The fact that in Moscow the criteria that determine the levels of environmental hazard were characterized as red is not lazy to write. Residents of the city realized that the situation is threatening - after all, it is this meaning that is attributed to this color. Nevertheless, not everyone imagines what environmental hazard criteria are. A huge number of people currently live in Moscow, industry is working, and transport is driving. But does this only shape the situation? Why did the criteria for the level of environmental hazard in Moscow reach a critical point and how to understand the situation? Does this affect the life of an ordinary person?
general information
In modern society, an increasing percentage of the population is faced with environmental problems. This is due to the economic crisis, which has covered many countries, and the high level of wear and tear of used machinery and equipment. At the same time, the presence of objects that potentially carry a risk to life is important for the criterion of environmental hazard. Some areas are very densely populated, which also negatively affects the environment, and disasters occur more often every year, their scale is horrific.
The criteria of environmental hazard levels used in our time allow us to understand how threatening the situation is and how urgently it is necessary to take measures to stabilize the situation, including systemic ones. After all, it is necessary to prevent a large-scale all-planet catastrophe.
What to do?
Scientists, activists, explaining what criteria determine the levels of environmental hazard, suggest starting work with the zoning of the planet and assigning each site a specific rating. It will depend on the state of the environment. In this case, it is necessary to take into account environmental friendliness, the possibility of improving the situation and the potential risks associated with economic activity. The problems of the survival of civilization on our planet were posed by an edge in the last century. Even then, in his speeches and works, Academician Moiseyev called for special attention to be paid to nature. It was he who formulated that the main scientific question of our days is to ensure the future for humanity, destroying its own habitat.
Environmental criteria adopted in our time clearly demonstrate that the situation in the world is getting worse every year. Trends reflect an increase in danger, and the international community does not respond to the calls of activists. Not so long ago, in his speeches, the scientist Meadows also urged to pay attention to indicators of environmental criteria - as soon as growth exceeds the predicted boundaries of the possible, a global crisis will ensue. In this situation, the fact of human survival on the planet will really be called into question.
Russia: safety and the environment
In our country, the environmental criterion has also long been under the scrutiny of scientists, although the interpretation of this term in different scientific approaches was slightly different. To this day, a single generally accepted list of such parameters has not been developed, which creates certain difficulties in adjusting the circumstances.
Since 1991, a public safety program was introduced. Its primary task is to assess environmental criteria, taking into account the increased risk of disasters, both natural and man-made. The main goal formulated during the introduction of the program was to create such legal, technical, scientific, economic and social bases on the basis of which it would be possible to create an environmentally friendly national policy. This would help make human existence safe and bring the country's territory back to normal. The program was supposed to protect the habitat from large-scale accidents, as well as eliminate the consequences of what already happened.
Already done, as well as what's ahead
When the leading scientists of Russia put forward their wording of what criteria determine the levels of environmental hazard, and the government agreed to the publication of relevant federal laws, in fact, the government recognized that it was necessary to create geographic information systems to prevent disasters and minimize their consequences. Work began on atlases, maps that reflect the risks of a spontaneous, man-made character. These currently exist both for our country and for the entire planet. The environmental criterion determines the need for timely work to ensure safety, taking into account the densely populated area and the presence of potentially risky sites. At the same time, the discrepancies in this approach do not allow developing a unified global strategy applicable in all countries of the world with a high level of responsibility.
Primary questions
Currently, the environmentalists of both our country and the whole world are faced with the task of developing the foundations of a methodology that would make it possible to comprehensively regionalize and evaluate territories according to the level of danger from a scientific point of view. It is also necessary to introduce such mechanisms for managing the situation that would at the municipal and regional level allow optimizing and normalizing the situation.
At the same time, it is important to clarify the current terminology. In particular, the ecological, morphological criterion and the parameter governing the level of danger in a particular area should not be missed. If the first involves the division of all existing living organisms into species, each of which has its own characteristics of morphology, habitat, then the second involves the assessment of pollution and human influence on the life of nature.
Risk Analysis: The Right Approach
In order to accurately assess the level of danger from an environmental point of view and develop the right programs to improve the situation, you must be able to correctly analyze the current situation, as well as select criteria and units that would be characteristic of the study area. In different parts of the planet you need to use different parameters, taking into account the characteristics of the territory and the specifics of the influencing factors. At the same time, the task of scientists is to create such an algorithm that would make it possible to comprehensively assess the state of our world.
A modern approach to environmental problems involves the identification of priority areas of work. It is important to take preventive measures to prevent the catastrophic state of the planet. To do this, you need to be able to identify areas of increased risk and develop ways to reduce it before a disaster occurs. Scientists around the world are working on creating schemes for the interaction of management personnel and representatives of environmental activists. Without the correct and mutually beneficial cooperation of these two groups of representatives of human society, the exact selection of environmental criteria and adjusting the situation with their consideration is simply impossible.
