An essay for the All-Russian essay competition in the direction of “Put your planet in order” with the theme “Be grateful to nature!” Start in science What does it mean to put your planet in order?

The decree of the head of state declaring 2013 the Year of Environmental Protection caused widespread discussion in society.

In a stream of various statements, I came across one. Its author claimed that he was concerned not so much about the abundance of garbage as about the reluctance of most citizens to clean it up after themselves and their general lack of desire not to shit on their own feet. Maybe this man is right, and we Russians have simply lost our ecological culture, if we ever had one?..

I asked this question to the First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Rules and Organization of Parliamentary Activities Oleg PANTELEEV. And it was not by chance that he asked, because the senator has been seriously involved in the problems of environmental safety in Russia for a long time.

Correctly noted. The main thing is not to litter, and if garbage does form, it must be removed. But, as it seems to me, the problem here is much broader and deeper... As for the personal culture of behavior, it certainly existed. I grew up in a family of teachers, my father was the director of an orphanage, my mother ran a rural school, and I was taught to take care of nature from childhood. That’s why I think that the education of environmental culture should be carried out from childhood.

For many years no one did this at all. Throwing a cigarette butt out of a car window, throwing a candy or ice cream wrapper directly onto the ground without looking has become the norm of life. A sad norm. It is believed that the situation is now changing. Maybe. But even if so, it is clearly not changing enough. And it is impossible to change the existing stereotype of behavior among all our citizens at once. Remember what we saw when the snow began to melt in the spring: crushed plastic bottles, dirt, and garbage everywhere. This is how we live, like pigs.

- You say yourself: you can’t change everyone. How to be?

I think that people should be taught to clean for others too. Already now there are caring citizens ready for this. They understand that professional janitors alone cannot solve the problem. In the city, wipers can cope with dirt at the very least. And in the forest, in recreation areas, where there are mountains of garbage, who will remove it? Therefore, I support social movements concerned with this problem.

One of these movements was born on the basis of the Union of Nature Photographers, which I head. There are many interesting, well-known people in our country. Many people have their own blogs on the Internet, where they post their photographs, attracting people's attention. One of the members of the Union, Sergei Dolya, came up with the idea of ​​​​creating the “Blogger Against Garbage” movement. By the way, for some reason we look at bloggers as hamsters who are incapable of creating anything. But in fact this is not so, the movement has shown its effectiveness and viability. Last year, about thirty thousand people responded to our first call to pick up garbage. And not only in Moscow, but also in different cities. More than fifty thousand people already attended the second event. This year the actions will continue, and we expect that many more people will support them.

I can report that the Bloggers Against Litter movement was featured at the Golden Turtle Wildlife Festival. This festival was included in the government program of events within the framework of the Year of Environmental Protection. In winter we held it in Moscow, now it is in St. Petersburg, then it will move to other cities and even abroad.

The other day we even sent him into space. Here two problems are solved simultaneously. One is psychological relief for crews who are on the ISS for a very long time. There is nothing better than nature for this. Our Union of Nature Photographers has a huge amount of wildlife photography of the highest quality. We collected them into a slide film and transferred them for display on the ISS, where special monitors are already installed. Imagine, astronauts are hovering over the planet, and before their eyes are views of the Earth, synchronized with the flight route. They fly over the Far East and see photo panoramas of this part of the planet. And further - Amur, Baikal, etc.

Thus, we teach astronauts about ecology, which has a high meaning. We discussed with them and with Rosprirodnadzor environmental monitoring from the ISS. The cosmonauts will tell us where contamination is detected and not only on Russian territory. For some reason, we are used to “wiping ourselves off” when they try to convince us that no one takes care of nature worse than Russia, they say, where LUKOIL or Gazprom work, there is dirt everywhere. But this is not so. From orbit, astronauts can clearly see how polluted the Persian Gulf is and how much dirt there is in Hudson Bay. We will receive such signals from them and, through organizations controlled by the UN, bring this information to the public so that international measures can be taken. Let's stop "wiping ourselves off." It's time to stop defending, it's time to go on the offensive. Russia is a strong state, and no one has removed our superpower status.

- But we know even without observations from space that environmental problems in Russia are very acute. The head of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Sergei Donskoy, reported this to members of the Federation Council at the beginning of this year as part of the “government hour”. He cited terrifying figures: more than 31 billion tons of industrial waste alone have accumulated in Russia. And today, according to him, only one island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago has been cleaned, and the volume of pollution has decreased by only 9 thousand tons. Cleaning the rest of Russia is still at the project stage. So how long will it take us to get our environment in order?

