Four laws of the rules of ecology formulated. Four laws of ecology according to Barry Commoner. "Nature knows best"

Barry Commoner became a well-known environmentalist through his widely circulated books. He succeeded in explaining to American society the danger of a frivolous attitude to the environment in popular science language. The famous Commoner's laws are a generalization of the conclusions that the researcher made for long years his professional career.

Biography of Commoner

The future scientist Barry Commoner was born in 1917 in New York, in a family of emigrants from Russian Empire. He decided to devote his life to science. The young man entered which he graduated in 1941. The young specialist received a doctorate in biology. While still at university, he became interested in studying the problem of the destruction of the ozone layer.

The scientist's research formed the basis of several of his books on ecology. In them, among other things, Commoner's laws were published, which became the hallmark of the researcher. Some of the scientist's books were published even in the Soviet Union. At first glance, it may seem strange, but the Commoner was great for the USSR. The fact was that the American ecologist adhered to socialist views. A combination of leftist ideology and environmental studies became the foundation for his books The Closing Circle and The Technology of Profit. They also have Commoner's laws.

Capitalism harms the environment

Commoner believed that modern industrial technologies, as well as intensive fuel extraction, were a threat to all mankind. everything grows because of the desire of entrepreneurs and the state to extract maximum profit. Commoner criticize the capitalist system, in which it is nature that suffers the most.

The scientist also tried to convey to his readers the idea that the damage caused can no longer be compensated. Man has no opportunity to restore the lost ecosystem. Therefore, Commoner's laws were based on the need to prevent possible harm rather than heal the wounds already inflicted by society.

Alternative energy sources

The American environmentalist not only pointed out the shortcomings modern production. He also offered solutions to get out of the current situation. Commoner has been a strong advocate for the use of renewable energy sources. The first is, of course, sunlight.

Commoner's ideas were expressed in the 70s. Today, you can see the implementation of many of his projects with your own eyes. Solar panels, windmills - all this has already become a common source of energy for rich countries. These technologies are used not only in large enterprises, but even in the homes of ordinary citizens. The market for solar panels in the US and Europe is growing at the fastest pace today.

Redistribution of benefits

Commoner's famous laws of ecology also refer to the social problems that caused pollution. environment. The twentieth century widened the gap between rich and poor countries even further. In some states there is rapid technological progress, in others life changes very slowly.

These gave rise to the term "Third World countries". Mostly it's Africa. On the other hand, Asia has a huge problem of overpopulation. Giant Chinese cities are world leaders in smog and other emissions harmful substances into the Earth's atmosphere.

Barry Commoner's laws are based on socialist ideas. The scientist proposed to distribute the world's wealth. According to his idea, the extra funds of wealthy societies should have been used to improve the life of countries with low level life. This would avoid huge environmental issues in these regions. Due to overpopulation, rivers become shallow, subsoil resources become scarce, and stable natural ties and chains are destroyed.

"Everything is connected to everything"

There are 4 Commoner's laws in total. The first of them is called "Everything is connected with everything." What is its logic? Commoner in his books tried to explain that everything that happens in nature is closely interconnected. If a person harms one part of the environment, then he naturally harms the rest.

Commoner's Law "Everything is related to everything" is also called the law of dynamic internal balance. This principle says that even small changes made by a person to the world around him, over time, develop into a catastrophe.

Consider an example. A company specializing in the sale of timber is cutting down the forest intensively. How can this affect the rest of nature? As the number of trees decreases, the amount of free oxygen also decreases. In addition, there are additional emissions of nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere, which depletes the ozone layer. Finally, the last link in this chain will be the increase in ultraviolet radiation, which is harmful to all living organisms.

Darwin and buckwheat

It should be noted that Commoner's basic laws of ecology were formulated by him thanks to his knowledge of the work of his predecessors. As you know, the scientist in his specialized education was a biologist. He studied Darwinian theory a lot and was familiar with the biography of his famous predecessor in detail.

In one of his books, Commoner recounted a curious fact from the life of the founder of the idea of evolution. One day, farmers approached Darwin with a request for advice on how to increase the buckwheat crop. The scientist answered quite unexpectedly. He suggested that the peasants get more cats. Darwin, like Commoner, was well aware of the interconnectedness of everything that happens in nature. He understood that the new cats would exterminate the peasants who regularly spoiled the buckwheat crop. This story is a perfect illustration of what Barry Commoner wanted to say. The laws of ecology, as this example shows, are proved empirically.

"Everything has to go somewhere"

Commoner's second law affects the phenomenon of redistribution of substances in the environment. This principle, formulated is called "Everything has to go somewhere." In the natural state of nature, each substance has its own cycle of "life". Only that which can disappear in the future is synthesized in the environment.

Barry Commoner's laws state that this is a natural process. And it's hard to disagree with that. However, since humanity entered the modern era, it has been systematically producing artificial substances that are extremely difficult to destroy without consequences for nature. For example, these are DDT, polyethylene, etc. The same list can include resources extracted from the bowels of the earth. Refined and used oil leaves an indelible mark on the environment. B. Commoner's laws and his whole theory criticize such production. Oil, ore and other substances are converted into new compounds that cannot be dispersed in the environment.

