Impact of human activity on the environment

To properly understand life safety issues
it is necessary to consider this problem in unified system"Human -
production - environment."

All biological systems can exist in environment at
condition of biological balance. Man as the only one
nature's biological system is capable of interacting with nature
regulate and control the metabolism between ourselves and nature.

Humanity interacts with nature, is its integral part and
inseparable from nature. This interaction is expressed in the labor process,
where a person contributes his mind, science, art.

As a result of labor, a person not only adapts to natural
environment, but also tries to change it. Human impact on nature
the dawn of human society was not very noticeable, because nature
self-cleaned and renewed biological resources. Fast growth
population, rapid development of production, implementation of results
scientific and technical achievements, the desire to obtain from nature some
temporary benefits cause long-term damage to it, disrupting stability,
which Nature strives for.

Modern industrial production pollutes the environment not only
gaseous, liquid and solid waste, but also thermal emissions,
electromagnetic fields, light ultraviolet, infrared,
ionizing radiation, radioactive substances, noise radiation and other physical factors. Such short-sighted invasion of the natural environment violates its fundamental law of stable development and ecological balance and puts humanity on the brink of disaster.

Pollution natural environment can be natural or artificial.
Natural pollution is caused by the influx of cosmic dust and
cosmic radiation (extraterrestrial pollution), volcanic eruptions,
weathering rocks, dust storms, forest fires, etc.
(terrestrial pollution). However, nature has amazing resilience
and the ability to self-clean from natural pollution.

Artificial pollution is the human impact on nature - very
easily and in a short period of time leads to fundamental changes in
natural balance of the environment. This danger is further complicated by the fact that people
insufficiently aware of the complex interactions in nature and
consequences that may occur in the environment

habitat as a result
unreasonable human influence. Let's name a few examples of global
pollution.

As a result of his life activity, a person spends unwisely and
destroys air oxygen (O2), leading itself and its generations to
death. Free oxygen, being mainly a product
vital activity, itself supports life on Earth.

the influence of human life on changes in content
carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Due to the increase in CO2 emissions
industry and reducing CO2 consumption by living beings and
vegetation (due to a decrease in forest area, etc.) is increasing
CO2 content in the atmosphere, which leads to the “greenhouse effect”.

Thus, global, ill-considered destruction occurs in two ways
main directions:

Predatory destruction of flora and fauna is accompanied by a sharp decline
consumption of CO2 from the atmosphere and a decrease in the release of O2 into the atmosphere during
by reducing the process of photosynthesis;

The unreasonable activity of man has led to the fact that
CO2 emissions into the atmosphere increased.

It causes an increase in temperature, an increase in residual radiation,
climate change, i.e. will cause undesirable consequences that
today humanity cannot even fully appreciate.

The discharge of polluted water leads to the depletion and disappearance of Oz,
contained in the water, and to the death of the animal and flora(seas,
sushi, etc.). According to J. Cousteau, over the past 20 years, the intensity of life
in all seas of the globe decreased by at least 30%.

Such unreasonable human activity leads to the fact that resources
biosphere, food resources will not increase, but decrease.

Currently, approximately 100 billion are being developed. t. per year
rocks. However, approximately
only 1% of the weight of natural resources used, i.e. 99% of natural
resources go to waste and destroy nature. At the same time, waste volumes are growing
10 times faster than the population increases. Now for every resident
The planet produces 2 to 3 tons of solid waste every day. Waste
poison plants that harm animals, and this food ends up
to a person.

general characteristics sources of pollution

1. Sources of air pollution

Replies nature's reactions

global warming, which humans are pushing nature towards, also threatens the survival of penguins. Four species of these birds, which are “symbols of Antarctica”, are endangered: the emperor penguin (the largest penguin in the world), the gentoo penguin, the Adelie penguin and the chinstrap penguin.

Shakhanova Natalie

ABSTRACT:

"HUMAN IMPACT

ON THE ENVIRONMENT"

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MUNICIPAL STATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

"SECONDARY SCHOOL No. 7"

ABSTRACT:

"HUMAN IMPACT

ON THE ENVIRONMENT"

WORK COMPLETED: 11TH CLASS STUDENT NATALIE SHAKHANOVA

TEACHER: PANAETOVA SOFIA ILYINICHNA

ST. ESSENTUKSKAYA

2015

The more we take from the world, the less we leave in it, and we end up having to pay our debts at what may be a very inopportune moment to ensure the continuation of our lives.

Norbert Wiener

Man began to change natural systems already at the primitive stage of the development of civilization, during the period of hunting and gathering, when he began to use fire. The domestication of wild animals and the development of agriculture expanded the area of manifestation of the consequences of human activity. As industry developed and muscle power was replaced by fuel energy, the intensity of anthropogenic influence continued to increase. In the 20th century Due to the particularly rapid rate of population growth and its needs, it has reached unprecedented levels and spread throughout the world.

When considering human impact on the environment, we must always remember the most important environmental postulates formulated in Tyler Miller’s wonderful book “Living in the Environment”:

1. Whatever we do in nature, everything causes certain consequences in it, often unpredictable.

2. Everything in nature is interconnected, and we all live in it together.

3. Earth's life support systems can withstand significant pressure and rough interventions, but there is a limit to everything.

4. Nature is not only more complex than we think about it, it is much more complex than we can imagine.

All human-created complexes (landscapes) can be divided into two groups depending on the purpose of their creation:

– direct – created by purposeful human activity: cultivated fields, gardening complexes, reservoirs, etc., they are often called cultural;

– accompanying – not intended and usually undesirable, which were activated or brought to life by human activity: swamps along the banks of reservoirs, ravines in fields, quarry-dump landscapes, etc.

Each anthropogenic landscape has its own history of development, sometimes very complex and, most importantly, extremely dynamic. In a few years or decades, anthropogenic landscapes can undergo profound changes that natural landscapes will not experience in many thousands of years. The reason for this is the continuous intervention of man in the structure of these landscapes, and this interference necessarily affects the man himself. Here's just one example. In 1955, when nine out of every ten residents of North Borneo fell ill with malaria, on the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO), the pesticide began to be sprayed on the island to combat the mosquitoes that carry malaria. The disease was practically banished, but the unforeseen consequences of such a fight turned out to be terrible: dieldrin killed not only mosquitoes, but also other insects, in particular flies and cockroaches; then the lizards that lived in the houses and ate dead insects died; after this, cats who ate the dead lizards began to die; Without cats, rats began to multiply quickly - and a plague epidemic began to threaten people. We got out of this situation by dropping healthy cats by parachute. But... it turned out that dieldrin did not affect the caterpillars, but destroyed the insects that fed on them, and then numerous caterpillars began to eat not only the leaves of the trees, but also the leaves that served as roofs for the roofs, as a result the roofs began to collapse.

Anthropogenic changes in the environment are very diverse. By directly influencing only one of the components of the environment, a person can indirectly change the others. In both the first and second cases, the circulation of substances in the natural complex is disrupted, and from this point of view, the results of the impact on the environment can be classified into several groups.

