Anthropogenic pollution of the environment. The main types of anthropogenic impacts on the biosphere

IN AND. Vernadsky noted that with the increase in the scale and intensity of activity, humanity as a whole has become a powerful geological force. This led to the transition of the biosphere to a qualitatively new state. Exterminated today 2/3 forests of the planet; more than 200 million tons of carbon monoxide, about 146 million tons of sulfur dioxide, 53 million tons of nitrogen oxides, etc. are emitted into the atmosphere annually. About 700 million hectares of once productive lands are disturbed by erosion (out of 1,400 million hectares of cultivated land). It is obvious that natural resources and the regenerative abilities of living nature are by no means unlimited.

The entire history of mankind is a history of economic growth and the gradual destruction of the biosphere. Only in the Paleolithic era, man did not disturb natural ecosystems, since his way of life (gathering, hunting, fishing) was similar to the way of existence of his kindred animals. Further development of civilization led to the creation of a modern artificial, man-made human environment, depletion and pollution of the natural environment. Particularly striking economic and environmental changes occurred in the 20th century: according to calculations, only about 1/3 of the planet's territory remained unaffected by human activity. Over the past century, a global economic subsystem has emerged and grown hundreds of times in the Earth's ecosystem. In the XX century. the consistent expansion of the economic subsystem was going on at an accelerated pace due to the displacement of natural systems (Table 2.1).

Table 2.1. Changes in the global economic subsystem and ecosystem of the planet

Indicators	Early 20th century	End of XX century
Gross world product, USD billion
Power of the world economy, TW
Population, billion people
Fresh water consumption, km 3
Consumption of net primary production b iota, %
Area of forested territories", mln km2
Desert area growth, mln ha
Reduction in the number of species, %
Area disturbed by economic activity on land (excluding the area of Antarctica), %

As can be seen from Table 2.1, by the beginning of the 20th century. the planet's economy produced a gross world product (GMP) in the amount of about 60 billion dollars a year. This economic potential has been created throughout the existence of civilization. Currently, a similar amount of VMP is produced in less than one day.

In 100 years, world energy consumption has increased 14 times. The total consumption of primary energy resources over this period exceeded 380 billion tons of reference fuel (> 1022 J). Between 1950 and 1985, average per capita energy consumption doubled to 68 GJ/yr. This means that global energy has grown twice as fast as population.

The structure of the fuel balance of most countries of the world has undergone changes: if earlier in the fuel and energy balance the main share was wood and coal, then by the end of the 20th century. Hydrocarbon fuel has become the predominant type - up to 65% is oil and gas, and up to 9% in total - nuclear and hydropower. Alternative energy technologies are gaining some economic importance. The average per capita electricity consumption has reached 2400 kWh/year. All this had a great impact on structural changes in the production and life of hundreds of millions of people.

The extraction and processing of mineral resources - ores and non-metallic materials - has increased many times over. The production of ferrous metals has increased eight times over the century and reached in the early 1980s. 850 million tons/year. The production of non-ferrous metals developed even more intensively, mainly due to the very rapid increase in the smelting of aluminum, which reached by the end of the 1980s. 14 million tons/year. Since the 1940s industrial production of uranium rapidly increased.

In the XX century. the volume and structure of mechanical engineering has significantly increased, the number and unit capacity of manufactured machines and units are rapidly increasing. Military equipment accounted for a significant share of engineering products. Industries such as the production of means of communication, instrumentation, radio engineering, electronics, and computer technology have emerged and rapidly developed. The production of self-propelled vehicles has grown thousands of times. Since the 1970s About 16 million new cars appear on the world's roads every year. In some countries (France, Italy, USA, Japan) the number of cars is already comparable to the number of inhabitants. It is known that for every 1,000 kilometers a car consumes the annual norm of oxygen for one person, as a result, 6.5 billion people consume as much oxygen as 73 billion people would need to breathe.

An important feature of modern technogenesis is the intensive chemicalization of all sectors of the economy. Over the past 50 years, more than 6 billion tons of mineral fertilizers have been produced and applied. For various purposes, more than 400 thousand. various synthetic compounds, including explosives and toxic substances. The beginning of mass production of many products of large-scale chemistry, in particular petrochemistry and chemistry of organic synthesis, dates back to the middle of the century. For 40 years, the production of plastics, synthetic fibers, synthetic detergents, pesticides, and medicines has increased many times over.

The huge technical potential of mankind in itself has an internal instability. Due to the high concentration within the biosphere and the human environment of dangerous agents and sources of risk (all types of weapons, poisonous substances and nuclear fuel), this potential not only threatens the biosphere, but also includes the potential for self-destruction. This threat is not so easily perceived, because in the psychology of the masses it is masked by the positive results of social progress in the second half of the 20th century, when per capita income growth increased, health and education systems became more efficient, people's nutrition improved, and life expectancy increased.

However, behind these “average global” positive results, there is a very deep disparity in the economic situation and consumption of resources between regions and countries of the world, between different groups of people. It is estimated that the richest 20% of the world's population accounts for 86% of total personal spending, consumes 58% of the world's energy, 45% of meat and fish, 84% of paper, and owns 87% of personal cars. On the other hand, the 20% of the world's poorest people consume only 5% or less of goods and services in each of these categories.

In all natural environments, there is a unidirectional change in the concentrations of chemicals towards an increase. In the atmosphere, the concentration of carbon dioxide is rapidly increasing (from 280 to 350 parts per million in 200 years, with more than half of the increase in the last 50 years), methane (from 0.8 to 1.65 parts per million), nitric oxide and etc. In the second half of the XX century. completely new gases appeared in the atmosphere - chlorofluorocarbons (chladons). All this is a consequence of human activities. The concentration of chemicals in the surface waters of the land is also actively and rapidly growing, as evidenced by the global eutrophication of land water bodies and part of the coastal waters of the World Ocean.

Atmospheric fallout of nitrogen and sulfur compounds, including in the form of acid precipitation, significantly affected the chemical and biological processes in soils, which led to the degradation of the soil cover in many regions of the planet. Finally, the problem of biodiversity is well known, the rate of reduction of which as a result of economic activity is much higher compared to the natural processes of species extinction. As a result of the destruction of the habitat of living organisms, the former biological diversity of the planet has been significantly undermined (Table 2.2).

Global changes in the environment indicate that in its development humanity has surpassed the permissible ecological limits determined by the laws of the biosphere, that man is dependent on these laws.

Table 2.2. Loss of species diversity of the planet over the past 400 years

Powerful industrial pollution has been added to the change and destruction of natural ecosystems. More than 50 tons of raw materials are extracted annually per capita in the world, as a result of the processing of which (with the help of water and energy) humanity eventually receives almost the same amount of waste, including 0.1 tons of hazardous waste per inhabitant of the planet.