Waste management

Man can no longer abandon modern industry. At the same time, it is also not possible to make it completely waste-free. Therefore, the scientist suggested at least minimizing the damage that production causes to nature.

The environmental laws of Barry Commoner state that, firstly, new technologies should be as resource-intensive as possible. Secondly, it is necessary to create such a production in which the waste of human activity could be used as a raw material. Finally, thirdly, if the emission harmful products inevitable, the society is obliged to create for them a reasonable system of burial and disposal.

"Nature knows best"

Commoner's third law concerns the complexity of the world around us. Even modern man, with all his technologies, cannot know all the relationships within nature. The biosphere is made up of millions of different beings. It is divided into many zones. The flora and fauna of the world have evolved over billions of years. If a person intervenes in these processes, even if he wants to improve the situation around him, he will only cause additional harm.

Commoner's environmental laws urge people to be careful. Active transformations of nature can lead to the fact that our entire world will be unsuitable for normal life. Human interventions are represented by hundreds of illustrative cases in recent times alone. For example, the shooting of wolves in some northern forests has led to this natural area lost her natural "orderlies". Sparrows were massacred in China. The inhabitants of the country believed that huge flocks of these birds harm crops. When the sparrows disappeared, insects took their place, and there was no one to eat them. Changes in the biological chain have led to even greater crop losses in China.

"Nothing comes for free"

This is Commoner's last law. He has another interpretation, which says that "you have to pay for everything." The law is based on the principle that the natural system always develops at the expense of the environment. A single biosphere consists of many parts. If something new appears in it, then it will surely replace something old.

The same can be said about the technological achievements of mankind. If we create something that affects nature, then this will lead to some losses in the environment. B. Commoner's laws of ecology are connected with the principle of internal dynamic balance, which was already mentioned in the description of the first law.

The scientist compared the transformation of nature with the payment of a bill. A person will have to destroy something old in order to get something new. At the same time, he can delay the inevitable payment "on a bill", but sooner or later he will still have to pay. The fourth law has a vivid example. This is agriculture. With the annual cultivation of vegetables in the same place, the level of nutrients in the soil (phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium, etc.) decreases. Each time the harvest is getting smaller and smaller. In the end, a person has to either leave this area or treat it with fertilizers.

Ecotechnologies

Commoner proposed to create a new type of production that would work in harmony with nature. These are the so-called eco-technologies. The scientist believed that such projects could well be implemented if, by their logic, they coincide with the processes taking place in the biosphere or even continue them. Therefore, mankind should find out those principles, thanks to which nature maintains its balance. Already relying on these rules, society will be able to create environmentally friendly production.

An example is the situation with the processing of substances. In nature, they decompose only with the help of microorganisms. But some human waste only harms the environment. Therefore, according to Commoner, humanity should throw into the biosphere only what it can absorb itself. The rest must be processed artificially with the help of modern technologies. This is a matter of environmental feasibility.

Barry Commoner is a famous American environmental scientist. He is also the author of several books and a well-known social and political activist.

Commoner was born in 1917. He attended Harvard University and received his Ph.D. in biology in 1941. The main theme of his work, Commoner as a biologist, chose - the problem of the destruction of the ozone layer.

In 1950, Commoner, being an opponent of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, tried to draw public attention to this problem. In 1960, he was involved in other environmental issues, including environmental issues and research into energy sources. He has written many books: Science and Survival (1967), The Closing Circle (1971), Energy and Human Welfare (1975), The Poverty of Power (1976), The Politics of Energy (1979), and Making Peace with the Planet ( 1990).

It took humanity almost 5 million years until its population reached 1 billion. Then it took only 50 years (in 1920-1970) until it doubled, that is, it grew from 1.8 billion to 3.5 billion people. In 1987, the population of the Earth was 5 billion people. By the middle of the next century, it may reach 12-14 billion people. Over the entire history of human existence, almost 150 species of mammals have disappeared, of which more than 40 species have disappeared over the past 50 years. Over the past 30 years, more than 40 species and 40 subspecies of birds have disappeared.

Ecology as a science is the theoretical basis for environmental protection and rational nature management. The laws of ecology were formulated in 1974 by B. Commoner. They boil down to four basic principles that explain sustainable development nature and calls on mankind to be guided by them in their influence on the environment.

3. Nature knows best - the law has a double meaning - at the same time a call to get closer to nature and a call to be extremely careful with natural systems. This law is based on the results of the emergence and development of life on earth, on natural selection in the process of life evolution. So, for any organic substance produced by organisms, there is an enzyme in nature that can decompose this substance. In nature, no organic substance will be synthesized if there are no means for its decomposition.

Contrary to this law, man has created (and continues to create) chemical compounds that, when released into the natural environment, do not decompose, accumulate and pollute it (polyethylene, DDT, etc.). This law warns us about the need for a reasonable transformation of natural systems (the construction of dams, the transfer of river flow, land reclamation, and much more).