I don’t think it’s worth talking about timing yet. We have yet to create a system, a mechanism for solving environmental problems, including the removal of garbage and industrial waste, which have really filled everything around us. There are cases when one should not reinvent the wheel and it is enough to remember how these problems were solved under Soviet rule. Today, nothing prevents us from taking all the good things from the past. In the nineties, we simply broke the existing systems of Vtorchermet and Tsvetmet, and broke the basis of this system - voluntariness. Who was bothered by the fact that the pioneers handed over waste paper? After all, the meaning of all this activity was not only in the economic component, but also in educational work.

Having broken the system for collecting and recycling recyclables, we have not created anything to replace it. Even what is used in other countries. We did not go down this path. Having not learned to sort garbage, as is done everywhere, municipalities turned away from garbage problems, believing that they already had enough to worry about. None of the legislators demanded that payments for the collection, removal and disposal of garbage be normalized. And due to the fact that cleaning is very cheap in our country, the system of waste factories, which operates all over the world, does not work.

As a result, we suffer colossal losses because the possibilities for recycling recyclable materials are not used. So let's at least start with ourselves. Remember how Exupery said the little prince: when you wake up, take away your planet. We must instill the same approach in our people. And again, there is no need to invent anything. All this happened. I remember how in our village we, children, collected everything we could that was lying on the ground and lying in sheds, any bones, rags, waste paper, and carried it to the general store, where there was a recycling point. They handed over and received incredibly attractive toys for this. At the same time, there was a strict selection: they could take some old rotten saucepan from me, but they would never take a drinker from a barn. Now, by the way, in the few operating recycling centers they will take anything you want. And again a mistake. We took the path of commercializing the process, and this led to outright theft.

A self-respecting state that is actually interested in the development of the country puts environmental policy at the state level. Clean air, clean water, clean land allow you to save enormous amounts of money on protecting the health of citizens. Where there is bad ecology, there are diseases, and, meanwhile, health also means demography: what kind of children are born and in what quantity.

Of course, we must understand that in the modern world we cannot do without developed industry, transport, and energy. All this leads, unfortunately, to environmental violations. But we can fix a lot of things ourselves. Take forests, for example, the lungs of the planet. In Russia they are constantly shrinking, they are being cut down, they are burning, and there is practically no planting of new forests. My colleagues on the Federation Council constantly pay attention to this. Lately, this order seems to be returning. They talk about it at the legislative level; for barbaric industrial deforestation without restoration they are fined and deprived of deforestation quotas. But this needs to be done on a larger scale. After all, an irreversible process is underway: we are cutting down more forests than we grow. Future generations will not forgive us for this.

We should pay attention to the experience of the Scandinavian countries. They have large forest reserves, but mainly export timber from Russia. They take care of theirs. And they are doing absolutely the right thing. Scandinavian countries care about future generations by placing the environment at the level of public policy.

- Of course, the declaration of 2013 as the Year of Environmental Protection by Presidential Decree raises environmental problems to the state level. I have no doubt that there is vigorous activity in this direction throughout Russia. But the year will end, and where is the guarantee that, as often happens, environmental problems will not be relegated to the background? After all, the efforts of bloggers alone cannot solve them...

You are wrong to underestimate our capabilities. Bloggers can do a lot, including organizing Russians to clean up garbage. The whole world is using the capabilities of social networks to self-organize society and solve some pressing problems. I view the Year of Environmental Protection as a catalyst for all activities to solve environmental problems. It sets the bar for action for the future, below which it is no longer possible to fall.

- At the end of May, the next, sixth, Nevsky International Ecological Congress will be held in St. Petersburg. Its organizers are the Federation Council and the Interparliamentary Assembly of States- CIS participants. What practical benefits do you see from holding this forum, and what is expected to be discussed?

I see a practical benefit in the fact that specialists, legislators, production workers, and leaders of public organizations will take part in the congress. They will discuss pressing problems. And professional communication is always a movement forward. The agenda of the congress includes cultural and legal aspects of environmental activities. It is no coincidence that the motto of the forum is “Ecological culture is the basis for solving environmental problems.”

- It’s unlikely that anyone will argue with this. But is the current environmental legislation capable of coping with the tasks dictated by the new environmental policy? And who, in the end, will be able to monitor the implementation of this legislation?