To the first group include impacts that lead only to changes in concentration chemical elements and their compounds without changing the shape of the substance itself. For example, as a result of emissions from motor vehicles, the concentration of lead and zinc increases in the air, soil, water and plants, many times higher than their normal levels. In this case, the quantitative assessment of exposure is expressed in terms of the mass of pollutants.

Second group – impacts lead not only to quantitative, but also qualitative changes in the forms of occurrence of elements (within individual anthropogenic landscapes). Such transformations are often observed during mining, when many ore elements, including toxic heavy metals, pass from mineral form to aqueous solutions. At the same time, their total content within the complex does not change, but they become more accessible to plant and animal organisms. Another example is changes associated with the transition of elements from biogenic to abiogenic forms. Thus, when cutting down forests, a person, cutting down a hectare of pine forest and then burning it, converts about 100 kg of potassium, 300 kg of nitrogen and calcium, 30 kg of aluminum, magnesium, sodium, etc. from biogenic form into mineral form.

Third group – the formation of man-made compounds and elements that have no analogues in nature or are not characteristic of a given area. There are more and more such changes every year. This is the appearance of freon in the atmosphere, plastics in soils and waters, weapons-grade plutonium, cesium in the seas, widespread accumulation of poorly decomposed pesticides, etc. In total, about 70,000 different synthetic chemicals are used every day in the world. About 1,500 new ones are added every year. It should be noted that little is known about the environmental impact of most of them, but at least half of them are harmful or potentially harmful to human health.

Fourth group– mechanical movement of significant masses of elements without significant transformation of the forms of their location. An example is the movement of rock masses during mining, both open-pit and underground. Traces of quarries, underground voids and waste heaps (steep-sided hills formed by waste rocks transported from mines) will exist on Earth for many thousands of years. This group also includes the movement of significant masses of soil during dust storms of anthropogenic origin (one dust storm can move about 25 km3 of soil).

When analyzing the results of human activity, one should also take into account the state of the natural complex, its resistance to impacts. The concept of sustainability is one of the most complex and controversial concepts in geography. Any natural complex is characterized by certain parameters and properties (one of them, for example, is the amount of biomass). Each parameter has a threshold value - a quantity upon reaching which changes in the qualitative state of the components occur. These thresholds have been practically unstudied, and often, when predicting future changes in natural complexes under the influence of one or another activity, it is impossible to indicate the specific scale and exact time frame of these changes.

What is the real scale of modern anthropogenic influence? Here are some numbers. Every year, over 100 billion tons of minerals are extracted from the depths of the Earth; 800 million tons of various metals are smelted; produce more than 60 million tons of synthetic materials unknown in nature; contribute over 500 million tons to agricultural soils mineral fertilizers and approximately 3 million tons of various pesticides, 1/3 of which enters water bodies with surface runoff or lingers in the atmosphere (when dispersed from aircraft). For their needs, people use more than 13% of river flow and annually discharge more than 500 billion m3 of industrial and municipal wastewater into water bodies. The list can be continued, but what has been stated is enough to realize the global impact of man on the environment, and therefore the global nature of the problems arising in connection with this.

Consider the consequences of three main types economic activity humans, although, of course, they do not exhaust the entire complex of anthropogenic influence on the environment.

1. Industrial impacts

Industry - the largest branch of material production - plays a central role in the economy modern society and is the main driving force her height. Behind last century world industrial production has increased more than 50 (!) times, and 4/5 of this growth has occurred since 1950, i.e. a period of active implementation of scientific and technological progress into production. Naturally, such a rapid growth of industry, which ensures our well-being, primarily affected the environment, the load on which has increased many times over.

Industry and the products it produces impact the environment at all stages of the industrial cycle: from exploration and extraction of raw materials, their processing into finished products, waste generation, and ending with the use of finished products by the consumer, and then their disposal due to further unsuitability. At the same time, land is alienated for the construction of industrial facilities and access roads to them; constant use of water (in all industries)1; release of substances from raw material processing into water and air; removal of substances from soil, rocks, biosphere, etc. The load on landscapes and their components in leading industries is carried out as follows.

Energy. Energy - the basis for the development of all industries, Agriculture, transport, public utilities. This is an industry with very high rates of development and huge scale of production. Accordingly, the share of participation of energy enterprises in the load on the natural environment is very significant. Annual energy consumption in the world is more than 10 billion tons of standard fuel, and this figure is continuously increasing2. To obtain energy, they use either fuel - oil, gas, coal, wood, peat, shale, nuclear materials, or other primary energy sources - water, wind, solar energy, etc. Almost all fuel resources are non-renewable - and this is the first stage of impact on the nature of the energy industry -irreversible removal of masses of substance.

Each of the sources, when used, is characterized by specific parameters of pollution of natural complexes.

Coal - the most common fossil fuel on our planet. When it is burned, carbon dioxide, fly ash, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, fluoride compounds, as well as gaseous products of incomplete combustion of fuel enter the atmosphere. Sometimes fly ash contains extremely harmful impurities such as arsenic, free silica, free calcium oxide.

Oil . When burning liquid fuel, in addition to carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and sulfuric anhydrides, nitrogen oxides, vanadium and sodium compounds, and gaseous and solid products of incomplete combustion are released into the air. Liquid fuel produces fewer harmful substances than solid fuel, but the use of oil in the energy sector is declining (due to the depletion of natural reserves and its exclusive use in transport and the chemical industry).

Natural gas – the most harmless of fossil fuels. When it is burned, the only significant air pollutant other than CO2 is nitrogen oxides.

Wood most used in developing countries(70% of the population of these countries burns an average of about 700 kg per person per year). Burning wood is harmless - carbon dioxide and water vapor enter the air, but the structure of biocenoses is disrupted - the destruction of forest cover causes changes in all components of the landscape.

Nuclear fuel. The use of nuclear fuel is one of the most controversial issues in the modern world. Of course, nuclear power plants pollute to a much lesser extent than thermal power plants (using coal, oil, gas). atmospheric air, But amount of water, used at nuclear power plants, is twice the consumption at thermal stations - 2.5–3 km3 per year at a nuclear power plant with a capacity of 1 million kW, and the thermal discharge at a nuclear power plant per unit of energy produced is significantly greater than at thermal power plants under similar conditions. But especially heated debates are caused by the problems of radioactive waste and the safety of operation of nuclear power plants. The colossal consequences for the natural environment and people of possible accidents at nuclear reactors do not allow one to treat nuclear energy as optimistically as it was in initial period use of the “peaceful atom”.

If we consider the impact of the utilization of fossil fuels on other components of natural complexes, we should highlightimpact on natural waters. For the cooling needs of generators, power plants produce huge amounts of water: to generate 1 kW of electricity, 200 to 400 liters of water are needed; a modern thermal power plant with a capacity of 1 million kW requires 1.2–1.6 km3 of water per year. As a rule, water withdrawals for cooling systems of power plants account for 50–60% of total industrial water withdrawals. The return of wastewater heated in cooling systems causes thermal pollution of water, as a result of which, in particular, the solubility of oxygen in water decreases and at the same time the vital activity of aquatic organisms is activated, which begin to consume more oxygen.