4. Nothing is free (free translation - in the original, something like “There are no free meals”) The global ecological system, that is, the biosphere, is a single whole, within which any gain is associated with losses, but, with on the other hand, everything that is extracted from nature must be replaced. Payments on this bill cannot be avoided, they can only be deferred.

First Law

Everything is connected to everything

1. Everything is connected to everything. This law reflects the existence of a colossal network of connections in the biosphere between living organisms and the natural environment. Any change in quality natural environment on existing links transmitted both within biogeocenoses and between them, affects their development.

Barry Commoner's first law of ecology draws our attention to the general connection between processes and phenomena in nature and is very close in meaning to the law of internal dynamic equilibrium: a change in one of the system indicators causes functional and structural quantitative and qualitative changes, while the system itself leaves a total amount of material and energetic qualities. The rabbit eats grass, the wolf eats the rabbit, but both the rabbit and the wolf have the same goal - to provide their bodies with food and, most importantly, energy.

Energy in various forms connects all organisms on Earth with each other and with their environment.

Almost all the energy, due to which all life on Earth exists, comes to Earth in the form of solar radiation. Different groups of organisms have their own sources of energy and substances. All of these are irreplaceable resources.

In nature, any organism is affected immediately by a huge number (tens and hundreds) various factors. In order for a living being to successfully exist and reproduce, these factors must fit into a certain range. This range is called the limit of tolerance (endurance) of a given type of organism. What unites living beings in a forest or a meadow - trees, flowers, butterflies flying above them? Butterfly caterpillars feed on plant leaves; Butterflies and bees need the nectar that flowers give them, and seeds in plants can only be set after the flowers have been pollinated by insects.

There is a well-known story about Darwin, who, when asked by his fellow countrymen about what to do to increase the buckwheat harvest, answered: “Dilute the cats.” And in vain fellow countrymen were offended. Darwin, knowing that in nature “everything is connected with everything,” reasoned as follows: cats will catch all mice, mice will stop destroying bumblebee nests, bumblebees will pollinate buckwheat and the peasants will get a good harvest of it.

For example, the destruction of forests and the subsequent decrease in oxygen, as well as the release of nitrogen oxide and freon into the atmosphere, led to the depletion of the ozone layer in the atmosphere, which, in turn, increased the intensity of ultraviolet radiation that reaches the earth and has a detrimental effect on living organisms. For example, over the past 40 years, 50 percent of the forests in the Nepalese Himalayas have been cut down, which are used either as fuel or for wood products. But as soon as the trees were cut down, the falling monsoon rains washed away the soil from the slopes of the mountains. Since it is impossible for young trees to take root without topsoil, many mountains are now devoid of vegetation. Every year Nepal loses millions of tons of topsoil due to deforestation.

Similar problems exist in other countries.

In Bangladesh, heavy rains used to be held up by trees; now torrents of water flow unhindered from the devoid of vegetation mountains to the coast, causing catastrophic floods there. In the past, floods of enormous destructive power occurred in Bangladesh once every 50 years, but now every four years or more often.

In other parts of the world, deforestation has led to desertification and climate change in certain areas. In addition to forests, there are other natural resources that people ruthlessly expend. Ecologists still know relatively little about how the parts of our giant ecosystem are interconnected, and the problem can only be noticed when serious damage has already been done. Confirmation of this is the problem of waste disposal, which clearly explains the second law of ecology.

So, everything in nature is interconnected!

Second Law

Everything has to go somewhere (nothing disappears without a trace)

2. Everything has to go somewhere. Nothing disappears without a trace, this or that substance simply moves from place to place, passes from one molecular form to another, while affecting the life processes of living organisms. The operation of this law is one of the main causes of the environmental crisis. Huge amounts of matter such as oil and ores are extracted from the earth, converted into new compounds and dispersed in the environment.

Commoner's second law is also close to the one discussed above, as well as the law of the development of a natural system at the expense of its environment, especially its first consequence. Now industrial ecology has developed a rule of the so-called life cycle things: giving consent to the release of some product, society must clearly understand what will happen to it in the future, where its existence will end and what will have to be done with its “remains”. Therefore, we can only rely on low-waste production. In this regard, with the development of technologies, it is necessary:

a) low energy and resource intensity,

b) the creation of production, in which the waste of one production is the raw material of another production,

c) organization of reasonable disposal of imminent waste

Imagine what an ordinary house would look like if there were no waste thrown out of it. Our planet is the same closed system: everything that we throw away, in the end, must accumulate somewhere within our home - the Earth. Partial destruction of the ozone layer shows that even such seemingly harmless gases as chlorofluorocarbons (freons) do not disappear without a trace, dissolving in the air. In addition to freons, there are hundreds of other potentially hazardous substances that are released into the atmosphere, rivers and oceans.

True, some wastes, which are called "biodegradable", can be split over time and included in natural processes, while others cannot. Many beaches around the world are strewn with plastic packaging that will lie in this form for several decades.