A stereotype has developed in society, according to which the main environmental threat of the production sector is the generation of waste, but in fact, all final products of production are waste that has been postponed or transferred to the future. In accordance with the law of conservation, once generated waste passes from one phase state to another (for example, into a gaseous state when burning household waste) or disperses in the environment (if it is a gas, dust or soluble substance), finally, they can be recycled (for example , make toxic waste less toxic) or produce some product that will become waste again after some time. According to the famous Russian environmental scientist K.S. Losev, “there are no “waste-free” and “environmentally friendly” technologies, and the entire global economy is a grandiose system for the production of waste. About 90% of all waste is solid waste and only about 10% is gaseous and liquid.” There is only one way to get rid of waste - by turning it into raw materials, i.e. by creating closed production cycles in which all production and consumption waste is immediately included in a new production cycle.

The world community has come to the conclusion that the growth rate of GNP cannot serve as the only indicator of a nation's well-being. It is also characterized by the quality of life, which largely depends on the environmental situation in the country. According to the data of the World Health Organization (WHO), 20-30% of diseases on the planet are caused by the deterioration of the environment. The most tangible negative environmental consequences are caused by the activities of the branches of material production and intersectoral complexes.

Energy It has a multifactorial impact on the environment in the form of gaseous emissions into the atmosphere, wastewater discharges into water bodies, a large amount of water consumption, landscape changes, and the development of negative geological processes. According to statistics, the Russian thermal power industry accounts for up to 85-90% of emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon from the total emissions of the industry, which is about 4.4-4.6 million tons per year. Emissions of particulate matter leave a so-called “torch trail” in the adjacent territory, within which vegetation is suppressed, leading to ecosystem degradation. Emissions from powerful thermal power plants are the main culprits in the formation of acid precipitation that falls within a radius of thousands of kilometers and brings death to all living things.

Thermal and hydroelectric power plants account for up to 70% of the total consumption of fresh and sea water, and, accordingly, the volume of gross discharge of effluents into natural water bodies. Large thermal power plants discharge annually from 50 to 170 million m 3 of wastewater. Hydropower also often causes irreparable damage to nature, especially on the plains, where vast areas with numerous settlements and fertile floodplain lands that previously served as the main hayfields in the forest zone are flooded under reservoirs (for example, the Rybinsk reservoir). In the steppe zone, the creation of reservoirs leads to swamping of vast territories and secondary salinization of soils, loss of land, destruction of coastal slopes, etc.

Oil and oil refining industry has a significant negative impact primarily on the air basin. In the process of oil production, as a result of burning petroleum gas in flares, about 10% of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide emitted in Russia will fall into the atmosphere. Oil refining results in emissions of hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen into the air. In the centers of the oil refining industry, air pollution is increasing due to the high wear and tear of fixed assets, outdated technologies that do not allow reducing production waste.

The negative ecological situation in the areas of oil production is exacerbated by the subsidence of the earth's surface as a result of the extraction of a large volume of oil and a decrease in reservoir pressure (in some oil fields in Baku and Western Siberia). Serious damage to the environment is caused by oil and saline wastewater spills due to pipeline ruptures. The number of accidents at infield oil pipelines in Russia in some years was about 26,000.

Gas industry emits carbon monoxide (28% of all industry emissions), hydrocarbons (24%), volatile organic compounds (19%), nitrogen oxides (6%), sulfur dioxide (5%) into the atmosphere. Gas production in the permafrost zone leads to the degradation of natural landscapes and the development of such negative cryogenic processes as thermokarst, heaving and solifluction. The oil and gas industries are the main factors in the depletion of the natural resource potential due to a decrease in the resources of organic and mineral raw materials.

The consequence of the activities of enterprises coal industry is the movement of large volumes of rock, changes in the regimes of surface, ground and underground waters within large areas, disruption of the structure and productivity of soils, activation of chemical processes, and sometimes changes in the microclimate. Mining in areas with harsh climatic conditions in the Far North, Siberia and the Far East, as a rule, leads to more serious environmental consequences than in the central regions, where the natural environment is more resistant to various anthropogenic impacts.

The coal industry pollutes surface water bodies with sewage. These are mainly highly mineralized mine waters, 75% of which are discharged without any treatment. The coal-mining basins are associated with the formation of a specific technogenic relief, the development of subsidence and collapse phenomena, as well as the flooding of part of the waste areas (Donbass). Almost everywhere, mining leads to the complete loss of land resources, including both fertile land and forest land.

Ferrous metallurgy pollutes the air basin of cities with carbon monoxide (67.5% of the total emission), solid substances (15.5%), sulfur dioxide (more than 10%), nitrogen oxides (5.5%). In the locations of metallurgical plants, the average annual concentration of carbon disulfide exceeds 5 MPC, and benzapyrene - 13 MPC. In Russia, the industry accounts for 15% of the total emissions of the entire industry. The main sources of emissions from ferrous metallurgy into the atmosphere are sintering production (sintering machines, crushing and grinding equipment, places for unloading and pouring materials), blast and open-hearth furnaces, pickling furnaces, cupola furnaces of iron foundries, etc.

Industry enterprises consume and discharge large volumes of water. Wastewater contains suspended solids, oil products, dissolved salts (sulfates, chlorides, iron compounds, heavy metals). These discharges can lead to complete degradation of small watercourses into which they enter, and ash and slag dumps and tailings pollute groundwater due to filtration. As a result, anthropogenic geochemical anomalies are formed with the content of toxic substances hundreds of times higher than the MPC (Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works).

Non-ferrous metallurgy is a very environmentally hazardous industry that emits the most toxic pollutants into the environment, such as lead (75% of emissions from the entire Russian industry) and mercury (35%). The activity of non-ferrous metallurgy often leads to the transformation of the territories where its enterprises are located into ecological disaster zones (the city of Karabash in the South Urals, the city of Olenegorsk in the Murmansk region, etc.). Harmful emissions from enterprises, being strong biological poisons and accumulating in soil and water bodies, pose a real threat to all living things, including humans, and heavy metals with a 25-fold excess of MPC are found in mushrooms, berries and other plants at a distance of up to 20 km from the plant.

Depending on the type transport its impact is manifested in the form of pollution of the atmosphere, water basin, land, degradation of landscapes. Road transport is the main source of urban air pollution. In Russia, according to experts, its share in the total volume of emissions into the atmosphere ranges from 40 to 60%, and in large cities it reaches 90%; in Belarus, motor transport accounts for 3/4 of emissions. At the same time, the concentration of harmful substances in vehicle emissions exceeds the MPC tenfold. Electric rail transport pollutes soils and groundwater along railway lines and creates a noise and vibration effect in the surrounding areas. Air transport is characterized by chemical and acoustic pollution of the atmosphere, while water transport is characterized by pollution of water areas with oil products and household waste.

Road construction also entails negative environmental consequences: it activates such unfavorable geological processes as landslides, swamping, flooding of adjacent territories, and leads to the loss of the land fund. At the same time, road construction is an inevitable sign of civilization, a necessary condition for improving the comfort of living for the population. Therefore, in each specific case, the solution of this problem must be approached individually, taking into account the possible negative and positive consequences of the implementation of road construction projects.

