How to Make Man Environment-Conscious?

Ecological problems are now much in the limelight in the mass media. Man, the Homo sapiens, has taxed the potential of the biosphere to the limit – in fact, it can no longer cater to his consumerist drive. It makes no sense to engage in recrimination. The old poignant question - Who is to blame? – has lost its sting. Another one is to be done? An emotionally charged question, sure! All kinds of suggestions come thick and fast: purification technologies, environmental monitoring, consumption within reasonable bounds, and what not!.. Yet such remedies are for the most part costly, laborious and impracticable. Is there a way out? The idea of universal ecological education, of making all and everyone feel responsible for the state of the environment has now gained wide currency. This has been the subject of many panel discussions.

The need of ecological education is quite obvious. But scientists are yet to develop a conceptual premise for that what in particular is to be taught and how. Environmentalists define some of the postulates which could underlie ecoeducation today.

Russia is joining the global movement for “substandable development”. The idea implies a goal-oriented “designing” of the future. Man should harmonize socioeconomic and ecological processes also with an eye to the generations to come, their interests. For this purpose we must reappraise many values – say, even change our customary life styles. Also, such important factors as the world economy and demographic policy will have to be modified. One of the essential conditions for a transition of society to “substandable development” amounts to changing the substance and goals of education as a social institution. Ecological education should come first. We can define the strategic objective of ecoeducation only if we know the root causes of the present crisis. These causes should be sought in man’s subjective relationships with the ambient world – just an object designed to cater to his wants as “the king of nature”. Regrettably, our contemporaries are being less and less concerned with problems of making the world better, their “supreme values” are picking more of the material dross. A harmoniously developed individual is one who has a broad mind and is free of certain inhibitions and preconceived notions. This implies a degree of independence in his thoughts, words and deeds. Such an individual builds his relationships with the natural and social environment as an objective whole, but not on the basis of the man/world antithesis. Instilling such mentality is the purpose of ecological education.

Society cannot do without a guiding idea. With many conventional values being on the way out, it should adopt ecology as a pivotal fulcrum, that is, adopt a new, ecological philosophy. A philosophy based on a sound, reasonable approach to the surrounding world, society and one’s own self. In this context we can name three fundamental aspects, and these are the laws of nature, the laws of societal development and, last, the physical and psychic development of man, the Homo sapiens. Clear, we cannot meddle with these laws...

Now, we know that the substance of any field of knowledge and what is taught at school do not concur. The school offers just a minimum of this or that discipline essential for one’s intellectual moulding. Ecology is still young as a science – it is merely a hundred years old, and the range of its specific subjects has not been defined yet. But adopting the idea of ecological philosophy, we could identify the main areas of specialized education: classical (biological) ecology, social ecology and the ecology of man. A school or college graduate should have an idea about the world he lives in, his place in it, and about man/society/nature relationships. Ecological education should rely, first and foremost, on general scientific principles. First, this is an understanding of the fundamental stages in the evolution of the global system, say, bearing on the “Cosmos/Earth” and the “biosphere/noosphere” relationship. Such an approach may help form a global outlook in pupils.

The Netherlands

Despite limited natural resources and vulnerability to flooding, Holland has become a highly successful agricultural and industrial nation thanks to a sophisticated system of dikes, pumping, and draining. However, with half of the country below sea level and a rapidly growing population, Holland is also rapidly growing population, Holland is also heavily polluted. One sign of this environmental decline: the otter, whose presence indicates water quality and healthy riparian ecosystems, is now extinct in Holland

Holland in particular has the problem of post-war industrial development and pollutants taking decades to percolate through to the groundwater. This is causing a lot of worries in Holland – sort of like a bomb ticking away. And once you’ve contaminated the groundwater source, it’s almost impossible to clean. Being located on lowlands makes the Dutch rely heavily on groundwater, but it also means the water is even more vulnerable to contamination.