The next aspect of the negative impact on the landscape during fuel extraction isalienation of large areaswhere vegetation is destroyed, the soil structure and water regime are changed. This applies primarily to open-pit methods of fuel extraction (about 85% of minerals and building materials mined by open-pit mining).

Among other primary sources of energy - wind, river water, sun, tides, underground heat - water occupies a special place. Geothermal power plants, solar panels, wind turbines, tidal power plants have the advantage of negligible environmental impact, but their distribution in modern world quite limited so far.

River waters , used by hydroelectric power plants (HPPs), which convert the energy of water flow into electricity, have virtually no polluting effect on the environment (with the exception of thermal pollution). Their Negative influence on ecology is different. Hydraulic structures, primarily dams, disrupt the regimes of rivers and reservoirs, impede the migration of fish, and affect the groundwater level. Reservoirs created to equalize river flow and uninterrupted water supply to hydroelectric power stations also have a detrimental effect on the environment. Total area only large reservoirs the world is 180 thousand km2 (the same amount of land is flooded), and the volume of water in them is about 5 thousand km3. In addition to flooding land, the creation of reservoirs greatly changes the flow regime of rivers and affects local climatic conditions, which, in turn, affects the vegetation cover along the banks of the reservoir.

Metallurgy . The impact of metallurgy begins with the extraction of ores of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, some of which, such as copper and lead, have been used since ancient times, while others - titanium, beryllium, zirconium, germanium - have been actively used only in recent decades (for the needs of radio engineering, electronics , nuclear technology). But from the middle of the 20th century, due to scientific and technological revolution, the extraction of both new and traditional metals has increased sharply, and therefore the number of natural disturbances associated with the movement of significant masses of rocks has increased. In addition to the main raw material – metal ores – metallurgy quite actively consumes water. Approximate figures for water consumption for the needs of, for example, ferrous metallurgy are as follows: about 100 m3 of water is spent on the production of 1 ton of cast iron; for the production of 1 ton of steel – 300 m3; for the production of 1 ton of rolled products – 30 m3 of water. But the most dangerous side of the impact of metallurgy on the environment is the technogenic dispersion of metals. Despite all the differences in the properties of metals, they are all impurities in relation to the landscape. Their concentration can increase tens and hundreds of times without external changes in the environment (water remains water, and soil remains soil, but the mercury content in them increases tens of times). The main danger of dispersed metals lies in their ability to gradually accumulate in the bodies of plants and animals, which disrupts food chains. Metals enter the environment at almost all stages of metallurgical production. Some is lost during transportation, enrichment, and sorting of ores. Thus, in one decade at this stage, about 600 thousand tons of copper, 500 thousand tons of zinc, 300 thousand tons of lead, 50 thousand tons of molybdenum were scattered throughout the world. Further release occurs directly at the production stage (and not only metals are released, but also other harmful substances). The air around metallurgical plants is smoky and contains high levels of dust. Nickel production is characterized by emissions of arsenic and large quantities of sulfur dioxide (SO2); Aluminum production is accompanied by fluorine emissions, etc. The environment is also polluted by wastewater from metallurgical plants.

The most dangerous pollutants include lead, cadmium and mercury, followed by copper, tin, vanadium, chromium, molybdenum, manganese, cobalt, nickel, antimony, arsenic and selenium. Two zones can be distinguished in the changing landscape around metallurgical plants. The first, with a radius of 3–5 km, directly adjacent to the enterprise, is characterized by the almost complete destruction of the original natural complex. There is often no vegetation here, the soil cover is largely disturbed, and the animals and microorganisms that inhabited the complex have disappeared. The second zone is more extensive, up to 20 km, looks less oppressed - the disappearance of the biocenosis rarely occurs here, but its individual parts are disturbed and an increased content of polluting elements is observed in all components of the complex.

Chemical industry– one of the most dynamic industries in most countries; New industries often arise in it and new technologies are introduced. But it is also associated with the emergence of many modern problems environmental pollution caused by both its products and technological production processes. This industry, like metallurgy and energy, is extremely water-intensive. Water is involved in the production of most of the most important chemical products - alkalis, alcohols, nitric acid, hydrogen, etc. The production of 1 ton of synthetic rubber requires up to 2800 m3 of water, 1 ton of rubber – 4000 m3, 1 ton of synthetic fiber – 5000 m3. After use, the water is partially returned to reservoirs in the form of heavily polluted wastewater, which leads to weakening or suppression of the vital activity of aquatic organisms, which makes the processes of self-purification of reservoirs difficult. The composition of air emissions from chemical plants is also extremely diverse. Petrochemical production pollutes the atmosphere with hydrogen sulfide and hydrocarbons; production of synthetic rubber - styrene, divinyl, toluene, acetone; production of alkalis - hydrogen chloride, etc. Substances such as carbon and nitrogen oxides, ammonia, inorganic dust, fluorine-containing substances and many others are also released in large quantities. One of the most problematic aspects of the impact of chemical production is the spread of previously non-existent compounds into nature. Among them, synthetic surfactants (surfactants) (sometimes called detergents) are considered especially harmful. They enter the environment during the production and household use of various detergents. When entering water bodies with industrial and domestic wastewater, surfactants are poorly retained by treatment facilities, contribute to the appearance of abundant foam in water, impart toxic properties and odor to it, cause death and degeneration of aquatic organisms and, which is very significant, enhance the toxic effect of other pollutants. These are the main negative impacts on natural systems of the leading branches of world industry. Naturally, the influence of industry is not limited to the above: there is mechanical engineering, which uses the products of metallurgy and the chemical industry and contributes to the dispersion of many substances in the environment; There are water-intensive industries such as pulp and paper and food, which also provide a large share of organic environmental pollution, etc. Based on an analysis of the environmental impact of the three main industries, it is possible to determine the nature and paths of industrial environmental pollution for any industry, for which you need to know specifics of production.

2. Impact of agriculture

The main difference between agricultural and industrial impacts lies primarily in their distribution over vast territories. As a rule, the use of large areas for agricultural needs causes a radical restructuring of all components of natural complexes. At the same time, it is not at all necessary that nature is destroyed; quite often agricultural landscapes are classified as “cultural”.

The entire range of agricultural impacts can be divided into two groups: the impact of agriculture and livestock raising.