Department of Housing and Utilities - the main source of formation and entry of wastewater into water bodies. It accounts for 50% of the total effluent discharge in Russia and Belarus. The second problem of the industry is the disposal and disposal of solid household waste, the disposal of which removes thousands of hectares of land from economic circulation and significantly affects the ecological state of the territory of large cities.

Huge damage agriculture Soil erosion is often caused by anthropogenic origin, resulting in a drop in natural fertility, which is typical for many regions. The depletion and pollution of water sources is progressing as a result of ill-conceived and not always justified land reclamation, non-compliance with the norms for applying mineral fertilizers and pesticides. Livestock complexes and poultry farms are a source of increased environmental hazard, around which the liquid fraction of manure is filtered into the soil, groundwater, and agricultural products are polluted.

Thus, the modern development of the economy can be defined as technogenic type of economic development, which is characterized by high nature and insufficient consideration of environmental requirements in the development and implementation of business projects. It is typical for him:

rapid and exhausting use of non-renewable natural resources (minerals);
consumption of renewable resources (land, plant and animal resources, etc.) in volumes exceeding the possibilities of their natural restoration and reproduction;
production of waste, emissions/discharges of pollutants in volumes exceeding the assimilation potential of the environment.

All this causes colossal not only environmental, but also economic damage, which manifests itself in the cost losses of natural resources and the costs of society to eliminate the negative environmental consequences of anthropogenic activities.

Introduction

Man from birth has inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He realizes his rights to life, to rest, to health protection, to a favorable environment, to work in conditions that meet the requirements of safety and hygiene in the process of life.

Vital activity is everyday activity and rest, a way of human existence. In the life process, a person is inextricably linked with his environment, while at all times he has been and remains dependent on his environment. It is due to her that he satisfies his needs for food, air, water, material resources for recreation, etc.

Habitat - the environment surrounding a person, due to a combination of factors (physical, chemical, biological, informational, social) that can have a direct or indirect immediate or remote impact on the life of a person, his health and offspring. Man and the environment are continuously in interaction, forming a constantly operating system "man - environment". In the process of evolutionary development of the World, the components of this system were continuously changing. Man improved, the population of the Earth and the level of its urbanization increased, the social structure and the social basis of society changed. The habitat also changed: the territory of the Earth's surface and its bowels, mastered by man, increased; the natural environment experienced the ever-increasing influence of the human community, there appeared artificially created by man domestic, urban and industrial environments. The natural environment is self-sufficient and can exist and develop without human intervention, while all other habitats created by man cannot develop independently and after their occurrence are doomed to aging and destruction. At the initial stage of its development, man interacted with the natural environment, which consists mainly of the biosphere, and also includes the bowels of the Earth, the galaxy and the boundless Cosmos.

Biosphere - natural area of distribution of life on Earth, including the lower layer of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the upper layer of the lithosphere, which have not experienced anthropogenic impact. In the process of evolution, a person, striving to most effectively satisfy his needs for food, material values, protection from climatic and weather influences, to increase his communication, continuously influenced the natural environment and, above all, the biosphere.

To achieve these goals, he transformed part of the biosphere into territories occupied by the technosphere.

Technosphere - a region of the biosphere in the past, transformed by people with the help of direct or indirect impact of technical means in order to best suit their material and socio-economic needs. The technosphere, created by man with the help of technical means, is the territory occupied by cities, towns, rural settlements, industrial zones and enterprises. Technospheric conditions include the conditions for people to stay at economic facilities, in transport, at home, in the territories of cities and towns. The technosphere is not a self-developing environment, it is man-made and after creation it can only degrade.

The purpose of the work is to study the topic: Anthropogenic impact on the natural environment.

The goal set defines the objectives of the study:

Anthropogenic impact on flora and fauna;

Air pollution;

Pollution of the hydrosphere;

Soil pollution.

1. The concept of anthropogenic impact.

Modern man was formed about 30-40 thousand years ago. Since that time, a new factor, the anthropogenic factor, began to operate in the evolution of the biosphere. Anthropogenic impacts include those types of changes in the environment that are caused by human life and activities.

A qualitative leap in the development of science and technology over the past two centuries, and especially today, has led to the fact that human activity has become a factor on a planetary scale, the guiding force for the further evolution of the biosphere. Anthropocenoses arose (from the Greek anthropos - man, koinos - general, community) - communities of organisms in which a person is the dominant species, and his activity determines the state of the entire system. Now humanity is using for its needs an increasing part of the planet's territory and increasing amounts of mineral resources. Over time, the anthropogenic impact has acquired a global character. The virgin landscapes were replaced by anthropogens. There are practically no territories not affected by man. Where no man has gone before, the products of his activity reach with air currents, river and ground water.

Depending on the type of activity influenced by the formation of landscapes, they are distinguished into technogenic, agricultural, recreational and others.

The following human impact on the environment and landscapes is distinguished:

1. Destructive (destructive) impact. It leads to the loss of wealth and qualities of the natural environment. Destructive impact can be conscious and unconscious;

2. Stabilizing effect. This impact is purposeful, it is preceded by awareness of the environmental threat to a specific specific object. Actions here are aimed at slowing down the processes of destruction and destruction of the environment;

3. Constructive impact - purposeful action. Its result should be the restoration of the disturbed landscape (reclamation).

At present, destructive influence prevails.

2. Anthropogenic impact on flora and fauna.

Human impacts on wildlife are made up of direct influence and indirect changes in the natural environment. One form of direct impact on plants and animals is deforestation. So suddenly finding themselves in an open habitat, the plants of the lower tiers of the forest are adversely affected by direct solar radiation. In shade-loving plants of the herbaceous and shrub layers, chlorophyll is destroyed, growth is inhibited, and some species disappear. Light-loving plants that are resistant to high temperatures and lack of moisture settle on the felling sites. The animal world is also changing: the species associated with the forest stand disappear and migrate to other places.

A tangible impact on the condition of the vegetation cover is exerted by the massive visitation of forests by vacationers. Under these conditions, the harmful effect is trampling, soil compaction and its pollution. Soil compaction inhibits root systems and causes woody plants to dry out. The direct influence of man on the animal world is the extermination of species that are food or other material benefits for him. It is believed that since 1600. more than 160 species and subspecies of birds and at least 100 species of mammals were exterminated by humans. Many species of animals are on the verge of extinction or have survived only in nature reserves. Intensified fishing has brought various species of animals to the brink of destruction. Also, environmental pollution has a very adverse effect on the biosphere.

The disappearance of a relatively small number of animal and plant species may not seem very significant. However, the main value of living species is not their economic significance. Each species occupies a certain place in the biocenosis, in the food chain, and no one can replace it. The disappearance of one or another species leads to a decrease in the stability of biocenoses. More importantly, each species has unique, unique properties. The loss of the genes that determine these properties and are selected in the course of long evolution deprives a person of the opportunity to use them in the future for his practical purposes (for example, for selection).

