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Environmental safety of the Russian Federation. Environmental situation in Russia

FEDERAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION

Federal State Educational Institution

higher professional education

"NORTHWEST ACADEMY OF PUBLIC SERVICE"

in Murmansk

Specialty: “State and municipal management”

ABSTRACT

by subject

"Constitutional law"

On the topic “Environmental safety of modern Russia
and the world community"

Executor:

Sinelnikov G.A.

Group P-12

Teacher:

Dyakonov A.G.

Murmansk

2011

INTRODUCTION

Man by nature strives for a state of security and wants to make his existence as comfortable as possible. On the other hand, we are constantly in a world of risks. The threat comes both from criminal elements and from the “dearly beloved” government, which is capable of pursuing unpredictable policies; there is a risk of contracting an infectious disease, the risk of a military conflict, and the risk of an accident. Today, all this is perceived naturally and does not seem far-fetched, because all these events that threaten our security are quite probable and, moreover, have already happened in our memory. Consequently, preventive measures are taken to reduce these risks, and everyone is able to name them.

Recently, a threat to human safety and comfortable existence has begun to come from the unfavorable state of the environment. First of all, it is a health risk. Now there is no longer any doubt that environmental pollution can cause a number of environmentally-related diseases and, in general, leads to a reduction in the average life expectancy of people exposed to environmentally unfavorable factors. It is the expected average life expectancy of people that is the main criterion for environmental safety.

The concept of “environmental safety” is applicable to many realities. For example, the environmental safety of the population of a city or even an entire state, or the environmental safety of technologies and production.

Environmental safety concerns industry, agriculture and utilities, the service sector, and the field of international relations. In other words, environmental safety is firmly established in our lives, and its importance and relevance increases year by year.

The purpose of the work is to show the role and place of environmental safety in the development of the Russian Federation.

In accordance with the purpose, the work examines the basic concepts and categories of environmental safety, characterizes the environmental situation in the country, directions for the development of environmental safety and ways of developing environmental safety.

CONCEPT AND MAIN CATEGORIES OF ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY

Over the past three decades, problems of environmental safety have sharply worsened both at the global (world) and regional levels. It is impossible to name a single country in the world that has not experienced one or another environmental shock. It should be noted that the consequences of environmental disasters, shocks, and crises for humanity are becoming increasingly burdensome and tangible.

Environmental safety (safety in the environmental sphere) is a state of protection of the vital interests of the individual, society and state from potential or real threats created by the consequences of anthropogenic impact on the environment, as well as from natural disasters and catastrophes.

Another definition is given in the literature: environmental safety is such a qualitative characteristic of socio-ecological development, which involves the formation of a new type of technological processes, social organization and management, etc., capable of rationally solving environmental problems and protecting society and individuals from any environmental hazards (emissions harmful substances, lack of resources, natural disasters, accidents, catastrophes, etc.) 1.

The concept of “safety” does not exist without the antonym “danger”. Danger serves as the starting point when considering a security problem. Based on the nature of the focus and the role of the subjective factor in the occurrence of unfavorable conditions, the following are distinguished:

– a challenge, as a set of circumstances, not necessarily of a specifically threatening nature, but certainly requiring a response to them;

– risk, as the possibility of adverse and undesirable consequences of the activity of the object itself;

– danger, as a real, but not fatal probability of causing harm to someone by something, determined by the presence of objective and subjective factors with damaging properties;

– threat, as the most specific and immediate form of danger created by the purposeful activities of openly hostile forces.

Based on the scale of possible negative consequences, dangers are distinguished: global, regional, national, local, and private.

They are classified according to spheres of social life and types of human activity. The space where a person arose and exists is inherently dangerous, and, therefore, a person exists in conditions of constant danger and complete safety is almost never ensured 2.

The fundamental concept of “security” can be adequately formulated and interpreted only in systemic unity with the corresponding conceptual apparatus serving this category 4 .

The concept of “danger” is accepted as the primary, starting premise. Danger is the possibility of the occurrence of negative or catastrophic events, that is, phenomena or processes that can affect people, cause material damage, and have a destructive effect on the human environment. A catastrophe is considered to be abrupt structural and functional changes in a system, leading to a significant disruption of its functioning, or to the destruction of the system. Environmental hazard factors are anthropogenic, technogenic and natural impacts (disturbances) that can produce negative changes in the environment and in the health of the population.

Environmental safety is an acceptable degree of protection at this stage of socio-economic development of the vital interests of the individual, society, state, and world community from the consequences and threats that are caused by negative changes (degradation) of the environment arising as a result of anthropogenic and natural impacts on it.

Objects of environmental safety are socio-ecosystems “society-environment” at various levels: global, national, regional, local, industrial level of an economic entity.

Sources of environmental hazard are subjects of economic, household, military and other activities, the functioning of which contains significant environmental risk factors.

Environmental threats are predicted consequences or potential scenarios for the development of events of a catastrophic nature, which are caused by changes in the state of the environment and can harm the vital interests of the individual, society, state, and the world community. There are external and internal threats in relation to a given socio-ecosystem.

Environmental consequences are the results of past events caused by current changes in the state (degradation) of the environment.

Ensuring environmental safety is a systemic control effect on the socio-ecosystem aimed at preventing environmental threats and protection from environmental consequences until an acceptable level of security (safety) is achieved.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ECOLOGICAL SITUATIONIN RUSSIA

The most comprehensive and accurate description of the current environmental situation in Russia is presented in the “Scientific basis of the strategy for sustainable development of the Russian Federation” 5. The authors of this scientific work rightly emphasize that according to the degree of the natural environment, expressed by the combination and spatial relationship of the ecological situation of varying degrees of severity, seven stages (ranks) of environmental tension are distinguished - from very low to very high. In areas of the first, second and third ranks, areas predominate in which environmental problems in the traditional sense do not occur.

In districts of the fourth and fifth ranks, areas with moderately acute environmental situations predominate, although for districts of the fifth rank the proportion of territories with acute environmental situations already increases significantly. Areas belonging to the sixth rank are characterized by an almost equal ratio of territories with acute and moderately acute environmental situations. In areas of the seventh rank, areas with acute and very acute situations predominate.

Taking into account the specified ranking, 56 regions are distinguished on the territory of Russia, characterized by different levels of environmental stress.

Areas with very low ecological tension (1st rank): Leno-Oleneksky, Yana-Indigirsky, Khatango-Anabarsky, Gorno-Altaisky, Gorno-Sayansky, North Taimyrsky, Dzungarian, Lower Kolyma, Koryak-Omolonsky.

Regions with low environmental stress (2nd rank): Novaya Zemlya, East Kola, Central Siberian, Vitim, Verkhne-Kolyma, Okhotsk, Kuril-Kamchatka.

Regions with relatively low environmental stress (3rd rank): Polar-Ural, Pinega, North-Ural, Yamalo-Taz, Olekminsky, Sikhote-Alin, Chukotka.

Regions with average environmental stress (4th rank): Onego-Kubensky, Mezensko-Pechora, Unzhensky, Tuvinsky, North Baikal, South Yakutsky, Amursky, Sakhalinsky.

Regions with relatively high environmental stress (5th rank): Karelian, North Dvina, Vychegda, Vyatka, Priirtysh, Central Altai, Middle Ob, Middle Angara, Central Yakut, Transbaikal, Kaliningrad.

Regions with high environmental stress (6th rank): Western Kola, Ladoga, North Caucasus, Caspian, Pribaikalsky, Khabarovsk-Komsomolsk.

Regions with very high environmental stress (7th rank): Central Russian, Volga Region, Lower Don, Western Ural, Middle Ural, South Ural, Pre-Sayan, Norilsk.

In regions with very high environmental stress, a significant part of their territories have already exceeded the possible limits of the economic capacity of ecosystems, and in regions with high environmental stress these limits have only yet been exhausted. Further increase in production here at the existing levels of technology and economic structure will lead to the final degradation of natural complexes, complete depletion of the resource base, and the formation of persistent foci of population diseases.

In regions with relatively high environmental stress, the economic capacity of ecosystems is largely exhausted. This requires a partial change in the structure of the economy, taking into account the introduction of new technologies, the construction of treatment facilities, restoration and reclamation of landscapes.

In regions with an average degree of environmental stress, the economic capacity of ecosystems is relatively preserved. Here it is possible to preserve the existing structure of the economy while introducing new technologies and creating treatment facilities.

In regions with a relatively low degree of environmental stress, a further increase in production and partial economic development of new territories outside the system of specially protected natural areas is possible.

In regions with a low or very low degree of environmental stress, the economic capacity of ecosystems is practically completely preserved and, according to the Concept of the Russian Federation's transition to sustainable development, the economic development of new territories is not practical here, since the ecological resources remaining on them represent an invaluable reserve for the restoration of the biosphere.

The situation in the environmental sphere is emergency. The parameters of the disaster are well known. Figures and facts about the widespread disgusting quality of water, poisoned air, and soil contaminated with chemicals have been replicated in the media... In a word, they are known and we hardly need to repeat them.

Data from government reports on the state and protection of the environment of the Russian Federation over the past 10 years indicate that problems associated with the formation, neutralization and processing of household and industrial waste are relevant for almost all constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

The problem of generation and disposal of household waste in the Russian Federation continues to worsen. In the first half of 2010, a number of television channels broadcast programs that provided information about serious environmental problems in the north of the country.

DIRECTIONS OF DEVELOPMENT OF ECOLOGICAL SAFETY

The task of “general cleaning of the country”, which was set by the President of the Russian Federation D.A., is very timely. Medvedev at one of the meetings of the Presidium of the State Council in the spring of 2010 6.

The President of Russia put forward the idea of reforming the public administration system in the field of environmental protection, clearly laid out the emphasis, making it clear that environmental problems are among the highest state priorities, and to solve them a unified state policy is necessary, where there is no place for disparate actions and non-systemic solutions. It is precisely this ineffective approach that characterizes the current state of affairs in the environmental sphere. Environmental relations in general are regulated by a number of unrelated, often contradictory laws and regulations. The country has not yet created a comprehensive system of state environmental monitoring, and in many regions it simply does not exist. Hence the first problems that need to be solved. “It is necessary,” believes D.A. Medvedev, “to complete the codification of environmental legislation and, at least in legal terms, to put an end to environmental nihilism.” In addition, the President of Russia believes, “we need both a plan of specific actions and a package regime for the preparation of relevant regulations. Finally, we need special registers and methods that approve procedures and regulations that provide effective solutions to various problems.”

The President of Russia considers it necessary to improve the system for regulating negative impacts on the environment and switch to the so-called principles of the best existing technologies. “We need to get business as interested as possible in this work,” he said, “enterprises should see the benefits of switching to modern technologies, switching to production modernization programs, and introducing modern treatment systems.”

It is necessary to think about strengthening liability for environmental violations, but reasonable liability. Develop more realistic mechanisms for redressing environmental damage. Oblige violators to promptly eliminate pollution, including the most complex ones, even as large-scale as in the Gulf of Mexico. Taking into account Russia’s plans to build several main pipelines at once, work on the Arctic shelf, in the Caspian and Okhotsk seas, this topic takes on a special meaning.

Since 2003, environmental safety issues have been discussed at the level of the State Council Presidium. The decisions taken then were practically not implemented. Instructions were given in 2005 and 2008. and a decision was made at a meeting of the Russian Security Council, Presidential decrees were issued, instructions from the Government were adopted - but all this, if implemented, was only partially carried out.

Environmental safety is an important component of national security, which is a state of protection of the individual, society and the state from internal and external threats, allowing to ensure constitutional rights, freedoms, decent quality and standard of living of citizens, sovereignty, territorial integrity and sustainable development of the Russian Federation, defense and security states 7.

The National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation until 2020 (Strategy 2020), approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 12, 2009 No. 537, in Section IV “Ensuring National Security” contains a special subsection 8 “Ecology of living systems and rational use of natural resources.”

Strategy 2020 emphasizes that the state of national security in the environmental sphere is negatively impacted by the depletion of global reserves of minerals, raw materials, water and biological resources, as well as the presence of environmentally unfavorable regions in Russia; the state of national security in the field of ecology is aggravated by the persistence of a significant number of hazardous industries, the activities of which lead to disruption of the ecological balance, including violation of sanitary-epidemiological and (or) sanitary-hygienic standards of drinking water consumed by the population of the country; radioactive waste of non-nuclear fuel cycle; The strategic risk of depletion of the country's most important mineral resources is growing, and the production of many strategically important minerals is falling.

The 2020 Strategy defines the following strategic goals for ensuring environmental safety and rational use of natural resources:

– preservation of the natural environment and ensuring its protection;

– elimination of the environmental consequences of economic activities in the context of increasing economic activity and global climate change.

To counter threats in the field of environmental safety and rational use of natural resources, - it is emphasized in Strategy 2020, - the forces ensuring national security, in interaction with civil society institutions, create conditions for the introduction of environmentally friendly production, the search for promising energy sources, the formation and implementation of a state program for the creation of strategic reserves of mineral resources sufficient to meet the mobilization needs of the Russian Federation and guaranteed satisfaction of the needs of the population and the economy for water and biological resources.

We see a slightly different approach compared to Strategy 2020 in relation to environmental problems in the Concept of long-term socio-economic development of the Russian Federation for the period until 2020, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated November 17, 2008 No. 1662-r.

The Concept notes that, in general, the level of environmental burden on the Russian economy is still significantly lower than in developed countries. Russia has colossal expanses of virgin territories, reserves of fresh water resources and forests. At the same time, over the course of many decades, poles of environmental distress have been forming in Russia (and not only in the European part), which negatively affects people’s quality of life, their health and life expectancy.

The dynamics of the main environmental indicators of Russia's development show an increase in the negative impact on the environment (total emissions into the atmosphere from stationary and mobile sources, volumes of waste generation against the background of a decrease in the level of their recycling). The decrease in discharge rates of contaminated wastewater is accompanied by an increase in the concentration of a number of hazardous substances, including metals and organics.

About 15% of Russia's territory is in a critical or near-critical state according to environmental indicators. There are trends of reduction in species biological diversity and changes in the state of the environment against the backdrop of climate warming. 56% of the urban population lives in cities with high and very high levels of air pollution. The situation with the quality of drinking water continues to remain extremely unfavorable, primarily due to wastewater discharges into surface water bodies (more than 40% of the country's population faces water quality problems). Economic recovery while maintaining the current level of negative impact and failure to take measures to reduce accumulated environmental damage can lead to a further aggravation of environmental problems.

The forecast of the main hazards and threats of a natural, man-made and social nature shows that a high degree of risk of large-scale emergencies of various nature will remain on the territory of Russia.

The institutional basis of the new environmental policy should be an updated system of environmental regulation that corresponds to the country’s development priorities until 2020 and the new post-industrial level of development of Russian society.

The goal of environmental policy is to significantly improve the quality of the natural environment and the ecological conditions of human life, the formation of a balanced environmentally oriented model of economic development and environmentally competitive production. Russia's successful implementation of the environmental development program is Russia's most important contribution to preserving the global biosphere potential and maintaining global ecological balance.

The following main directions of ensuring environmental safety of economic development and improving the ecological environment of human life are identified.

The first direction is the ecology of production - a gradual reduction in the levels of environmental impact of all anthropogenic sources.

The main elements of this direction should be a new system for regulating permissible environmental impact, providing for the refusal to establish individual permits for each enterprise and the establishment of standards and plans for the gradual reduction of pollution to levels corresponding to the best environmentally friendly global technologies, the creation of a developed waste disposal industry, and the expansion of renewable energy sources.