Introduction

The remarkable American ecologist Barry Commoner is the author of a number of books and a well-known social and political activist. Commoner was born in 1917. He attended Harvard University and received his Ph.D. in biology in 1941. The main topic of his work, Commoner, as a biologist, chose the problem of the destruction of the ozone layer.

In 1950, Commoner, being an opponent of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, tried to draw public attention to this problem. In the 1960s, he was involved in other environmental issues, including environmental issues and research into energy sources.

A combination of socialist beliefs and dealing with environmental issues formed the basis of his presidential campaign in 1980. After failing to run for president of the United States, he became director of the Center for Biology and Natural Systems at Queen's College in New York.

According to Commoner, today's industrial methods and the extraction of fossil fuels lead to active pollution of the environment. He firmly believes that the pursuit of maximum profit, today, has priority over the ecology of the planet. According to Commoner, only compensation for the damage caused to nature is meaningless. We must, first of all, focus on preventing the destruction of nature in the future; for the most part, the solution to environmental problems lies in the preservation of the environment. Commoner was one of the first scientists to draw our attention to the high environmental cost of our technical development and deduced his 4 famous "laws" of ecology.

20 years later, Commoner reviews the most important attempts to assess the harm done to nature and shows us why, despite billions of dollars spent on protecting the environment, we are currently at a rather dangerous stage. A lot of cruel facts and figures, the conclusion from which is one: environmental pollution is an incurable disease that can only be prevented by a fundamental rethinking of the production of goods.

Commoner is quite radical in his choice of solving many problems of environmental pollution. He is a strong supporter of the use of renewable energy sources, in particular solar energy, which can decentralize the energy consumption of enterprises, and use sunlight as an alternative energy source for most energy consumers.

Commoner indicates seriousness social causes affecting the current environmental situation. He claims that bridging the gap economic development between developed countries and countries of the so-called "third world", the cancellation of economic debts should lead to a reduction in the problem of overpopulation. Also, it can compensate for the damage caused by such countries to nature over the past decades. Also, Commoner calls for a redistribution of the world's wealth.

Everything is connected to everything

The first law (everything is connected with everything) draws attention to the universal connection of processes and phenomena in nature. This law is a key provision in nature management and shows that even small human changes in one ecosystem can lead to large negative consequences in other ecosystems. The first law is also called the law of internal dynamic equilibrium. For example, deforestation and the subsequent decrease in free oxygen, as well as emissions of nitrogen oxide and pheon into the atmosphere, led to the depletion of the ozone layer in the atmosphere, which, in turn, increased the intensity of ultraviolet radiation that reaches the earth and has a detrimental effect on living organisms. There is a well-known parable about Darwin, who, when asked by his countrymen about what they should do to increase the harvest of buckwheat, answered: “Bring out cats.” And in vain the peasants were offended. Darwin, knowing that in nature "everything is connected with everything", reasoned as follows - cats will catch all mice, mice will stop destroying bumblebee nests, bumblebees will pollinate buckwheat and the peasants will get a good harvest of it.

Everything has to go somewhere

The second law (everything has to go somewhere) is based on the results of the emergence and development of life on earth, on natural remission in the process of life evolution. It is associated with the biotic (biological) cycle: producers - consumers - producers. So, for any organic substance produced by organisms, in nature there is an enzyme capable of decomposing this substance. In nature, no organic substance will be synthesized if there are no means for its decomposition. In this cycle, a redistribution of matter, energy and information occurs continuously, cyclically, but unevenly in time and space, accompanied by losses.

Contrary to this law, man has created (and continues to create) chemical compounds that, getting into the natural environment, do not decompose, accumulate and pollute it (polyethylene, DDT, etc.). That is, the biosphere does not work on the principle of non-waste, it always accumulates substances that are eliminated from the biotic cycle and form sedimentary rocks. This implies a consequence: absolutely waste-free production is impossible. In connection with this circumstance, we can only rely on low-waste production. The operation of this law is one of the main causes of the crisis in the environment. Huge amounts of matter, such as oil and ores, are extracted from the earth, converted into new compounds and dispersed in the environment.

In this regard, the development of technologies requires: a) low energy and resource intensity, b) the creation of a production in which the waste of one production is the raw material of another production, c) the organization of a reasonable disposal of inevitable waste. This law warns us about the need for a reasonable transformation of natural systems (construction of dams, transfer of runoff ҏek, melioration and much more).

3. Nature “knows” better

In the third law (nature “knows” better), Commoner says that, while there is no absolutely reliable information about the mechanisms and functions of nature, we, like a person who is unfamiliar with the operation of clocks, but who wants to fix them, easily enter natural systems, trying to improve. He calls for extreme caution. The transformation of nature is detrimental economically and dangerous ecologically. In the end, conditions unsuitable for life may be created. The existing opinion about the improvement of nature without specifying the ecological criterion of improvement is meaningless. An illustration of the third "law" of ecology can be the fact that only one mathematical calculation of the parameters of the biosphere requires an immensely longer time than the entire period of our planet's existence as solid body. (The potentially feasible diversity of nature is estimated by numbers with the order of 10 1000 to 10 50 with the computer’s fast operation not yet carried out - 10 "° operations per second - and the work of an incredible number (10 50) machines, the operation of calculating a one-time problem of a variant of 10 50 differences will take 10 30 s, or 3x10 21 years, which is almost 10 12 times longer than the existence of life on Earth.) Nature still "knows" better than us.

