous sections.

The second group, which, in fact, interests us most of all, includes measures that require a serious scientific and technical justification, i.e. are exploratory, and the implementation of which should be planned for the foreseeable and distant future. Indeed, common sense alone is clearly not enough to achieve those reasonable goals, which have already been repeatedly mentioned on the pages of the abstract. It was also emphasized that for this it is necessary to have political, social and economic prerequisites. They are not included in the sphere of geography, but the practical implementation of scientific developments, including geographical ones, depends on their solution.

At the same time, the most energetic actions of a political, legal, technological, economic nature will not lead to the desired results if they are not coordinated on the basis of a unified scientific concept of optimizing the environment by nature. It is known that private measures taken, it would seem, with the best of intentions, come into conflict with each other and can, ultimately, lead to negative changes in natural complex. This happens, for example, during the construction of hydroelectric facilities and reservoirs, when it is possible to obtain cheap electricity and equalize the regime of rivers, but at the cost of flooding large areas, swamping the surrounding area and loss of fish resources. Another example: the more effective the measures to purify the atmosphere from harmful impurities, the greater the danger of pollution of soils, inland waters and even the oceans. We are once again convinced that any intervention in natural processes should be based on a thorough account of the relationships in geosystems and on a scientific forecast of possible direct and indirect consequences of the implementation of engineering and technical solutions. Only the presence of a scientific theory will allow us to develop a common strategy for our behavior, create scientific prerequisites for the development of legal environmental standards, for economic calculations, engineering projects and, in addition, for pedagogical and educational work in the field of nature protection.

The creation of a general theory of optimization of the natural environment, as well as other tasks within the framework of scientific knowledge of global problems in general, is an interdisciplinary task, and many sciences can contribute to its solution. And, nevertheless, there is reason to assert that geography should occupy a key position among them.

The first, although not the main reason for geographers to claim a central role in the development of a general theory of optimization of the natural environment can be their traditional interest in the problems of interaction between man and nature, the material and experience they have accumulated in research in this area. Of course, one geography cannot cover all aspects of the relationship between man and nature. It has defined its field of activity, developed its own specific problems, approaches and methods.

Back in 1956, N.N. Baransky noted that the question of the influence of the natural environment on the development of human society "is in the general formulation a matter of philosophy, and in the specific formulation it is a matter of history, exploring the processes of social development and the change of social formations." Historically, many private aspects of the influence of nature on man were under the jurisdiction of various humanities- anthropology, ethnography, demography, etc. Obviously, the geographer does not need to unprofessionally interfere in the study of the influence of the geographical environment on the biological evolution of man, ethnogenesis, culture, art, etc., leaving all this to the relevant specialists. But one of the branches of geography - socio-economic - deals with the resettlement of people on the earth's surface and the territorial differentiation of their economic activities. Therefore, it is the study of the influence of the natural environment on changes in economic activity from place to place that, according to N.N. Baransky, the fundamental problem of economic geography.

As for the second side in the system of interrelationships "man - nature", i.e. human impact on nature, then in this area the interests of a number of sciences come into contact - mainly natural, in particular geology and biology. But modern physical geography is prepared for a comprehensive coverage of the problems related to this. The advantages of physical geography over other sciences are determined by the subject of its research. From the point of view of a physical geographer, the human environment is not an abstract nature and not a chaotic set of individual natural components or resources, but a complexly organized integrity, it is a set of subordinate geosystems of different levels that are included in the geographical envelope. The geographic envelope is the geosystem of the highest level, social function which consists in the fact that it serves as the geographical environment of mankind. By the way, the concept of "geographical environment" more accurately and strictly expresses the essence of the problem of interest to us than "nature in general" or such vague expressions as "natural environment" and "environment", which are not amenable to strict scientific definition.

Hence, the starting position of the geographer in the problem of optimizing the natural environment is that the objects of optimization are geosystems of all levels, in the aggregate, constituting the geographical environment of mankind. Based on this concept, we can define the specific tasks of geographical research in order to create a general concept for optimizing the natural environment. It is possible to distinguish, albeit with some conventionality, two circles of scientific problems: fundamental and applied. The first fundamental task of physical geography, the solution of which determines the success of any practical (applied) development, is a deep knowledge of geosystems, i.e. natural patterns of structure, functioning, dynamics, evolution and spatial distribution inherent in them. The second task, closely related to the first, is a comprehensive study of human impact on geosystems: elucidation of the mechanisms of this impact and the transformations it causes in the structure, functioning, dynamics of geosystems, as well as the degree of their resistance to various impacts and the ability to restore the lost structure. In the complex of fundamental geographical research, especially, from the point of view of the topic we are considering, we should highlight the development of a forecast of the possible further behavior of geosystems under the influence of both natural and technogenic factors. The ability to predict the state of geosystems for a given period in the future can be considered as the most important criterion for the maturity of geography, the level of its theoretical depth.

The purpose of applied geographical research is to apply fundamental theoretical developments to solving practical problems, one way or another related to the optimization of the natural environment. There are many logically related areas of research work. First of all, it is necessary to study and evaluate the ecological and resource potential of natural landscapes, i.e. their ability to provide humanity as part of wildlife with the necessary means of subsistence, and production - with energy and raw materials. Evaluative geographic research is extremely multifaceted. On the one hand, they are guided by various aspects of the life and economic activity of society (for example, an assessment of natural complexes can be made in terms of the possibility of agricultural use, or suitability for recreation, or for large-scale industrial construction, etc.). On the other hand, these studies can be different in their territorial scope, starting with the solution of local problems (for example, within the administrative region or even the territory of a separate economy), then rising to the regional level (within the boundaries of large river basins, economic regions, individual regions). or territories, etc.), and, finally, reaching the global level, when the entire earth's surface, or rather, the geographic envelope, is subject to a comprehensive environmental and resource assessment.

The generalization of the results of a comprehensive environmental and resource assessment of geosystems, combined with their resistance to economic impacts and the forecast of possible further changes, is a necessary prerequisite for developing scientific foundations for optimizing geosystems.