Production modernization processes will be actively stimulated, aimed at reducing energy and material intensity, as well as reducing and recycling waste, developing and introducing new efficient technologies for the production of electrical and thermal energy, associated with environmentally safe disposal of waste from these industries.

Tax policy measures should also facilitate the introduction of new technologies, according to which, when introducing and using environmentally friendly and (or) energy-saving technologies, appropriate benefits will be provided for corporate income tax, land tax, property tax, as well as various deductions for personal income tax. Thus, economic incentives will be created for the modernization of production and the use of appropriate technologies by citizens.

The target is to reduce specific levels of environmental impact by 3–7 times, depending on the industry.

The second direction is human ecology - the creation of an environmentally safe and comfortable environment in places where the population lives, works and rests.

It is necessary to establish standards for the quality of air, water, soil and other important environmental characteristics that correspond to at least a safe level of exposure to these environments on human health. At the same time, standards for permissible anthropogenic load should be established for these territories, the implementation of which ensures that environmental quality standards are not exceeded. This will establish quantitative and qualitative guidelines for the development of local environmental programs and the gradual reduction of the negative impact of economic entities. One of the goals of introducing environmental quality standards should be to identify areas where the concentration of pollution is classified as dangerous, which poses a threat to the health and life of the population living there.

This area includes eliminating accumulated pollution, restoring eroded, littered areas, ensuring effective sanitation, managing household waste, and promoting a healthy lifestyle. It is necessary to develop special environmental medical and biological standards for the safety and comfort of the human living environment, and carry out specialized monitoring.

The target indicators for the implementation of this direction by 2020 are:

− reducing the number of cities with high and very high levels of pollution by at least 5 times;

− reduction in the number of residents living in unfavorable environmental conditions by at least 4 times.

It is necessary by 2020 to completely solve the problem of restoring a safe habitat in regions of environmental crisis, where about 1 million people live in the country.

The third direction is environmental business - creating an effective environmental sector of the economy. This sector may include competitive business in the field of general and specialized engineering, environmental consulting. The role of the state is to formulate rules for carrying out environmental audits, requirements for the development of technologies, create conditions for the widespread introduction of environmental management, increase the information openness of industrial enterprises regarding their impact on the environment and measures taken to reduce negative impacts, and organize monitoring of the dynamics of environmental indicators of the economy.

The fourth direction is environmental ecology - preservation and protection of the natural environment.

Actions in this direction will be based on new methods of territorial planning, land use and development, taking into account environmental restrictions. It is necessary to create a system of specially protected natural areas that would ensure the preservation of natural ecosystems in all natural and climatic regions of the country, making them centers for the conservation of the genetic fund, incubators for the restoration of original biodiversity.

Target indicators of progress in this direction should be reducing regional differences in the network of specially protected natural areas, increasing the bioproductivity of natural systems to safe levels, and restoring species diversity.

Ensuring the environmental efficiency of the economy is not only a special area of business and economic policy, but also a general characteristic of the innovative development of the economy, which is closely related to increasing the efficiency of resource consumption. As a result of increasing the technological and environmental efficiency of the economy, by 2020 it is expected that the level of environmental impact will be reduced by 2–2.5 times, which will make it possible to reach modern indicators of nature conservation in developed European countries.

At the same time, the level of environmental costs (costs for reducing harmful emissions, waste disposal and restoration of the natural environment) may increase to 1–1.5% of gross domestic product in 2020. For Russia, the task of capitalizing on its environmental advantages is urgent, which should find expression in the development of ecological tourism, sale of clean water, etc. 8.

And although Strategy 2020 and the Concept consider environmental problems from different positions, they do not exclude each other, but complement each other. Even though the first is based on sustainable development, the second is more characterized by the use of ideas of instability.

WAYS TO DEVELOP ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY

Ensuring environmental safety largely depends on the choice of path: measures will be taken within the framework of the old tradition (unsustainable development) or the concept and strategy of sustainable development will be chosen for this. The most progressive position is of those who believe that it is necessary to ensure environmental safety through sustainable development.

Sustainable development (English sustainabl development, more accurately translated - continuously supported development) is a term proposed by the International Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) in the report “Our Common Future” (1987; Russian translation 1989) to denote social development, not undermining the natural conditions of existence of the human race. Sustainable development, as defined by the Brundtland Commission, “is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs” 9 .

The principle of sustainable development was supported by the UN. The Second UN Conference on Environment and Development (COED-2, Rio de Janeiro, 1992), which was attended by representatives of 179 countries, translated the idea of sustainable development into the plane of specific international obligations and plans.

The President of the Russian Federation, by Decree No. 440 of April 1, 1996, approved the Concept of the Russian Federation's transition to sustainable development.

The Concept notes that, following the recommendations and principles set out in the documents of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), guided by them, it seems necessary and possible to carry out a consistent transition to sustainable development in the Russian Federation, ensuring a balanced solving socio-economic problems and problems of preserving a favorable environment and natural resource potential in order to meet the needs of current and future generations of people. The concept was adopted on the recommendation of UNCED, whose documents invited the government of each country to approve its national strategy for sustainable development. In the Russian Federation, a sustainable development strategy has not yet been adopted, but work on it is underway. I would especially like to note the role of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly. The State Duma Commission on Sustainable Development prepared and published the “Scientific Basis for the Sustainable Development Strategy of the Russian Federation.”

Initially, sustainable development was considered in the context of searching for an answer to the environmental challenge, but such a response presupposes a systematic solution to many economic, social, demographic, scientific, technical and other problems of modern civilization.

The scientific literature identifies the following basic principles of sustainable development 10:

− every person has the right to a healthy and fruitful life in harmony with nature, to live in an environment favorable to him;

− socio-economic development should be aimed at improving the quality of life of people within the acceptable limits of the economic capacity of ecosystems;

− development should be carried out without harming the natural environment and ensure the ability to satisfy the basic life needs of both current and future generations of people;

− conservation of the natural environment should be an integral part of the process of sustainable development; economic development, social justice and environmental safety, which together determine the main criteria for development, should be combined into one whole;

− the survival of humanity and stable socio-economic development should be based on the laws of biotic regulation while maintaining biodiversity in the biosphere;

− rational environmental management should be based on the inexhaustible use of renewable and economical use of non-renewable resources, recycling and safe disposal of waste;

− environmentally friendly management should be based on strengthening the relationship between economics and ecology, the formation of a unified (coupled) greened economic development system;

− the implementation of appropriate demographic policy should be aimed at stabilizing the population and optimizing the scale of its activities in accordance with the fundamental laws of nature;

− it is necessary to widely use the principle of anticipation, proactively taking effective measures to prevent deterioration of the state of the natural environment, and to prevent environmental and man-made disasters;

− an important condition for the transition of society to sustainable development is the eradication of poverty and the prevention of large differences in people’s living standards;

− the use of diversity of forms of ownership and the mechanism of market relations should be focused on the harmonization of social relations while ensuring public safety;

− in the future, as the ideas of sustainable development are implemented, the importance of issues of rationalizing the scale and structure of personal consumption of the population should increase;

− the preservation of small peoples and ethnic groups, their cultures, traditions, and habitats should be one of the priorities of state policy at all stages of the transition to sustainable development;

− the development of international cooperation and global partnership in order to preserve, protect and restore the entire ecosystem of the Earth should be supported by the adoption by states of relevant international agreements and other legal acts;

− there is a need for free access to environmental information, the creation of an appropriate database using global and national communications and other computer science tools for these purposes;

− in the course of developing the legislative framework, the environmental consequences of proposed actions should be taken into account, based on the need to increase liability for environmental violations, and provide compensation to persons affected by environmental pollution;

− greening of human consciousness and worldview, reorientation of the system of upbringing and education on the principle of sustainable development should contribute to the promotion of intellectual and spiritual values to a priority place in relation to material and material ones;

− the sovereign rights of each state to develop its own natural resources must be implemented without damaging ecosystems beyond state borders; in international law, it is important to recognize the principle of differentiated state responsibility for the violation of global ecosystems;

− business activities should be carried out with the abandonment of projects that can cause irreparable damage to the environment or the environmental consequences of which have not been sufficiently studied.

Undoubtedly, understanding and implementing these principles of sustainable development will require serious ideological transformations. The survival and continuity of development of society on a global scale must be achieved without quantitative growth in many traditional parameters and, above all, extensive growth in production.

The colossal changes that have taken place in the world required the search for new forms of life activity and the organization of a new world order. As a result of this search, humanity came to the idea of sustainable development. The concept and strategy of sustainable development is the understanding that meeting the needs of the present generation should not compromise the ability of future generations to meet the needs.

The modern world is experiencing threats to environmental safety due to the acute environmental situation. It is difficult to imagine that in the coming years we will witness a significant reduction in environmental threats, risks, and dangers. There is no doubt that this practically cannot happen within the old traditions of instability. Serious improvement in the state of environmental safety in the near future is only possible along the path of sustainable development.

CONCLUSION

The state of environmental safety in the current conditions of Russia is the result of the influence of a sum of factors - anthropogenic, technogenic, political, economic, social, moral-psychological, legal, insufficient readiness of the authorities to implement environmentally-oriented economic and social policies, low efficiency of environmental activities of law enforcement agencies, the impact a number of external environmental threats, hazards and risks.

In the Russian Federation, a mechanism for ensuring national security and environmental safety as its component has basically been formed and is functioning. It is based on legislative, executive and judicial authorities, state, public and other organizations and associations, citizens, as well as legislation regulating relations in the field of ensuring environmental safety.

At the same time, an analysis of the state of environmental safety in relation to the conditions of the Russian Federation indicates that the created mechanism for ensuring environmental safety is not effective enough, has serious failures and does not guarantee reliable and effective protection of the environment and environmental rights of citizens. The relevance and severity of the problem of environmental safety urgently require all institutions of the state and society to constantly pay attention to it, to deeply analyze its condition in order to promptly eliminate dangerous environmental threats. Currently, the Russian state is weakly using its real capabilities to reduce undesirable loads on nature, prevent environmental damage and protect its own environmental interests. The activities of state institutions and civil society in the field of ensuring environmental safety require further improvement and optimization.

In modern conditions, the most important are the following areas for optimizing the activities of the Russian state in the field of ensuring environmental safety: development of an environmental safety strategy, mandatory for execution by all government agencies; improving the management system of the national environmental safety system at all levels; timely identification of internal and external environmental threats and implementation of measures to block and neutralize them; activating and increasing the effectiveness of the activities of government agencies and public organizations to combat environmental terrorism; strengthening environmental activities of law enforcement agencies; development of a public system for protecting the natural environment based on the activity of citizens, environmental organizations and movements; improving the mechanism for legal protection of environmental rights of citizens; raising the level of environmental culture and environmental education of citizens.

Environmental safety is part of the national security system. Without ensuring proper conservation of natural resources and the natural environment around us, it is impossible to achieve sustainable preservation of national security. The conservation and preservation of national natural resources is most directly related to concern for the health and life of the current and future generations of Russian citizens and the Russian state as a whole.

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The environmental situation in Russia can be characterized as complex, with a tendency to further worsen in a number of regions, including the Voronezh region.

In the Russian Federation, natural ecosystems have been destroyed on 35% of the territory, 75% of water resources are unsuitable for drinking, and a high degree of air pollution is observed in 13 regions. About 56% of agricultural land is subject to soil degradation. In a number of large cities of the Russian Federation (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, etc.), the share of emissions from motor vehicles is almost comparable to waste from large industrial enterprises. For most regions of Russia, one of the main sources of pollution of water bodies is housing and communal services: in Moscow - 96%, St. Petersburg and Omsk - up to 90%, Saratov - more than 50%, Chelyabinsk - about 30%.

In Voronezh, tap water is of such low quality that it causes widespread kidney disease. Moreover, a paradoxical situation arises: in Voronezh, despite interruptions in water supply, the daily water consumption rate per person is 511 liters, which is almost 2 times higher than the consumption level for Moscow residents.

Residents of the capital of the Black Earth Region are especially concerned about the situation with garbage in their hometown. All 10 existing solid waste landfills and 535 temporary waste storage sites do not meet the required environmental standards and regulations. There is a direct threat of contamination of underground drinking water. According to recent surveys, more than half of Voronezh residents (56%) believe that the environmental situation in their hometown is terrible. Only 2% of city residents are satisfied with the environment.

A difficult environmental situation has developed in many cities and industrial centers. For example, pollution of the Volga basin, where in the period from 1995-2005. the number of fish decreased by 15 times, and the amount of heavy metals in the Volga water increased by 10 times. According to experts, the load on the Volga's water resources is eight times higher than the average load on water resources in Russia. There have been numerous cases of oil spills in the river basin. According to the Volga Interregional Environmental Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, in 2008, environmental damage to the Volga exceeded 600 million rubles.

The largest source of environmental pollution in industry is the fuel and energy complex, which accounts for 48% of emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere, 27% of wastewater discharges and up to 70% of the total volume of greenhouse gases.

Ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises are the leaders in terms of emissions, such as: OJSC Norilsk Mining Company, OJSC Severstal, OJSC Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (3). Analyzes of snow from Moscow streets made in January 2009 showed an excess of the maximum permissible concentration for petroleum products by 440 times, and thallium (a highly toxic metal that is deadly to humans) by 40 times.

The environmental situation in the Russian Federation is also deteriorating due to the predatory consumption of resources, since the business sector strives to obtain the maximum amount of profit with a minimum of costs, resulting in aggressive consumption of resources and destruction of the environment. Abuse of deforestation, especially of expensive tree species, has become the norm in Russia. According to Rosleskhoz, in 2000, the total damage from illegal logging amounted to about 300 million rubles.

Environmental degradation in our country poses a significant threat to the population. The list of diseases directly related to the environment is increasing, including congenital deformities in infants. In terms of the number of such cases, the Russian Federation has come very close to the threatening 5% line, beyond which socio-biological degradation is possible on a national scale. In 2007, every hundred people in Russia had cancer. The annual increase in the number of cancer diseases is more than 10% (14.7% in 2006).

The social environment is integrated with the human environment and all the factors of each of them are closely interconnected, and experience the objective and subjective aspects of the “quality of life of the environment.” In this regard, environmental pollution, together with unfavorable socio-economic factors, create conditions for the formation of negative trends of a genetic, carcinogenic, and immunopathological nature. This is especially noticeable in the regions where large enterprises of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy are located (Ural, West Siberian, East Siberian regions, etc.) Given the complexity of the demographic situation in Russia, these trends pose a direct danger to the population. According to Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences A. Yablokov, in our country more than 350 thousand people die a year due to poor environmental conditions.

Such a crisis situation in the environmental sphere becomes a barrier to the socio-economic development of the Russian Federation, leading to restrictions in the placement of production capacities, a decrease in the competitiveness of the Russian economy, a deterioration in health conditions and a decrease in life expectancy of the population.

The political leadership is aware of the importance of solving environmental problems, which is reflected in the Environmental Doctrine of the Russian Federation dated August 31, 2002, which states: “The modern environmental crisis threatens the possibility of sustainable development of human civilization. Further degradation of natural systems leads to destabilization of the biosphere, loss of its integrity and ability to maintain environmental qualities necessary for life. Overcoming the crisis is possible only on the basis of the formation of a new type of relationship between man and nature, excluding the possibility of destruction and degradation of the natural environment.

Sustainable development of the Russian Federation, high quality of life and health of its population, as well as national security can only be ensured if natural systems are preserved and an appropriate environmental quality is maintained.”