Examples can be cited about the retreat of wolves in their time, which turned out to be “forest orderlies”, or about the destruction of sparrows in China, which allegedly destroy crops, but no one thought that crops without birds would be destroyed by insects.

Nothing is given for free

The fourth law (nothing is given for free) also has the interpretation "you have to pay for everything." This Commoner's law again deals with those problems that are generalized by the law of internal dynamic equilibrium and the law of the development of a natural system due to its environment. The global ecological system, i.e. the biosphere, reflects a single whole within which any gain is associated with losses, but, on the other hand, everything that is extracted from nature must be compensated. Commoner explains his fourth "law" of ecology as follows: "... the global ecosystem reflects a single whole within which nothing can be won or lost and which cannot be the object of general improvement: everything that has been extracted from it by human labor must be reimbursed. Payment on this bill cannot be avoided: it can only be deferred. For example, when growing grain, vegetables, we extract chemical elements (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, etc.) from arable land, and if fertilizers are not applied to it, then the yield gradually begins to decline.

Let us turn again to the infamous history of the Aral Sea. Significant financial resources are needed to restore the marine ecosystem. By June 1997, the states of Central Asia sent more than 2 billion dollars to eliminate the consequences of an ecological disaster in the Aral Sea, but the Aral Sea could not be restored. In 1997, it was decided to form the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea. Starting from 1998, contributions to this fund are made according to the principle: 0.3% of the revenue side of the budget of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and 0.1% each - Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The European Environment Agency Report 2003 noted that due to the "greenhouse effect" there has been an increase in natural disasters, economic losses from which amount to an average of 11 billion euros per year.

A person tends to think that troubles will pass him by, that this will happen to someone else, but not to him. Here is another well-known sad example. The Chernobyl accident changed the view of many people on nuclear power. An illustration of the fourth environmental law is the terrible price that the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian peoples have paid and continue to pay for “the cheapest ϶lȇkҭҏᴏ energy”.

Conclusion

The famous American environmental scientist B. Commoner reduces the basic laws of ecology to the following:

1. Commoner's first law of ecological development (everything is connected with everything) draws attention to the universal connection of processes and phenomena in nature and is close in meaning to the law of internal dynamic equilibrium: a change in one of the system indicators causes functional-structural quantitative and qualitative changes, while itself the system preserves the total amount of material-energy qualities. This law reflects the existence of a colossal network of connections in the biosphere between living organisms and the natural environment. Any change in the quality of the natural environment along existing links is transmitted both within biogeocenoses and between them, affecting their development;

2. The second law (everything must go somewhere) says that nothing in nature disappears without a trace, this or that substance simply moves from place to place, moves from one molecular form to another, affecting the life processes of living things organisms;

3. The third law (nature “knows” better) indicates that we do not have reliable information about the mechanism and functions of nature, therefore we easily follow natural systems, trying, as it seems to us, to improve them;

4. The fourth law (nothing is given for free) proves to us that the global ecological system, i.e. the biosphere, reflects a single whole, within which any gain is associated with losses, but, on the other hand, everything that is extracted from nature should be reimbursed.

Based on these laws, it is possible to offer an alternative - environmental expediency, which means compatibility technological processes with the evolution of the biosphere. Of all the types of technologies, only one correlates with the logic of the development of the biosphere - eco-environmental technologies (eco-technologies). They must be assigned according to the type natural processes, and sometimes even ϲҭɑʜ is their direct continuation. It is necessary to formulate the principles for the development of eco-technologies on the basis of the mechanisms by which wildlife maintains its balance and continues to develop. One of these principles is substance compatibility. All waste and emissions (ideally) should be recycled by microorganisms, and also not harm all living things. In connection with this circumstance, in the end, we should only throw into the biosphere what can be recycled by microorganisms. This will be the compatibility of the substance.

It follows from this that newly created chemical and other technologies should operate only with environmentally sound substances obtained as waste. Then nature itself will be able to cope with the disposal of waste and pollution.

A prominent American ecologist and conservationist Barry Commoner formulated four "laws of ecology", which he successfully applied to explain the current ecological situation. Think carefully about their content.

1. Everything is connected to everything(or "everything affects everything"). This is a very laconic paraphrase of the law of materialistic dialectics about the universal interconnection and interdependence of objects and phenomena in nature and society. F. Engels wrote: “After all, nothing happens in nature in isolation. Each phenomenon affects the other, and vice versa.

This "law" reflects the colossal number of connections between the billions of living beings inhabiting the biosphere and their environment, between the biosphere and society, between the components of various ecosystems, the biosphere and the sun. Unexpected chains of connections are known. Let's give examples. Unmoderate deforestation causes forests causes: decrease in forest cover - increase in surface runoff - decrease in stock ground water– soil erosion – shallowing and siltation of rivers and lakes – reduction of the area of floodplains – reduction of land productivity, fodder lands – decrease in livestock productivity – shortage of food products.