Agriculture . The impact of agriculture on the natural complex begins with the destruction of large areas of the natural vegetation community and its replacement with cultivated species. The next component experiencing significant changes is the soil. Under natural conditions, soil fertility is constantly maintained by the fact that substances taken by plants are returned to it again with plant litter. In agricultural complexes, the main part of the soil elements is removed along with the harvest, which is especially typical for annual crops. The table gives an idea of the scale of losses compared to the reserves of elements in the arable soil layer. Similar situation is repeated annually, so there is a possibility that in a few decades the supply of basic soil elements will be exhausted. To replenish the withdrawn substances, mineral fertilizers are mainly applied to the soil: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. This has both positive consequences - replenishment of nutrients in the soil, and negative ones - pollution of soil, water and air. When applying fertilizers, so-called ballast elements enter the soil, which are not needed by either plants or soil microorganisms. For example, when using potassium fertilizers, along with the necessary potassium, useless, and in some cases harmful, chlorine is added; a lot of sulfur gets in with superphosphate, etc. The amount of the element for which mineral fertilizer is added to the soil can also reach a toxic level. First of all, this applies to the nitrate form of nitrogen. Excess nitrates accumulate in plants, pollute underground and surface water(due to good solubility, nitrates are easily washed out of the soil). In addition, when there is an excess of nitrates in the soil, bacteria multiply and reduce them to nitrogen released into the atmosphere. In addition to mineral fertilizers, various chemical substances to control insects (insecticides), weeds (pesticides), to prepare plants for harvesting, in particular defoliants that accelerate the shedding of leaves from cotton plants for machine harvesting. Most of these substances are very toxic, have no analogues among natural compounds, and decompose very slowly by microorganisms, so the consequences of their use are difficult to predict. Common name introduced pesticides - xenobiotics (alien to life). In order to increase harvests in developed countries, about half of the acreage is treated with pesticides. Migrating along with dust, underground and surface waters, toxic chemicals spread everywhere (they were found at the North Pole and Antarctica) and pose an increased environmental hazard. Deep and long-lasting, and often irreversible impact Irrigation and drainage have an effect on the soil, changing its fundamental properties. In the 20th century The agricultural area has expanded significantly: from 40 million hectares to 270 million hectares, of which irrigated lands occupy 13% of arable land, and their products exceed 50% of all agricultural products. Irrigated landscapes are the most transformed of all types of agricultural anthropogenic landscapes. Moisture circulation, the nature of the distribution of temperature and humidity in the ground layer of air and upper layers of soil change, and a specific microrelief is created. Changes in soil water and salt regimes often cause waterlogging and secondary salinization of the soil. The monstrous consequence of ill-conceived irrigated agriculture is the death of the Aral Sea. Huge amounts of water are withdrawn from natural systems for irrigation. In many countries and areas of the world, irrigation is the main source of water consumption and in dry years leads to water shortages. water resources. Water consumption for agriculture ranks first among all types of water use and amounts to over 2000 km3 per year, or 70% of global water consumption, of which more than 1500 km3 is irreversible water consumption, of which about 80% is spent on irrigation. Huge areas of the world are occupied by wetlands, the use of which becomes possible only after drainage measures are carried out. Drainage has a very serious impact on the landscape. The thermal balance of territories changes especially dramatically - heat costs for evaporation are sharply reduced, relative air humidity decreases, and daily temperature amplitudes increase. The air regime of soils changes, their permeability increases, and accordingly, the course of soil formation processes changes (organic litter decomposes more actively, the soil is enriched with nutrients). Drainage is also caused by an increase in the depth of groundwater, and this, in turn, can cause the drying out of numerous streams and even small rivers. Very serious global consequences drainage - swamps provide the bulk of atmospheric oxygen. These are the global consequences of the impact of agriculture on natural systems. Among them, it should be noted the stresses that the environment experiences from the slash-and-burn farming system, which is widespread mainly in tropical latitudes, leading not only to the destruction of forests, but also to a fairly rapid depletion of the soil, as well as the release of large amounts of aerosol ash and soot into the atmospheric air. Cultivation of monocultures is detrimental to ecosystems, causing rapid depletion of the soil and its contamination with phytopathogenic microorganisms. Agricultural culture is necessary, since unreasonable plowing of the soil significantly changes its structure, and under certain conditions can contribute to processes such as water and wind erosion.

Livestock . The impact of livestock farming on the natural landscape is characterized by a number of specific features. The first is that livestock landscapes consist of heterogeneous but closely related parts, such as pastures, pastures, farms, waste disposal areas, etc. Each part makes a special contribution to the overall flow of influence on natural complexes. The second feature is its smaller territorial distribution compared to agriculture. Animal grazing primarily affects the vegetation cover of pastures: plant biomass decreases and changes occur in the species composition of the plant community. With particularly long or excessive (per animal) grazing, the soil becomes compacted, the surface of the pastures is exposed, which increases evaporation and leads to soil salinization in the continental sectors of the temperate zone, and in humid areas contributes to waterlogging. The use of land for pastures is also associated with the removal of nutrients from the soil in the composition of pasture and hay. To compensate for the loss of nutrients, fertilizers are applied to pasture lands, the dual effects of which are described in the section on agriculture. The livestock industry is a significant consumer of water, accounting for about 70 km3 per year of total agricultural water intake. The most negative side of the impact of livestock farming on the landscape is the pollution of natural waters by wastewater from livestock farms. Multiple increase in concentration organic matter in freshwater bodies of water, and then in the coastal zone of the sea, significantly reduces the oxygen content in water, leads to a change in the community of aquatic microorganisms, disruption food chains, can cause fish death and other consequences.

3. Transport impacts

The impacts of transport on the environment are extremely multifaceted. This is the influence of a multimillion-dollar fleet of vehicles: cars, locomotives, ships, airplanes; large transport enterprises; motor depots, depots, train stations, sea and river ports, airports; transport routes: highways and railways, pipelines, runways, etc. All types of transport impacts are characterized by land acquisition, pollution of all natural components, and water consumption, leading to disruption of the circulation of substances in natural complexes. It should also be taken into account that transport is a constant consumer of fuel, stimulating the extraction of fuel minerals. Let us consider the specific manifestation of the environmental impact of each type of transport.

Automobile transport.Motor transport has the most high needs in areas allocated for its needs, urban areas reach 25–30% of the total area. Significant areas of roads, parking lots, and motor depots, covered with asphalt and concrete, prevent normal absorption of rainwater by the soil and upset the balance of groundwater. Due to the active use of salt to combat icing of city roads, long-term salinization of soils on roadsides occurs, leading to the death of vegetation; some of the salt is washed away by surface runoff and pollutes large areas. Motor transport is one of the largest consumers of water, used for various technical purposes - engine cooling, car washing, etc. The most powerful stream of impacts is pollution of the environment, primarily the air, by motor transport.

Among the pollutants, the leading ones are carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, the proportion of which increases sharply when the engine is running at low speeds, when starting or increasing speed, which is observed during traffic jams and at traffic lights. A very dangerous component of car exhaust gases is lead compounds, which are used as an additive to gasoline. There is also significant contamination with other heavy metals – zinc, nickel, cadmium. They are found not only in exhausts, but also in car tire waste: on some European highways the mass of rubber dust reaches up to 250 kg per kilometer of road (per year). Water pollution includes runoff from car depots, car washes, gas stations, roads, containing large quantities of petroleum products, detergents, heavy metals, etc. Naturally, air emissions and runoff pollute other components of natural complexes.