Thus, a systematic approach, which forms the basis of geographical research, makes us go towards optimizing the environment on a global scale, gradually accumulating positive changes “on the ground”, i.e. in specific landscapes, taking into account the diversity of their current state, structure and stability, creating truly cultural landscapes. This approach, being the antipode of the still ongoing cumulation of natural negative local and regional impacts, provides more reliable control over ongoing activities, and makes it possible to more reliably predict their possible consequences.

3.2. Geographic forecasting

3.2.1. Principles

The problems of geographic forecasting are quite complex and diverse due to the complexity and diversity of the forecasting objects themselves - geosystems of various levels and categories. In exact accordance with the hierarchy of the geosystems themselves, there is also a hierarchy of forecasts, their territorial scales. There are local, regional and global forecasts. In the first case, the forecast objects are the morphological subdivisions of the landscape up to facies; in the second case, we are talking about the future of landscapes and regional systems of higher ranks; in the third case, the future of the entire landscape shell. It can be argued that the complexity of forecasting problems increases with the transition from the lower levels of the geosystem hierarchy to the higher ones.

As is known, any geosystem of a relatively lower hierarchical level functions and develops as an integral part of systems of higher ranks. In practice, this means that the development of a forecast of the “behavior” in the future of individual tracts should be carried out only against the background of the enclosing landscape, taking into account its structure, dynamics, and evolution. And the forecast for any landscape should be developed on an even wider regional background. Ultimately, a geographical forecast of any territorial scale requires taking into account global trends (trends).

The development of a forecast is always guided by certain estimated dates, i.e. conducted with a predetermined lead time. Otherwise, we are talking about the time scales of the forecast. On this basis, geographic forecasts are divided into ultra-short-term (up to 1 year), short-term proper (3-5 years), medium-term (for the next decades, more often up to 10-20 years), long-term (for the next century) and ultra-long-term, or long-term (for millennia). etc.). Naturally, the reliability of the forecast, the probability of its justification, is the less, the longer its estimated time is.

The principles of geographic forecasting follow from theoretical ideas about the functioning, dynamics and evolution of geosystems, including, of course, the patterns of their anthropogenic transformation. The initial bases of a geographic forecast are those factors, or predictors, on which future changes in geosystems may depend. These factors have a dual origin - natural (tectonic movements, changes in solar activity, etc., as well as processes of landscape self-development) and technogenic (hydraulic engineering, economic development of the territory, land reclamation, etc.).

There is a certain relationship between the bases (factors) of the forecast and its spatial and temporal scales. The range of a truly comprehensive geographic forecast is limited by our more than modest ability to foresee the paths of social and technological progress (fiction writers do not count). And this means that geographical forecasts beyond the foreseeable future can only be based on the most general natural factors, such as the trend of tectonic movements and large climatic rhythms. Since these processes are characterized by a wide range of action, the spatial scale of the forecast should also be quite wide - global or macro-regional. So, I.I. Krasnov tried to outline planetary natural climate changes for 1 million years ahead, based on the studied paleographic patterns. V.V. Nikolskaya developed a regional forecast for the south of the Far East 1000 years ahead, also based on paleogeographic data.

The forecast for the shortest periods - within a year - is also based on natural factors, on the course of seasonal processes. For example, by the nature of winter, one can judge the course of subsequent spring and summer processes; the peculiarities of vegetation of plants in the spring of the next year, etc. depend on the conditions of moisture in a given autumn. Accounting for technogenic factors in this case is of little relevance, since their indirect impact will have a noticeable effect only in years and even decades.

The possibility of the most complete consideration of the factors of upcoming changes in geosystems, both natural and technogenic, is realized with medium- and partly long-term geographic forecasting, i.e. for the coming years and decades. In this case, landscapes and their regional associations of the order of landscape sub-provinces and regions should be considered optimal territorial objects.

3.2.2. Methods

Geographic forecasting is based on the application of various complementary methods. One of the most famous - extrapolation, i.e. prolongation of trends identified in the past for the future. But this method should be used with caution, since the development of most natural processes proceeds unevenly, and even more so it is unacceptable to extend the current rates of population growth, production, modern trends in the development of technology, etc. into the future.

Method geographical analogies is to transfer the patterns established in some landscapes to others, but necessarily similar landscapes. For example, the results of observations on the influence of existing reservoirs on adjacent tracts and areas are used to predict possible geographic consequences from projected reservoirs in similar (for example, taiga or desert) landscapes.

Method landscape indication based on the use of particular dynamic features to judge the upcoming significant changes in the structure of the landscape. For example, a decrease in the level of lakes, the advance of forests into swamps may indicate more general trends in the development of landscapes associated with climate drying or stable trends in tectonic movements. For ultra-short-term local forecasting, the use of phenological indicators is promising. It is known that there is a fairly stable relationship between the timing of the onset of various phenological phenomena (phenological lag). This makes it possible to predict the onset of a number of natural phenomena according to the observations of some phenological indicators (for example, the beginning of pollination of alder or birch, the flowering of mountain ash or linden) up to one to five weeks ahead.

As is known, there is no such rigid determinism between geographical phenomena as exists in celestial mechanics or clockwork, therefore a geographical forecast can only be probabilistic (statistical). Hence the meaning of the methods mathematical statistics, which makes it possible to express in numerical form the correlations between the components of geosystems, the cyclicity of processes and their trends for the estimated forecast periods.

3.3. Geoinformation technologies

The rapid globalization of information resources and technologies has not bypassed geographical science either. As once in the XVII - XVIII centuries mathematics, astronomy, physics and chemistry provided geographers with a barometer and thermometer, measuring instruments, mathematical methods for determining geographical coordinates, accurate chronometers and ships capable of ocean navigation, so on the threshold of the XXI century, mathematics, astronomy, physics and chemistry, through computer science, higher geodesy, electronics, applied astronautics, armed geographers with new technical and methodological means fast receipt, storage, processing, analysis and transmission of a huge amount of geographically distributed information. It is on this basis that a new branch of geography is rapidly developing - geoinformatics - a science that combines the theory, methods and traditions of classical cartography and geography with the capabilities and apparatus of applied mathematics, informatics and computer technology. This creates new opportunities for geography to adequately and, most importantly, promptly monitor the dynamics and trends in the development of global processes.