The above defines environmental safety as one of the key subsystems of national security at all levels. Silencing and ignoring this kind of problem can lead to serious consequences in the form of natural disasters, cataclysms, the costs of eliminating the consequences of which, as world experience shows, will be very high: damage from natural disasters in 2005 alone amounted to $225 billion. Eliminating the consequences of global warming will require annual expenditures of about 5.5 trillion euros from the countries of the European Economic Community; Germany alone will have to spend 800 billion euros for these purposes by 2050.

Understanding environmental problems is one of the key points for solving them, and a necessary condition for overcoming the environmental crisis of the world community in general and Russia in particular.

To achieve this, our country needs a large-scale national strategic program to fundamentally improve the environmental and demographic situation in the country, based on a modern market economy, safe technologies, and the most advanced methods for solving complex environmental problems.

Public monitoring of environmental problems should be introduced, allowing for broad public participation in the struggle to improve water and air quality in cities. It is necessary to build a system of environmental education, especially for young people, as well as move to an environmentally oriented policy. Otherwise, N. Bohr’s forecast may come true that “humanity will not die in an atomic nightmare, but will suffocate in its own waste.”

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF RUSSIA

Federal state budget educational institution

higher professional education

"Belgorod State

Technological University named after V.G. Shukhov"

INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT

Department of Theory and Methodology of Science

COURSE WORK

in the discipline “Macroeconomics”

on the topic “Environmental safety of Russia”

Performed:

1st year student

Bukovtsova Anna Ivanovna

Supervisor:

Professor

Kharchenko Vladimir Efimovich

Belgorod 2013

environmental safety problem provision

Introduction

Chapter 1. Environmental safety as an integral part of economic security

1.1 Environmental safety. Its essence, indicators

1.2 Problems of environmental safety in Russia

Chapter 2. Environmental safety of the Belgorod region

2.1 Ecological and economic situation in the Belgorod region

2.2 Natural capital and modernization in the agro-industrial complex of the Belgorod region

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

In modern conditions, environmental problems have become global. Russia is one of the countries with the worst environmental situation. Increasing human intervention in the environment is introducing changes that can lead to irreversible consequences in an ecological and biological sense. Man, being a part of nature, has a powerful and growing influence on the entire world around him, which resulted in an environmental crisis. Preserving a healthy environment is an absolute vital necessity not only for individuals, but also for the state. It is the state that carries out legal regulation in the sphere of interaction between society and nature. Therefore, the most pressing and extremely important task should be to ensure the environmental safety of society, where the leading role belongs to the Russian state. The development of a system of measures to protect the environment: legal, organizational, environmental, economic, technical, educational and others is of decisive importance.

To realize the right to a favorable environment, not only the functioning of all law enforcement and government systems provided for by the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the Federal Law “On Environmental Protection” is required, but also the high activity of the citizens themselves and their associations. Currently, in the Russian Federation, in accordance with international human rights standards, there is an extensive system of legislation aimed at regulating and protecting the right to a favorable environment. But due to the extremely unfavorable environmental situation, the problem of realizing and guaranteeing this right is becoming increasingly relevant both for society as a whole and for the individual citizen. Humanity is approaching the brink, beyond which the disruption of ecological balance may be irreversible. This places enormous responsibility on those who make economic and political decisions that affect the state of the environment and the nature of the use of natural resources.

The environmental problem is one of the main ones in Russia, so I consider the topic of my course work to be relevant. The goal facing me is to show the role and place of environmental safety in the development of the Russian Federation and to identify environmental problems at the federal and regional levels of the country.

I have done work in which the situation of environmental safety in the country was studied. At the same time, I used legislative materials (Constitution of the Russian Federation), magazine (newspaper) articles (Society and Economy; ECO; Economics of Environmental Management; Economic Development of Russia; Ecology and Life), literary resources on environmental safety of the Russian Federation, as well as electronic sources.

IN? The chapter of this work examines issues of environmental safety as an integral part of economic security, as well as the essence and problems of environmental safety in Russia.

In?? The chapter discusses issues of environmental safety in the Belgorod region. Policies pursued to protect the environment by enterprises in a given region, as well as the protection and use of natural capital in the country.

Chapter 1. Environmental safety as an integral part of economic security

1.1 Environmental safety. Its essence, indicators

Security is the state of protecting individuals, society and the natural environment from excessive danger. Security is the most important human need along with its physiological, social and spiritual needs. The main criterion for safety is a sense of danger or the ability to identify social and natural phenomena that can cause harm in the present and future.

Let's consider the definitions and content of some components of environmental safety. Environmental safety is the state of protecting the vital interests of the individual, society, nature and the state from real and potential threats created by anthropogenic or natural impacts on the environment.

An environmental safety system is a set of legislative, technical, medical and biological measures aimed at maintaining a balance between the biosphere and anthropogenic as well as natural external loads. Zakharov, V. “Green” economy and modernization. Ecological and economic foundations of sustainable development / S. Bobylev //. On the way to sustainable development of Russia. - 2012. - No. 60. - P. 7 - 15.

Subjects of environmental safety - individual, society, state, biosphere. Objects of environmental security are the vital interests of security subjects: rights, material and spiritual needs of the individual, natural resources and the natural environment as the material basis of state and social development.

Indicators characterizing human health and the state of the environment are proposed to be used as safety measurement units. The main indicator of health is primarily the average life expectancy. For a Caucasian person, this standard is 89±5 years. Life expectancy in different countries depends not only on the level of development of medicine, but also on the level of socio-economic development of society and the state of the natural environment.

Since the goal of safety is not only the protection of public health, but also the protection of the environment, it is necessary to determine indicators that quantitatively assess its condition and quality. Such indicators include the degree of proximity of the state of the ecosystem to the boundary of its sustainability.

In the very recent past, in our country there was no concept of environmental safety at all (this is evidenced by planned environmental disasters such as the diversion of Siberian and northern rivers and the destruction of the Aral Sea, as well as the creation and accumulation of nuclear, chemical and bacteriological weapons).

The situation with the development of the concept of environmental safety began to change only at the end of 1991, with the promotion of its foundations by the State Council of Russia and the development of the “Ecological Safety of Russia” program by the Ministry of Natural Resources.

As social production develops, natural resources are increasingly involved in people's economic activities. At the same time, the negative anthropogenic impacts of modern production on the environment are becoming more and more noticeable.

In these conditions, an important task of economic science, economics and environmental management as its direction is to ensure a harmonious combination of economic development, maintaining a sustainable rate of growth with achieving a dynamic balance in the environment. This issue is closely related to the development of a mechanism for the transition to new environmental and social standards of living for the population, and the implementation of effective demographic policy.

The average life expectancy for men in Russia is 58 years, and for women 72 years. Among the factors worsening the demographic situation in the country, the most common are: alcohol, drug use, and smoking. Non-compliance with a healthy lifestyle and lack of a sports regime have sufficient power. However, not only these factors negatively affect the state of demography in Russia. According to the Government of the Russian Federation, the life expectancy of the population is affected by unfavorable ecology. The share of its influence is only 17% of the total, but this figure is growing every year. The environmental situation in Russia is deteriorating, which leads to various diseases of the population and a decrease in the demographic level. Vishnevsky, A. Life expectancy in Russia / M. Ivanova //. Demoscope Weekly. - 2007. - No. 287-288. - pp. 56-59.

The polluted environment, in our opinion, is essentially a kind of negative product economic activity that causes losses and harm to national welfare. Human influence on the natural environment refers to the process of qualitative changes in the environment (positive or negative) caused by human production and non-production activities. Moreover, individual types of such activities affect the environment not in isolation, but in a complex manner, in the interconnections and dialectical unity of their positive and negative influence. Karakchieva, I. V. Theoretical approaches to assessing the ambivalent consequences of human impact on the environment: ecological and economic approach / E. A. Motosova, A. Yu. Vega //. Environmental economics. - 2012. - No. 4. - P. 3-4.

The core of the concept of environmental safety in the world is the theory of environmental risk and its applied part - determining the level of acceptable risk.

The concept of sustainable development presupposes a system of measures to ensure environmental safety. Environmental safety, as mentioned above, is the state of protection of the biosphere and human society, and at the state level - of the state from threats arising as a result of anthropogenic and natural impacts on the environment. The concept of environmental safety includes a system of regulation and management that allows one to predict, prevent, and, if they occur, eliminate the development of emergency situations.

Environmental safety is implemented at the global, regional and local levels.

Managing global environmental safety is the prerogative of interstate relations at the level of the UN, UNESCO, UNEP and other international organizations. Management methods at this level include the adoption of international acts to protect the environment on a biosphere scale, the implementation of interstate environmental programs, and the creation of intergovernmental forces to eliminate environmental disasters of a natural or man-made nature. Zakharov, V. The problem of forming a “green” economy in Russia / S. Bobylev //. On the way to sustainable development of Russia. - 2012. - No. 60. - P. 20 - 29

At the global level, a number of environmental problems of international scale have been resolved. The regional level includes large geographical or economic zones, and sometimes the territories of several states. Control and management are carried out at the state government level. Control and management are carried out at the level of the state government and at the level of interstate relations (United Europe, CIS, Union of African States, etc.).

The local level includes cities, districts, enterprises of metallurgy, chemical, oil refining, mining and the defense complex, as well as control of emissions, wastewater, etc. Environmental safety management is carried out at the level of the administration of individual cities, districts, enterprises with the involvement of the relevant services responsible for sanitary state and environmental activities.

Solving specific local problems determines the possibility of achieving the goal of managing environmental safety at the regional and global levels. The management goal is achieved by observing the principle of transferring information about the state of the environment from local to regional and global levels.

Regardless of the level of environmental safety management, the objects of management are necessarily the natural environment, i.e. a complex of natural ecosystems, and socio-natural ecosystems. That is why the environmental safety management scheme at any level necessarily includes an analysis of economics, finance, resources, legal issues, administrative measures, education and culture.

Hazardous natural processes can be defined as follows: “Hazardous natural processes are non-linear and sometimes extreme phenomena of interaction of natural systems or processes with social and ecological systems, as a result of which damaging factors arise that cause damage and losses to society and nature. The range of dangerous natural processes is very wide, which predetermines the diversity of genesis; development mechanisms; scale, speed and energy of manifestations, duration of exposure and differences in damaging factors.” Mazur, I.I. Dangerous natural processes. Introductory course. / I.I. Mazur, O.P. Ivanov. - M.: Economics. - 2004. - 7 p. The fundamental concept of “security” can be adequately formulated and interpreted only in systemic unity with the corresponding conceptual apparatus serving this category. Muravykh, A.I. Strategic management of environmental safety / A.I. Muravykh // Security of Eurasia. - 2001. - No. 1 - 608-610 p.

Environmental hazards are caused by natural causes (climatic conditions unfavorable for human life, plants and animals, physical and chemical characteristics of water, atmosphere, soil, natural disasters and catastrophes).

Socio-economic hazard factors - caused by reasons of a social, economic and psychological nature (insufficient levels of nutrition, healthcare, education, provision of material goods, broken social relations, insufficiently developed social structures).

Man-made hazards - caused by human economic activities (excessive emissions and discharges of waste from economic activities into the environment, unjustified alienation of territories for economic activities, excessive involvement of natural resources in economic circulation, etc.)

Military danger factors are caused by the work of the military industry (transportation of military materials and equipment, testing and destruction of weapons).

When studying the problem of human security and the natural environment, all these factors must be considered in a complex manner, taking into account their mutual influence and connections.

1.2 Problems of environmental safety in Russia

The process of degradation of the natural environment and the ever-deepening ecological crisis has become irreversible in the world. In Russia, it manifests itself more painfully - an increase in morbidity, a reduction in life expectancy, and a decrease in population due to environmental factors.

Environmental problems in terms of the depth of their negative impact on humanity and the catastrophic consequences for all living things are incomparable with any other problems. The causes of this crisis are the anthropogenic nature and its socio-political roots, on the one hand, and, on the other, the environmental nihilism of decision-makers and the environmental ignorance of a large part of the population.

Everyone knows that the degradation of the planet’s biosphere is increasing alarmingly - according to the Club of Rome, 2/3 of forests have already been destroyed, 2/3 of agricultural soils have been lost; The biological resources of the world's oceans, seas and rivers, and the planet's biodiversity are extremely depleted. Global environmental pollution has led to a warming of the planet's climate over 100 years, not by 0.5 °C, but by 2 °C (in the next 50 years, up to 6 °C is expected), to a decrease in immunity and deterioration in people's health. There is a general degradation and degeneration of the population in industrialized countries.

Assessing the trends in the degradation of the biosphere, both in the past and in the future, we can say that a “dark” future awaits us. According to academician N.N. Moiseev, “a new global crisis is inevitable.” Moiseev N.N. “Law and Security” / For legal support of domestic producers [electronic resource] / N.N. Moiseev. - http://dpr.ru He believed that the crisis could be mitigated if humanity was able to overcome the blind elements of development and was capable of organizing certain purposeful collective actions on a planetary scale. According to the UN, all countries have developed and adopted concepts for the transition to sustainable development. For the consistent transition of the Russian Federation to sustainable development, the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated April 1, 1996 No. 440 approved the “Concept of the Russian Federation’s transition to sustainable development.”

Russia ranks 3rd in the world in terms of harmful emissions (after the USA and China) and 74th among countries in the world in terms of environmental cleanliness. When compiling a rating of countries by ecology, scientists from Yale and Columbia universities assessed the state of the environment, the degree of exposure of the country's residents to environmental threats, the ability of the country's government to resist environmental disasters, etc. Finland is in first place, followed by Norway, Sweden, Canada, Switzerland, and Uruguay.

The reasons for such a low level of ecology in Russia:

· 40% of the territory of Russia (the center, the south of the European part, the Middle and Southern Urals, Western Siberia, the Volga region), where more than 60% of the country's population lives, is a third of the picture of an environmental disaster;

· more than 100 million Russians live in environmentally unfavorable conditions;

· only 15% of Russian urban residents live in areas where the level of air pollution meets the standards;

· 40% of urban residents live in conditions where maximum permissible concentrations of harmful substances in the atmosphere are periodically exceeded by 5-10 times;

· 2/3 of Russia's water sources are unfit for drinking, many rivers have been turned into sewers;

· the share of pollution from motor vehicles is 46% of the total emission of harmful substances and reaches 70-80% in large cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as in the Krasnoyarsk and Primorsky territories, Belgorod, Penza, Sverdlovsk, Murmansk and Chelyabinsk regions;

· Each resident accounts for up to 400 kg of industrial emissions from enterprises into the air. Zakharov, V. Crisis: economics and ecology / S. Bobylev //. Towards sustainable development. - 2009. - No. 49. - P. 8.

Table 1.1

Regions, districts, basins with the most acute environmental situation

	Environmental problems caused by anthropogenic impact
Oil and gas producing areas of Western Siberia	Disturbance of land by oil and gas development, soil pollution, degradation of reindeer pastures, depletion of fish resources and commercial fauna, violation of the regime of specially protected areas
Moscow region	Air pollution, depletion and pollution of land waters, loss of productive lands, soil pollution, forest degradation
Kuznetsk basin	Kuznetsk basin
Lake districts Baikal	Pollution of water and atmosphere, depletion of fish resources, degradation of forests, gully formation, violation of the permafrost regime of soils, violation of the regime of specially protected natural areas
Zone of influence of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant	Radiation damage to territories, air pollution, depletion and pollution of land waters, soil pollution
Recreational areas of the Black and Azov Sea coasts	Depletion and pollution of land waters, pollution of seas and atmosphere, reduction and loss of natural and recreational qualities of the landscape.