Railway transport.Although rail transport has an impact on the general condition of the landscape, its intensity is significantly less than road transport. This is due to the economical use of fuel and widespread electrification of railways. Railroad transport also requires the allocation of significant areas for its needs, although smaller than automobile transport. The railway track itself occupies a strip of 10–30 m, but the need to place ditches and reserve strips, as well as snow protection devices, increases the width of the allotment to 100–150 m. Significant areas are occupied by stations, terminals, and railway junctions. Water consumption of railway transport has not decreased with the replacement of steam locomotives with diesel and electric locomotives. This is mainly due to the increase in the length of the network and the volume of traffic. Pollution from rail transport is most felt in areas where diesel locomotives operate. Their exhaust gases contain up to 97% of all toxic substances emitted by this type of transport. In addition, the area near railways is contaminated with metal dust as a result of abrasion of cast iron brake pads. During industrial transportation, pollutants include coal and ore dust, salt, petroleum products, etc. they are blown away by the wind and leak due to the poor condition of the cars and tanks.

Water transport. Despite the fact that the main environment experiencing the loads of water transport are rivers, lakes, and seas, its impact is also felt on land. First of all, land is being confiscated for river and sea ports. Their territories are polluted during loading and unloading operations and ship repairs. With heavy ship traffic, the risk of destruction is real. coastline. But, of course, the aquatic environment suffers the most. The main sources of pollution are ship engines. The water used in their operation is discharged into water bodies, causing thermal and chemical pollution. In addition, some toxic substances from exhaust gases also dissolve in water. Pollution occurs due to leakage or discharge of bilge water into the water area (bilge is a special space in the hold). These waters contain a large number of lubricants, fuel oil residues. Water areas are often polluted by substances transported on ships. Oil leaks are especially dangerous. The entry of significant quantities of oil into the water is associated not only with losses during transportation or accidents, but also with the washing of tanker tanks before the next loading, as well as with the discharge of ballast water (after the delivery of oil cargo, tankers return empty, and to ensure safety they are filled with ballast water). Oil products are distributed over the surface of the water in a thin film, which disrupts air exchange and the vital activity of the aquatic community over vast water areas, and in case of tanker accidents it has the most catastrophic consequences for the population of the water area.

Air Transport. Confiscation of land for needs air transport occurs during the construction of airfields and airports, and if in the 30s. the average airport occupied an area of 3 km2, then modern airports with several runways 3–4 km long, aircraft parking areas, administrative buildings, etc. located on an area of 25–50 km2. Naturally, these areas are covered with asphalt and concrete, and the disruption of natural cycles extends for many kilometers around. The noise impact on people and animals is also extremely unfavorable.

The main impacts of air transport are on the atmosphere. Calculations show that one plane, when flying over a distance of 1000 km, uses an amount of oxygen equal to that consumed by one person during the year. Toxic substances emitted during flights are dominated by carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and soot. The peculiarity of atmospheric pollution is that toxic substances spread over very large spaces.

Pipeline transport. The impact of pipeline transport on the environment in comparison with other types of impacts can be characterized as insignificant. Main element– pipelines – for the most part they are placed in closed trenches and, with proper (!) construction and operation, practically do not disturb the structure of landscapes. But the construction of pipelines requires a large alienation of land, and in permafrost conditions, in order to avoid soil thawing, pipes are laid over vast areas on the surface. The impact of this type of transport becomes catastrophic when pipes depressurize and rupture, when oil or liquefied gas spills over large areas. Concluding a brief review of the main anthropogenic impacts on the environment, let us focus on two extremely current problems: waste and accidents. They both relate to almost any type of activity, and the most powerful flow of negative impacts on nature is associated with them. Waste is classified according to different properties: liquid, gaseous and solid; organic and inorganic; toxic and less toxic, etc. Waste is stored, occupying large areas. They end up in natural complexes with wastewater and air emissions during dusting. Among others, radioactive waste poses a particular danger to the environment. They accumulate in various scientific institutions (medical, biochemical, physical), special production, nuclear tests, the work of nuclear industry and nuclear energy enterprises. Distinctive feature These wastes retain radioactivity for many hundreds of years. Isolation of such waste remains a difficult task.

The causes and consequences of accidents in specific types of activities were discussed in the relevant sections (accidents at nuclear power plants, pipelines, water transport). As general conclusion We emphasize: when assessing any anthropogenic impacts, the possibility of emergency situations and their consequences must be taken into account.

Chemical pollution and soil conservation

In recent decades, humans have caused rapid soil degradation, although soil losses have occurred throughout human history. In all countries of the world, about 1.5 billion hectares of land are now being plowed, and the total loss of soils over the history of mankind has amounted to about 2 billion hectares, that is, more has been lost than is now being plowed, and many soils have become unusable waste lands, the restoration of which either impossible or too expensive. There are at least 6 types of anthropogenic and technical impacts that can cause different levels of soil deterioration. These include: 1) water and wind erosion, 2) salinization, alkalization, acidification, 3) waterlogging, 4) physical degradation, including compaction and crusting, 5) destruction and alienation of soil during construction, mining, 6) chemical pollution soil Soil conservation is to prevent or minimize all types of destruction of soils and/or soil cover.

Below we will discuss only chemical soil pollution, which can be caused by the following reasons: 1) atmospheric transport of pollutants (heavy metals, acid rain, fluorine, arsenic, pesticides), 2) agricultural pollution (fertilizers, pesticides), 3) ground pollution - dumps of large-scale industries, dumps of fuel and energy complexes, 4) pollution with oil and oil products.

Heavy metals. This type of pollutant was one of the first to be studied. Heavy metals usually include elements that have atomic mass more than 50. They enter the soil mainly from the atmosphere with emissions from industrial enterprises, and lead - from car exhaust gases. Cases have been described in which large amounts of heavy metals entered the soil with irrigation waters if wastewater from industrial enterprises was discharged into rivers above the water intake. The most typical heavy metals are lead, cadmium, mercury, zinc, molybdenum, nickel, cobalt, tin, titanium, copper, vanadium.

Heavy metals most often enter the soil from the atmosphere in the form of oxides, where they gradually dissolve, turning into hydroxides, carbonates, or into the form of exchangeable cations (Fig. 6). If the soil firmly binds heavy metals (usually in humus-rich heavy loamy and clayey soils), this protects soil and drinking water, plant products. But then the soil itself gradually becomes more and more contaminated and at some point the destruction of soil organic matter may occur with the release of heavy metals into the soil solution. As a result, such soil will be unsuitable for agricultural use. The total amount of lead that can be retained by a meter layer of soil on one hectare reaches 500 - 600 tons; Such an amount of lead, even with very strong pollution, does not occur in normal conditions. The soils are sandy, low in humus, and resistant to pollution; this means that they weakly bind heavy metals, easily transfer them to plants or pass them through themselves with filtered water. On such soils, the risk of contamination of plants and groundwater increases. This is one of the intractable contradictions: soils that are easily polluted protect the environment, but soils that are resistant to pollution do not have protective properties against living organisms and natural waters.