Flowing from eastern Switzerland through Germany to its North Sea delta in Holland, the Rhine River deposits industrial pollutants along its banks and into the sea. In recent years the EU has been working to “depollute” the North Sea as one of its many transnational projects. And the best news is that fish are now coming back to live in the Rhine.

Nearly half of Holland borders the North Sea, making it an area of particular concern. Persistent organochlorines are draining into the North Sea, not just from Holland but from Eastern Europe and the United Kingdom. Studies have shown a buildup of the organochlorine toxaphene in mackerel, dolphins, and porpoises in the North Sea, especially around Ireland and Scotland. But toxaphene has never been used in Europe. It is believed the chemical may have traveled for years from the United States or the Caribbean, where it was once used in cotton production. Toxaphene was banned in the United States in 1982.

In response to environmental degradation, the Dutch have developed a National Environmental Policy Plan (NEPP) that is rapidly attracting international interest. In presenting the plan in 1989, the Dutch government announced that “unless we set a different course quickly and resolutely, we are heading for an environmental catastrophe.

Therefore, the NEPP initially deals with environmental hazards caused by traffic, curbing carbon dioxide emissions, taking remedial action in cases of soil contamination, tackling acidification, and gaining better control of the entire waste chain.” For example, the NEPP “seeks a fertilizer balance” to handle problems caused by agriculture and industry. Under NEPP guidelines, groundwater must meet standards similar to those of drinking water; no more phosphate and nitrate may enter water and soil than can be absorbed through natural processes.

With its concentration of petrochemical industries, the shipping city of Rotterdam, considered the largest port in the world, is also the most polluted city in Holland. Amsterdam is moderately is moderately polluted in part because of chips travelling through the canals and sediments discharged from several sites. However, it’s not very clear what the exact sources of pollution are in the canals. There are also pesticides from agricultural uses, and although the insecticide DDT is banned, there are still traces detectable in the environment.

Inland lakes are also subject to pollution, which migrates along streams, and through underground leaching.

 

Cleaning up Canada

Canada, the second largest nation in the world, extends across almost 4 million square miles from the Atlantic Ocean westward to the rocky shores of the Pacific Ocean and from borders shared with the United States in the south 3,000 miles north to the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean. The country’s coastline, the longest in the world, spans more than 150,000 miles. Between costs, Canada is rich in lakes, rivers, forests, and barren rocks that not only shape the landscape but also mold the economy. Pulp and paper production, agriculture, and mining are major industries. Unfortunately, emissions and runoff from these industries, from hydroelectric plants, and from fossil fuel combustion have polluted the once pristine air and water. For years, pulp and paper mills were accused of discharging effluent with high concentrations of organochlorines into adjacent rivers. Impaired reproduction in fish suggested that something in the effluent was affecting fish metabolism. Dioxins have been shown to alter thyroid function in laboratory animals and to exert estrogenlike activity, and scientists suggest that these changes may apply to humans as well. Persistent toxic compounds such as dioxins, DDT and heavy metals have been polluting the Great Lakes, shares between the United States and Canada for more than 60 years. All these contaminants are taking their toll directly or indirectly on the lives of Canada’s 28 million residents, two-thirds of whom live close to the northern United States. Environment Canada is responsible for environmental concerns of national and interprovincial waters and interprovincial transport of substances. Environment Canada does not make declarations on human health. That is the mandate of Health Canada. Health Canada concentrates only on human health issues. However, Health Canada and Environment Canada jointly assess substances to determine if they are toxic. When, for example, fish are collected for study, a department of Environment Canada does the laboratory work, but Health Canada determines the risk to human health and issues the warnings.

Five years ago. The Canadian government committed $3 billion to a five-year environmental cleanup program called the Green Plan. The Green Plan is the Health and Environmental Action Plan, under which human health hazards from acid rain, airborne toxins, and ground level-ozone, and drinking water safety, and waste management practices are assessed.