On the basis of information technology in the 60s of the XX century, a direction arose in the depths of the Pentagon, later called GIS or geographic information systems. It combines the solution of the necessary applied problems with the capabilities of a person, a computer and software tools that process spatial information and transmit it to the consumer on a monitor screen, printing device or communication channels.

This is how digital cartography and automated mapping were first born, supplemented over time with other numerous functions and capabilities and are the basis of any GIS.

Since the 1970s, GIS has become a commercial product, which is being used not only in the military, but also in other fields of knowledge.

In the 80s and 90s, after the appearance and mass use of personal computers, GIS gradually capture new world markets and appear in the USSR, and then in Russia.

Today, at the very end of the 20th century, GIS are advancing all over the world on a very wide front in various directions. Sales volumes of GIS products and GIS technologies, as well as GIS services rendered, increase annually by 20-30% and reach several billion US dollars a year.

It is important to note that GIS technologies are now combined with another powerful system for obtaining and presenting geographic information - Earth remote sensing (ERS) data from space, from aircraft and any other aircraft. Space information in today's world is becoming more diverse and accurate. The possibility of obtaining and updating it is becoming easier and more affordable. Dozens of orbital systems transmit high-precision satellite images of any part of our planet. Archives and data banks of very high resolution digital images covering the vast territory of the globe have been formed abroad and in Russia. Their relative availability for the consumer (online search, ordering and receiving via the Internet), surveying any territory at the request of the consumer, the possibility of subsequent processing and analysis of space images using various software tools, integration with GIS packages and GIS systems, turn the tandem of GIS - Remote sensing into a new powerful tool for geographic analysis. This is the first and most real direction modern development GIS.

The second direction in the development of GIS is the joint and widespread use of high-precision global positioning data of an object on water or on land, obtained using GPS (USA) or GLOSSNAS (Russia) systems. These systems, especially GPS, are already widely used in maritime navigation, aeronautics, geodesy, military affairs and other branches of human activity. Their use in combination with GIS and remote sensing forms a powerful triad of high-precision, up-to-date (up to real time), constantly updated, objective and densely saturated territorial information that can be used almost everywhere. Examples of the successful joint use of these systems by NATO troops during combat operations in military conflicts in Iraq and Yugoslavia are confirmation that the time for widespread use of this direction in other areas of practical activity is not far off.

The third direction in the development of GIS is associated with the development of the telecommunications system, primarily the international Internet and the massive use of global international information resources. There are several promising paths in this direction.

The first path will be determined by the development of corporate networks of the largest enterprises and management structures with remote access using Intranet technology. This path is supported by serious financial resources of these structures and the problems and tasks that they have to solve in their activities using spatial analysis. This path is likely to determine the development of technological problems of GIS when working in corporate networks. The dissemination of proven technologies to address the issues of small and medium-sized enterprises and firms will give a powerful impetus to their mass use.

The second path depends on the development of the Internet itself, which is spreading around the world at a tremendous pace, involving tens of thousands of new users into its audience every day. This path leads to a new and as yet uncharted road, along which traditional GIS, from usually closed and expensive systems that exist for individual teams and solving individual problems, will eventually acquire new qualities, unite and turn into powerful integrated and interactive systems for global sharing.

At the same time, such GIS themselves will become: geographically distributed; modularly scalable; shared; permanently and easily accessible.

Therefore, we can assume the emergence on the basis of modern GIS, new types, classes and even generations of geographic information systems based on the capabilities of the Internet, television and telecommunications.

All the trends, prospects, directions and ways of development described above will ultimately lead to the fact that geography and geoinformatics in the 21st century will be a single complex of sciences based on a spatial ideology and using the most modern technologies for processing a huge amount of any spatial information.

CONCLUSION

An analysis of the global problems of our time shows the presence of a complex and branched system of causal relationships between them. The largest problems and their groups are to some extent connected and intertwined. And any key and major problem can consist of many private, but no less important in their topicality, problems.

The developed concepts of global development cannot adequately cover the whole variety of interrelations between problems, which largely determines the narrow profile and unreliability of the proposed predictive models for the further evolution of the world community. There is a clear underestimation of the achievements of those cultures that do not fit into the framework of Western civilization. In the scientific aspect, there is a predominance of socio-economic approaches in solving global problems over natural sciences, even in the sphere of the latter's priorities. Although more than once in the history of science, it was natural scientists who became the bearers of truly innovative ideas, including in the context of global problems that later became fundamental (remember, for example, the teachings of V.I. Vernadsky about the biosphere and noosphere). Therefore, further deepening of the integration of sciences within the framework of interdisciplinary studies of the system of cause-and-effect relationships of global problems is required in order to make the search for the nature of these relationships more focused, formalized in full accordance with the laws of formal and dialectical logic, and the scientific forecast of global development, accordingly, more reliable.

The participation of geographical science in the process of studying global problems is seen not only in developing ways to optimize the relationship between nature and human society, geographical forecasting of the impact of human activity on the natural environment, tracking the mechanisms of this impact on a global scale using modern geoinformation technologies, i.e. in what belongs to the sphere of interests of this science itself. But also in the introduction of the principles of systemic geographical thinking into the process of interdisciplinary study of global problems. This should greatly facilitate the understanding of the nature of the spatio-temporal architecture of the system of cause-and-effect relationships of global problems.

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See also: Countries and peoples. Scientific-popular. geographical ed. T. 20. Earth and humanity. Global problems. M.: Thought, 1985; Man in the context of global problems. M., 1989.