A control body is always needed. The big omission is that we removed the environmental police. It is simply necessary. And I will raise the question of its revival. Several years ago, the Prosecutor General's Office decided to create a unit to supervise environmental activities. Yes, while it is not very well provided financially, it is difficult for prosecutors to work. But their activities have an effect, and a considerable one. This is so far the only structure that can require enterprise owners to comply with environmental standards. In three or four years they were able to achieve some changes regarding environmental issues.

As for legislation, it is never perfect. Life is changing, and the economic model is changing. Good, flexible legislation follows life. This has a direct bearing on the environment. The solution to environmental problems must be ahead of any actions related to scientific and technological progress. Consequently, environmental legislation must be improved.

- So what comes first - ecology or industrial development?

Human. And the environment should give him the opportunity to live a normal, healthy life.

Interviewed by Nikolay DOROFEEV

Ecos (Greek) - home, habitat, world in which we live

Over the last century, human pressure on the environment has increased enormously. Currently, there is a combination of adverse cosmic impacts on the planet and man-made impacts.

Changes have occurred in all layers of the planet - air, earth, water, vegetation, the Noosphere are so contaminated that the problem of clean land, water, air becomes paramount.

The population is growing, the level of culture and education is falling. In these conditions, the struggle for resources flares up, conflicts arise between people and nations on an international basis. The threat of destruction looms not only over humanity, but also over the entire planet, which can be destroyed instantly by all the accumulated weapons.

Everyone participates

The existence of an ecosystem - planet Earth - depends on all participants in this ecosystem. And the health of each of us, in turn, depends on the state of the planet.

Therefore, taking care of the harmonious and healthy functioning of the ecosystem is the task not only of special government or public structures, but also of every person.

Our duty is not only to pay taxes to the state, so that it ensures environmental safety and environmental protection, and to be a passive contemplator of this process.

It is to be an active participant who, with his mental, sensory aspirations and actions, constantly maintains the balance of the system in which he lives.

It is necessary to realize the unity, the interconnection of everything with everything in all layers of multi-level reality.

We need to take responsibility for what is happening on the planet, and to the extent of our strength and capabilities, participate in its life and get out of the usual form - living only by personal interests of consumption, tribal ideology, and local beliefs.

Disease history

It is human nature to unite in the face of danger. The time has come when small, personal, tribal, national and state interests must be subordinated to a common global goal - saving the planet with its world and humanity.

A disease can be cured only by eliminating the cause. The causes of the disease of humanity and, as a consequence, of the entire planet are created by a person’s non-ecological attitude towards himself (personal negative programs), the people around him and the natural world.

The accepted wrong values ​​formed in social life have been reflected in the social life and culture of recent centuries, and the sudden surge in technological progress has aggravated the trends, leading to the sad circumstances in which we find ourselves.

Sacred world

What are these negative programs that dominate the consciousness of man and humanity? First of all, this is a lack of knowledge about the unity and sacredness of the world.

All living and nonliving things have a single source, interpenetration and interconnection, which is manifested in the unity of matter and information (consciousness). Therefore, the attitude towards the world as living, conscious, feeling, reacting can be expressed by the word sacred.

A person is able to improve the environmental situation not only through his actions (which are, of course, necessary), but also through his thoughts, meditations and prayers, and by expanding his consciousness to the planetary level.

Such a person not only recognizes with his mind his unity with the world - he experiences it with all layers of his psyche and physiology, generating bright spiritual energies within himself, spreading them around him. In other words, he develops an environmental consciousness.

“You got up in the morning, washed your face, put yourself in order - immediately put your planet in order” - this golden rule, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery in the work “The Little Prince”, became the slogan of the next meeting of students of Kaltasinskaya Secondary School No. 2 within the walls of Kaltasinskaya children's model library. The reason for the meeting was World Environment Day, which, according to the UN decision, is celebrated annually on June 5 and is one of the main ways to attract the attention of the world community and every individual to environmental problems.
The children's library staff held a
intellectual environmental game - the quiz “Take care of your planet!”, giving them the opportunity not only to demonstrate their knowledge in the field of environmental protection, but also to learn a lot of new and interesting things. The competitive form of the game stimulated children to think faster and apply various skills. Plus to this is team unity and the development of creative abilities. To participate in the game, each team prepared an original name, came up with a motto, and drew an emblem that reveals the essence of the name and the team’s motto. The children took part in the quiz with great interest, built various logical chains, guessed riddles, played the comic game “Me Too,” determined the causes of environmental pollution in the “Through the Mouth of a Baby” competition, and demonstrated knowledge on this topic in the “Gold Placers” competition.
All participants in the game received memorable gifts and a good mood.