Table 1.1. areas with the worst environmental climate are presented. Particularly dangerous are densely populated areas of the country, coastal zones, and mining sites.

The greatest air pollution (in terms of emissions) occurs as a result of the activities of energy enterprises. About 27% of total emissions from Russian industry, non-ferrous - about 20-22% and ferrous metallurgy - about 15-18%. The first place in discharges of contaminated wastewater is occupied by the woodworking industry - about 20-21% of total discharges in the country, chemical - about 17%, electric power - about 12-13%. Samsonov, A. L. Planet of forests and steppes / A. Smirnov //. Ecology and life. - 2008. - No. 9. - P. 27.

The cities of Asbest, Angarsk, Novocherkassk, Troitsk, Ryazan, etc. are under environmental pressure from power plants. Among the metallurgical plants, Severstal, Novolipetsk, Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Norilsk MMC, Achinsk Alumina Refinery, etc. stand out. At enterprises, pollution of air, water basins, and soils ranges from 5 to 50 and above the maximum permissible concentration, maximum permissible concentration.

Of particular concern is environmental pollution by enterprises:

· for oil production - Lukoil, Surgutneftegaz, Tatneft;

· in the oil refining industry - "Angarsknefteorgsintez";

· for gas production - enterprises located in the Astrakhan region;

· for coal mining - Kuznetsk, Kansk - Achinsk, Moscow Region, South Yakutsk coal basins;

· in the chemical and petrochemical industry - enterprises located in Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Omsk, Yaroslavl, Perm, Kemerovo, Samara and Irkutsk regions;

· in the woodworking and pulp and paper industries - Kotlas Pulp and Paper Mill, Bratsk Timber Processing Plant, Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper Mill.

Many enterprises, companies (RAO UES, Lukoil, Komineft,

Yukos, Severstal, Sibur, OJSC Uralmash, Magnitogorsk MMC) only declare their desire to invest money in environmental protection activities. But in fact, they are used to modernize and expand production, which leads to even greater environmental pollution.

The crisis state of the natural environment on the territory of Russia, especially its most populated part, would seem to alarm the public, environmental authorities, and government agencies. Underestimating the importance of environmental problems can result in their insurmountability. The risk to people's lives, health and life expectancy is increasing.

Analysis of the state of the environment, reflected in numerous publications in recent years, shows that, despite environmental destabilization, its growth can be stopped by solving the most pressing problems related to environmental conservation and more rational use of resources.

Chapter 2. Environmental safety of the Belgorod region

2.1 Ecological and economic situation in the Belgorod region

Recently, the “Green Capital” project has been launched in the Belgorod region, within the framework of which the landscape development of the Belgorod urban agglomeration is taking place, which includes the construction of sidewalks and lawns, planting of trees and shrubs, installation of lighting systems and small architectural forms. Another direction of the “Green Capital” is the reclamation of land after technogenic impact. Currently, this project concerns the activities of federal and local enterprises, as well as unauthorized quarries and their use by the population of the region. The third, no less important direction of the Green Capital project is the afforestation of chalk slopes and erosion-hazardous areas, as well as the coordination of the production of planting and sowing material for trees, shrubs and perennial grasses.

Belgorod is an industrial, administrative-territorial and cultural city of the Central Economic Region of the Russian Federation, a junction of highways and railway lines. There are 2,913 stationary sources of emissions in the city, of which 1,700 (58.36%) are organized.

Air pollution control is carried out at four stationary posts by the State Environmental Observation Service (GSN). The GOS network operates in accordance with the requirements of RD 52.04.186-89. Posts are divided into “industrial” near enterprises, “urban” in residential areas and “auto” - near the highway. Observations are made for eleven ingredients: suspended solids (dust), sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, dioxide and nitrogen oxide. As well as phenol, ammonia, formaldehyde, hydrogen chloride, benzopyrene and sulfuric acid.

The concentrations of substances such as sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid are characterized by a steady downward trend. At the same time, evidence of increased pollution has also been established. Thus, by the level of 2010, ground-level concentrations of nitrogen dioxide increased by 33.3%, and values of formaldehyde increased by 70%. Basically, all these facts are related to the increase in the number of cars in use. The level of air pollution is increased and is determined by the concentration of benzopyrene, formaldehyde and nitrogen dioxide.

Air pollution in Belgorod is local in nature. Areas near highways are most polluted.

Gas and dust collection equipment at the main enterprises of the regional center operates with high efficiency. Established MPE and MPC standards are observed. In the reporting year, there were no cases of emergency or volley releases of pollutants.

At the Belgorod Cement CJSC enterprise, EAS for inorganic dust have been installed.

The contribution of motor transport to total emissions was 83. Compared to the previous year, emissions from motor transport increased by 0.9 thousand tons due to an increase in the number of motor vehicles. Emissions from stationary sources increased by 0.3 thousand tons - from 8.8 thousand tons to 9.1 thousand tons. In the city as a whole, emissions increased by 1.2 thousand tons.

Over the past five years, emissions of pollutants from stationary sources have decreased by 2.6 thousand tons (23.6%).

In the city of Gubkin, total emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere from stationary sources in 2010 amounted to 23.126 thousand tons - an increase of 12%. The maximum permissible emission standards for all Gubkin enterprises are met, their actual values are 0.54 MPE and have a steady downward trend.

Average annual surface concentrations for 2010 for all main ingredients do not exceed established standards. Assessing the state of the atmospheric air in the city of Gubkin, it should be noted that thanks to constant monitoring and timely implementation of a whole range of environmental measures, the level of atmospheric air pollution here over the past 5 years in terms of carbon monoxide and dust has not increased, and in terms of nitrogen dioxide has even decreased.

The relatively unfavorable state of atmospheric air in Gubkin is due to emissions of nitrogen dioxide. This is mainly due to increased control over the operation of road transport. In 2009, the level of air pollution in the city was assessed as low. The air pollution index (API) was 1.97.

During 2010, the Stary Oskol Environmental Monitoring Laboratory of the Belgorod Center for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring carried out regular monitoring of the state of atmospheric air in the city of Stary Oskol.

Total emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere from stationary sources in 2010 amounted to 70.899 thousand tons - an increase of 20%. The maximum permissible emission standards for Stary Oskol enterprises are met; their actual values are 0.61 MPE.

Monitoring of atmospheric air pollution on the territory of the Belgorod region is carried out by the Department for Environmental Protection - the State Environmental Inspectorate of the Belgorod Region, the Stary Oskol Environmental Pollution Monitoring Laboratory, the Belgorod branch of the Federal State Institution "Specialized Inspectorate of Analytical Control for the Central Region", the territorial body of the Federal State Statistics Service for the Belgorod Region (Belgorodstat), departmental laboratories of enterprises and organizations of the region. The main contribution to air pollution due to emissions from stationary sources comes from enterprises in the mining and metallurgical industries and the production of building materials. At the same time, the dynamics of emissions is still mainly due to changes in production volumes. Thus, in 2010, compared to 2009, the volume of gross emissions at OJSC Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant (JSC OEMK) increased by 2.2 thousand tons and at JSC Stoilensky Mining and Processing Plant (JSC SGOK) 1.28 times. The decrease in total emissions into the atmospheric air from the industrial enterprise Lebedinsky Mining and Processing Plant OJSC (LGOK OJSC) by 3.5 thousand tons was due to a decrease in production volumes in 2009. At JSC Belgorod Cement, the electric precipitator of rotary kiln No. 7 was reconstructed in the clinker burning shop, bag filters were installed on cement silos 1-4 in the cement grinding shop, which made it possible to reduce emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere by almost 916.5 tons.

Motor transport continues to make the main contribution to air pollution. At the same time, with an increase in the number of vehicles, the volume of emissions from mobile sources increases noticeably. In order to minimize the negative impact of vehicle emissions on the environment, motor transport enterprises carry out repairs, adjustments, and maintenance of systems and units that affect the emission of harmful substances, and control over the content of pollutants in exhaust gases is organized. Unleaded gasoline is used to refuel cars in the region. In addition, planning measures are being carried out to optimize traffic flow and reduce traffic flows in the residential area. In particular, in Belgorod in 2008 a concept for the development of urban transport was developed. Construction of a bypass road is underway.

2.2 Natural capital and modernization in the agro-industrial complex of the Belgorod region

More than 20 years have passed since the UN conference in Rio de Janeiro adopted the Declaration on Environmental Problems, which proclaimed the sustainable development of human society based on the biosphere paradigm of environmental management. The achievements noted during this period in the field of greening agricultural activities are different in different countries and regions and depend on the level of their socio-economic and cultural development.

In Russia, a unique region in which economic, social and environmental transformations have been consistently carried out over these years is the Belgorod region. The volume of agricultural production increased by 1.6 times compared to 1990, while the national average barely reached 90% of the previous level. Poultry production in 2010 exceeded the 1990 level by 15 times, pork (in live weight) by 3.2 times, and labor productivity in the agricultural sector as a whole increased fourfold. Here the circulation of land is regulated in the most rational way. The decisive role in the creation of a new socio-economic regional system belongs to the regional governor E.S. Savchenko, who built a political and economic system of compromise interaction between government and capital, organized a massive transfer of the latest technologies and achieved an improvement in the quality of life of the population.

100-150 years ago, when the soil was fertile, it contained up to 15% of the main indicator of fertility - humus, today its content is in exceptional cases 5% and no more. Soil fertility is gradually deteriorating due to the loss of black soil as a result of precipitation, soil erosion, and the use of intensive cultivation technologies, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides. In addition, as the Governor noted, today we take an average of 6-7 tons of dry matter from the soil per year in the form of crops or crop residues, and leave a maximum of 3 tons in the form of root residues, as well as the addition of manure. In addition, cases of burning crop residues are not uncommon - all this also leads to a decrease in soil fertility. To restore it, you should leave more dry matter in the soil than take it away - about 8-10 tons. For this purpose, perennial grasses and green manure crops are introduced into the crop rotation on 1 hectare of land every year; after harvesting, all plant residues are left in the fields and organic fertilizers are properly applied.

It should be noted that the biologization program for agriculture is gradually increasing and improving the quality of the economy. At the same time, there is a transition from traditional farming methods to no-till technology, the role of grass sowing and green manure in the biologization of agriculture and biologization in landscape farming systems. Kiryushin, V.I. About the Belgorod model of modernization of agriculture and biologization of agriculture / A.L. Ivanova //. Agriculture. - 2013. - No. 1. - P. 3-6.

For Russia, the very concept of “green economy” is new, and it is not actually used in official documents. However, the country’s goals for the next 10-20 years largely correspond to the goals of the transition to a green economy. This is reflected in the general policy for the use of resources and environmental protection for the future, and in the available legal and economic instruments.

Probably the main task of the Russian economy at the present stage, reflected in the main documents of the country's development for the medium and long term, and in the speeches of the President of the Russian Federation and the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, is to move away from the raw materials model of the economy. This task is central to the concept of a green economy. Its goals are mostly included in the main conceptual documents: the Concept of long-term development of the country (2008), the draft Strategy for the long-term development of the country (“Strategy 2020”) (2012), the Fundamentals of state policy in the field of environmental development of the Russian Federation for the period until 2030, approved President of the Russian Federation (2012) and others. The most important goal of the green economy - increasing energy efficiency - is also a priority for Russia.

Recently, the world has become increasingly aware of the limitations of interpreting natural capital only as natural resources (in the narrow sense, as resources that are already included in market relations and have a price). Successful economic growth requires consideration of other environmental functions.

In the most general form, four types of functions of natural capital can be distinguished:

· resource - providing natural resources for the production of goods and services;

· environmental (ecosystem) services - provision by nature of various types of regulatory functions: assimilation of pollution and waste, regulation of climate and water regime, ozone layer, etc.;

· services of nature associated with aesthetic, ethical, moral, cultural, historical aspects - these are a kind of “spiritual” environmental services;

· ensuring human health and the environment.

The proposed fourth function is still new to economic science. To a certain extent, it is a derivative of the first three functions of natural capital, however, it can be distinguished separately due to the priority of ensuring human health and nature for the process of sustainable development. Natural capital, as the basis for sustainable development, plays a significant role in the economies of all countries. In Russia, nature is the most important part of wealth. According to World Bank estimates, the share of natural capital in the structure of Russia's national wealth is about 70%, while human capital accounts for 20% and physical capital (produced, artificially created) - 10% of wealth. Kryukov, V. A. Environmental policy on the path to sustainable development / T. O. Tagaeva, G. M. Mkrtchyan //. ECO. - 2012. - No. 7. - P. 20-21.

Conclusion

The state of environmental safety in the current conditions of Russia is the result of the influence of a sum of factors - anthropogenic, technogenic, political, economic, social, moral-psychological, legal, insufficient readiness of the authorities to implement environmentally-oriented economic and social policies, low efficiency of environmental activities of law enforcement agencies, exposure to a number of external environmental threats, hazards and risks.

As a result of the research, I analyzed a number of problems related to environmental safety in the country and in the Belgorod region, in light of which further plans of the Government to ensure environmental safety in the Russian Federation were identified. In this regard, the Government is pursuing a policy to ensure environmental safety: developing an environmental safety strategy, mandatory for execution by all government agencies; improving the management system of the national environmental safety system at all levels; timely identification of internal and external environmental threats and implementation of measures to block and neutralize them; activating and increasing the effectiveness of the activities of government agencies and public organizations to combat environmental terrorism; strengthening environmental activities of law enforcement agencies; development of a public system for protecting the natural environment based on the activity of citizens, environmental organizations and movements; improving the mechanism for legal protection of environmental rights of citizens; raising the level of environmental culture and environmental education of citizens.

List of used literature

1. Constitution of the Russian Federation: official. text. - M.: Marketing, 1993. - 43 p.

2. Akimova T.S. Ecology: textbook / T. S. Akimova. V.V. Haskin. - Moscow, 1999. - 315 p.

3. Bobylev S. N. Zakharov V. M. Environmental policy on the path to sustainable development / V. M. Zakharov // EKO. - 2012. - No. 7. - P. 29

4. Vishnevsky, A. Life expectancy in Russia / M. Ivanova //. Demoscope Weekly. - 2007. - No. 287-288. - pp. 56-59

5. Gosteva S.R. Environmental safety of Russia and sustainable development / S. R. Gosteva // Vestnik. Volume 16. - 2010. - No. 3. - P.34

6. Grishin A.S. Environmental safety: textbook / A. S. Grishin. V.N. Novikov. - Moscow, 2000. - 250 p.

7. Legislative acts of the Russian Federation: natural resources and environment. - M., 2001. - 56 p.

8. Zakharov, V. “Green” economy and modernization. Ecological and economic foundations of sustainable development / S. Bobylev //. On the way to sustainable development of Russia. - 2012. - No. 60. - P. 7 - 15

9. Zakharov, V. The problem of forming a “green” economy in Russia / S. Bobylev //. On the way to sustainable development of Russia. - 2012. - No. 60. - P. 20 - 29

10. Zakharov, V. Crisis: economics and ecology / S. Bobylev //. Towards sustainable development. - 2009. - No. 49. - P. 8

11. Karakchieva, I. V. Theoretical approaches to assessing the ambivalent consequences of human impact on the environment: ecological and economic approach / E. A. Motosova, A. Yu. Vega //. Environmental economics. - 2012. - No. 4. - P. 3-4

12. Kiryushin, V.I. About the Belgorod model of modernization of agriculture and biologization of agriculture / A.L. Ivanova //. Agriculture. - 2013. - No. 1. - P. 3-6

13. Klochkova E.F. Kipen S.N. Review of emissions of pollutants into the atmospheric air in the Belgorod region. - Belgorod, 2010.