The review is based on the following publications: Tatur V.Yu., Kravchenko S.F. Global problems and movement for the noosphere // Noosphere and man. M., 1991. S. 9-17; Maksimova M.M., Bykov O.N., Mirsky G.I. Global problems of the present. M.: Thought, 1981; Aleksandrova I.I., Baykov N.M., Beschinsky A.A. etc. Global energy problem. M.: Thought, 1985; countries and peoples. Scientific-popular. geographical ed. T. 20. Earth and humanity. Global problems. M.: Thought, 1985; Herman K. Political crossroads in moving towards a global information society // Sociological Studies. 1998. No. 2. S. 12-25; Girenok F.I. Ecology, civilization, noosphere. M., 1987; Gladky Yu.N. Globalistics: a difficult path of formation // MEMO. 1994. No. 10. S. 104-116; Global problems of world development. Riga: IMEMO, 1981; Danilov A.N. Globalism, regionalism and modern transformational process // Sociological researches. 1998. No. 9. S. 34-47; Novikov R.A., Zhiritsky A.K., Markushina R.A. Global environmental problem. M.: Thought, 1988; Man in the context of global problems. M., 1989; Global problems and civilizational shift. M., 1983; Global economic processes: analysis and modeling: Sat. Art. M.: CEMI. 1986

For example, in 1980-85. it has decreased per inhabitant of the planet from 1.15 to 1.03 hectares (Countries and peoples, 1985, p. 118) now it is obviously even less.

See: Kosov Yu.V. In search of a strategy for survival: an analysis of the concepts of global development. SPb., 1991; Leibin V.M. Global issues: scientific research and discussions. M., 1991; Chumakov A.N. Philosophy of global problems. M., 1994, etc.

See: Forrester D. World Dynamics. M., 1978; Peccei A. Human qualities. M., 1985; Pestel E. Beyond Growth (Global Problems of the Present and Activities of the International Organization Club of Rome). M., 1988; Limits to growth. M., 1991; Criticism of the book "Limits to Growth": In 2 hours Novosibirsk, 1976; Meadows D. H., Meadows D. L., Randers I. Beyond the limits of growth. M., 1994, etc.

See: Ecological Anthology: Ecological Works by Western Authors. M.-Boston, 1992; World of the 80s. M., 1989; Our common future. M., 1989; XX century: the last ten years. 1990–1991 M., 1992; Golubev V.S., Shapovalova I.S. What is sustainable development? // Free thought. 1993. No. 5; Serebryany L.R., Skopin A.Yu. Sustainable development: the origin and meaning of the term // Geography. 1996. No. 47.

See: Krapivin V.F., Svirezhev Yu.M., Tarko A.M. Mathematical modeling of global biospheric processes. M., 1982; Moiseev N.N., Aleksandrov V.V., Tarko A.M. Man and the biosphere. Experience in system analysis and experiments with models. M., 1985; Moiseev N.N. Man and the noosphere. M., 1990; Moiseev N.N. Rise to the mind. Lectures on universal evolutionism and its applications. M., 1993.

See: Gvishiani D.M. Marxism-Leninism and global problems // Modeling of processes of global development. M., 1979; Gelovani V.A., Dubovsky S.V. Man-machine approach and the use of the modeling system in the study of global problems // Marxist-Leninist concept of global problems of our time. M., 1985; The global context of the social development of the USSR. M., 1990.

See: Wallerstein I. Social development or development of the world system? // Question. sociology. 1992. No. 1; Criticism of the world-system approach and the concept of capitalism by I. Wallerstein. M., 1992; Beginnings of the world-system analysis // Sociology. RJ. 1993. No. 1; Globalization as a social process: opportunities and prospects // Sociology. RJ. 1994. No. 3; World-system analysis and its critics. M., 1996.

Geography is the most ancient branch of knowledge. Its roots go back much further than, for example, physics, chemistry, biology and other sciences.

Geography today is an understanding of the interrelationships of natural and social processes and phenomena, moreover, the ability to predict them. With modern geographical research in long-known territories, scientists make many new, sometimes amazing discoveries. But this is not the discovery of new objects, but the discovery of geographical patterns in nature and in society.

Geographical sciences have always had a practical purpose. In the past, they provided the public primarily with background information. Now the practical role of geography is determined primarily by its participation in solving the problems of interaction between nature and society. The exacerbation of these problems once again proves that geographical research must have a preliminary character. The precedence of comprehensive geographic studies to the development and approval of any projects is especially important when human intervention in nature can have planetary consequences.

The ecological problem cannot be solved without the participation of scientists from the entire complex of geographical sciences. And since this problem is closely connected with other global problems of mankind, geography rises to a qualitatively new level. Constructive geography comes to the fore, the task of which is not only to analyze the consequences of interference in nature, but also to predict them.

The whole difficulty of geographical research lies in the fact that not only complex natural phenomena and processes, but also no less complex patterns of economic development fall into the field of view of geographers. A one-sided approach to their solution, ignoring the close relationships and became the reason for the emergence of the main problem of our time, called "the interaction of nature and society."

Human awareness of the complexity of this problem led to the emergence of such a research method as monitoring. Monitoring (from the Latin “one who reminds, warns”) is a complex information system, the main task of which is to observe and assess the state of the natural environment that is under anthropogenic influence. At present, the most developed part of monitoring is the observation of water and air pollution. The ultimate goal of monitoring is the development of measures for the rational (from the Latin "reasonable") use of natural resources, the preservation of natural balance.

The effectiveness of monitoring can be ensured only during research at three levels: local (local), regional (continents, oceans and their separate parts) and global (geographical envelope).

In the monitoring process, various scientific and technical methods and research tools are used. The traditional methods of collecting information - stationary and drifting scientific stations - also retain their importance. Observations in biosphere reserves are especially important, where human influence on the “standards” of natural complexes is monitored. Recently, however, the methods of space geography have become increasingly important. (Remember what it is.) They are based on remote comprehensive study of the geographic envelope from spacecraft.

The large amount of information that is obtained at the same time makes it possible not only to register, but also to predict certain changes that occur in nature during economic activity. Geographical forecasts are meteorological (for example, weather forecasts), hydrological - warning of floods, mudflows, etc.