3. Air pollution

Atmospheric air is one of the most important components of the environment. The main sources of air pollution are thermal power plants and heating plants that burn fossil fuels; motor transport; ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy; mechanical engineering; chemical production; extraction and processing of mineral raw materials; open sources (extraction of agricultural production, construction). In modern conditions, more than 400 million tons of particles of ash, soot, dust and various kinds of waste and building materials enter the atmosphere. In addition to the above substances, other, more toxic substances are emitted into the atmosphere: vapors of mineral acids (sulfuric, chromic, etc.), organic solvents, etc. At present, there are more than 500 harmful substances polluting the atmosphere. Many branches of energy and industry generate not only the maximum amount of harmful emissions, but also create environmentally unfavorable living conditions for residents of both large and medium-sized cities. Emissions of toxic substances lead, as a rule, to an increase in the current concentrations of substances above the maximum permissible concentrations (MACs). MPCs of harmful substances in the atmospheric air of populated areas are the maximum concentrations related to a certain averaging period (30 minutes, 24 hours, 1 month, 1 year) and do not have, with a regulated probability of their occurrence, either direct or indirect harmful effects on the human body, including long-term consequences for the present and subsequent generations that do not reduce a person's working capacity and do not worsen his well-being.

4. Pollution of the hydrosphere

Water, like air, is a vital source for all known organisms. Anthropogenic activity leads to pollution of both surface and underground water sources. The main sources of pollution of the hydrosphere are discharged wastewater generated during the operation of energy, industrial, chemical, medical, defense, housing and communal and other enterprises and facilities; disposal of radioactive waste in containers and tanks that lose their tightness after a certain period of time; accidents and catastrophes occurring on land and in water spaces; atmospheric air polluted by various substances and others.

Surface sources of drinking water are annually and increasingly polluted by xenobiotics of various nature, so the supply of drinking water to the population from surface sources is an increasing danger. More than 600 billion tons of energy, industrial, household and other waste waters are annually discharged into the hydrosphere. More than 20–30 million tons of oil and products of its processing, phenols, easily oxidizable organic substances, copper and zinc compounds enter the water spaces. Unsustainable agriculture also contributes to the pollution of water sources. Residues of fertilizers and pesticides washed out of the soil enter water bodies and pollute them. Many pollutants of the hydrosphere are able to enter into chemical reactions and form more harmful complexes.

Water pollution leads to the suppression of ecosystem functions, slows down the natural processes of biological purification of fresh water, and also contributes to a change in the chemical composition of food and the human body.

Hygienic requirements for the quality of drinking water of centralized drinking water supply systems are specified in sanitary rules and regulations. The norms are established for the following water parameters of reservoirs: the content of impurities and suspended particles, taste, color, turbidity and water temperature, pH, composition and concentration of mineral impurities and oxygen dissolved in water.

5. Soil pollution

The soil is a habitat for numerous lower animals and microorganisms, including bacteria, mold fungi, viruses, etc. The soil is a source of infection with anthrax, gas gangrene, tetanus, botulism.

Along with the natural uneven distribution of certain chemical elements in modern conditions, their artificial redistribution takes place on a huge scale. Emissions from industrial enterprises and agricultural facilities, dispersing over considerable distances and getting into the soil, create new combinations of chemical elements. From the soil, these substances, as a result of various migration processes, can enter the human body (soil - plants - a person, soil - atmospheric air - a person, soil - water - a person, etc.). All kinds of metals (iron, copper, aluminum, lead, zinc) and other chemical pollutants enter the soil with industrial solid waste.

The soil has the ability to accumulate radioactive substances that enter it with radioactive waste and atmospheric radioactive fallout after nuclear tests. Radioactive substances are included in food chains and affect living organisms. Among the chemical compounds that pollute the soil are carcinogenic substances - carcinogens that play a significant role in the occurrence of tumor diseases. The main sources of soil pollution with carcinogenic substances are vehicle exhaust gases, emissions from industrial enterprises, thermal power plants, etc. Carcinogens enter the soil from the atmosphere together with coarse and medium-dispersed dust particles, when oil or oil products leak, etc. The main danger of pollution soil is linked to global air pollution.

Conclusion

So, according to the results of writing the essay, it is clear how huge the anthropogenic impact of man on the environment is. Moreover, it has reached such volumes at which the damage to the environment and humans from anthropogenic impact has become a new global problem.

We systematize the directions of the damage caused by anthropogenic impact:

The content of harmful impurities of both inorganic and organic content increases in water;

Pollution of water basins by sewage;

The oceans began to be regarded as a gratuitous waste dump - the anthropogenic "drain" became much larger than the natural one;

To carry out economic activity, a person needs resources, but they are not unlimited.

So the problem of fresh water scarcity is already being raised;

We have to breathe air, which contains a whole range of harmful substances of anthropogenic origin.

In addition, an increase in emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere leads to the destruction of the ozone layer, there is a problem of the greenhouse effect;

There is a degradation of flora and fauna.

Forests are being cut down, rare animal species are disappearing, mutations are spreading;

Enormous harm to health is caused by the nuclear industry and because of weapons testing.

To fundamentally improve the situation, purposeful and thoughtful actions will be needed. An effective environmental policy will be possible only if we accumulate reliable data on the current state of the environment, sound knowledge about the interaction of important environmental factors, if we develop new methods to reduce and prevent damage to the environment and ourselves.

List of used literature

1. Prikhodko N. Life safety. Almaty 2000

2. Chernova N.M., Bylova A.M. Ecology. 1988

3. E. A. Kriksunov and V.V. Pasechnik, A.P. Sidorin "Ecology." Publishing House "Drofa" 1995

4. Dobrovolsky G. V., Grishina L. A. "Soil protection" - M.: MGU, 1985

1. The impact of anthropogenic factors on the environment

Anthropogenic factors, i.e. the results of human activities that lead to a change in the environment can be considered at the level of the region, country or global level.

Anthropogenic pollution of the atmosphere leads to global change. Atmospheric pollution comes in the form of aerosols and gaseous substances. The greatest danger is represented by gaseous substances, which account for about 80% of all emissions. First of all, these are compounds of sulfur, carbon, nitrogen. Carbon dioxide itself is not poisonous, but its accumulation is associated with the danger of such a global process as the "greenhouse effect". We see the consequences of global warming.

Acid rain is associated with the release of sulfur and nitrogen compounds into the atmosphere. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the air combine with water vapor, then, together with rain, fall to the ground in the form of dilute sulfuric and nitric acids. Such precipitation sharply violates the acidity of the soil, contributes to the death of plants and the drying up of forests, especially coniferous ones. Once in rivers and lakes, they have a depressing effect on flora and fauna, often leading to the complete destruction of biological life - from fish to microorganisms. The distance between the place of formation of acid precipitation and the place of their fall can be thousands of kilometers.

These global negative impacts are exacerbated by desertification and deforestation processes. The main factor of desertification is human activity. Among the anthropogenic causes are overgrazing, deforestation, excessive and improper land exploitation. Scientists have calculated that the total area of man-made deserts exceeded the area of natural ones. That is why desertification is classified as a global process.