If soils are contaminated with heavy metals and radionuclides, it is almost impossible to clean them. So far, the only way is known: to sow such soils with fast-growing crops that produce large green mass; such crops extract toxic elements from the soil, and then the harvested crop must be destroyed. But this is a rather lengthy and expensive procedure. You can reduce the mobility of toxic compounds and their entry into plants by increasing the soil pH by liming or adding large doses of organic substances, such as peat. Deep plowing can have a good effect, when the top contaminated layer of soil is lowered to a depth of 50 - 70 cm during plowing, and deep layers of soil are raised to the surface. To do this, you can use special multi-tiered plows, but the deep layers still remain contaminated. Finally, on soils contaminated with heavy metals (but not radionuclides), crops that are not used as food or feed, such as flowers, can be grown.

Acid rain. Rain or other highly acidic precipitation is a common result of the release of combustion products (coal) into the atmosphere, as well as emissions from metallurgical and chemical plants. Such emissions contain a lot of sulfur dioxide and/or nitrogen oxides; when interacting with atmospheric water vapor, they form sulfuric and nitric acids. The effect of acid rain on soils is ambiguous. In the northern taiga zones, they increase the harmful acidity of soils and contribute to an increase in the content of soluble compounds of toxic elements in soils - lead, aluminum. At the same time, the decomposition of soil minerals increases. The real way to combat acidification of taiga soils is to install filters on factory pipes that intercept sulfur and nitrogen oxides. Liming can also be used to combat soil acidification.

However, acid rain can be beneficial in some cases. In particular, they enrich the soil with nitrogen and sulfur, which in very large areas is clearly not enough to obtain high yields. If such rains fall in areas of carbonate, and even more so alkaline, soils, they reduce alkalinity, increasing the mobility of nutrients and their availability to plants. Therefore, the usefulness or harmfulness of any fallout cannot be assessed according to simplified unambiguous criteria, but must be considered specifically and differentiated by soil type.

Industrial dumps. Atmospheric emissions containing oxides of various toxic metals and non-metals spread over long distances, measured in tens and hundreds of kilometers. Therefore, the pollution they cause is regional and sometimes global in nature. In contrast, large-scale waste from various industries, hydrolytic lignin dumps, ash from thermal power plants, and coal mining dumps have a predominantly local impact. Such dumps occupy considerable areas, removing land from use, and many of them pose a very specific danger to the environment. Coal mine dumps contain a lot of coal; it burns, polluting the atmosphere. Dumps of many rocks contain pyrite FeS2, which spontaneously oxidizes to H2SO4 in air; during periods of rain or snowmelt, the latter easily forms not only highly acidic areas, but even lakes of sulfuric acid in the vicinity of mine workings. The only way to normalize the environmental situation in such places is to level the dumps, their earthing, grassing, and forest planting.

Many local organic wastes, such as hydrolyzed lignin, poultry droppings, pig manure, can be turned into either good composts or so-called vermicompost. The latter method is based on the rapid processing of organic waste by some hybrids of red earthworms. The worms pass all plant residues through the intestines, turning them into a chernozem-like mass, very fertile, practically odorless, which contains a lot of humic acids.

Oil and petroleum products. Oil pollution of soils is among the most dangerous, since it fundamentally changes the properties of soils, and cleaning up oil is very difficult. Oil enters the soil under various circumstances: during oil exploration and production, during accidents on oil pipelines, and during accidents of river and sea oil tankers. Various hydrocarbons enter the soil at oil depots, gas stations, etc. The consequences for soils caused by oil pollution can be called extraordinary without exaggeration. Oil envelops soil particles, the soil is not wetted with water, microflora dies, and plants do not receive proper nutrition. Finally, the soil particles stick together, and the oil itself gradually transforms into a different state, its fractions become more oxidized, harden, and when high levels soil pollution resembles an asphalt-like mass. It is very difficult to combat this phenomenon. At low levels of pollution, the application of fertilizers that stimulate the development of microflora and plants helps. As a result, the oil is partially mineralized, some of its fragments are included in the composition of humic substances, and the soil is restored. But with large doses and long periods of pollution, irreversible changes occur in the soil. Then the most contaminated layers simply have to be removed.

Human influence on the ecology of the planet

Modern society develops according to the principle of “taking everything that is possible.” This principle of human selfishness can only operate for so long, until nature begins to deny man resources. Scientific and technological progress so far is not aimed at saving natural potentials, but at wasting them. Now that there is quite a lot of talk about the negative impact of a person on environmental situation in big cities, we gradually began to think about what would happen if everything was completely built up with high-rise buildings. You can often hear that all sorts of green movements are being created, the problem of human influence on the environment is discussed at various conferences and in Internet communities, also on our forum, because in reality the issue of human expansion over nature is quite acute.

Technology versus ecology.

Today there is a large number of facts that the development modern technologies occurs due to the depletion of natural resources. The most acute problem of the environmental situation is the large population of large cities. With a not very large territory and an actively developing system of transport and enterprises, the environmental situation cannot remain favorable for human health. The desire of people to live in the city is understandable, because in big cities there are jobs and more opportunities. In the city, people consume much more water, which naturally leads to depletion of this natural resource.

Human economic activities are increasingly becoming the cause of biosphere pollution. The amount of gaseous, liquid and solid waste from industrial enterprises is growing. Many chemicals first enter soil and water and ultimately end up in the human body. Of course, how the body will perceive the deteriorating environmental situation will depend not only on the place of residence, but also on age, gender and health status. The most vulnerable categories of people include the elderly and children.

Modern civilization cannot but rejoice at its achievements; every year the rhythm of human life increases, and Natural resources are reduced proportionately. For example, in the scientific community there is a heated discussion of global environmental problems and their possible consequences for humanity. So, such problems include soil protection, since through it many harmful chemicals enter the human body. According to numerous studies, about 30 billion tons of solid waste enter the biosphere every year, more than half of which are of organic origin, and the rest enter as acidic agents of various gases. Technical progress has not yet taken care of how to protect the atmosphere from chemical compounds so that they do not later turn into acid rain. Our enterprises release chemical waste into the air, which again, along with rain, then ends up in the soil.

Another equally dangerous problem is air pollution. Lack of fresh air can lead to oxygen starvation and subsequently cause many chronic diseases. Air pollution mainly occurs due to the dominance of transport in cities and the abundance of industrial facilities, which constantly emit industrial waste and exhaust gases into the atmosphere. Most of the air we breathe comes from carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide.

Human impact on the environment

The more we take from the world, the less we leave in it, and we end up having to pay our debts at what may be a very inopportune moment to ensure the continuation of our lives.

Norbert Wiener

When considering human impact on the environment, we must always remember the most important environmental postulates formulated in Tyler Miller's wonderful book, Living in the Environment.