But the most effective are complex forecasts, that is, those that provide for future changes in the natural complex. Neglect of just such a forecast, for example, led to the well-known environmental disasters of the Aral Sea, Kara-Bogaz-Gol in Central Asia, the Sahel zone in Africa, and many others.

Monitoring of the natural environment requires the joint efforts of all countries of the world. None of them can behave in this situation according to the principle “my hut is on the edge, I don’t know anything.” Everything that happens in the geographical shell will affect each of us sooner or later.

Mankind finally realized this and began to create a global system for protecting the geographic shell on the basis of broad international cooperation.

The practical role of geography is determined by its participation in solving the problems of interaction between nature and society.

Assessment of the state of the geographic envelope is carried out with the help of monitoring.

The constructive role of geography is manifested in the geographical forecast.

The global nature of the problem of interaction between society and nature determines broad international cooperation.

The genetic classification of sciences, built “according to the forms of movement”, plays the role of a general methodological principle for studying the most complex theoretical issues of science, in our case, geography. Firstly, it requires clarification of the existing ideas about the object and subject of geography. Even posing the question of the place of geography in this classification requires a specific philosophical analysis of the content of geographical science. Does geography in general belong to this type of science? Secondly, what place among the objects of other sciences does the object of geography occupy and how is it genetically and structurally related to them? Thirdly, this is the basis for studying the relationship between the laws and methods of geography as a science with the laws and methods of sciences bordering on it. Fourthly, already these questions are enough to substantiate geography and the need for its further development. Fifth, to determine the place of geography in the genetic classification of sciences means to better understand its content and internal structure. This is the methodological basis for understanding the unity of physical geography and socio-economic geography, the correlation of their disciplines and, finally, the study of geography as a special social institution, the laws of its emergence and development.
It is no coincidence that we raised the question of the place of geography in the genetic classification of sciences, since the appeal to other types of classification of sciences does not solve these issues.
geographic reality. The question of geographical reality is not so simple. If there is a geographical reality, then what are its essence, content, causes of occurrence and the basis of existence? How is geographic reality related to other kinds of reality? Is it only geography (and which one - physical or socio-economic) that studies this reality, and do other sciences conduct similar studies?

Usually, reality is understood as a set of interrelated and mutually conditioning objects and processes. Of course, science does not immediately come to a deep understanding of reality. The objects of the latter are first divided according to various properties and only then according to the laws of structure and functioning, and, finally, according to the causes of occurrence and modes of existence. From an objective, material understanding of the content of objective reality, science, on the basis of developing practice and its changing needs, comes to a systemic vision of reality. The main type of such systems are dialectical self-developing systems in which the main material content of the world is created.
Under the dialectical system - the carrier of a special form of the movement of matter - one can understand a self-developing system consisting of a specific type of matter and the conditions for its existence. The type of matter is a material formation that has a specific form of reflection, adequate to the mode of its existence. It is obvious that human consciousness, sensation, irritability and excitability in living nature, as well as specific forms of reaction of the formed minerals and rocks to the conditions of their existence are forms of reflection that are adequate to the mode of existence of each of the named types of matter. The conditions for the existence of a type of matter are a set of elements of the external environment involved in interaction with the type of matter and transformed by it. Thus, the social type of matter, people, in material production from the material of external nature create social things, primarily the means of production. In the biogeocenosis, microorganisms, plants and animals transform the elements of the parent rock into a biological phenomenon - the soil. In geological systems, minerals and rocks are formed from elements of solutions or melts.
Interestingly, at the beginning of the XX century. A.I. Voeikov singled out the Aral Sea as an independent eternal geographical system with a closed heat and moisture exchange. This system is a dialectical unity of the objects of the hydrosphere and troposphere, which mutually generate and determine the existence of each other. Thus, evaporation from the surface of the Aral generates a special air mass with a specific system of clouds and cloud systems that transfer moisture to the spurs of the Pamir and Tien Shan. The emerging snow cover and glaciers then return moisture to the Aral Sea with the help of the Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya rivers. Metachronous development of ice sheet systems in the Northern and Southern hemispheres of the Earth, described by K.K. Markov, also expands our understanding of dialectical self-developing systems based on geographic heat and moisture exchange.

The main criterion for the selection of this type of systems is the presence of a specific type of matter and the conditions of existence characteristic of it, created by it. In modern natural science, each such set of systems of the same quality is considered as a special reality related to a certain level of matter organization. Each of these levels, or realities, acts as the main object of study of a particular science. The question of whether systems consisting of objects of the hydrosphere and troposphere with sculptural forms of relief included in them (all this is created by geographic heat and moisture exchange) belong to the geographical reality does not raise doubts among modern geographers. But is the content of geographic reality exhausted by this type of geographic systems alone? And the systems of landscape science and the systems of socio-economic geography - isn't this a geographical reality, isn't it the world that geography studies?
Answering these questions is not easy. First of all, let us try to imagine a hierarchy of realities or their historical sequence of emergence. With the exception of the group of physical forms of motion (processes), all forms of motion of matter known to us arise and exist not just within the Galaxy, but their entire history unfolds only on planets. At the same time, no matter what connections and relationships are established between these realities in the development of the planet, the main thing is the emergence of its material objects, i.e. those processes or forms of movement that produce and reproduce all its content. Thus, the absence of intelligent life on the planet indicates the absence of social reality there (at least at this stage of development).
Consider the main stages of the development of the Earth. Initially, physical and chemical processes or forms of matter movement arise on the planet, with which the existence of physical and chemical realities is associated. Then a geological reality appears, represented by systems that eventually merge into an integral system - the lithosphere. The presence of the lithosphere is a necessary condition for the emergence of primary geographic systems, consisting of objects of the hydrosphere, troposphere, and sculptural landforms. These systems act as carriers of such geographical phenomena as climate, runoff and topography. These primary geographic systems play an essential role in the life of the planet. Firstly, they do not occur on every planet; moreover, they are the highest stage in the development of inanimate nature in general. Secondly, these geographical conditions are necessary for the emergence of life on the planet, or at least its higher forms. And, thirdly, only in the presence of developed geographical conditions is it possible to move from biological life to a rational civilization. The change in the group of physical forms of movement of chemical, geological, geographical, biological and, finally, the social form of movement - such is the historical sequence of the emergence of fundamentally new realities in the development of the Earth as a planet.