2. Everything has to go somewhere. This is a paraphrase of the law of conservation of matter and energy: nothing disappears without a trace. Once in the environment, the substance (garbage) passes from one form to another, moves from place to place, from one ecosystem to another, from area to area, often concentrated along food chains. Everything that a person throws away during the production process in external environment, sooner or later enters the human body through food, air and water, causing numerous diseases, premature aging and death.

4. Nothing comes for free. All good things have to be paid for. The global system is one. A gain in one place is followed by a loss in another. In each case, the ratio of gain and loss will be different, there may be very large deviations in one direction or another. Thus, the flooding of floodplain meadows during the construction of a hydroelectric power station makes it necessary to spend a large number of energy for fodder production on irrigated lands. The immoderate intake of water from rivers during land irrigation reduces the flow of these rivers, causes shallowing and drying up of them, as well as those inland water bodies into which these rivers flow. As a result, desertification of landscapes around shallowed or disappeared water bodies often occurs. Nature is so complex and perfect that "almost every step we take forward brings both benefit and harm."

Thus, the skillful use of the most general laws of philosophy, physics, and ecology makes it possible not only to explain the current ecological situation, but also helps to change and regulate it.

Conversation "How to behave in nature?" (for students in grades 6–7)

Target: evoke a sense of belonging of each student to the state of the environment, nature, an inner need to work on solving its problems.

Guidelines: The room where the conversation is held should be appropriately designed: it can be an exhibition of protected plants and animals listed in the Red Book, herbariums of poisonous plants, an exhibition indoor plants, colorful posters.

Dear Guys! Probably, there is no person on Earth who would not be interested in the life of animals, would not admire the beauty of rivers, flowering meadows and would not strive to learn as much as possible about nature. After all, man himself is a part of nature, he must take care of nature, preserve it and increase it. However, in our technological age, millions of people live in an environmentally harmful environment. The Chernobyl tragedy created huge zones of radiation contamination. Water and air contain many toxic substances, especially in large industrial cities. Soils are polluted and destroyed; food products contain chemical compounds harmful to the human body; degradation of the biosphere continues, many species of plants and animals die out.

It is time for every person to think about how to preserve and preserve our nature. To begin with, every schoolchild must master environmental knowledge, learn how to behave correctly in nature, know the laws of nature and remember that life is now a universal value. Now let's get acquainted with the rules of behavior in nature:

1. Do not litter in the forest! Know that the paper you left in the forest will rot only after a few years, and broken glass can cause a fire, a plastic bag is destroyed within 226 years.

2. Do not tear flowers in large armfuls! This leads to a decrease in their number.

Remember, it takes 7-8 years for a plant to grow from lily of the valley seeds!

3. Don't make noise in the forest! Do not turn on the tape recorder at full power; bumblebees, bees, wasps, beetles and other insects will not be able to take off from the large vibration of the air. Noise also frightens birds and animals.

4. You can't tame wild animals without knowing how to take care of them.

5. Birds - winged protection of forests, gardens, parks. Don't touch the bird's nests, chicks; Birds don't like being disturbed. In one day, a titmouse can destroy more than five hundred insects.

6. Protect anthills, make special fences. The forest cannot live without ants!

7. Do not leave unburned fires in the forest! Remember that one tree can make a million matches, and one match can destroy a million trees.

8. Remember that it is currently forbidden to collect insect collections. Such beautiful butterflies as a dead head, black Apollo, blue sash, admiral and others are included in the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus. Protect them!

9. Remember that the Red Book of Belarus includes following plants: white water lily, forest anemone, European bathing suit, small egg capsule, high primrose, valerian dioecious, bell rapunzel and other species. Study them and protect them, they are on the verge of extinction!

10. Remember poisonous plants: henbane, dope, hemlock, crow's eye, wolf's bast. They must be handled with care!

11. Remember this poem by P. Brovka and think about its content:

Everything is so wounded in the forest,

As after the days of the war.

Here, neither spruce nor pine can be found surviving.

A birch was stabbed with a knife by a live-eater.

It seems to me that from under the bark my tear flows.

From this human callousness

My soul hurts

Under the crippled oak tree, it's not the wind that moans - it's me.

Here the anthill is set on fire

blasphemous hand,

It seems to me that it’s not him, but my house is on fire,

They left, offending beauty, confusing the forest comfort,

Not hearing that all the leaves are shedding tears behind their backs.

In the second part of the conversation, the teacher invites students to get acquainted with the theses of environmental morality and decipher their meaning:

P every person has the right to a favorable living environment;

P nature must be loved and protected, it is our mother and breadwinner;

P even the most advanced technology cannot replace nature;

P violating the coherence and beauty of nature, it is difficult to hope for its full restoration;

P took from nature - compensate three times, cut down a tree - plant three;

P measure seven times and do not do that, the consequences of which for nature you do not know;

P in a sick nature one cannot remain healthy;

P just talking about nature conservation is not enough , need to act;

P do not kill the living;

P don't pick the flowers - the plants need them.