1. Whatever we do in nature, everything causes certain consequences in it, often unpredictable.
2. Everything in nature is interconnected, and we all live in it together.
3. Earth's life support systems can withstand significant pressure and rough interventions, but there is a limit to everything.
4. Nature is not only more complex than we think about it, it is much more complex than we can imagine.

All human-created complexes (landscapes) can be divided into two groups depending on the purpose of their creation:

– direct – created by purposeful human activity: cultivated fields, gardening complexes, reservoirs, etc., they are often called cultural;
– accompanying – not intended and usually undesirable, which were activated or brought to life by human activity: swamps along the banks of reservoirs, ravines in fields, quarry-dump landscapes, etc.

To the first group include impacts that lead only to changes in the concentration of chemical elements and their compounds without changing the form of the substance itself. For example, as a result of emissions from motor vehicles, the concentration of lead and zinc increases in the air, soil, water and plants, many times higher than their normal levels. In this case, the quantitative assessment of exposure is expressed in terms of the mass of pollutants.

Second group– impacts lead not only to quantitative, but also qualitative changes in the forms of occurrence of elements (within individual anthropogenic landscapes). Such transformations are often observed during mining, when many ore elements, including toxic heavy metals, pass from mineral form into aqueous solutions. At the same time, their total content within the complex does not change, but they become more accessible to plant and animal organisms. Another example is changes associated with the transition of elements from biogenic to abiogenic forms. Thus, when cutting down forests, a person, cutting down a hectare of pine forest and then burning it, converts about 100 kg of potassium, 300 kg of nitrogen and calcium, 30 kg of aluminum, magnesium, sodium, etc. from biogenic form into mineral form.

Third group– the formation of man-made compounds and elements that have no analogues in nature or are not characteristic of a given area. There are more and more such changes every year. This is the appearance of freon in the atmosphere, plastics in soils and waters, weapons-grade plutonium, cesium in the seas, widespread accumulation of poorly decomposed pesticides, etc. In total, about 70,000 different synthetic chemicals are used every day in the world. About 1,500 new ones are added every year. It should be noted that little is known about the environmental impact of most of them, but at least half of them are harmful or potentially harmful to human health.

Fourth group– mechanical movement of significant masses of elements without significant transformation of the forms of their location. An example is the movement of rock masses during mining, both open-pit and underground. Traces of quarries, underground voids and waste heaps (steep-sided hills formed by waste rocks transported from mines) will exist on Earth for many thousands of years. This group also includes the movement of significant masses of soil during dust storms of anthropogenic origin (one dust storm can move about 25 km 3 of soil).

When analyzing the results of human activity, one should also take into account the state of the natural complex itself and its resistance to impacts. The concept of sustainability is one of the most complex and controversial concepts in geography. Any natural complex is characterized by certain parameters and properties (one of them, for example, is the amount of biomass). Each parameter has a threshold value - a quantity upon reaching which changes in the qualitative state of the components occur. These thresholds have been practically unstudied, and often, when predicting future changes in natural complexes under the influence of one or another activity, it is impossible to indicate the specific scale and exact time frame of these changes.
What is the real scale of modern anthropogenic influence? Here are some numbers. Every year, over 100 billion tons of minerals are extracted from the depths of the Earth; 800 million tons of various metals are smelted; produce more than 60 million tons of synthetic materials unknown in nature; They introduce over 500 million tons of mineral fertilizers and approximately 3 million tons of various pesticides into the soils of agricultural lands, 1/3 of which enters water bodies with surface runoff or lingers in the atmosphere (when dispersed from airplanes). For their needs, people use more than 13% of river flow and annually discharge more than 500 billion m3 of industrial and municipal wastewater into water bodies. The list can be continued, but what has been stated is enough to realize the global impact of man on the environment, and therefore the global nature of the problems arising in connection with this.

Let us consider the consequences of three main types of human economic activity, although, of course, they do not exhaust the entire complex of anthropogenic influence on the environment.

1. Industrial impacts

Industry, the largest branch of material production, plays a central role in the economy of modern society and is the main driving force of its growth. Over the last century, world industrial production has increased more than 50 (!) times, and 4/5 of this growth has occurred since 1950, i.e. a period of active implementation of scientific and technological progress into production. Naturally, such a rapid growth of industry, which ensures our well-being, primarily affected the environment, the load on which has increased many times over.

Industry and the products it produces impact the environment at all stages of the industrial cycle: from exploration and extraction of raw materials, their processing into finished products, waste generation, and ending with the use of finished products by the consumer, and then their disposal due to further unsuitability. At the same time, land is alienated for the construction of industrial facilities and access roads to them; constant use of water (in all industries) 1 ; release of substances from raw material processing into water and air; removal of substances from soil, rocks, biosphere, etc. The load on landscapes and their components in leading industries is carried out as follows.

Energy. Energy is the basis for the development of all sectors of industry, agriculture, transport, public utilities. This is an industry with very high rates of development and huge scale of production. Accordingly, the share of participation of energy enterprises in the load on the natural environment is very significant. Annual energy consumption in the world is more than 10 billion tons of standard fuel, and this figure is continuously increasing 2. To obtain energy, they use either fuel - oil, gas, coal, wood, peat, shale, nuclear materials, or other primary energy sources - water, wind, solar energy, etc. Almost all fuel resources are non-renewable - and this is the first stage of impact on the nature of the energy industry - irreversible removal of masses of substance.

Each source, when used, is characterized by specific parameters pollution of natural complexes.

Coal- the most common fossil fuel on our planet. When it is burned, carbon dioxide, fly ash, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, fluoride compounds, as well as gaseous products of incomplete combustion of fuel enter the atmosphere. Sometimes fly ash contains extremely harmful impurities such as arsenic, free silica, free calcium oxide.

Oil. When burning liquid fuel, in addition to carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and sulfur anhydrides, nitrogen oxides, vanadium and sodium compounds, and gaseous and solid products of incomplete combustion are released into the air. Liquid fuel produces fewer harmful substances than solid fuel, but the use of oil in the energy sector is declining (due to the depletion of natural reserves and its exclusive use in transport and the chemical industry).

Natural gas - the most harmless of fossil fuels. When it is burned, the only significant air pollutant other than CO 2 is nitrogen oxides.

Wood Most used in developing countries (70% of the population of these countries burns an average of about 700 kg per person per year). Burning wood is harmless - carbon dioxide and water vapor enter the air, but the structure of biocenoses is disrupted - the destruction of forest cover causes changes in all components of the landscape.

Nuclear fuel. The use of nuclear fuel is one of the most controversial issues in the modern world. Of course, nuclear power plants pollute the air to a much lesser extent than thermal power plants (using coal, oil, gas), but the amount of water used at nuclear power plants is twice the consumption at thermal power plants - 2.5–3 km 3 per year at a nuclear power plant with a capacity of 1 million kW, and the thermal discharge at a nuclear power plant per unit of energy produced is significantly greater than at thermal power plants under similar conditions. But especially heated debates are caused by the problems of radioactive waste and the safety of operation of nuclear power plants. The colossal consequences for the natural environment and people of possible accidents at nuclear reactors do not allow one to treat nuclear energy as optimistically as it was in the initial period of using the “peaceful atom”.