However, such a correlation between the form of movement, the type of reality and the object does not always suit science. Let's take geography, for example. The emergence of systems of the primary geographic envelope, consisting of objects of the hydrosphere, troposphere and sculptural landforms, is based on a special geographical process, or heat and moisture exchange between these components, which is both the cause of their occurrence and the basis of their existence and development. These geographic systems, whose content is climate, runoff, and relief, are the main object of general physical geography. But this by no means exhausts the whole content of geographical science. The complexity of this geographical reality already forces us to subdivide general physical geography into particular physical-geographical sciences, the object of study of which are the individual components of the physical-geographical system. Hydrology, oceanology, cryolithology, climatology and geomorphology emerge. It should be noted that the development of these sciences meets the level of the needs of modern social practice. Society still does not have the opportunity to study the geographic system or the primary geographic reality as a whole and apply this knowledge for practical purposes.
It can be noted that the primary geographical reality also consists of two types of systems: dialectical and autonomous. The latter, as parts of dialectical systems, arise and exist only within the framework of a given whole. Like an integral system, they exist on the basis of a single geographic heat and moisture exchange. But the laws of the structure and functioning of the dialectical whole cannot be reduced to the sum of the laws of its parts. Therefore, the laws of general physical geography and the laws of particular physical and geographical sciences differ from each other.
Correlation systems in geography. If the objects of primary geographic reality named above have their essence geographic heat and moisture exchange, i.e. arise and exist only on the basis of this geographical process and differ from each other as parts and whole, then this cannot be said about the object of landscape science. But who is to say that landscapes are not a geographical reality? This type of systems has been widely studied in geography for a long time. It is still considered almost the only proper geographical object. The peculiarity of this type of systems lies in the fact that the system-forming links in them are the correlation or adaptation of components of a higher order to components of a lower organization. Even A. Tansley, defining the ecosystem, noted that in the josistem, the climate forces the soils to adapt to its characteristics, but the reverse effect of soils on the climate is negligible. All this applies to the landscape. We note in this connection that JI.C. Berg understood the natural landscape as a combination of relief, climate and vegetation, and that their combination forms a special "landscape organism". And if we talk about cultural landscapes, then Berg included a person and works of his culture in their content. The city or village was also considered by him as an integral part of the cultural landscape. He understood geography as the science of landscapes.

All this helps to understand that the system-forming factors in the natural landscape are geographic factors - climate, runoff and topography. This allows us to consider landscapes as geographical systems. But landscapes are geographical systems of a special type, which are formed at the junction of the geographical shell and the biosphere, consisting of biogeocenoses. They are fundamentally different from the objects of the hydrosphere and troposphere - the primary geographic reality in their content, backbone relationships and vertical thickness. They are secondary in origin (they appear only with the advent of life on Earth) and have a different essence, in comparison with the physiographic systems discussed above, which are based on geographic heat and moisture exchange.
Natural landscapes include wildlife systems - soils and living organisms. And cultural landscapes are of a person and the works of his culture. It is not physical geography that deals with the study of landscapes, as F.N. Milkov, and a special science - landscape science, which he considered as a private physical and geographical science, similar to geomorphology, climatology and hydrology. He opposed the identification of the geographic and landscape shells of the Earth. However, given the different system essence of the objects of physical geography considered above, on the one hand, and landscape, on the other, it can be argued that landscape science is not a private physical and geographical science, such as climatology, hydrology or geomorphology. Landscape science lies at the intersection of physical geography and biology, and in the case of cultural landscapes, at the intersection with some social sciences.

Systems of socio-economic geography. Geographical systems, like landscapes, with correlation system-forming links, are studied by socio-economic geography. Being a social science in its main parameters, it belongs to the totality of geographical sciences, since it studies economic and social processes and phenomena in the territorial, geographical aspect. It is clear that these systems refer to a new reality that is not reducible to either natural, geographical or social reality. These systems lie at the intersection of society and geographical nature. Economic and social geography, relying, on the one hand, on the laws of the development of society, and on the other hand, on the laws of nature, is engaged in the analysis and forecast of territorial interactions in the system "nature - population - economy". This is how modern domestic geographers interpret the object and subject of socio-economic geography. In our opinion, in this definition it is necessary to clarify what is meant by interaction with geographical nature (climate, runoff, relief), and not with any natural phenomena and processes. Are we talking about a rational territorial organization of productive forces, about the spatial structures of the population, nature management and economy, whether territorial production complexes (TPCs) and economic regions, energy and transport systems, settlement systems, industrial centers or agro-industrial complexes are analyzed - by the geographical aspect research is always taking into account the natural and geographical conditions.
However, the complex economic problems that have to be solved in modern society cannot be limited to geographic analysis alone. Social phenomena are simultaneously affected by many different natural and social factors. At the same time, and iii our opinion, a rather complex system is being formed and functions. 11o it is an object of study of social ecology, in which the geographical aspect does not always play a leading role. In this case, geography "works" for social ecology, and no one, except for geographers, can expertly assess the effect of geographical conditions.
Geographical shell of the planet as a set of dialectical systems. The emergence and development of primary geographic systems, the essence of which is heat and moisture exchange between objects in the hydrosphere and troposphere, led to the creation of a special geographic shell of the Earth. Here there is a constant exchange of heat and moisture not only within individual integral systems, but also between these systems themselves on a planetary plane. For example, global cooling of the climate causes the formation of glaciers and ice sheets. And they are formed from moisture evaporated from the surface of the oceans. This leads to a decrease in the level of the World Ocean and, as a result, to a redistribution of land and sea, a change in the shape of the continents, the emergence of new islands, etc., etc. At the same time, the integrity of the geographic shell is fundamentally different from the integrity of the systems that compose it. Therefore, the laws of the structure, functioning and development of the geographical shell are a special subject of geographical science.