14. Kryukov, V. A. Environmental policy on the path to sustainable development / T. O. Tagaeva, G. M. Mkrtchyan //. ECO. - 2012. - No. 7. - P. 20-21.

15. Mazur, I.I. Dangerous natural processes. Introductory course. / I.I. Mazur, O.P. Ivanov. - M.: Economics. - 2004. - 7 p.

16. Moiseev N.N. “Law and Security” / For legal support of domestic producers [electronic resource] / N.N. Moiseev. - http://dpr.ru

17. Muravykh, A.I. Strategic management of environmental safety / A.I. Muravykh // Society and Economics - 2001. - No. 1 P. 608-610

18. Samsonov, A. L. Planet of forests and steppes / A. Smirnov //. Ecology and life. - 2008. - No. 9. - P. 27

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Introduction

In modern society, for a number of reasons, the status of security problems is changing, which are caused by the impact of different levels of threats: global, regional and national; natural, man-made and, increasingly, socio-ecological. The specificity of the attitude and resolution of national security problems in modern Russian society is due to the inseparability of security strategy and policy from the cultural and historical context of the development of society and the state.

However, in relation to the triad that has developed in research approaches and legal practice: personal - national - global security - it is environmental issues that become integral, inevitably affecting each of its subjective levels.

The relevance of the problem of environmental safety of the individual and the state is due to the fact that in modern civilized democratic states, along with progressive changes in ensuring the safety of the individual, the range of dangers associated with the entry of these states into the field of increased technogenic and socio-ecological risk begins to expand. All over the world, including in rich industrialized countries, areas of economic activity are expanding, falling outside the sphere regulated by legal norms and laws. This means an increase in the level of danger and environmental threats on a regional and then global scale, both for the state and for individual citizens. The range of environmental hazards is increasing not only due to man-made, but also due to ongoing social or political changes.

Major environmental disasters in recent years have influenced public opinion around the world, showing that there is no such thing as an “alien” environment. Nature is not divided by administrative and state boundaries, it is the same for everyone, and the source of a global environmental catastrophe can arise anywhere.

Realized by millions of people around the world, this real “fragility of existence” influences the socio-political attitudes and behavior of large groups of the population.

Environmental Safety

Concept, objects, goals and objectives of environmental safety.

Environmental safety is a set of states, processes and actions that ensure an ecological balance in the environment and do not lead to vital damage (or threats of such damage) caused to the natural environment and humans (Khoruzhaya, 2002, Kozin, Petrovsky, 2005). This is also the process of ensuring the protection of the vital interests of the individual, society, nature, state and all humanity from real or potential threats created by anthropogenic or natural impacts on the environment.

The objects of ES are rights, material and spiritual needs of the individual, natural resources and the natural environment or the material basis of state and social development.

The concept of environmental safety includes a system of regulation and management that allows one to predict, prevent, and, if they occur, eliminate the development of emergency situations.

Problems of environmental safety and rational use of natural resources are inextricably linked with the socio-economic development of society and are determined by it, related to health issues, the creation of favorable conditions for life and natural reproduction of the population in present and future generations.

The main sources of environmental hazard are pollution of all media: air, water, soil, food, exposure to electromagnetic radiation and noise.

The environmental safety system has a multi-level nature from the source of environmental impact to the national one, from the enterprise, municipality, subject of the Federation to the country in the planetary aspect.

The main goal of environmental safety is to achieve sustainable development with the creation of a favorable living environment and comfortable conditions for the life and reproduction of the population, ensuring the protection of natural resources and biodiversity, and preventing man-made accidents and disasters.

Achieving this goal involves a comprehensive, systematic and targeted solution to the following tasks:

in the field of ensuring environmental safety in the region, in urbanized areas (Fig. 1):

improving the tools for implementing environmental policy: legislative, administrative, managerial, educational, technical, technological;

reducing and bringing to safe levels the technogenic load on humans and the environment in territories (zones) with a particularly unfavorable environmental situation;

creation and effective functioning of a management system for environmental safety and environmental protection of the city;

meeting the population's needs for drinking water and quality food products using local resources. According to the author, environmental safety, especially its elements such as water security and food security, presupposes a guarantee of satisfaction of needs, considering this phenomenon in a historical aspect, determined by genetic conditions and circumstances. This is discussed in more detail in the theoretical section of the work.

ensuring the maintenance of the quality of recreational facilities, safe collection, transportation, storage, processing and disposal of household and industrial waste;

creation of a system for warning and protecting the population in emergency and environmental situations (natural, man-made);

stage-by-stage greening of production, introduction of environmentally friendly technologies;

Rice. 1. Conceptual diagram of ensuring the environmental safety of the city and urbanized areas of the region

in the field of environmental protection and restoration of natural complexes:

Creation of a system for managing the quality of the natural environment, taking into account adjacent territories;

Creation of a unified system for monitoring the environment and public health in the context of the municipality, taking into account adjacent territories and transboundary transfer of pollution;

Rehabilitation of contaminated areas of the city, preservation and restoration of forests, parks, squares and green spaces, their diversity;

Ensuring the economical use of natural resources, implementing energy and resource conservation policies, achieving sustainability of UT ecosystems;

in the field of rehabilitation of the health of the population exposed to polluted environments:

creation of a system of hygienic diagnostics, population and individual health rehabilitation of the population with environmentally-related diseases;

targeted prevention of environmentally-related diseases and improvement of the health of the population from risk groups living in territories (zones) with the most unfavorable environmental conditions;

development of the industry of high-quality food products and food additives with specified therapeutic and prophylactic properties;

environmental and sanitary-hygienic education, education and enlightenment of the population.

The main objects of environmental safety are a person (individual) with his right to a healthy and life-friendly natural environment; society with its material and spiritual values, depending on the ecological state of the city territory; a favorable city ecosystem as the basis for sustainable development of society and the well-being of future generations.

Environmental safety concept

It is a system of views, goals, principles and priorities, as well as actions based on them of a political, economic, legal, administrative, scientific, technical, sanitary, epidemiological and educational nature, aimed at creating safe and favorable living conditions for current and future generations of the population .

The development of the concept of environmental protection is based on the idea of preventing and compensating for harm caused to the environment, health and property of citizens through pollution, spoilage, destruction, damage, irrational use of natural resources, destruction of natural ecological systems and other offenses (Myshko, 2003).

The concept of environmental safety should be sufficiently brief and clear. It must ensure the organization of natural resource management to an extent that does not cause irreparable damage to the environment and does not cause harm to public health. It is necessary to formulate the goals, objectives and principles of the EST concept. The basis should be based on the principle of rational environmental management, according to which the level of anthropogenic impact must correspond to the ability of ecosystems to neutralize its consequences. This principle must be implemented through a system of territorial environmental standards for environmental management, calculated on the basis of environmental standards for environmental impact, which are established for the main ecosystems of populated areas. The current system of environmental standards for maximum permissible emissions and discharges (MPE, MPD) does not correspond to existing economic and social conditions (Busygin et al., 2004). The assessment of the environmental condition must be carried out by comparing the normative and actual levels of impact on the environment.

Let's consider a picture showing the level of environmental safety depending on the intensity of the impact of a particular environmental factor:

Let us immediately make a reservation that an environmental factor means an element of the environment that can have an impact on humans and living organisms, for example, light, temperature, the content of chemical elements and compounds, acidity level, etc.

Let's look at the diagram below. Of greatest interest to us here are the so-called. transition barriers, since they are the ones who separate the state of environmentally safe development (ecological comfort zone) from the state of environmental risk. These barriers have a more complex structure. On the inside, there is a zone of anxious anticipation (when we are still in a state of environmental comfort, but there is already a risk of transition to an unfavorable situation - environmental risk). On the outside, there is a zone of acceptable risk (the environmental factor does not yet have a critical impact on human health/the state of the ecosystem. Limit values of the intensity of the environmental factor mean an environmental catastrophe leading to human death/destruction of the ecosystem.

All listed zones and boundaries are currently clearly defined and have specific numerical values. The external boundaries of the acceptable risk zone are environmental quality standards - maximum permissible maximum and minimum concentrations, MPE and MPD, which are determined by our colleagues from the Department of Geoecology. Our legal system is responsible for enforcing these requirements. To determine the boundaries of the environmental comfort zone, there are clear sanitary and hygienic requirements (human and environmental hygiene). The SES monitors compliance with these requirements.

Environmental safety is part of the state security system, the priority elements of which are constitutional, defense, economic, political, food, information security, etc.

Environmental safety classification

Environmental safety is classified according to the following criteria: sources of danger, territorial principles, the scale of harmful effects and by methods and measures to ensure it.

The territorial principle includes facility-based, local, regional, state and international environmental safety.

Methods for ensuring environmental safety are divided into the following: technogenic-ecological, radioecological, socio-ecological, natural, economic-ecological safety

The main sources of environmental hazard are the activities of technical, chemical, biological, and nuclear production facilities. Along with these objects, hydraulic structures and vehicles can cause potential harm to the environment

The scale of the harmful impact on the environment can be divided into external and internal environmental safety.

water management ozone intensity identification

Levels of environmental safety organization

Environmental safety is implemented by:

global,

regional,

local levels.

The global level of environmental safety management involves forecasting and monitoring processes in the state of the biosphere as a whole and its constituent spheres. In the second half of the 20th century. These processes are expressed in global climate change, the emergence of the “greenhouse effect”, destruction of the ozone screen, desertification of the planet and pollution of the World Ocean. The essence of global control and management is the preservation and restoration of the natural mechanism of reproduction of environmental conditions by the biosphere, which is directed by the totality of living organisms that make up the biosphere.

At the global level, a number of environmental problems of international scale have been resolved. A great success of the international community was the ban on nuclear weapons testing in all environments, except for underground testing. Agreements were reached on a global ban on whaling and legal interstate regulation of the catch of fish and other seafood. International Red Data Books have been established to preserve biodiversity. The world community is studying the Arctic and Antarctic as natural biosphere zones not affected by human intervention, for comparison with the development of zones transformed by human activity.

The international community adopted a Declaration banning the production of freon refrigerants that contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer (Montreal, 1972).

The regional level includes large geographical or economic zones, and sometimes the territories of several states. Control and management are carried out at the level of the state government and at the level of interstate relations (United Europe, CIS, Union of African States, etc.).

At this level, the environmental safety management system includes:

greening the economy;

new environmentally friendly technologies;

maintaining the pace of economic development that does not impede the restoration of the quality of the environment and promotes the rational use of natural resources.

Solving specific local problems determines the possibility of achieving the goal of managing environmental safety at the regional and global levels. The control goal is achieved by observing the principle of transferring information about the state of the OS from local to regional and global levels.

Environmental safety assessment

Environmental safety assessment is carried out by types (environments) of impact:

Air pollution,

Quality and contamination of tap water and other sources,

Water supply, the state of nearby bodies of water that can affect the ecological state of the property being assessed,

Vibration,

Electromagnetic fields, including the gamma radiation field, as well as the presence of other types of radioactive contamination, the possibility of radon accumulation,

Soils and soils.

The sanitary safety of the object in question, as well as the intensity of inter-environmental migration of pollutants, are separately assessed.

Atmospheric air pollution can be assessed both from field measurements and from calculated data for the most unfavorable and most likely conditions, taking into account indicators of background air pollution using modern computer models.

When assessing environmental safety, the proximity of potentially hazardous industries and facilities is taken into account, taking into account the wind pattern, the risk of suffering from disasters (both man-made and natural), local aerographic features and other positive and negative factors in the spread of hazardous impacts, the impact of nearby hazardous facilities, safety and wear and tear of installed engineering systems.

In addition to the impact of negative factors, a person needs positive environmental factors and their absence or deficiency (excess) can also be considered a negative environmental factor. Such factors include comfortable lighting, electromagnetic fields similar in their characteristics (intensity, dynamics, spatial orientation, etc.) to natural ones, air speed, relative air humidity, surface temperature, thermal radiation. Estimating the speed of air movement is usually solved together with the problem of assessing the provision of ventilation in different rooms of the assessed object.

Criteria for assessing environmental safety

Criteria for assessing environmental safety are given in widely used regulatory documents, including lists of maximum permissible values. In addition, the following regulatory documents are used, among others:

Harmful substances. Classification and general safety requirements. GOST 12.1.007-76.

Radiation Safety Standards (NRB-99). Sanitary rules. SP 2.6.1.758-99

Order No. 219 of November 23, 1993. On measures to improve the organization of ensuring environmental safety during the activities of the troops of the Moscow Military District.

Order No. 339 of August 1, 1997 On approval of “Environmental safety requirements for the operation, repair and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines at civil aviation enterprises. Atmospheric air and aircraft noise."

In the work of Davidenko N.M. (1998) proposed the following principles in the approach to assessing the sustainability of the natural environment:

The prerogative of scientific support for the organization of environmentally balanced environmental management;

Universality of approaches to assessing technogenic environmental changes in areas with different natural conditions and industrial specialization;

Optional differential analysis of the likely role of known physical, chemical, microbiological geodynamic factors of technogenic impact on the main spheres of the Earth and their main components;

The possibility of using individually determined values of maximum permissible concentrations of chemicals without taking into account the likelihood of a sharp increase in their total toxic potential.

Currently, there are two main concepts for the development of the region from the perspective of emerging environmental problems:

technogenic (resource),

biosphere (Korobkin, Peredelsky, 2003).

According to the first concept, the solution to environmental problems lies in assessing environmental pollution, developing standards for permissible pollution of various environments, creating treatment systems and resource-saving technologies. Within the framework of this concept, the modern direction of specific environmental activities has been formed; as a system of local environmental cleanup from pollution and standardization of environmental quality indicators according to a narrow (several dozen) set of indicators, as well as the introduction of resource-saving technologies (Lobanova, 1999, Mazur, Moldavanov, 1999).

The second concept determines the main direction of establishing the area of stability of any ecosystem, which will make it possible to find the permissible amount of disturbance - the load on the ecosystem, and determine the stability thresholds of specific ecosystems.

ES analysis must be carried out at the global, regional, local and point levels.

The local level needs to be studied so that its indicators serve as initial data for assessing energy security at the regional level. If people do not live in a certain territory and do not carry out any activities, then it makes no sense to assess the ES for this territory. It is necessary to take into account many different indicators (sanitary-toxicological, environmental, sociological, demographic, medical, etc.) (Kostovskaya et al., 2006, Lebedev N.V., Furman, 1998, Sutoskaya I.V., Fedotova, 1995), to quantify the EB of the territory. To do this, you need to select a controlled region and divide it into many sections. Each area of the territory can be described by many input and output parameters. The output parameter of one section is the input parameter of the neighboring one. The development of areas at the local level occurs according to its own laws, but the complex indicator is the same for everyone. Knowing how one site develops, it is possible to predict the similar development of neighboring sites with similar characteristics. It is possible to predict the development of each site separately, based on data from adjacent areas, as well as the region as a whole.

Ensuring environmental safety

Methods for ensuring environmental safety.

In the work of Khoruzhay T.A. (2002) proposed methods for ensuring energy security, which are divided into the following groups:

). Environmental quality control methods:

Measurement methods are strictly quantitative, the result of which is expressed by a specific numerical parameter (physical, chemical, optical and others).

Biological methods are qualitative (the result is expressed verbally, for example, in terms of “many-little”, “often-rarely”, etc.) or partially quantitative.