“There is such a firm rule,” the Little Prince told me later. “You got up in the morning, washed your face, put yourself in order - and immediately put your planet in order.” (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

How often do we think that our home is not only an apartment, but also an entrance, a yard, streets, parks, forests, fields, rivers. Our entire land is our home. In our apartment we wash, scrape, clean, and everything outside of it does not concern us. A caring person, the owner of the land, will not allow himself to disgrace the surrounding space. Since childhood, I was taught, and today I am raising my children, that you cannot throw garbage on the ground, you just need to take it to the trash bin. Clean is not where they clean up, but where they don’t litter.

The other day, my daughter told me with surprise how a man walking his dog in the yard put everything after his pet in a special bag and took this bag to a trash container. This is the owner’s approach and culture!

The land must be revered, the land must be treasured, and not littered. Our ancestors took care of mother earth, calling her Mother Cheese Earth, nurse. So it turns out that with such a careless attitude towards the land, we - people of the 21st century - should be called savages.

In my family, for several years now, there has been a tradition of collecting all the waste paper in a box on the balcony, and then twice a year taking everything accumulated to the lyceum, where waste paper collection competitions are held between classes (thanks to our director for these useful events). We very quickly and easily got used to the fact that cardboard packages, drafts, receipts, labels, etc. must be stored in a special place.

Recently I started collecting plastic: milk bottles, glasses of sour cream, cottage cheese, jars of vitamins and much more. At first, my daughter and I needed all this for crafts, and then, this “wealth” had to be put somewhere. We really didn’t want to pollute the environment with this plastic, so we found a collection point for recyclables in Yekaterinburg at the address: Artinskaya, 22 (tel. 361-15-97). You can also donate waste paper here. It doesn’t matter that we were paid 20 rubles for 2 kg of plastic, the most important thing is that we helped nature at least a little.

Why is our big city still not organized for sorting household waste using specialized containers in yards? While there is no answer to this question, we are trying to solve environmental problems ourselves. I often take note of ideas from the section “A Second Life for Things.”

It is known that 100 kg of waste paper is saved by one tree. I think that our family has already saved several trees and will not stop there. This may sound rude, but I don’t want to be “assholes”, I want to be OWNERS.

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Clean up your planet... Why? Yes, because our planet really needs help. She just screams from pain and injustice. But people don’t hear it or don’t want to hear it.

Every day from all sources of information we learn about new and new disasters. Floods, fires, mudflows, earthquakes... It seems to me that this is how the Earth protests, in its own way it expresses its indignation at the indifference and cruelty of people.

Nature has many enemies: rain, hurricanes, frost, drought. And not all of them can be resisted by people. But the most offensive thing is that they themselves cause harm to their planet: they cut down forests, pollute the air and water with industrial waste, and destroy rare animals.

The nature of planet Earth is fabulously beautiful. I have already visited many parts of Russia and abroad and was able to verify this. Everything arouses delight: endless forests and huge blue lakes, mighty rivers with picturesque banks and majestic mountains, streams with crystal water and blue seas... How joyful it is to look into the clear sky along which lamb-clouds float! How fun it is to run through a green meadow covered with daisies and bluebells! How great it is to splash in the warm sea and rush towards the wave! But... we can lose all this! It's scary to even think about it!

We are constantly told about environmental problems. But how do you understand what’s what? We are frightened either by global warming or by global cooling. Scientists are trying to look into the future. It is necessary. But what about the present? We are living now. Probably, people are able to do something today in order to save the world that they have.

Each of us can make our Earth cleaner. Is it difficult to throw the trash in the bin, clean up after the dog while walking, or put out the fire after a picnic? You just need to be more attentive and kinder.

Every morning I go to school and admire our yard. It is so green, clean and dear. And this is a considerable merit of our neighbor, who constantly decorates something in it, creates compositions from natural materials. If all people treated nature this way, knew how to enjoy its beauty, then no one would ever destroy plants, would not kill animals, would not send waste to rivers.

Perhaps we will all learn this someday. If only it weren't too late!

In the summer I read the book “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It's not about nature at all, it's about people's feelings. But the firm rule “Get up in the morning, wash your face, put yourself in order - and immediately put your planet in order” is so simple and clear. What our planet will be like in the future depends on each of us, even a child. Let's learn to understand and take care of it! Let's get it in order now!