Now consider examples of anthropogenic impact at the level of our country. Russia occupies one of the first places in the world in terms of fresh water reserves. And considering that the total fresh water resources make up only 2-2.5% of the total volume of the Earth's hydrosphere, it becomes clear how rich we are. The main danger to these resources is the pollution of the hydrosphere. The main reserves of fresh water are concentrated in lakes, the area of which in our country is larger than the territory of Great Britain. Baikal alone contains approximately 20% of the world's fresh water reserves.

There are three types of water pollution: physical (primarily thermal), chemical and biological. Chemical pollution results from the ingress of various chemicals and compounds. Biological contaminants primarily include microorganisms. They enter the aquatic environment along with effluents from the chemical and pulp and paper industries. Baikal, the Volga, and many large and small rivers of Russia suffered from such pollution. Poisoning of rivers and seas with waste from industry and agriculture leads to another problem - a decrease in the supply of oxygen to sea water and, as a result, poisoning of sea water with hydrogen sulfide. An example is the Black Sea. In the Black Sea, there is an established regime of exchange between the surface and deep waters, which prevents the penetration of oxygen into the depths. As a result, hydrogen sulfide accumulates at depth. Recently, the situation in the Black Sea has deteriorated sharply, and not only because of the gradual imbalance between hydrogen sulfide and oxygen waters, there is a violation of the hydrological regime after the construction of dams on the rivers flowing into the Black Sea, but also because of the pollution of coastal waters by industrial waste and sewage.

Not bypassed Mordovia and a common misfortune - the Chernobyl accident. As a result, many areas have suffered from radioisotope contamination of land. And the results of this anthropogenic impact will be felt for hundreds of years.

2. Anthropogenic impact on the geographic envelope of the Earth

At the beginning of the 20th century, a new era began in the interaction of nature and society. The impact of society on the geographical environment, the anthropogenic impact, has increased dramatically. This led to the transformation of natural landscapes into anthropogenic ones, as well as to the emergence of global environmental problems, i.e. problems that know no boundaries. The Chernobyl tragedy endangered the entire Eastern and Northern Europe. Waste emissions affect global warming, ozone holes threaten life, animals migrate and mutate.

The degree of society's impact on the geographic envelope primarily depends on the degree of industrialization of society. Today, about 60% of the land is occupied by anthropogenic landscapes. Such landscapes include cities, villages, communication lines, roads, industrial and agricultural centers. The eight most developed countries consume more than half of the Earth's natural resources and emit 2/5 of the pollution into the atmosphere. Moreover, Russia, whose gross income is 20 times less than the US, consumes resources only 2 times less than the United States and emits about the same amount of toxic substances.

These global environmental problems force all countries to join their efforts to solve them. These problems were also considered in July 1997 at the meeting of heads of state of the leading industrial G8 in Denver. The G8 decided to more actively combat the effect of global warming and by the year 2000 to reduce the amount of harmful emissions into the atmosphere by 15%. But this is not yet a solution to all problems, and the main work remains to be done not only by the most developed countries, but also by those that are now rapidly developing.

3. Results of anthropogenic impact

In our time, the consequences of anthropogenic impact on the geographic environment are diverse and not all of them are controlled by man, many of them appear later. Let's analyze the main ones.

Changing of the climate(geophysics) of the Earth based on the enhancement of the greenhouse effect, emissions of methane and other gases, aerosols, radioactive gases, changes in ozone concentration.

Weakening of the ozone layer, the formation of a large "ozone hole" over Antarctica and "small holes" in other regions.

Pollution of the nearest outer space and its debris.

Air pollution poisonous and harmful substances, followed by acid rain and the destruction of the ozone layer, which involves freons, NO2, water vapor and other gaseous impurities.

ocean pollution, burial of toxic and radioactive substances in it, saturation of its waters with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, pollution with oil products, heavy metals, complex organic compounds, disruption of the normal ecological connection between the ocean and land waters due to the construction of dams and other hydraulic structures.

Depletion and pollution surface waters of land and groundwater, imbalance between surface and groundwater.

Nuclear pollution local sites and some regions, in connection with the Chernobyl accident, the operation of nuclear devices and nuclear tests.

Continued Accumulation on the land surface of toxic and radioactive substances, household garbage and industrial waste (especially non-decomposing plastics), the occurrence of secondary chemical reactions in them with the formation of toxic substances.

Desertification of the planet, the expansion of already existing deserts and the deepening of the desertification process itself.

Space reduction tropical and northern forests, leading to a decrease in the amount of oxygen and the disappearance of animal and plant species.

Absolute overpopulation Lands and relative regional demographic overpopulation.

Deterioration of the living environment in cities and rural areas, increase in noise pollution, stress, air and soil pollution, visual aggression of high-rise buildings and the man-made landscape itself, the stress of the pace of life in the city and the loss of social ties between people, the emergence of "psychological fatigue".

Since humanity in the modern world has become globally integral physically, politically and economically, but not socially, the threat of military conflicts remains, which exacerbate environmental problems. For example, the crisis in the Persian Gulf showed that countries are ready to forget about global threats of environmental disasters while solving private problems.

4. Anthropogenic pollution of the atmosphere

Human activity leads to the fact that pollution enters the atmosphere mainly in two forms - in the form of aerosols (suspended particles) and gaseous substances.

The main sources of aerosols are the building materials industry, cement production, open-pit mining of coal and ores, ferrous metallurgy and other industries. The total amount of aerosols of anthropogenic origin entering the atmosphere during the year is 60 million tons. This is several times less than the amount of pollution of natural origin (dust storms, volcanoes).

Much more dangerous are gaseous substances, which account for 80-90% of all anthropogenic emissions. These are compounds of carbon, sulfur and nitrogen. Carbon compounds, primarily carbon dioxide, are not toxic in themselves, but the danger of such a global process as the "greenhouse effect" is associated with its accumulation. In addition, carbon monoxide is emitted, mainly by internal combustion engines.

Nitrogen compounds are represented by toxic gases - nitrogen oxide and peroxide. They are also formed during the operation of internal combustion engines, during the operation of thermal power plants, and during the combustion of solid waste.

The greatest danger is the pollution of the atmosphere with sulfur compounds, and primarily with sulfur dioxide. Sulfur compounds are emitted into the atmosphere during the combustion of coal fuel, oil and natural gas, as well as during the smelting of non-ferrous metals and the production of sulfuric acid. Anthropogenic sulfur pollution is two times higher than natural. Sulfur dioxide reaches the highest concentrations in the northern hemisphere, especially over the territory of the United States, foreign Europe, the European part of Russia, and Ukraine. It is lower in the southern hemisphere.

Acid rain is directly related to the release of sulfur and nitrogen compounds into the atmosphere. The mechanism of their formation is very simple. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the air combine with water vapor. Then, together with rains and fogs, they fall to the ground in the form of dilute sulfuric and nitric acids. Such precipitation sharply violates the norms of soil acidity, worsens the water exchange of plants, and contributes to the drying of forests, especially coniferous ones. Getting into rivers and lakes, they oppress their flora and fauna, often leading to the complete destruction of biological life - from fish to microorganisms. Acid rain also causes great harm to various structures (bridges, monuments, etc.).