). Methods of modeling and forecasting, including methods of system analysis, system dynamics, computer science, etc.

). Combined methods, for example, environmental-toxicological methods, including various groups of methods (physico-chemical, biological, toxicological, etc.).

). Methods of environmental quality management.

Mechanism and stages of ensuring environmental safety

The mechanism for ensuring the environmental safety of the territory (EST) is an ordered sequence of stages of scientific and practical research aimed at determining reliable and justified EST criteria, as well as identifying effective measures to improve the environmental situation of the controlled area (Tikhomirov, Potravny, Tikhomirova, 2000).

The stages of ensuring EST (Fig. 2) can be presented in the form of two blocks: assessment (1-5) and management (6-8).

Fig. 2. Stages of ensuring the environmental safety of the territory

The first block consists of determining quantitative indicators and criteria of environmental safety, assessing adverse events, determining the structure, system and quantitative assessment of EST. The second block is intended to evaluate methods and mechanisms for ensuring EST, introducing this system into the practice of managing the environmental situation of a given area and monitoring the result of the implementation of the entire system.

) Identification of adverse environmental impacts.

The main goal of this stage is to determine the composition (list) of negative and unfavorable events that cause deterioration in environmental quality and directly or indirectly cause economic damage to the object in question. An event is considered negative if there is a real possibility of its manifestation and if this can cause real damage to the object. At the same stage, it is possible to substantiate the conclusion about the possibility or impossibility of causing damage to the object in question, because any event that occurs may not necessarily cause damage.

) Assessment of adverse effects and events.

At the second stage, various assessments of adverse impacts that can be classified as risky or crisis over a certain period of time in a given territory should be given. The following methods for assessing adverse events are distinguished:

Statistical, based on the analysis of accumulated statistical data on similar events that occurred at similar objects in the territory of a given area in the past (depending on the frequency of incidents). This method is used in cases where the origin of the event is not always known. But this event is characterized by a certain repeatability; there is accumulated information from which one can judge the frequency and strength of its occurrence.

Analytical, based on the study of cause-and-effect relationships in the system, allowing to assess the possibility of an adverse event occurring as a complex phenomenon formed as a result of a chain of local and small-scale adverse events. This method can be used to determine those events for which reliable statistical data have not yet been accumulated, but it is possible to logically foresee the cause-and-effect relationships that determine the pattern of their occurrence.

Expert, which involves assessing possible consequences by processing the results of expert surveys. These methods are used in cases where there is no data on the frequency of adverse events and the logic of their occurrence is unclear. Basically, experts study and build various scenarios for the development of events, based on their experience and qualifications.

In some cases, these methods are used in combination. Each method complements each other. For example, expert methods are usually used together with analytical ones when forming a scenario for the development of the environmental situation in the region.

) Quantitative assessment of EST.

The group of stages of ES assessment is completed by research, the purpose of which is to formulate quantitative indicators of ES criteria (integral assessments), which will then be used in developing management decisions.

) Assessment of methods and mechanisms for ensuring EST.

At this stage, a list of possible methods and mechanisms for ensuring EST is established, which are divided into several groups:

Methods to avoid adverse anthropogenic impacts on the territory of the region involve regulating the behavior of an object by changing the nature of its functioning, avoiding situations in which damage to ecosystems may be caused.

Methods that reduce the likelihood of an adverse event occurring involve measuring the operating conditions of an object without affecting its nature. For example, replacing production technology with a less hazardous or environmentally friendly one.

Methods that reduce damage from an adverse event involve increasing the degree of protection of the object.

Mechanisms to prevent the spread of adverse impacts to other territorial objects.

) Making a decision on the implementation of EST management practices. Monitoring the results of implementing measures to ensure EST.

Control over the results of individual stages of EST assessment is carried out during work related to monitoring the state of the environment, examination of existing facilities, licensing of activities, inspections, etc.

Environmental situation in Russia

On a national scale, strategic environmental risks are used to assess environmental quality. Their values are calculated when predicting the consequences of national emergencies. The latter (according to Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1094 of June 13, 1996) include situations with the following parameters:

) the area of the emergency zone exceeds the size of two constituent entities of the Russian Federation;

) material damage amounts to more than 5 million minimum wages;

) the number of victims exceeds 500 people or the living conditions of more than 1 thousand people are violated.

The reasons for such a low level of ecology in Russia:

% of the territory of Russia (the center, the south of the European part, the Middle and Southern Urals, Western Siberia, the Volga region), where more than 60% of the country's population lives, represent a picture of an environmental disaster by a third;

more than 100 million Russians live in environmentally unfavorable conditions;

only 15% of Russian urban residents live in areas where the level of air pollution meets the standards;

% of urban residents live in conditions where maximum permissible concentrations of harmful substances in the atmosphere are periodically exceeded by 5-10 times;

/3 Russia's water sources are unfit for drinking, many rivers have been turned into sewers;

the share of pollution from motor vehicles is 46% of the total emission of harmful substances and reaches 70-80% in large cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as in the Krasnoyarsk and Primorsky territories, Belgorod, Penza, Sverdlovsk, Murmansk and Chelyabinsk regions;

Each resident accounts for up to 400 kg of industrial emissions from enterprises into the air.

All available data indicate that the environmental situation in Russia at the end of the 20th century. - the most disadvantaged on the globe. During the period of glasnost, at least 200 Russian cities were recognized as environmentally hazardous to public health due to air and water pollution. Under the “dirty cities” program, about 30 cities were selected to clean up polluting industrial waste, but the effect was minimal. Every year in the Norilsk region, where the richest deposits of polymetallic ores are concentrated, 2 million tons of sulfur dioxide, almost 2 million tons of copper oxide, 19 million tons of nitrous oxide, almost 44 thousand tons of lead and a huge number of other hazardous substances are released into the environment. human health substances. Life expectancy in this area is the lowest in Russia. In one local hospital, according to data over a six-year period, 90% of patients suffered from various lung diseases. These diseases are difficult to treat in a weak and outdated health system.

The nickel ore processing plant in the town of Nikel on the Kola Peninsula is so polluting that neighboring Norway has offered to allocate funds to replace outdated equipment. In Soviet times, up to 50 nuclear enterprises were classified, and only in 1994 it became clear that many areas were contaminated with radioactive waste. Explosions of waste from the production of atomic weapons in the Chelyabinsk region (1957) and the nuclear reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near Kyiv (1986) led to radioactive contamination of vast areas. There are frequent cases of accidents on oil and gas pipelines. Water pollution from industrial and agricultural wastewater is widespread. In the 1990s, Russia experienced repeated outbreaks of cholera due to poor water treatment.

An analysis of the environmental situation in Russia indicates that the crisis trends, which clearly manifested themselves in the previous 15 years, have not been overcome, and in some aspects are even deepening, despite the measures taken.

Russia, where preserved continuous tracts of undisturbed ecosystems account for almost 65% of the country's area (11 million km2), is of key importance for global ecodynamics. Together with some adjacent territories, this massif forms the world's largest Northern Eurasian Center for Environmental Stabilization, the importance of which for the restoration of the Earth's biosphere will increasingly increase.

However, 15% of Russia's territory (an area larger than Western and Central Europe combined), where the bulk of the population and production is concentrated, is in an unsatisfactory environmental condition, and environmental safety is not guaranteed here. At the same time, specific indicators of negative environmental impacts per capita and unit of gross domestic product in Russia are among the highest in the world.

Russia is one of the most environmentally polluted countries on the planet. The economic situation in the Russian Federation continues to aggravate the environmental one, and the severity of the existing negative trends is increasing. The decline in production was not accompanied by a similar decrease in the volume of harmful emissions into the environment - in crisis conditions, enterprises save on environmental costs. Thus, in 1992, compared to 1991, the average volume of industrial production in the national economy decreased by 18.8%. including, but such industries as non-ferrous metallurgy - by 26.8, chemical industry - by 22.2%. However, the volume of emissions of harmful substances into the atmospheric air decreased by only 11%, and the reduction in discharges of polluted wastewater was insignificant.

Regular recording of harmful emissions into the air is carried out at 18 thousand enterprises. In 1993, they amounted to 24.8 million tons (of which 2% were synthetic highly toxic ingredients) - this was 11.7% less than in the previous year. However, a number of regions are experiencing an increase in air emissions; reasons - violation of technological regimes, use of low-quality and substandard raw materials and fuel.

Due to the deterioration of fixed assets, volley and emergency releases of harmful ingredients have become more frequent. The condition of the air in cities and industrial centers is deteriorating. The list of cities with the highest level of pollution (41 cities) included: Arkhangelsk, Bratsk, Grozny, Kemerovo, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Novosibirsk, etc.

An increase in the level of air pollution is observed not only in cities and surrounding areas, but also in background areas; emissions of large amounts of sulfur dioxide (more than 9 million tons per year) cause acidification of atmospheric precipitation. Areas of high acidity have been recorded in the European territory of Russia, as well as in a number of industrial areas with developed non-ferrous metallurgy. The fallout of pollutants on the territory of the Russian Federation is caused not only by emissions from its own sources, but also by transboundary transfer.

Water resources are one of the most important and at the same time the most vulnerable components of the environment. Their rapid change under the influence of economic activity leads to an exacerbation of the following problems.

Increased water tension.

Water resources are distributed unevenly throughout the country: 90% of the total annual flow falls on the basin of the Arctic and Pacific oceans, and less than 8% - on the basin of the Caspian and Azov seas, where over 80% of Russia's population lives and its main industrial and agricultural potential is concentrated . In general, the total water intake for economic needs is relatively small - 3% of the average long-term river flow. However, in the Volga basin it makes up 33% of the total water intake throughout the country, and in a number of river basins the average annual flow intake exceeds environmentally permissible withdrawal volumes (Don - 64%, Terek - 68, Kuban - 80%, etc.). In the south of the European territory of Russia, almost all water resources are involved in national economic activities. Even in the basins of the Ural, Tobol and Ishim rivers, water tension has become a factor, to a certain extent, constraining the development of the national economy.

Unacceptably large water losses. They are large not only on the way from the water source to the consumer (for example, in 1991, with a total volume of water intake from natural sources of 117 km3, losses amounted to 9.1 km3), but they are also very significant in industry - 25% or more (due to leaks in networks, filtration, imperfections of technological processes); in housing and communal services - from 20 to 40% (due to leaks in residential and public buildings, corrosion and wear of water supply networks); in agriculture (overwatering in crop production, excessive water supply standards for livestock farming).

Surface water pollution.

The long-term trend of increasing surface water pollution continues. The annual volume of discharged wastewater has remained virtually unchanged over the past 5 years and amounts to 27 km3. Wastewater from industry, agriculture, municipal services and water bodies carries a huge amount of pollutants.

In the country, almost all water bodies are subject to anthropogenic influence; the water quality of most of them does not meet regulatory requirements. The Volga with its tributaries the Kama and Oka will be subject to the greatest anthropogenic load. The average annual toxic load on the Volga ecosystems is 6 times higher than the load on aquatic ecosystems in other regions of the country. The quality of the waters of the Volga basin does not meet hygienic, fishery and recreational standards.

Due to overload and low efficiency of treatment facilities, the volume of regulatory-treated wastewater discharged into water bodies is only 8.7% of the total volume of water subject to treatment. MPCs of harmful ingredients in water exceed tens and sometimes hundreds of times: the waters of the Ural River in the area of the cities of Orel and Orenburg contain iron, petroleum products, ammonium and nitrate nitrogen, the average annual concentrations of which range from 5 to 40 MPCs; in Primorye, the waters of the Rudnaya River are polluted with boron-containing substances and metal compounds - concentrations of copper, zinc, boron reach 30, 60 and 800 MAC, respectively, etc.

The results of checking the quality of water sources showed: only 12% of the examined water bodies can be classified as conditionally clean (background); 32% are in states of anthropogenic environmental stress (moderately polluted); 56% are contaminated suitable sites (or sections thereof), the ecosystems of which are in a state of ecological regression.

Decrease in water content of large rivers.

By the beginning of the 80s. the decrease in the annual flow of large rivers in the south of the European part of the country under the influence of economic activity amounted to; Volga - 5%, Dnieper - 19, Don - 20, Ural - 25%. Due to the high volume of water intake in the basins of the Amudarya and Syrdarya rivers and the reduction in water flow into the Aral Sea, its area over 25 years has decreased by approximately 23 thousand km2, or by 1/3, the level has fallen by more than 12 m.

Mass death of small rivers.

A significant part of the urban and rural population lives in the basins of small rivers (up to 100 km long), which constitute 1/3 of the total long-term flow. Over the past 15-20 years, intensive economic use of wind resources and adjacent lands has led to depletion, shallowing and pollution of rivers. Long-term discharge of wastewater in volumes comparable to the annual volume of runoff has negated the self-purification abilities of many rivers, turning them into open sewers. Uncontrolled withdrawal of water, destruction of water protection strips and drainage of raised swamps led to the massive death of small rivers. This process is especially pronounced in forest-steppe and steppe zones, in the Urals and near the largest industrial centers.

Depletion of reserves and contamination of groundwater.

About 1,000 sources of groundwater pollution have been identified, 75% of which occur in the most populated European part of Russia. Deterioration in water quality was noted in 60 cities and towns at 80 drinking water intakes with a capacity of more than 1000 m3 per day. According to expert estimates, the total consumption of contaminated water at water intakes is 5 - 6% of the total amount of groundwater used for domestic and drinking water supply. The degree of pollution reaches 10 MPC for one or another ingredient - nitrates, nitrites, petroleum products, copper compounds, phenols, etc. Depletion of groundwater is also observed, manifested in a decrease in their levels and the formation of extensive depression craters, up to 50 - 70 m deep, with a diameter of up to 100 m. In general, the condition of the groundwater used is assessed as critical and has a dangerous tendency to further deteriorate.

Deterioration in the quality of drinking water. The state of water sources (surface and underground) and centralized water supply systems cannot guarantee the required quality of drinking water (191). More than 50% of Russians are forced to use water that does not meet standards for various indicators. More than 20% of drinking water samples do not meet current standards for chemical indicators and more than 11% for microbiological indicators; 4.3% of drinking water samples pose a real danger to public health. The main reasons for the deterioration in the quality of drinking water are: non-compliance with the regime of economic activity in sanitary protection zones (17% of water sources and 24% of public water supply systems from surface sources do not have sanitary protection zones at all); the absence in some cases of treatment facilities on public water supply systems (13.1%) and disinfection installations (7.2%), as well as secondary contamination of water in distribution networks during accidents, the number of which increases annually.

The danger of the current situation is also evidenced by the annual increase in the number of epidemic outbreaks of acute intestinal infectious diseases and viral hepatitis caused by the water factor of infection transmission.

Sea pollution.

All internal and marginal seas of the Russian Federation experience intense anthropogenic pressure both in the water area itself and as a result of economic activities in the drainage basin. Sea coasts are characterized by the development of abrasion processes; more than 60% of the coastline experiences destruction, erosion and flooding, which causes significant damage to the national economy and is an additional source of marine pollution. The burial of radioactive waste in the northern seas poses a particular danger. In recent years, control over the quality of sea waters has weakened somewhat and is carried out according to a reduced program due to insufficient funding.

Strengthening the negative impact of anthropogenic activities on the state and conditions of reproduction of fish stocks.