At the end of the conversation, a summary of the significance of nature for each person is summed up.

Introduction

The remarkable American ecologist Barry Commoner is the author of a number of books and a well-known social and political activist. Commoner was born in 1917. He attended Harvard University and received his Ph.D. in biology in 1941. The main topic of his work, Commoner as a biologist, chose the problem of the destruction of the ozone layer.

A combination of socialist beliefs and environmental issues formed the basis of his presidential campaign in 1980. After failing to run for President of the United States, he headed the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems at Queens College in New York City.

According to Commoner, today's industrial methods and the extraction of fossil fuels lead to active environmental pollution. He firmly believes that the pursuit of maximum profit, at present, takes precedence over the ecology of the planet. According to Commoner, only compensation for the damage caused to nature is meaningless. We must, first of all, focus on preventing the destruction of nature in the future; for the most part, the solution to environmental problems lies in the preservation of the environment. It was in the books Science and Survival (1967) and The Closing Circle (1971) that Commoner was one of the first among scientists to draw our attention to the high environmental cost of our technical development and deduced his 4 famous "laws" of ecology.

20 years later, Commoner reviews the most important attempts to assess environmental damage in his book Making Peace with the Planet (1990), and shows us why, despite billions of dollars spent on environmental protection, we are now at a very dangerous stage. This is a book of brutal facts and figures, the conclusion from which is one: environmental pollution is an incurable disease that can only be prevented by a fundamental rethinking of the production of goods.

Commoner is quite radical in his choice of solutions to many problems of environmental pollution. He is a strong supporter of the use of renewable energy sources, especially solar energy, which can decentralize the energy consumption of enterprises, and use sunlight as an alternative energy source for most energy consumers.

Commoner points out the seriousness of the social causes affecting the current ecological situation. He argues that by closing the gap in economic development between developed countries and the countries of the so-called "Third World", the cancellation of economic debts should lead to a reduction in the problem of overpopulation. Also, it can compensate for the damage caused by such countries to nature in previous decades. Also, Commoner calls for a redistribution of the world's wealth.

1. Everything is connected to everything

The first law (everything is connected with everything) draws attention to the universal connection of processes and phenomena in nature. This law is a key provision in nature management and shows that even small human changes in one ecosystem can lead to large negative consequences in other ecosystems. The first law is also called the law of internal dynamic equilibrium. For example, deforestation and the subsequent decrease in free oxygen, as well as emissions of nitrogen oxide and freon into the atmosphere, led to the depletion of the ozone layer in the atmosphere, which, in turn, increased the intensity of ultraviolet radiation that reaches the earth and has a detrimental effect on living organisms. There is a well-known parable about Darwin, who, when asked by his countrymen about what to do to increase the buckwheat harvest, answered: “Dilute the cats.” And in vain the peasants were offended. Darwin, knowing that in nature "everything is connected with everything", reasoned as follows - cats will catch all mice, mice will stop destroying bumblebee nests, bumblebees will pollinate buckwheat and the peasants will get a good harvest of it.

2. Everything has to go somewhere

The second law (everything must go somewhere) is based on the results of the emergence and development of life on earth, on natural selection in the process of life evolution. It is associated with the biotic (biological) cycle: producers - consumers - decomposers. So, for any organic substance produced by organisms, there is an enzyme in nature that can decompose this substance. In nature, no organic substance will be synthesized if there are no means for its decomposition. In this cycle, continuously, cyclically, but unevenly in time and space, there is a redistribution of matter, energy and information, accompanied by losses.

Contrary to this law, man has created (and continues to create) chemical compounds that, when released into the natural environment, do not decompose, accumulate and pollute it (polyethylene, DDT, etc.). That is, the biosphere does not work on the principle of non-waste, it always accumulates substances that are eliminated from the biotic cycle and form sedimentary rocks. This implies a consequence: absolutely waste-free production is impossible. Therefore, we can only rely on low-waste production. The operation of this law is one of the main causes of the environmental crisis. Huge quantities of matter, such as oil and ores, are extracted from the earth, converted into new compounds, and dispersed into the environment.

In this regard, the development of technologies requires: a) low energy and resource intensity, b) the creation of a production in which the waste of one production is the raw material of another production, c) the organization of a reasonable disposal of inevitable waste. This law warns us about the need for a reasonable transformation of natural systems (the construction of dams, the transfer of river flow, land reclamation, and much more).