Options
Examples of environmental criteria:
- technogenic impact on the natural environment;
- quality of the environment (water, air masses).
When assessing the situation, it is important to calculate the state of the environment using the method of integrals, including analyzing the biotic component. Examples of environmental criteria are also the demographic parameters of the selected area. Scientists analyze the technological, natural hazards characteristic of the selected site. The summarized parameters give an accurate and detailed picture of all the components of the environment: abiotic, biotic.
Criteria: features of the selection
In order to correctly and accurately assess the state of the environment, it is important to use indicators that would reflect the existing hierarchy, including the person’s position in nature, his health, and also the current situation. This allows us to formulate biological, environmental risks, including those that provoke harm to the environment, biosphere, fauna, flora.
As can be seen from the scientific papers devoted to the issue under discussion, mainly risks are associated with external factors. These can be natural disasters and the products they create. In particular, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and floods, storms and tsunamis, long periods without precipitation, leading to long-term droughts, have a significant effect.
It’s not without people
It is equally important when selecting environmental criteria to take into account the human impact on the environment. The anthropogenic nature of activities detrimental to the world is of the most varied activity of people. At the same time, the biosphere suffers greatly, the surrounding space is polluted by chemical components, causing poisoning of various life forms. Emissions from industry accumulate in soil, living organisms, and reservoirs. Through biotic forms, the spread of toxic substances to large areas.
These factors not only lead to significant environmental damage, but also affect the safety of an individual person. Already today, environmentalists are aware of a huge number of situations when the ill-conceived, unreasonable, not calculated activity of civilization provoked environmental changes that cannot be reversed. Mostly these are negative processes from which all life forms suffer, including the person himself.
Risks: approach wisely
Analysis of environmental risks always begins with the formulation of this concept from a scientific point of view. Currently, the policy aimed at protecting nature, adopted in our country at the official level, sets priorities by revising the norms and rules that were in force in the past.
Such large-scale changes in laws and codes are due to the fact that the currently adopted regulatory system has proven to be low efficiency. The concept of "norm" in our time is too extensible, by virtue of which interested parties can manipulate it, benefiting, but not bearing responsibility for the harm done to the surrounding space. This forces the adjustment of policies at the state level. Pollution annually progresses more actively and environmental risk is thereby laid a very solid foundation.
What is it about?
Environmental risk is different, a lot depends on the level of assessment. You can formulate it in a dotted format, or you can - in a global one. In any case, it will be a probabilistic assessment of the negative adjustment of the environment provoked either by human activities or other influencing factors. Environmental risk is formed by three elements:
- the state of the living world;
- human health (including forecasts of the number of victims in the event of a disaster);
- the influence of components polluting the space, including accidents, disasters.
If a certain region has been ranked as a zone of increased environmental risk, then it is assigned to areas with chronic pollution, or with exceeding the norm of the level of danger. It can also be a disaster area or an emergency.
Medicine and social sciences
Both doctors and sociologists do not bypass the environmental risk problem. A specific scale has been created, the use of which can characterize how large the negative impact on the environment of technogenic factors. Within this scale, four steps are distinguished:
- Prosperous. When life expectancy increases, the likelihood of disease decreases, and the risks are virtually zero.
- Tense. The quality of the environment is gradually deteriorating, and the load produced by human activities is growing. Such a zone is characterized by a decrease in human health indicators, but this does not have a strong effect on statistics. It is important to analyze only reliable information. The risk of this situation is moderate.
- Poor That is, such an area where the quality of the environment is steadily deteriorating and indicators cannot be replenished. Housekeeping is strictly limited by economic and social factors, the health of people living, cases of disability go beyond the norm, statistics show a significant decrease in life expectancy. Such zones are characterized by a pronounced environmental risk.
- The last step is catastrophic. Nature collapses, restoration processes are impossible, the animal world undergoes irreversible disabilities, the population needs medical help, and life expectancy is much lower than normal. For such sites urgent evacuation is necessary, and the risk is assessed as extreme. Living in such a place is impossible.
Output
If environmental risk is assessed as moderate, pronounced, then the impact on the part of people on the environment is considered to threaten fauna, flora, and humanity. In recent years, the media regularly publish information about the disastrous situation in our country. But people who have long been accustomed to such reports often do not even pay attention to this, including those who live in dangerous areas. If you believe the statistics, at least one seventh of the territory of our country, where about one third of all Russian citizens live, is a zone with an unsatisfactory state of ecology, and the fluctuations vary from a moderate to a pronounced one. In addition to the capital, St. Petersburg and many cities of the Central Federal District, as well as the northern regions, are at risk. Special attention is traditionally attracted to Norilsk. Nevertheless, every year the state of the environment is only getting worse, and no real measures have been taken to normalize the environment.