An ecological crisis is a special type of situation that has developed in ecology, in which the habitat of a population (or an individual species) changes to the level of the impossibility of its further existence.
If we talk about humanity, then active intervention in the established natural cycle began from the moment of occupation by agriculture in fact, it was then that the era of the conquest of the planet by man began.
What is an environmental crisis
Ecological crises in scientific circles are usually called a steady violation of the established balance that has developed between society and nature: it consists in the gradual degradation of the environment and the parallel inability of structures at the state level to take the necessary measures to resolve the current situation and restore a favorable state.
What causes the ecological crisis
The environmental crisis on the planet, as a rule, is caused by several serious reasons, which in themselves may not play a significant role, but together they can be a serious impetus. These usually include:
Here we are talking about a change in abiotic factors, which are usually called in ecology, for example, an increase in average temperature, a decrease in precipitation, and similar moments that affect the external environment.
For example, this can happen due to an increase in the number of predators, or under the influence of factors such as overpopulation.
These include the irrational distribution of limited resources along with their irrational use, as well as greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to the activities of enterprises, and similar nuances.
History of environmental crises
During human history, science identifies several options for environmental crises:
This kind of crisis directly proved to be an influencing stimulus for the emergence of mankind.
Such a critical situation was associated with the overfishing of consumer animals of large species during the Upper Pleistocene.
This problem led to rainfed agriculture, which is notable for rainfed agriculture, which was characterized by a long era of cultural stagnation until the Middle Ages.
This problem was caused by deforestation but at the same time, this situation stimulated the use and extraction of mineral resources, which caused the industrial revolution and, in the end, deepened this crisis further.
This period was due to the impossibility on the part of decomposers to deal with the decomposition of chemical compounds that are not provided for in nature.
Dangers of the ecological crisis
The power of mankind, together with the denial of the need to solve the problems that have arisen in connection with its development, today has turned into a very tough environmental situation on the verge of a global crisis, the reality of which is indicated by a huge number of changes observed in the environment. The development of the crisis in the event that coordinated actions are not taken to stop it from the whole world, will have an inevitable result in the form of a global catastrophe.
For people, a crisis is not only a deterioration in the quality of the surrounding living conditions, and the current (and, of course, potential) threats associated with its change, but also a change in the qualities of the person himself through the disintegration of his genome. And the continuous and constantly accelerating growth in the number of hereditary problems and diseases in almost every country in the world clearly indicates this.
Problems
The very essence of the environmental problem lies in the fact that anthropogenic factors, increasing their pressure on the biosphere, can cause a complete break in natural cycles, thanks to which biological resources are reproduced, the soil, waters, and the atmosphere as a whole are cleansed.
This state of affairs can cause a rapid change in the ecological atmosphere for the worse: and as a result, the situation can cause the death of the planet and its population.
Ecologists have been talking for a long time about the growth of the greenhouse state, about the shift and increase in ozone holes, about the increasing amount of acid precipitation: such trends in the development of the general biosphere can become global in nature and eventually become a serious threat to the future development of the planet.
Such a crisis can have several options:
The global crisis is much more serious than the local one, and the fight against it is more difficult and difficult. It is possible to solve this problem only by minimizing the pollution produced by mankind, bringing them to a level that the entire ecosystem can fight on its own.
At the moment, the global crisis in its composition has several components that need to be worked with:
The reasons
The ecological crisis implies that man is an integral part of the global ecosystem, which is undergoing changes as a result of the existence of mankind and its activities.
Such natural and social moments are a single whole and their interaction has a significant impact on the destruction of the entire system.
The negative phenomena that are evidence of the general trouble of the planet include the following reasons:
Stages of the ecological crisis
The activity of mankind throughout its existence is aimed at obtaining the necessary products intended for consumption, along with minimizing labor costs for such activities. A person processes the resources available for this to improve the conditions of his existence. And such an activity for some time perfectly fit into the level of natural biological cycles, without violating the general planetary cycle.
But due to the gradual growth of needs, the volume of activities for the receipt and processing of benefits turn out to be significantly unbalanced.
If we talk about the stages of the crisis, then everything is quite transparent here:
Therefore, to ensure their livelihoods, a person engaged in artificial cattle breeding, which gave certain advantages over the usual hunting as a means of obtaining food.
Thanks to this, man began to consume plant food in addition to animal food, producing it by the method of slash-and-burn agriculture. Thanks to the simple technology of this technique, it was possible to achieve a high level of yield, but at the same time it was necessary to sacrifice the possibility of destroying a significant forest area.
To increase yield indicators, the irrigation system began to be used and with excessive amounts of water, this caused soil salinations, and the appearance of salt deserts.
If the first two stages were local in nature and did not have much influence on the general processes that occur in the biosphere, then the modern stage created serious prerequisites for the complete depletion of many natural resources that are not subject to restoration, up to their destruction.
This stage is characterized by a huge volume of unheated waste, and, as a result, irreversible pollution of the entire surrounding nature.
The development of the environmental crisis
The forms of manifestation of an environmental problem include:
Among the representatives of science there is no consensus on the state of the ecological situation in general. Today there are several points of view:
At the moment, all scientists agree on one thing this problem is of global importance, and with the current attitude towards it, an environmental crisis awaits humanity inevitably and soon.
At the same time, a crisis has its own differences from a catastrophe: a crisis is reversible (with the active participation of mankind), but a catastrophe is an irreversible phenomenon. This means that it is possible to overcome the crisis, but the effectiveness of the ways to achieve such a result depends on the whole society, i.e.e. from every person.
Consequences of the ecological crisis
Modern environmental problems are characterized by rapid population growth and scales that mankind has never encountered before.
Despite the death of many people, due to the level of military equipment and the growth of technological progress (two world conflicts and the technical disasters of Chernobyl, Fukushima) caused concern for the future fate of mankind.
In economically developed countries, the amount of energy that is generated per citizen is constantly growing. For example, since the middle of the last century, energy consumption by the inhabitants of the planet has increased by dozens of times, and taking into account the use of new technologies and new fossil fuels, by hundreds of times. This caused an increase in oxygen dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. And this growth has only exacerbated the problems we are talking about global warming and air pollution. However, traditional energy does not have the ability to provide humanity with the necessary level of energy without the risk of causing an environmental disaster.
Overcoming the ecological crisis
Scientists have long been thinking about ways to overcome this situation:
Of course, in addition to local national acts that regulate the activities of enterprises and the relations of the state and its citizens in the field of environmental legal relations, interstate relations in this area will also be of significant importance.
The crisis can be overcome if people understand that life on the planet absolutely and completely depends on people’s attitude to nature and on their work to harmonize cooperation with the natural world.