The geographical shell as a special material system was identified by A.A. Grigoriev in 1932. Developing the dialectical-materialist doctrine of the forms of matter movement, he proposed a physical-geographical or simply geographical form of the movement of matter, which is a way of existence of a special surface shell. This geographical shell goes through three stages of development: inorganic - organic - and the stage when the geographical shell is influenced by human society. The essence of the first, inorganic, papa of the development of the geographic envelope consists of three interrelated and interdependent processes: climatic, hydrological and geomorphological. It is on the basis of these processes that the pseudo-material content of the geographic envelope arises: seas, oceans, glaciers and glaciers, lakes and rivers, air masses, clouds and cloud systems, as well as sculptural landforms. Grigoriev's reasoning was strongly influenced by the idea of ​​landscapes as an object of geography. It was impossible to imagine geography without the study of wildlife. Therefore, the second stage in the development of the geographical envelope is associated with the emergence of life. There is an inclusion of its processes in interaction with climatic, hydrological and geomorphological processes. The scientist believed that the content of the geographical envelope with the advent of life becomes richer, while maintaining the established opinion about landscapes as the main objects of geography. The third stage in the development of the geographic envelope is characterized by the impact of society on climatic, hydrological, geomorphological, as well as phyto-ecological-geographical and zooecological-geographical processes.
Unfortunately, the problem of the forms of motion of matter was not developed in the philosophical literature of that time. The absence of philosophical methodology had a negative impact on the fate of Grigoriev's fundamental concept. In this regard, they themselves made serious mistakes.
First, the essence of a dialectical system cannot change from stage to stage. The inorganic essence of the geographic envelope must be preserved at all stages of its development. This is his first methodological error. Secondly, Grigoriev, paying tribute to the idea of ​​the content of geographical science, when wildlife is an object of study in landscape science, included a biological form of movement in the composition of the geographical shell, and hence the geographical form of the movement of matter. This is his second methodological error. The biological form of movement, being the highest, cannot be included in the lower, geographical form, since the latter does not create biological objects. Thirdly, the scientists violated their own logic of reasoning. Why is the biological form of the motion of matter included in the geographic shell, being within its limits, but human society, also located inside the geographic shell, is not included in its composition?
All this shows how strong were the ideas about the landscape as an object of geography and how they “interfered” with the introduction of the methodology of the forms of the movement of matter into geography.

The bearers of the geographical form of reflection are the objects of the hydrosphere, which react in a specific way to the state of the troposphere and, thanks to this, support heat and moisture exchange between them. A.I. Voeikov at the beginning of the 20th century. predicted the existence of a special geographical form of reflection. He spoke about water bodies that react in a special way to the state of the troposphere. Voeikov called "rivers and lakes the mirror of the climate" or "the mirror of climate change". At the same time, these objects, as a geographical type of matter, are genetically and structurally related to the type of matter that previously arose on the planet. geological form movement. All objects of the hydrosphere consist of a special mineral or rock - water or ice.
The geographical form of movement, and hence the geographical reality, is the highest stage in the development of inorganic nature on the planet and, at the same time, a dead-end branch of development on Earth. Therefore, the social form of reflection is preceded not by the geographical form of reflection, but by the biological one, which occurs after the chemical form of reflection.
Moreover, the unstable terminology also made it difficult to solve the problem and led to serious criticisms. Some geographers, not commensurating the content of the landscape shell with the geographical shell according to Grigoriev, accused him of “an idealistic separation of movement from matter”, arguing that, according to his concept, air masses seem to float above landscapes. Consequently, the climatic process is divorced from the landscape.
The approach to the definition of geographical reality with the help of the concept of the geographical form of the motion of matter helps to understand such a difficult and important issue for geography as the relationship between the geographical shell and the landscape sphere.
Landscape sphere of the Earth as a set of correlation systems. Natural landscapes appear on the planet only in the conditions of a geographical envelope and are very difficult to correlate with it. There is no general process in the landscape that would create all its components - objects of geographical and biological reality. The relief, heat and moisture are also part of the geographic shell, and soils, microorganisms, flora and fauna have a biological essence and are objects of the biosphere, consisting of biogeocenoses. However, as an ecosystem in which biological components adapt to geographic ones and correlate with their properties, the landscape is a special system, partly included in the content of the geographic envelope, and partly in the biosphere. But landscapes differ from dialectical systems - and the rulers of the geographical form of the movement of matter also in terms of vertical power. If, for example, the vertical thickness of the air masses of the troposphere reaches 8-16 km, and in general the thickness of the geographic envelope is determined, according to some estimates, at 30-35 km, then the vertical thickness of the landscape sphere does not exceed only 200 m. Such, for example, is the idea of the ratio of the geographical shell and the landscape sphere in the works of F.N. Milkov.