The main regions of distribution of acid precipitation in the world are the USA, foreign Europe, Russia and the CIS countries. But recently they have been noted in the industrial regions of Japan, China, and Brazil.

The distance between the areas of formation and areas of acid precipitation can reach even thousands of kilometers. For example, the main culprits of acid precipitation in Scandinavia are the industrial regions of Great Britain, Belgium and Germany.

Scientists and engineers have come to the conclusion that the main way to prevent air pollution should be to gradually reduce harmful emissions and eliminate their sources. Therefore, a ban on the use of high-sulfur coal, oil and fuel is needed.

5. Anthropogenic pollution of the hydrosphere

Scientists distinguish three types of pollution of the hydrosphere: physical, chemical and biological.

Physical pollution refers primarily to thermal pollution resulting from the discharge of heated water used for cooling at thermal power plants and nuclear power plants. The discharge of such waters leads to a violation of the natural water regime. For example, rivers in places where such waters are discharged do not freeze. In closed reservoirs, this leads to a decrease in the oxygen content, which leads to the death of fish and the rapid development of unicellular algae (“blooming” of water). Physical contamination also includes radioactive contamination.

Chemical pollution of the hydrosphere occurs as a result of the ingress of various chemicals and compounds into it. An example is the discharge of heavy metals (lead, mercury), fertilizers (nitrates, phosphates) and hydrocarbons (oil, organic pollution) into water bodies. The main source is industry and transport.

Biological pollution is created by microorganisms, often pathogens. They enter the aquatic environment with effluents from the chemical, pulp and paper, food industries and livestock complexes. Such effluents can be sources of various diseases.

A special issue in this topic is the pollution of the oceans. It happens in three ways.

The first of these is river runoff, with which millions of tons of various metals, phosphorus compounds, and organic pollution enter the ocean. At the same time, almost all suspended and most dissolved substances are deposited in the mouths of rivers and adjacent shelves.

The second way of pollution is associated with precipitation, with which most of the lead, half of the mercury and pesticides enter the World Ocean.

The problem of anthropogenic impact on the geographic environment is complex and multifaceted, it has a global character. But they solve it at three levels: state, regional and global.

At the first level, each country solves its environmental problems. At the regional level, activities are carried out by several countries with common environmental interests. At the global level, all countries of the world community unite their efforts.

IMPACT ON ROCKS AND MASSIVES. IMPACTS ON THE SUBSOIL

Currently, the most acute environmental problems are often reduced only to issues of pollution and changes in the atmosphere, including the problem of the so-called "ozone hole", to issues of pollution of water bodies, conservation of plant and animal resources, etc., forgetting that all these components nature are closely connected with the Earth itself, more precisely, with its outer shell - the lithosphere. It is the lithosphere that is the material lithogenic basis of the biosphere - the sphere of life on our planet. On rocks, as on the basis, soils, landscapes are formed, plant and animal communities develop. At the same time, rocks, with the active participation of man, in the process of his various activities (technogenesis), are more and more included in the technosphere (the part of the biosphere affected by technogenesis). Without belittling the significance of the global environmental problems of the atmosphere and hydrosphere, plant and animal communities listed above, it should be noted that their solution is impossible without interrelation with the problems of the ecology of the lithosphere. Various questions of ecological problems of the lithosphere are being studied in a new scientific direction—ecological geology (ecogeology). This article is devoted to its main problems at the present stage.

GEOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE MODERN ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS

The main factor of the global ecological crisis on Earth is man, and this is the main difference between the present crisis and all the previous ones. The modern ecological crisis is thus unnatural, it is caused by man himself. Unreasonable material and economic, or technogenic (anthropogenic) activity in all its complex and diverse forms leads nature on Earth to an ecological crisis before our eyes. Unreasonable anthropogenic activity, including within the gigantic lithospheric space, or rather, in its uppermost part, called the geological environment, introduces a huge imbalance in the balance of the earth's biosphere. The technological development of civilization began to be catastrophically fast, and by the standards of geological time - explosive. The industrial revolution in the world has led to global human intervention in the lithosphere, primarily in mining.

So, for example, the amount of material only mechanically extracted by man in the Earth's lithosphere during mining and construction exceeds 100 billion tons per year, which is approximately four times the mass of material carried by river waters into the oceans in the process of denudation, land erosion. The annual volume of sediments moved by all flowing waters on the earth's surface is no more than 13 km 3, that is, 30 times less than rocks move during construction and mining. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the total production capacity in the world is doubling every 14-15 years. That is, anthropogenic activity in terms of its scale and intensity has become not only commensurate with natural geological processes, but significantly exceeds them, as V.I. Vernadsky, however, not seeing any threat to civilization in this.

On vast areas of the Earth's surface and in its bowels, various unfavorable geological processes and phenomena (landslides, mudflows, flooding and waterlogging of territories, soil salinization, etc.) are activated before our eyes, which were caused or activated by man, often by his unreasonable economic activity. Such processes of artificial rather than natural origin began to be called engineering-geological. They are the same age as human civilization, and as the ecological crisis deepens, the scale of their manifestations on Earth is increasing.

Engineering-geological processes occur simultaneously with natural geological processes, but their intensity, concentration, frequency of occurrence and other parameters significantly exceed similar natural ones. Hence their extraordinary importance. So far, a person cannot prevent many dangerous and catastrophic geological processes, but the arsenal of engineering geology methods has accumulated vast scientific experience in predicting geological and engineering-geological processes, in measures aimed at engineering protection of territories from their manifestation and damage reduction.

Thus, in the ecological crisis that is aggravating on Earth, the role of various geological and engineering-geological processes occurring in the lithosphere is enormous, which must be borne in mind when solving environmental problems. In this regard, in modern conditions, the importance of engineering and environmental geology in the life of society is steadily increasing.

TECHNOGENIC IMPACT ON THE GEOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT

There is a widespread erroneous opinion that, unlike plants or animals, which are more or less sensitive to technogenic (human-caused) impacts, the “earth” itself (or rather, the upper horizons of the lithosphere, rocks and soils) can “withstand” anything : and the discharge of pollution, and underground atomic explosions, and the burial of all kinds of toxic or simply unnecessary waste, and the unrestrained exploitation of the bowels, from which all kinds of minerals are extracted on a gigantic scale, etc. But this is a deeply erroneous opinion. There is a limit to everything, just as there are maximum permissible levels of technogenic impacts on the lithosphere.

Mankind had the common sense to ban nuclear tests in the atmosphere and hydrosphere - the Earth's geospheres, the most vulnerable and environmentally significant. But until recently, some countries (France, China) conducted and are conducting tests in the lithosphere, although the ecological significance of this geosphere of the Earth is no less (and in some cases much more) than the first two. There is a criminal illiteracy in the field of ecological geology, bordering on a crime against all mankind.

But in addition to underground nuclear tests, which “shatter” the lithosphere and pollute it with radionuclides, seemingly such relatively “harmless” effects on the lithosphere as creation of landfills for solid household waste(often out of control) industrial pollution of groundwater and as a result, the reduction in the supply of drinking water on Earth, mechanical(static and dynamic), thermal, electromagnetic and other types of impacts on the upper horizons of the earth's crust. Only municipal waste, accumulated in landfills and partially released into the lithosphere, is a significant factor of technogenic impact. The amount of municipal waste per person per year in some countries reaches huge values, and their disposal is a serious problem throughout the world.