Hydraulic construction, withdrawal of large amounts of fresh water for irrigation and other economic needs, operation of water intakes without fish protection devices, water pollution, exceeding production quotas and other factors have sharply worsened the condition and conditions for the reproduction of fish stocks: fish catches are declining (a tense situation for fisheries has developed in the basins rivers: Ob, Irtysh, Yenisei, Kuban. The volume of catch in 1993 alone in the largest freshwater bodies of Russia decreased by 22.4%; the fish productivity of the lake fund is decreasing - on average it is 4-6 kg/ha, and in the polar lakes - less than 1 kg/ha; production in Lake Ilmen has decreased by 40%; average fish productivity of reservoirs ranges from 0.5 to 40 - 50 kg/ha; fish catches in the seas are also decreasing, so the fish productivity of the White Sea is about 1 kg/ha , and the capelin stock in the Barents Sea in 1993 decreased by 6.5 times compared to 1992, while the spawning stock became lower than the optimal emergency stock. foreign fishing; valuable species of fish are disappearing, many species of ichthyofauna are being oppressed and killed (in the Volga, the natural spawning grounds of the whitefish have completely disappeared, only 12% of sturgeon fish have survived; thickets of seaweed (kelp) have disappeared in some areas of Primorye; the incidence of diseases of valuable species of fish and the accumulation in it are increasing harmful pollutants (in the muscle tissues of sturgeon there is an accumulation of organochlorine pesticides, heavy metal salts, mercury).The test results showed: out of 193 fish samples from different areas of Vetluga, Cheboksary and Kuibyshev reservoirs, organic mercury compounds were found in 156 in concentrations from 0.005 to 1.0 mg/kg fish weight.

The causes of the ecological crisis of water bodies are associated with the theoretical groundlessness and practical inconsistency of the concept that has prevailed for almost 50 years, based on two false postulates:

the inevitability of the formation of wastewater containing industrial waste (in Germany, back in the late 60s, 92% of enterprises operated on recycled water supply; currently, the share of recycled water in the total volume of water consumption for production purposes in Russia averages 74%);

the permissibility of discharging wastewater into natural bodies of water that are actually used for post-treatment of wastewater, i.e. as biological treatment facilities. This concept clearly exaggerated the ability of watercourses and reservoirs to self-purify. It represents a powerful mechanism for processing predominantly allochthonous organic matter of natural origin, formed in the reservoir itself and coming from the catchment area. The entry of substances of technogenic origin into natural waters leads to disruption of the functioning of biocenoses and deterioration of water quality.

Recently there has been great degradation of land resources<#"justify">for oil production - Lukoil, Surgutneftegaz, Tatneft;

in the oil refining industry - Angarsknefteorgsintez;

for gas production - enterprises located in the Astrakhan region;

for coal mining - Kuznetsk, Kansk-Achinsk, Moscow Region, South Yakutsk coal basins;

in the chemical and petrochemical industry - enterprises located in Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Omsk, Yaroslavl, Perm, Kemerovo, Samara and Irkutsk regions;

in the woodworking and pulp and paper industries - Kotlas Pulp and Paper Mill, Bratsk Pulp and Paper Mill, Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper Mill, Ust-Ilimsk Pulp and Paper Mill and Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill.

Many enterprises and companies (RAO UES, Lukoil, Komineft, Yukos, Severstal, Sibur, OJSC Uralmash, Magnitogorsk MMC) only declare a desire to invest money in environmental protection activities. But in fact, they are used to modernize and expand production, which leads to even greater environmental pollution.

Reasons for increasing environmental tension

Finding out the reasons for increasing environmental tension is necessary to find a way out of a protracted crisis situation. Among the long-term negative trends that have developed in the past, the following have the most adverse impact on the state of the environment in Russia.

Anti-ecological policy. Extensive economic development

The deformed structure of the national economy with the prevalence of nature-exploiting industries that create a constant excessive load on ecosystems;

hypertrophied development of resource-intensive, “dirty” industries - energy, metallurgy, mining.

Lack of democratic principles for making environmental decisions

The monopoly of state ownership of natural resources and means of production deprived resource users of incentives to protect the environment and reduced state control over the environmental situation to formalities.

Militarization of the economy, i.e., the dominance of the military-industrial complex (MIC), “closed” and therefore uncontrolled in relation to the technological processes used, the placement and expansion of capacities, and the consumption of production, including natural resources. The territories occupied by various military-industrial complex objects are several times larger than the territories occupied by all nature reserves in the country.

Depreciation of production assets

Outdated and ineffective environmental equipment at the final stages of technological chains.

Excessive chemicalization of agriculture

Free natural resources.

Weak legal and economic protection of nature. Miscalculations in the development and deployment of productive forces. During the war, factories were evacuated to the east; There was no talk of any consideration of the natural factor when choosing their location. Later, when placement errors became obvious, attempts were made to “pull nature” into industrial production, for example, to divert part of the river flow, etc.

Growing urban population, increasing supply of goods and services from the public and private sectors of the economy due to the consumption of natural resources.

The absence in the country of a coherent system of environmental education and training, the formation of an ecological worldview; the dominance of consumer psychology; poor development of environmental culture and ethics.

Distortion of the system for assessing environmental benefits and environmental costs, leading to unprofitability of environmental conservation: lack of institutions and own experience in environmental regulation of economic activities.

The beginning of radical reforms in the country strengthened the constantly existing factors of destruction of the natural environment, and added new ones, among them:

The collapse of the USSR worsened the real possibilities for solving environmental problems both at the interstate level and in Russia itself.

Violation of inter-republican economic relations

Interethnic conflicts and wars.

Ecological consequences of demilitarization, deatomization. But demilitarization itself gives rise to new environmental difficulties: the threat of damage to the natural environment due to the disposal of nuclear waste; the problem of the safe destruction of atomic and chemical weapons, the use of test sites in other territories previously occupied by military facilities.

The transition to market relations, at the first stage of formation of which environmental problems may worsen due to the following factors:

the desire of entrepreneurs to maximize one-time profits or reduce the turnaround time of capital and their ignorance of the need to protect the environment,

lack of incentives for enterprises to use high-quality raw materials, fuel, energy savings in the production of products, destruction of economic ties, violation of Design technological regimes, increase in production accident rates,

reduction of budget funds for environmental purposes and reduction of the financial capabilities of enterprises in implementing environmental protection measures,

lack of an effective organizational and economic mechanism,

lack of adequate legal protection of nature.

Science will play the most important role in creating the methodological and technological basis for these transformations.

Environmental legislation

Environmental legislation is a set of laws that regulate the relations that form the subject of environmental law. Based on the criterion of the object of legal regulation, the set of such laws can be divided into three groups:

environmental legislation,

about natural complexes,

natural resource legislation.

The object of environmental relations regulated by the laws of the first group is the environment (nature) as a whole, the second - natural complexes, the third - individual natural objects.

System of environmental law in Russia

In the system of environmental law in Russia, it is customary to distinguish: general, special and special parts. General part - provisions serving the institutions of the special part. A special part is institutions that have a specific purpose due to the specifics of the object (subject of use or protection). Special part - ecology and space, international environmental law, comparative environmental law.

The general part contains, among other things, such institutions as:

ownership of natural objects;

environmental rights;

state regulation of natural resources and environmental protection;

environmental and legal responsibility.

Special part includes:

Ecological and legal regime of natural objects: land use, subsoil use, water use, forest use, use of wildlife;

Ecological and legal protection (protection) of individual components of the natural environment: atmospheric air, protection of natural objects, including protected areas ;

Ecological-legal regime and protection of natural-anthropogenic systems: environmental-legal regime of use and protection of agricultural objects, environmental-legal regime of settlements, recreational and health-improving areas; legal regulation of production and consumption waste management, etc.

A special part of environmental law is devoted to the main features of international legal protection of the natural environment, comparative legal analysis of domestic and foreign environmental law.

Environmental legislation in the proper sense is a new phenomenon for Russia. It began to develop only in the 90s of the last century. Along with the Federal Law “On Environmental Protection”, it includes, in particular:

Federal Law "On Environmental Expertise";

Federal Law "On Radiation Safety of the Population";

Federal Law "On Production and Consumption Waste";

Federal Law "On the Safe Handling of Pesticides and Agrochemicals".

Legislation on natural complexes, also a new structural part of Russian legislation, includes:

Federal Law "On Specially Protected Natural Areas";

Federal Law "On Natural Healing Resources, Health Resorts and Resorts";

Federal Law "On special environmental programs for the rehabilitation of radiation-contaminated areas of the territory";

Federal Law "On the Continental Shelf of the Russian Federation";

Federal Law "On the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Russian Federation";

Federal Law "On internal sea waters, territorial sea and adjacent zone";

Federal Law "On the Protection of Lake Baikal";

Federal Law "On the territories of traditional nature management of indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation."

Natural resource legislation plays a significant role in the system of environmental legislation. In contrast to environmental legislation in the proper sense, natural resource legislation is more developed, since, as emphasized earlier, environmental legislation in Soviet Russia developed primarily in relation to the use and protection of individual natural resources.

Natural resource legislation is a set of laws regulating relations regarding the use and protection of individual natural objects. It includes:

Land Code of the Russian Federation;

Federal Law "On the Turnover of Agricultural Land";

Law of the Russian Federation "On the right of citizens of the Russian Federation to receive private ownership and to sell land plots for running personal subsidiary and dacha farming, gardening and individual housing construction";

Federal Law "On Land Reclamation";

Federal Law "On State Regulation of Ensuring the Fertility of Agricultural Lands";

Federal Law "On Land Management";

Federal Law "On the State Land Cadastre";

Water Code of the Russian Federation;

Federal Law "On Payment for the Use of Water Bodies";

Forest Code of the Russian Federation;

Federal Law “On Amendments and Additions to the Law of the Russian Federation “On Subsoil”;

Federal Law “On subsoil plots, the right to use which may be granted on production sharing terms”;

Federal Law "On Animal World";

Federal Law "On the Protection of Atmospheric Air".

Russia's participation in international cooperation

The Russian Federation is a party, in particular, to the following agreements listed in the previous sections:

Convention for the Protection of the Natural Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area (since 1974);

Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention) ) (since 1976);

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (since 1976);

Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (since 1979);

Ozone Convention and Montreal Protocol (since 1986 and 1988, respectively);

Convention for the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution (since 1992);

Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes (since 1994);

Convention on Biological Diversity (since 1995);

Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo, since 1997);

Protocol between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the protection of the tiger (Beijing, 1997);

Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea (since 2003);

Kyoto Protocol to limit the greenhouse effect (Japan, Kyoto). Ratified by Russia in 2004. Entered into force on February 16, 2005;

Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (since 2011);

Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (since 2011).

In addition, the Russian Federation is a party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL 73/78), the 1972 Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Materials, and the Convention regarding Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Accidents leading to oil pollution of 1969, the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Control and Cooperation of 1990 and several other maritime conventions.

Russian Federation - observer in:

) Convention on the Conservation of Wild Fauna and Flora and Natural Habitats in Europe 1979;

) Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals 1979.

International environmental law (international environmental law, international environmental law, interecolaw) is a set of norms and principles governing international relations in the field of environmental protection for the purpose of protection and rational use of natural resources .

International cooperation is carried out in two directions:

) creation of norms , protecting individual natural objects;

) implementation of state supervision or international organization ensuring that an activity is carried out taking into account the consequences of this activity for the environment .

Objects of international legal protection include: water resources , atmosphere , living resources (flora and fauna ), ecosystems , climate , ozone layer , Antarctica and soil .

World Wild Fund for Nature: for a living planet!

An international environmental organization founded in 1961, funding activities for the protection and study of endangered and rare species of animals, plants and their habitats. Goals: preventing degradation of the natural environment; assistance in building a future with a harmonious existence of man and nature; attracting financial resources to protect nature and save certain species of animals and plants from extinction. Participants - 5.3 million regular sponsors and national associations from five continents.

Greenpeace International

An international commission created in 1971. Members are closely linked to 43 national and regional branches in 30 countries. Goal: to ensure the Earth's ability to reproduce life in all its diversity. To achieve this, campaigns are being carried out to preserve biodiversity, protect the atmosphere, and promote the non-proliferation and prohibition of nuclear weapons.

The headquarters is located in Amsterdam (Netherlands).

International Atomic Energy Agency - IAEA

The organization, created in 1957, is part of the UN system of agencies. It is the world's leading international government forum for scientific and technical cooperation in the field of using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, protecting people and the environment from the harmful effects of ionizing radiation, radioactive and non-radioactive decay products of nuclear materials, etc.

Location - Vienna (Austria).

International Social-Ecological Union

The International Social-Ecological Union is the only international environmental organization born in the USSR. At the moment, MsoES consists of more than 10 thousand people from 19 countries in Europe, Asia and North America. The main idea of creating MsoES is to gather people who “care” under one roof. It doesn’t matter what happens to the Earth, its nature and culture, its people.

United Nations Environment Program or UNEP UNEP, United Nations Environment Program) is a program created within the UN system that promotes the coordination of environmental protection at the system-wide level. The program was established on the basis of UN General Assembly resolution No. 2997 of December 15 1972 (A/RES/2997(XXVII)). The main goal of UNEP is to organize and implement measures aimed at protecting and improving the environment for the benefit of present and future generations. The motto of the Program is “Environment for Development”.

UNEP headquarters is located in Nairobi , Kenya . UNEP also has six major regional offices and offices in various countries. UNEP is responsible for resolving all environmental issues at the global and regional levels.

UNEP's activities include various projects in the field of the Earth's atmosphere , marine and terrestrial ecosystems . UNEP also plays a significant role in the development of international conventions in the field of ecology and environmental protection . UNEP often collaborates with states and non-governmental international organizations . UNEP also often sponsors and facilitates the implementation of environmentally related projects.

UNEP's activities also include the development of recommendations and international treaties on issues such as potentially hazardous chemicals, transboundary air pollution and pollution of international shipping channels.

World Meteorological Organization jointly with UNEP founded the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. UNEP is also one of the co-founders of the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

World Environment Day is celebrated annually under the auspices of UNEP. .

UNEP sponsors solar energy development programs by providing significant discounts on the purchase of solar panels, thereby significantly reducing the price for consumers and increasing the number of people willing to purchase these panels.

The most famous example of such a project is India's solar panel loan program, which helped 100,000 people. The success of this program led to similar projects in other developing countries - Tunisia , Morocco , Indonesia and Mexico .

UNEP is also sponsoring a project to protect wetlands in the Middle East . In 2001, UNEP led a campaign to protect wetlands, releasing satellite photographs showing that 90 percent of wetlands had already been destroyed. The UNEP program “Supporting Environmental Management in Iraq's Wetlands” was launched in 2004 with the goal of environmentally sound management of the wetlands.

UN Billion Trees Campaign

Planting for the Planet: The Billion Trees Campaign is a global tree planting campaign established by the UN Environment Program (UNEP). Campaign goal: plant a billion trees during 2007. In May 2007, the UN stated that funds for planting a billion trees have already been collected, as planned

Under the motto “Planting for the Planet: The Billion Trees Campaign,” a website created by UNEP called on individuals, associations, corporations and entire countries to commit to planting trees. Offers of help and donations were carefully screened to avoid fraud. This campaign is the brainchild of Professor Wangari Maathai , winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the Green Belt movement » in Kenya , which has planted 30,000 trees in twelve African countries since 1977. Professor Maathai emphasized the need for campaigning: “Often people say a lot but do little. We don't chat, we work.

Our goal is to make people understand how important it is to take to the streets and start planting trees. I have no doubt that we will succeed!”