If we consider the impact of the utilization of fossil fuels on other components of natural complexes, we should highlight impact on natural waters. For the cooling needs of generators, power plants produce huge amounts of water: to generate 1 kW of electricity, 200 to 400 liters of water are needed; a modern thermal power plant with a capacity of 1 million kW requires 1.2–1.6 km 3 of water per year. As a rule, water withdrawals for cooling systems of power plants account for 50–60% of total industrial water withdrawals. The return of wastewater heated in cooling systems causes thermal pollution of water, as a result of which, in particular, the solubility of oxygen in water decreases and at the same time the vital activity of aquatic organisms is activated, which begin to consume more oxygen.

The next aspect of the negative impact on the landscape during fuel extraction is alienation of large areas, where vegetation is destroyed, soil structure and water regime are changed. This applies primarily to open-pit methods of fuel extraction (in the world, about 85% of minerals and building materials are mined by open-pit mining).

Among other primary sources of energy - wind, river water, sun, tides, underground heat - water occupies a special place. Geothermal power plants, solar panels, wind turbines, and tidal power plants have the advantage of having a low environmental impact, but their distribution in the modern world is still quite limited.

River waters, used by hydroelectric power plants (HPPs), which convert the energy of water flow into electricity, have virtually no polluting effect on the environment (with the exception of thermal pollution). Their negative impact on the environment lies elsewhere. Hydraulic structures, primarily dams, disrupt the regimes of rivers and reservoirs, impede the migration of fish, and affect the groundwater level. Reservoirs created to equalize river flow and uninterrupted water supply to hydroelectric power stations also have a detrimental effect on the environment. The total area of the world's largest reservoirs alone is 180 thousand km 2 (the same amount of land is flooded), and the volume of water in them is about 5 thousand km 3. In addition to flooding land, the creation of reservoirs greatly changes the river flow regime and affects local climatic conditions, which, in turn, affects the vegetation cover along the banks of the reservoir.

Metallurgy . The impact of metallurgy begins with the extraction of ores of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, some of which, such as copper and lead, have been used since ancient times, while others - titanium, beryllium, zirconium, germanium - have been actively used only in recent decades (for the needs of radio engineering, electronics , nuclear technology). But since the middle of the 20th century, as a result of the scientific and technological revolution, the extraction of both new and traditional metals has sharply increased, and therefore the number of natural disturbances associated with the movement of significant masses of rocks has increased.
In addition to the main raw material – metal ores – metallurgy quite actively consumes water. Approximate figures for water consumption for the needs of, for example, ferrous metallurgy are as follows: about 100 m 3 of water is spent on the production of 1 ton of cast iron; for the production of 1 ton of steel – 300 m 3; for the production of 1 ton of rolled products - 30 m 3 of water.
But the most dangerous side of the impact of metallurgy on the environment is the technogenic dispersion of metals. Despite all the differences in the properties of metals, they are all impurities in relation to the landscape. Their concentration can increase tens and hundreds of times without external changes in the environment (water remains water, and soil remains soil, but the mercury content in them increases tens of times). The main danger of trace metals lies in their ability to gradually accumulate in the bodies of plants and animals, which disrupts food chains.
Metals enter the environment at almost all stages of metallurgical production. Some is lost during transportation, enrichment, and sorting of ores. Thus, in one decade at this stage, about 600 thousand tons of copper, 500 thousand tons of zinc, 300 thousand tons of lead, 50 thousand tons of molybdenum were scattered throughout the world. Further release occurs directly at the production stage (and not only metals are released, but also other harmful substances). The air around metallurgical plants is smoky and contains high levels of dust. Nickel production is characterized by emissions of arsenic and large quantities of sulfur dioxide (SO 2); Aluminum production is accompanied by fluorine emissions, etc. The environment is also polluted by wastewater from metallurgical plants.
The most dangerous pollutants include lead, cadmium and mercury, followed by copper, tin, vanadium, chromium, molybdenum, manganese, cobalt, nickel, antimony, arsenic and selenium.
In the changing landscape around metallurgical enterprises, two zones can be distinguished. The first, with a radius of 3–5 km, directly adjacent to the enterprise, is characterized by the almost complete destruction of the original natural complex. There is often no vegetation here, the soil cover is largely disturbed, and the animals and microorganisms that inhabited the complex have disappeared. The second zone is more extensive, up to 20 km, looks less oppressed - the disappearance of the biocenosis rarely occurs here, but its individual parts are disturbed and an increased content of polluting elements is observed in all components of the complex.

Chemical industry – one of the most dynamic industries in most countries; New industries often arise in it and new technologies are introduced. But it is also associated with the emergence of many modern environmental pollution problems caused by both its products and technological production processes.
This industry, like metallurgy and energy, is extremely water-intensive. Water is involved in the production of most of the most important chemical products - alkalis, alcohols, nitric acid, hydrogen, etc. The production of 1 ton of synthetic rubber requires up to 2800 m3 of water, 1 ton of rubber – 4000 m3, 1 ton of synthetic fiber – 5000 m3. After use, the water is partially returned to reservoirs in the form of heavily polluted wastewater, which leads to weakening or suppression of the vital activity of aquatic organisms, which makes the processes of self-purification of reservoirs difficult.
The composition of air emissions from chemical plants is also extremely diverse. Petrochemical production pollutes the atmosphere with hydrogen sulfide and hydrocarbons; production of synthetic rubber - styrene, divinyl, toluene, acetone; production of alkalis - hydrogen chloride, etc. Substances such as carbon and nitrogen oxides, ammonia, inorganic dust, fluorine-containing substances and many others are also released in large quantities.
One of the most problematic aspects of the impact of chemical production is the spread of previously non-existent compounds into nature. Among them, synthetic surfactants (surfactants) (sometimes called detergents) are considered especially harmful. They enter the environment during the production and household use of various detergents. When entering water bodies with industrial and domestic wastewater, surfactants are poorly retained by treatment facilities, contribute to the appearance of abundant foam in water, impart toxic properties and odor to it, cause death and degeneration of aquatic organisms and, which is very significant, enhance the toxic effect of other pollutants.
These are the main negative impacts on natural systems of the leading branches of world industry. Naturally, the influence of industry is not limited to the above: there is mechanical engineering, which uses the products of metallurgy and the chemical industry and contributes to the dispersion of many substances in the environment; There are water-intensive industries such as pulp and paper and food, which also provide a large share of organic environmental pollution, etc. Based on an analysis of the environmental impact of the three main industries, it is possible to determine the nature and paths of industrial environmental pollution for any industry, for which you need to know specifics of production.

To be continued

Photo by M. Kabanov

1 The total industrial water withdrawal is about 800 km 3 per year with a value of irrecoverable losses 30–40 km 3 .

2 The main consumers of energy are developed countries. For example, in 1989, 249 million Americans used more energy for air conditioning alone than 1.1 billion Chinese used for all needs.