3. Nature “knows” best

In the third law (nature “knows” best), Commoner says that, until there is absolutely reliable information about the mechanisms and functions of nature, we, like a person who is unfamiliar with the clock device, but wants to fix it, easily harm natural systems by trying to improve. He calls for extreme caution. The transformation of nature is detrimental economically and dangerous ecologically. Ultimately, conditions unsuitable for life may be created. The existing opinion about the improvement of nature without specifying the ecological criterion of improvement is devoid of any meaning. An illustration of the third "law" of ecology is that the mathematical calculation of the parameters of the biosphere alone requires immeasurably more time than the entire period of our planet's existence as a solid body. (The potentially feasible diversity of nature is estimated by numbers with the order of 101000 to 1050 with the computer speed not yet realized - 10 "° operations per second - and the operation of an incredible number (1050) machines, the operation of calculating a one-time problem of a variant of 1050 differences will take 1030 s, or 3x1021 years, which is almost 1012 times longer than the existence of life on Earth.) Nature still “knows” better than us.

Examples can be given about the shooting of wolves in their time, which turned out to be "forest orderlies", or about the destruction of sparrows in China, which allegedly destroy crops, but no one thought that crops without birds would be destroyed by harmful insects.

4. Nothing is free

The fourth law (nothing is given for free) also has the interpretation "you have to pay for everything." This Commoner's law again deals with those problems that are generalized by the law of internal dynamic equilibrium and the law of the development of a natural system at the expense of its environment. The global ecological system, i.e. the biosphere, is a single whole, within which any gain is associated with losses, but, on the other hand, everything that is extracted from nature must be compensated. Commoner explains his fourth "law" of ecology in this way: "... the global ecosystem is a single whole within which nothing can be won or lost and which cannot be the object of general improvement: everything that has been extracted from it by human labor, should be reimbursed. The payment of this bill cannot be avoided: it can only be deferred. For example, when growing grain and vegetables, we extract chemical elements (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, etc.) from arable land, and if fertilizers are not applied to it, then the yield gradually begins to decline.

Let us turn again to the infamous history of the Aral Sea. Significant funds are needed to restore the ecosystem of the sea. By June 1997, the states of Central Asia had allocated more than 2 billion dollars to eliminate the consequences of the ecological disaster in the Aral Sea, but they failed to restore the Aral Sea. In 1997, it was decided to form the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea. Starting from 1998, contributions to this fund are made according to the principle: 0.3% of the revenue side of the budget of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and 0.1% each - Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The Report of the European Environment Agency for 2003 drew attention to the fact that due to the "greenhouse effect" there was an increase in natural disasters, economic losses from which average 11 billion euros per year.

A person tends to think that troubles will pass him by, that this will happen to someone else, but not to him. Here is another well-known sad example. The Chernobyl accident turned the point of view of many people on nuclear energy. An illustration of the fourth environmental law is the terrible price that the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian peoples have paid and continue to pay for the “cheapest electricity”.

Conclusion

The famous American environmental scientist B. Commoner reduces the basic laws of ecology to the following:

1. Commoner's first law of ecological development (everything is connected with everything) draws attention to the universal connection of processes and phenomena in nature and is close in meaning to the law of internal dynamic equilibrium: a change in one of the system indicators causes functional and structural quantitative and qualitative changes, while itself the system preserves the total amount of material-energy qualities. This law reflects the existence of a colossal network of connections in the biosphere between living organisms and the natural environment. Any change in the quality of the natural environment through existing links is transmitted both within biogeocenoses and between them, affects their development;

2. the second law (everything must go somewhere) says that nothing in nature disappears without a trace, this or that substance simply moves from place to place, passes from one molecular form to another, while affecting the life processes of living organisms;

3. the third law (nature “knows” better) indicates that we do not have reliable information about the mechanism and functions of nature, therefore we easily harm natural systems, trying, as it seems to us, to improve them;

4. The fourth law (nothing is given for free) proves to us that the global ecological system, i.e. the biosphere, is a single whole, within which any gain is associated with losses, but, on the other hand, everything that is extracted from nature must be repaid.

Based on these laws, it is possible to offer an alternative - ecological expediency, which means the compatibility of technological processes with the processes of evolution of the biosphere. Of all the types of technologies, only one correlates with the logic of the development of the biosphere - these are environmental technologies (ecotechnologies). They must be built according to the type of natural processes, and sometimes even become their direct continuation. It is necessary to formulate the principles of building eco-technologies on the basis of the mechanisms by which wildlife maintains its balance and continues to develop. One of these principles is substance compatibility. All waste and emissions (ideally) should be processed by microorganisms, and also not harm all living things. Therefore, in the end, we should only throw into the biosphere what can be recycled by microorganisms. This will be the compatibility of the substance.

List of used literature

1. Dmitrienko P.K. Nature knows best // Chemistry and life-21st century. - No. 8. - 1999. - S.27-30.

2. Commoner B. Closing circle. - L., 1974. - S.32.

3. Concepts of modern natural science. Lecture course. -- Rostov n/a: Phoenix, 2003. - 250 p.

4. Maslennikova I.S., Gorbunova V.V. Management of environmental safety and rational use of resources: Textbook. - St. Petersburg: SPbTIZU, 2007. - 497 p.

5. Nature and us. Ecology from A to Z // AiF children's encyclopedia. - No. 5. - 2004. - P.103.

6. Reims N.F. Ecology. Theory, laws, rules, principles and hypotheses. - M.: Russia Young, 1994. - S.56-57.