As a result of various manifestations of technogenic impacts, the Earth turns into a giant dump, the lithosphere begins to experience irreversible negative changes, the environmental consequences of which are difficult to predict. It is necessary to dispel the falsity of the current misconceptions about the lithosphere as a geosphere that "can withstand anything."

Every year the intensity of human impact on the lithosphere increases more and more. If by 1985 the total land area covered by all types of engineering structures (buildings, roads, reservoirs, canals, etc.) was about 8%, then by 1990 it exceeded 10%, and by 2000 it may increase to 15 %, that is, approach the value of 1/6 of the Earth's land area. If we add here the areas used on Earth for agriculture, it turns out that about half of the land is affected by these activities (excluding Antarctica). At the same time, it must be borne in mind that the surface and underground space of the lithosphere are “developed” very unevenly.

For example, the territory of the Moscow region by 1985 was built up by 16%. In a number of places, especially in cities, the concentration of various engineering structures reaches a very large value. In urban areas, it is almost impossible to find unaltered sections of the lithosphere or virgin, unaltered sections of the relief. On fig. Figure 2 shows a map of technogenic changes in the relief of the territory of Moscow, from which it follows that the proportion of the city's areas with practically unchanged relief is very small.

Impact on rocks and massifs and subsoil

The "development" of the lithosphere goes not only in breadth, but also in depth. Minerals are mined from ever greater depths. The number of deep mines and quarries is growing, the depth of boreholes (which have reached 12 km) is increasing. Due to the lack of space in cities, people are increasingly developing and using underground space (metro, passages, tunnels, storage facilities, archives). The greatest man-made impact on the lithosphere in terms of scale is primarily due to such activities as mining (extraction and processing of minerals), engineering, construction, agriculture and military. All of them act as a powerful geological factor that changes the face of the Earth, the composition, state and properties of the lithosphere, and, consequently, as a factor influencing the state of ecosystems. Many examples can be cited that reveal the scale of technogenic impacts on the lithosphere. We will limit ourselves to just a few. At present, the total length of railways on Earth is more than 1400 thousand km, that is, 3.5 times more than the distance from the Earth to the Moon. And along this entire length, the soil cover is being disturbed, the geological conditions of the territories adjacent to the road are changing, and new geological processes are emerging. The length of roads in the world is even greater. Geological conditions are also disturbed along the highways. It is estimated that when laying 1 km of the road, about 2 hectares of vegetation and soil cover are disturbed.

The total length of the banks of only artificial reservoirs built on the territory of the former USSR by the mid-80s was equal to the length of the Earth's equator. Throughout their entire length, various geological processes have developed and continue to develop (activation of slope processes, processing of banks, flooding, etc.). The length of the main irrigation and navigation canals in the territory of the CIS, which also change the geological situation, is much larger and amounts to about 3/4 of the distance from the Earth to the Moon. These figures for the Earth as a whole are even higher. ,

Technogenic human activity on Earth can not only cause activation or, conversely, slow down the development of natural geological processes, but can also generate new engineering-geological processes that have not previously been observed in this territory. Technogenic human activity can even lead to the emergence of such grandiose and dangerous geological phenomena as earthquakes. This phenomenon is known as "induced seismicity". Most often, man-made earthquakes occur in connection with the creation of large and deep reservoirs. So, for example, one of the first cases of man-made seismic phenomena during the filling of the reservoir was noted in 1932 in Algeria during the construction of a 100 m high dam on the Oued Fodda River, when seismic shocks began to occur during the filling of the reservoir, reaching 7 points and emanating from the hypocenter located at a depth of 300 m. With the completion of the filling of the reservoir, seismic activity gradually ceased. But usually induced seismicity manifests itself, gradually decreasing, for several more years (up to 3-5 years) after the completion of the filling of the reservoir. Later, similar phenomena were recorded in Europe (Russia, Italy, France, Greece, Switzerland), Asia (China, Japan, Pakistan), Australia and the USA. Seismic vibrations of the earth's crust, commensurate with large earthquakes, also occur during underground nuclear tests. There is an opinion that they can be the reason for the activation of seismicity in neighboring regions, serve as a kind of "trigger".

As the largest geological factor on Earth, man also produces artificial soils in huge volumes - displaced or created masses of rocks, dumps, embankments, alluvial soils, slags, ashes, etc. Moreover, this process has received such a wide scale that it has become commensurate with natural sedimentation. Currently, artificial (or technogenic) soils already cover more than 55% of the Earth's land area. But their distribution is extremely uneven, and in a number of urbanized areas, artificial soils cover 95-100% of the territory, and their thickness reaches several tens of meters. The intensity of the formation of artificial soils on the territory of the CIS is shown in fig. 3, from which it follows that this process is especially strong in the European part of Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Transcaucasia and southern Siberia. Among technogenic soils, the most environmentally dangerous are those that are formed from various wastes.

A characteristic example of the formation of huge masses of artificial soils is the construction of large fuel and energy complexes. With an open method of developing a coal mine, in addition to coal, a huge mass of overburden rocks is moved. The coal that is then burned turns into ash and slag, which enters the dumps, the scale of which reaches gigantic proportions. Their disposal is a serious environmental problem on Earth. If the removal of ash from the furnaces of thermal power plants occurs by water (hydraulic removal), then the ash is discharged through a pulp pipeline into settling ponds, at the bottom of which huge masses of artificial ash soils are deposited. As a result, large areas are covered with reclaimed ash soils, and natural landscapes and ecosystems are degraded. Anthropogenic displacements and changes in the masses of rocks, as well as the elemental, geochemical composition of the upper horizons of the lithosphere, including the underground hydrosphere, have led to technogenic changes in the Earth's geophysical fields - gravitational, magnetic, electrical, radiation, and thermal. All these fields of the Earth are no longer primeval, not natural in their structure and properties. They are technogenically distorted to a greater or lesser extent, and far from being in a direction favorable for the ecology of humans and other organisms.
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ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACT

1 The impact of anthropogenic factors on the environment

2 Anthropogenic impact on the geographic envelope of the earth

2.1 Results of anthropogenic impact

2.2 Anthropogenic pollution of the atmosphere

Literature

anthropogenic impact aerosol atmosphere

1 IMPACT OF ANTHROPOGENIC FACTORS ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Anthropogenic factors, i.e. the results of human activities that lead to a change in the environment can be considered at the level of the region, country or global level.

Anthropogenic pollution of the atmosphere leads to global change. Atmospheric pollution comes in the form of aerosols and gaseous substances.

The greatest danger is represented by gaseous substances, which account for about 80% of all emissions. First of all, these are compounds of sulfur, carbon, nitrogen. Carbon dioxide itself is not poisonous, but its accumulation is associated with the danger of such a global process as the "greenhouse effect".