Key problems in the field of environmental safety. Ways to solve them

There are three main security threats:

military threats such as global nuclear war, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, international arms transfers, major wars and local conflicts;

economic and social threats - mass poverty leading to hunger, economic collapse, destabilization of food movements, excessive population growth and urbanization, mass international migration, gene manipulation, pandemics;

environmental threats - changes in atmospheric composition and consequences; pollution of natural fresh waters, coastal oceans; deforestation and desertification; soil erosion and loss of land fertility; risk associated with biotechnology; hazardous pollution emissions; production, transportation and use of toxic chemicals and materials; transfer of hazardous technologies and export of hazardous waste to developing countries (environmental aggression).

Most scientists who have studied environmental problems believe that humanity has about 40 more years to return the natural environment to a state of a normally functioning biosphere and resolve issues of its own survival. But this period is negligibly short. And does a person have the resources to solve even the most pressing problems?

To the main achievements of civilization in the 20th century. include advances in science and technology. The achievements of science, including the science of environmental law, can be considered as the main resource in solving environmental problems. The thought of scientists is aimed at overcoming the environmental crisis. Humanity and states must make maximum use of available scientific achievements for their own salvation.

The authors of the already mentioned scientific work “Beyond Growth” believe that humanity’s choice is to reduce the load on nature caused by human activity to a sustainable level through reasonable policy, reasonable technology and reasonable organization, or wait until, as a result of what is happening in Due to the nature of the changes, the amount of food, energy, and raw materials will decrease and an environment completely unsuitable for life will arise*.

Given the shortage of time, humanity must determine what goals it faces, what tasks need to be solved, and what the results of its efforts should be. In accordance with certain goals, objectives and expected, planned results, humanity develops means of achieving them. Taking into account the complexity of environmental problems, these means have specificity in technical, economic, educational, legal and other areas.

Let's consider the question of the main ways to solve environmental problems with the help and within the framework of environmental law.) Formation of a new environmental and legal worldview. To overcome the environmental crisis and consistently solve environmental problems, Russia and humanity need a completely new and valuable legal worldview. Its scientific and philosophical basis can be the doctrine of the noosphere, to the development of which the Russian naturalist Academician V.I. made a huge contribution. Vernadsky. It is permeated with the idea of humanism, aimed at transforming relations with the environment in the interests of free-thinking humanity as a whole. Recognizing his life as the highest value, a person must learn to value all life on Earth in order to decisively rebuild the conditions for the joint existence of humanity and nature.) Development and consistent, most effective implementation of state environmental policy. This task must be solved within the framework of the permanent environmental function of the state. The most important elements of environmental policy are the goals of restoring a favorable state of the environment, the strategy and tactics for achieving them. In this case, the goals must be realistic, i.e. based on real possibilities.) Formation of modern environmental legislation. Environmental legislation is both a product and the main form of consolidation of state environmental policy. At the present stage, it is important to ensure the targeted formation of environmental legislation, and not its development and improvement, for two reasons. The first and main one is related to the fact that this legislation is being created and will be implemented in political, economic and legal conditions that are fundamentally new for Russia, requiring new legislation. Practice confirms that, in essence, an active process of its creation is now underway. The second reason is the extremely poorly developed environmental legislation of socialist Russia.

The main characteristics and criteria of modern environmental legislation include:

creation of a system of special legislative acts in the field of the environment, acts of natural resource legislation and greening of other legislation (administrative, civil, business, criminal, etc.). The main requirements are the absence of gaps in the legal regulation of environmental relations, its compliance with public needs;

formation of mechanisms to ensure the implementation of legal environmental requirements;

harmonization with environmental legislation of Europe and the world.) Creation of an optimal system of government bodies for environmental management and environmental protection, taking into account the principles:

an integrated approach to solving problems of ensuring rational environmental management and environmental protection;

organization of management based not only on the administrative-territorial, but also on the natural-geographical zoning of the country;

division of economic-operational and control-supervisory powers of specially authorized bodies.) Ensuring optimal financing of measures to ensure rational use of natural resources and environmental protection and high efficiency of capital investments.) Involving large sections of the population in environmental activities. As a political organization of society, the state, within the framework of performing its environmental function, is interested in this in order to achieve the goals of environmental policy. One of the recent trends is related to the democratization of environmental law. This is manifested in the creation of organizational and legal conditions for the participation of interested public formations and citizens in the preparation and adoption of environmentally significant economic, managerial and other decisions.) Environmental education and training of environmental specialists. It is necessary to form an ecological consciousness, individual and social, based on the idea of harmonious relationships between man and nature, human dependence on nature and responsibility for its preservation for future generations. At the same time, the most important prerequisite for solving environmental problems in the country is the targeted training of ecologists - specialists in the field of economics, engineering, technology, law, sociology, biology, hydrology, etc. Without highly qualified specialists with modern knowledge on the entire range of issues of interaction between society and nature, especially in In the process of making environmentally significant economic, management and other decisions, planet Earth may not have a worthy future.

However, even with organizational, human, material and other resources to address environmental issues, people must acquire the necessary will and wisdom to adequately use these resources.

Conclusion

The issue of environmental safety is very important for humanity. Since anthropogenic impacts and environmental damage - from local man-made disasters to the global environmental crisis - indicate that the current state of the ecosphere system poses a significant danger to all humanity, the biosphere and technosphere of the Earth.

That is why timely study and prevention of environmental damage is so necessary at the present time.

Bibliography

1. V. Daniilov - Danilyan: Environmental safety. General principles and Russian aspect. Tutorial. Ed. 2nd, revised (2007, co-authored with M. Ch. Zalikhanov and K. S. Losev) ISBN: 5-85496-0132-3

Yu.L.Khotuntsev: Ecology and environmental safety6 Textbook for universities / - Moscow: Academy, 2002. - 479 p. - (Higher education). - Bibliography: pp. 472-475

Shmal, A. G. Methodological foundations for creating a system of environmental safety of the territory. / A. G. Shmal. - Bronnitsy: - MP "IKTs" BNTV, 2000. - 216 p.

Shmal A.G. Environmental safety factors - environmental risks. Publisher: Bronnitsy, MP “ICC BNTV, 2010. - 192

Khoruzhaya, T. A. Assessment of environmental hazards. / T. A. Horuzhaya - M.: “Book Service”, 2002. - 208 p.

Bolsherotov A.L. System for assessing environmental safety of construction. / A.L. Bolsherotov - M.: Publishing House of the Association of Construction Universities, 2010. - 216 p. ISBN 978-5-93093-757 Odum Yu. Ecology: Transl. from English In 2 volumes. M.: Mir, 1986.

Budyko M.I. Global ecology. M.: Mysl, 1977.

Nature conservation / N.A. Gladkov A.V. Mikheev V.M. Golushin / 1999

Nikitin D.P., Novikov Yu.V. Environment and people. - M.: 1996.

Radzevich N.N., Pashkang K.V. Protection and transformation of nature. - M.: Education, 1998.

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The demographic situation in Russia is close to catastrophic, as evidenced by the following figures. Two out of every three Russian male citizens die drunk (not from drinking, but while drunk). Life expectancy (average) for men is 58.5 years, for women - 71.7 years (in the USA these figures are 72.9 and 79.6). Only 10-15% of children are born healthy. Two thirds of all pregnancies end in abortion, 75% of pregnant women have certain pathologies. Over the past decade, anemia in pregnant women has quadrupled. Syphilis among girls aged 10 to 14 years has increased 40 times. Among young men from 15 to 17 years old, only 30% have good health. Heroin from Afghanistan is sold cheaper than marijuana. The number of AIDS patients has reached 500,000. Half of Russians live below the subsistence level with incomes only 40% of 1991 levels.

	Fertility	Mortality
	(per 1000 people)

Table 8Figure 12

From Fig. 12 and table. 8, the “Russian cross” figure is clearly visible, which indicates an unfavorable demographic situation.

Despite the fact that within Russia there is the world's largest Northern Eurasian Center for Environmental Stabilization, thanks to which natural ecosystems have been preserved on 2/3 of its territory, Russia has been and remains a country with very difficult environmental situation. First of all, this applies to the Main Settlement Strip. At the beginning of 2002, at the World Economic Forum in New York, the environmental rating of 142 countries was characterized. Russia ended up in 74th place.

Causes Similar environmental situations in Russia and other CIS countries go back to the era of the Soviet Union, so environmental deformations have been accumulating in them for decades. Among the main reasons for general environmental ill-being, resource wastefulness of an over-centralized economy is usually cited; hypertrophied development of heavy industry, including the powerful military-industrial complex; excessive concentration of “dirty” industries in certain areas and centers; gigantomania, i.e. passion for the construction of huge industrial complexes - especially large destroyers of natural ecosystems.

It would seem that in independent Russia, with the transition to a market economy, the environmental situation should have changed for the better. Indeed, according to all data, in the 1990s. Pollution of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere in the country has noticeably decreased. However, this did not happen as a result of the adoption of necessary and effective environmental measures, but 4/5 as a result of a drop in production. On the other hand, many negative trends characteristic of the past have persisted and even worsened. These include a very large share of resource-intensive branches of the mining industry and manufacturing industry of the “lower floors” in the structure of industrial production, a focus on the export of natural resources from the country, which N. N. Klyuev figuratively described as increasing the export of domestic landscapes. Moreover, new factors have been added to many old ones, complicating the environmental situation. Such, for example, as economic disintegration in the territory of the former USSR, the emergence of hotbeds of political and social tension, even greater deterioration of fixed assets, the lack of necessary funds for environmental protection measures, and a consumerist attitude towards nature on the part of a significant part of the “new Russian” entrepreneurs.

As a result, according to the most authoritative domestic ecologists and geographers, Russia has actually already entered the stage severe environmental crisis. The first true data on the actual level of the environmental crisis in the USSR became public in 1989, when the state report of the State Committee for Nature Protection on the state of the environment was published. A truly shocking impression was made by the information that more than 20% of the country’s total population lives in unfavorable environmental conditions, i.e. 50-55 million people, including 39% of city residents. As it turned out, in 103 cities the level of air pollution was 10 times or more higher than the maximum permissible standards.

In total, the country had about 300 areas with a difficult ecological situation, which occupied 4 million km2, or 18% of its total area. And taking into account degraded tundra, steppe and semi-desert pastures, this figure increased to 20%.

On the threshold of the 21st century. in Russia there were 195 cities (with a total population of 65 million people!), in the atmosphere of which the annual average concentrations of one or more pollutants exceeded the maximum permissible concentration.

G. M. Lappo writes that the list of especially environmentally unfavorable cities includes all 13 “millionaire” cities, all 22 large cities with a population of 500 thousand to 1 million people, the vast majority of regional, regional and republican centers (63 out of 72), almost 3/4 of large cities with a population of 100 thousand to 500 thousand people (113 out of 165). Among the cities with the highest emissions of various types of pollutants into the atmosphere, centers of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, chemical and pulp and paper industries predominate. That is why the top ten most polluted cities in the country are (in descending order): Norilsk, Novokuznetsk, Cherepovets, Lipetsk, Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Krasnoyarsk, Angarsk, Novocherkassk, and Moscow closes the list.

Go to category areas with a catastrophic environmental situation Within the CIS countries, two territories are classified - the area affected by the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the area of the Aral Sea.

Based on the root cause of the environmental crisis in these areas and their economic specialization, they can be legitimately divided into three groups.

The first and largest group is formed by industrial-urban areas with a predominance of heavy industry and, in particular, its most “dirty” industries. They are characterized by severe pollution of the atmosphere, water basin, soil cover, withdrawal of productive agricultural lands from circulation, loss of soil fertility, degradation of vegetation and wildlife and, as a consequence, a general strong deterioration of the ecological situation, fraught with negative consequences for human health.

The category of such areas in Russia includes: the Kola Peninsula, the Moscow metropolitan region. The Middle Volga and Kama regions, the Northern Caspian region, the industrial zone of the Urals, the Norilsk industrial region, Kuzbass, the oil and gas bearing region of Reserve Siberia, the Angara and Baikal regions.

The second group of regions with a crisis environmental situation in the CIS includes such predominantly agricultural regions as Kalmykia, Moldova, and Fergana. A particularly threatening situation has arisen in Kalmykia, where intensive grazing pressure, three to four times higher than normal, has led to a sharp increase in areas completely devoid of vegetation cover. Nowadays, desertification processes cover more than 4/5 of the territory of the republic, and severe and very severe desertification has already been detected on 1/2 of its area, and more than 500 thousand hectares are occupied by shifting sands. Scientists believe that the first man-made desert in Europe formed here.

The third group of areas with a crisis ecological situation should apparently include the natural and recreational zone stretching along the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas in Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia. In this zone, the recreational function has long been in conflict with industrial development, which has led to severe pollution of the marine environment and the coast. As a result, the ecological regime was violated and natural-recreational (and, more broadly, natural-resource) potential was lost in vast areas. At the same time, agricultural pollution was added to industrial pollution.

Novaya Zemlya occupies a somewhat special place in the register of crisis areas in Russia, where the main reason for the sharp aggravation of the environmental situation was the nuclear weapons tests that were carried out here since 1957. In total, more than 130 explosions were carried out on Novaya Zemlya (until 1963 in the atmosphere, and then underground).

Recently, in Russian geography, a relatively new concept of ecological-geographical. position Russia. N. N. Klyuev notes that although in general it is characterized by relative natural and geographical isolation, Russia has quite close ecological ties with many of its neighbors. These connections are expressed primarily in the transboundary transfer of air and water pollution. The balance of such transfer is generally unfavorable for Russia, since the “import” of pollution into the country significantly exceeds its “export.” At the same time, the main environmental threat comes from Russia’s neighbors in the West: only Ukraine, Belarus and Estonia supply 1/2 of all transboundary air pollutants; 1.5 times more wastewater flows from the territory of Ukraine to Russia than goes in the opposite direction. The ecological and geographical position of Russia is also influenced by the foci of transboundary transport that have arisen at its southern borders - in the Chinese Amur region, the Irtysh, Pavlodar-Ekibastuz and Ust-Kamenogorsk regions of Kazakhstan.

The prospects for the development of the environmental situation in Russia depend primarily on whether the anthropogenic load in areas with an acute environmental situation will or will not weaken, and whether environmental technologies will or will not be introduced into production.

According to scientists, the concept of environmental safety should be an important part of the broader concept of Russian national security. From this comes Ecological doctrine of Russia, the development of which was completed in 2000. At the beginning of 2002, the federal law “On Environmental Protection” was adopted.

On the territory of Russia, which is distinguished by its enormous size and, therefore, an extraordinary diversity of natural conditions, more than 30 types of dangerous natural phenomena are observed. The main damage is usually caused by floods (about 30%), landslides, landslides and avalanches (21), hurricanes and tornadoes (14), and mudflows (3%). Earthquakes that occur from time to time in the Kamchatka-Kuril, Baikal and North Caucasus regions also pose a great threat. Every year, from 350 to 400 such unfavorable and dangerous events occur in the country, which often result in truly emergency situations.

Even more emergencies of a man-made nature arise, associated with railway accidents and catastrophes, accidents on pipelines and mines, plane crashes, fires, etc. Moreover, their number has recently tended to increase (in 1998 compared to 1991 it increased eightfold), which is largely due to the high depreciation of fixed assets. The federal law “On Environmental Protection” has Chapter VIII, which deals with environmental disaster zones and emergency zones. In addition, in 1994, a federal law was adopted on the protection of the population and territories from natural and man-made emergencies.

The main directions of environmental policy usually include: 1) optimization of the use of natural resources in the process of social production; 2) protection of nature from the negative consequences of human activity; 3) environmental safety of the population. It can be added that the implementation of all these directions largely depends on the general level of development of a particular country, on how the main socio-economic problems are solved in it.