All this suggests that, firstly, it is impossible to identify the geographical shell and the landscape sphere. These are realities that are different in essence and content. Secondly, the landscape sphere is only partially (for example, sculptural landforms) included in the geographical envelope, being much inferior to it in vertical thickness. Thirdly, if the geographical envelope is an object of physical geography, then the landscape sphere is an object of landscape science as a special geographical science. But landscape science cannot be identified with private physical and geographical sciences, since its object has a completely different essence.
There is a certain connection between natural landscapes. By means of biological and geographical components, they exchange matter and energy, affect each other in a specific way. And since correlations are weaker than interaction (a special case of correlation), the systemic character of the landscape sphere is much weaker than the systemic nature of the geographic shell.
Cultural (socio-natural) sphere of the Earth as a set of correlation systems studied by socio-economic geography. Like landscape science, which studies the landscape sphere, which consists of such correlation systems as landscapes, socio-economic geography studies the world as a set of special correlation systems. In such systems, socio-economic processes and phenomena are adapted or correlated with their physical and geographical components. Moreover, these territorial socio-economic systems influence each other in a certain way and thus form a special shell of the planet. Modern socio-economic geography not only considers it as an integral system, but studies the laws of its internal differentiation, the joint functioning and influence on each other of the systems that compose it. In socio-economic science, it is customary to single out a certain subordination of territorial communities by levels: large regions, individual countries, socio-economic regions, etc. “Such a division must comply with a certain rule: the most general and essential features of a given territorial unit must distinguish it from other units of the same level, but must be manifested in all its constituent territorial units of the next, lower level”1. The most difficult issue here is also the idea of ​​a geographical criterion for distinguishing these systems. Thus, when distinguishing macrosystems, the generally accepted geographical criterion - the division of the world into continents - raises a number of questions and is unacceptable in solving some problems.
The difficulty in determining the geographical criterion is due to the fact that as civilization develops, the significance of many geographical factors noticeably decreases or even reduces to zero. But if this is true in relation to the development of transport and communication technology, then in the field of spiritual and cultural life, the influence of the geographical factor remains significant.
"Socio-economic history of the foreign world. M., 2001. S. 13.

mmm. This is most clearly manifested in the difference in languages, religions, way of life, painting, poetry, music, dance, etc. The entire history of the material and spiritual culture of peoples has always been closely connected with the geographic conditions of life. Any ethnic group is an element of a correlation system in which its material and spiritual culture adapts to natural conditions. The most important factors influencing it are, first of all, physical and geographical factors.
That is why the definition of the concept of culture should include not only a person and the results of his cultural activity, but also those natural factors with which social phenomena are correlated. That is why the sociosphere, as a shell consisting of such dialectical systems as individual countries, itself, in turn, is part of a wider shell, consisting of correlation systems such as society and its geographical environment (here a sociological concept denoting a historically changing set of natural conditions for the existence of society). In socio-economic geography, we are not interested in all of nature that affects society, but only in the role of geographical factors. That is why some authors note: "The definition of a macro-region can be reduced to the following formulation: a macro-region of the world is a historically established complex of neighboring peoples belonging to the same regional civilization and interdependently developing in certain geographical conditions." The shell of the planet, consisting of similar macro- and microsystems, in which socio-economic components adapt to physical and geographical conditions, is the object of study of socio-economic geography.
Thus, the main criterion for distinguishing material geographic systems of various types or the criterion for the geographic scope of the study is their close connection with such physical and geographical factors as climate, runoff, and topography.
Based on a systematic analysis of objects of geographical disciplines, it can be concluded that geography studies not only the actual geographical reality (climate, runoff and relief), but also such systems that are the result of the impact of this physical and geographical reality on the objects of other sciences.

It is impossible to understand the place of geography among the sciences and its internal structure without a deep and comprehensive study of the geographical reality itself and its connection with the realities that are studied by other sciences. A common shortcoming in the study of modern geography, in our opinion, is that scientists studying certain sections of geography - physical or socio-economic - tend to absolutize their object (and subject of study), present it as a standard of true geographical research. The mention of absolutization is not a reservation, because the objects of both geographies deal with "geographicity", but only to a different extent. However, this does not prevent them from understanding geography as a single science, the components of which are physical and socio-economic geography.
All difficulties begin immediately with the clarification of "geography". However, this is geography's own affliction, and it will cope with it. Abstract theorizing and philosophizing about the unity of geography, divorced from the actual content of geography itself, do more harm to geography.
So, the place of geography in the genetic classification of sciences, built according to the forms of the movement of matter, is determined by the position of the geographical form of the movement of matter among other forms of movement, since the appearance of geographical reality on Earth is connected with it. At the same time, the same relations are gradually developing between the sciences as between the forms of movement. For example, the genetic and structural connection between higher and lower forms of movement is also reflected in the content of the sciences about these forms of movement. Among the forms of movement: the group of physical - chemical - geological - geographical, the latter is the highest stage of the inorganic development of the planet, as if a dead end branch in the evolution of the forms of movement of inanimate nature. But the significance of the geographical form of the motion of matter in the development of the planet is difficult to overestimate. Only the presence of geographical conditions leads to the emergence of life, especially its developed forms, and the emergence of an intelligent civilization. The geological and geographical forms of the motion of matter are a necessary condition for the emergence on the planet of biological and social forms of motion. Only under these conditions, another branch of the forms of movement, going from the group of physical through the chemical form of movement, continues the development of the planet to the biological, and then to the social form of movement.
Thus, if we take into account that a special material reality is associated with each form of the movement of matter, and the data of modern science only confirm the importance of geographical conditions in the development of the planet, then we can conclude that geography is one of the basic sciences. But the structure of geography, due to the special position of its main object as the highest stage in the development of inorganic nature, is quite complex. So, from the side of the essence of the most geographical form of the movement of matter (the unity of climatic, hydrological and geomorphological processes), which acts as a way of existence of geographical reality, geography is a natural science.

Moreover, the correlation of geographical reality with the objects of the biosphere gives rise to natural landscapes, and landscape science also belongs to the natural geographical sciences, with the exception of landscape science, which studies cultural landscapes and belongs to the social sciences. All sections of socio-economic geography that study territorial systems in which geographic factors (climate, relief flows) are the system-forming components are among the social geographical sciences. Note that neither landscape science nor socio-economic geography have biological or social laws proper, respectively. They study the laws of objects, consisting of elements of geographical and biological reality - landscape science, and geographical and social reality - socio-economic geography. Geography, like a butterfly, has two wings: geographical natural science (landscape science) and geographical social (socio-economic geography). In both cases, the backbone are physical and geographical conditions. The body of such a butterfly is formed by physical geography, which has its own object - geographical reality (geographical form of the movement of matter). Physical geography is subdivided into private physical and geographical disciplines that study the main components of geographical reality: objects of the hydrosphere, troposphere, and sculptural landforms. Thus, the integrity of geography is conditioned by the geographical reality itself. Any geographical research, any geographical science is necessarily connected with climate, runoff and topography.