We see the consequences of global warming.

Scientists have calculated that the total area of man-made deserts exceeded the area of natural ones. That is why desertification is classified as a global process.

Now consider examples of anthropogenic impact at the level of our country.

Russia occupies one of the first places in the world in terms of fresh water reserves. And considering that the total fresh water resources make up only 2-2.5% of the total volume of the Earth's hydrosphere, it becomes clear how rich we are.

The main danger to these resources is the pollution of the hydrosphere.

The main reserves of fresh water are concentrated in lakes, the area of which in our country is larger than the territory of Great Britain. Baikal alone contains approximately 20% of the world's fresh water reserves.

An example is the Black Sea. In the Black Sea, there is an established regime of exchange between the surface and deep waters, which prevents the penetration of oxygen into the depths. As a result, hydrogen sulfide accumulates at depth. Recently, the situation in the Black Sea has deteriorated sharply, and not only because of the gradual imbalance between hydrogen sulfide and oxygen waters, there is a violation of the hydrological regime after the construction of dams on the rivers flowing into the Black Sea, but also because of the pollution of coastal waters by industrial waste and sewage.

The problems of chemical pollution of reservoirs, rivers and lakes in Mordovia are acute.

One of the most striking examples is the discharge of heavy metals into drains and reservoirs, among which lead is especially dangerous (its anthropogenic inputs are 17 times higher than natural ones) and mercury. The sources of these pollutions were harmful productions of the lighting industry. In the recent past, a reservoir in the north of Saransk called the Saransk Sea was poisoned with heavy metals.

2 ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACT ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL ENVELOPE OF THE EARTH

At the beginning of the 20th century, a new era began in the interaction of nature and society.

The impact of society on the geographical environment, the anthropogenic impact, has increased dramatically. This led to the transformation of natural landscapes into anthropogenic ones, as well as to the emergence of global environmental problems, i.e. problems that know no boundaries. The Chernobyl tragedy endangered the entire Eastern and Northern Europe. Waste emissions affect global warming, ozone holes threaten life, animals migrate and mutate.

The degree of impact of society on the geographic shell, first of all, depends on the degree of industrialization of society. Today, about 60% of the land is occupied by anthropogenic landscapes. Such landscapes include cities, villages, communication lines, roads, industrial and agricultural centers. The eight most developed countries consume more than half of the Earth's natural resources and emit 2/5 of the pollution into the atmosphere. Moreover, Russia, whose gross income is 20 times less than the US, consumes resources only 2 times less than the United States and emits about the same amount of toxic substances.

2. 1 Results of anthropogenic impact

In our time, the consequences of anthropogenic impact on the geographic environment are diverse and not all of them are controlled by man, many of them appear later. Let's analyze the main ones.

1. Climate change (geophysics) of the Earth based on the enhancement of the greenhouse effect, emissions of methane and other gases, aerosols, radioactive gases, changes in ozone concentration.

2. The weakening of the ozone screen, the formation of a large "ozone hole" over Antarctica and "small holes" in other regions.

3. Pollution of the nearest outer space and its littering.

4. Pollution of the atmosphere with toxic and harmful substances, followed by acid rain and the destruction of the ozone layer, which involves freons, NO 2, water vapor and other gas impurities.

5. Pollution of the ocean, burial of poisonous and radioactive substances in it, saturation of its waters with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, pollution with oil products, heavy metals, complex organic compounds, disruption of the normal ecological connection between the ocean and land waters due to the construction of dams and other hydraulic structures.

6. Depletion and pollution of land surface water and groundwater, imbalance between surface and groundwater.

7. Radioactive contamination of local areas and some regions, in connection with the Chernobyl accident, the operation of nuclear devices and nuclear tests.

8. Continued accumulation of toxic and radioactive substances, household waste and industrial waste (especially non-decomposing plastics) on the land surface, the occurrence of secondary chemical reactions in them with the formation of toxic substances.

9. Desertification of the planet, expansion of already existing deserts and deepening of the process of desertification itself.

10. Reduction of areas of tropical and northern forests, leading to a decrease in the amount of oxygen and the disappearance of animal and plant species.

12. Absolute overpopulation of the Earth and relative regional demographic overpopulation.

13. Deterioration of the living environment in cities and rural areas, an increase in noise pollution, stress, air and soil pollution, visual aggression of high-rise buildings and the man-made landscape itself, the stress of the pace of life in the city and the loss of social ties between people, the emergence of "psychological fatigue".

2. 2 Anthropogenic pollution of the atmosphere

Human activity leads to the fact that pollution enters the atmosphere mainly in two forms - in the form of aerosols (suspended particles) and gaseous substances.

Nitrogen compounds are represented by toxic gases - nitrogen oxide and peroxide.

They are also formed during the operation of internal combustion engines, during the operation of thermal power plants, and during the combustion of solid waste.

The greatest danger is the pollution of the atmosphere with sulfur compounds, and, above all, with sulfur dioxide. Sulfur compounds are emitted into the atmosphere during the combustion of coal fuel, oil and natural gas, as well as during the smelting of non-ferrous metals and the production of sulfuric acid. Anthropogenic sulfur pollution is two times higher than natural. Sulfur dioxide reaches the highest concentrations in the northern hemisphere, especially over the territory of the United States, foreign Europe, the European part of Russia, and Ukraine. It is lower in the southern hemisphere.

3. Anthropogenic pollution of the hydrosphere. Scientists distinguish three types of pollution of the hydrosphere: physical, chemical and biological.

By physical means, first of all, thermal pollution resulting from the discharge of heated water used for cooling at thermal power plants and nuclear power plants.

The discharge of such waters leads to a violation of the natural water regime. For example, rivers in places where such waters are discharged do not freeze. In closed reservoirs, this leads to a decrease in the oxygen content, which leads to the death of fish and the rapid development of unicellular algae (“blooming” of water). Physical contamination also includes radioactive contamination.

A special issue in this topic is the pollution of the oceans. It happens in three ways.

The second way of pollution is associated with precipitation, with which most of the lead, half of the mercury and pesticides enter the World Ocean.

Finally, the third way is directly related to human economic activity in the waters of the World Ocean. The most common type of pollution is oil pollution during the transportation and extraction of oil. The problem of anthropogenic impact on the geographic environment is complex and multifaceted, it has a global character. But they solve it at three levels: state, regional and global. At the first level, each country solves its environmental problems. At the regional level, activities are carried out by several countries with common environmental interests. At the global level, all countries of the world community unite their efforts.

LITERATURE

1. Barashkov A.I. Will the world end? - M.: Knowledge, 1991. - 48 p.

2. Maksakovskiy V.P. Geographical picture of the world. Part 1. - Yaroslavl: Upper-Volzh. book. publishing house, 1995. - 320 p.

3. Radyshevsky D. Russia entered the world government // "Moscow News" No. 25, 1997

4. Reimers N.F. Ecology - M.: Rossiya Molodaya, 1994. - 367 p.

5. Student's handbook. Geography / Comp. T.S. Mayorova - M.: TKO "AST", 1996. - 576 p.

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