What is an environmental criterion

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The fact that in Moscow the criteria that determine the levels of environmental hazard were described as red, was not written unless lazy. Residents of the city realized that the situation was threatening - after all, this is the meaning attributed to this color. However, not everyone imagines what the criteria for environmental hazard are. A huge number of people currently live in Moscow, industry is working, transport is running. But does it only shape the situation? Why did the criteria for the level of environmental hazard in Moscow reach a critical level, and how should we understand the situation? Does it affect the life of the average person?

General information

In modern society, an increasing percentage of the population is facing environmental problems. This is due to the economic crisis that has engulfed many countries, and the high level of wear and tear of the machines and equipment used. At the same time, the presence of objects that potentially carry a risk to life plays an important role for the criterion of environmental hazard. Some areas are very densely populated, which also negatively affects the environment, and catastrophes happen more often every year, their scaleterrifying.

The criteria of environmental hazard levels used today make it possible to understand how threatening the situation is and how urgently it is necessary to take measures to stabilize the situation, including systemic ones. After all, it is necessary to prevent a large-scale planetary catastrophe.

What to do?

Scientists, activists, explaining what criteria determine the levels of environmental hazard, suggest starting work with zoning the planet and assigning a specific assessment to each site. It will depend on the state of the environment. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account environmental friendliness, the possibility of improving the situation and the potential risks associated with economic activities. The problem of the survival of civilization on our planet was put squarely in the last century. Even then, in his speeches and works, Academician Moiseev called for paying special attention to nature. It was he who formulated that the main scientific question of our days is to ensure the future for humanity, which is destroying its own habitat.

The environmental criteria adopted in our time clearly show that the situation in the world is getting worse every year. Trends reflect an increase in danger, and the global community does not respond to the calls of activists. Not so long ago, in his speeches, the scientist Meadows also called for attention to the indicators of environmental criteria - as soon as growth exceeds the predicted limits of the possible, a global crisis will come. In this situation, the very fact of survival will really be called into question.human on the planet.

Russia: security and environment

In our country, the environmental criterion has also long been under the scrutiny of scientists, although the interpretation of this term in different scientific approaches was slightly different. To this day, a single generally accepted list of such parameters has not been developed, which creates certain difficulties in correcting the current circumstances.

Since 1991, a program to ensure the safety of the population has been introduced. Its primary task is to assess environmental criteria, taking into account the increased risk of disasters, both natural and man-made. The main goal formulated when introducing the program was to create such legal, technical, scientific, economic and social bases, on the basis of which it would be possible to create an environmentally friendly national policy. This would help to make the existence of a person safe and bring the territory of the country back to normal. The program was supposed to protect the habitat from large-scale accidents, as well as eliminate the consequences of what has already happened.

Already done and what's ahead

When the leading scientists of Russia put forward their formulations of what criteria determine the levels of environmental hazard, and the government agreed to the issuance of relevant federal laws, in fact, the authorities recognized that it was necessary to form geographic information systems to prevent disasters and minimize their consequences. Work has begunover atlases, maps reflecting the risks of a natural, man-made nature. These currently exist both for our country and for the entire planet. The environmental criterion determines the need for timely work to ensure safety, taking into account the densely populated territory and the presence of potentially risky areas. At the same time, discrepancies in this approach do not allow the development of a single global strategy applicable in all countries of the world with a high level of responsibility.

Primary questions

Currently, environmentalists both in our country and around the world are faced with the task of developing the foundations of a methodology that would allow for a comprehensive zoning and assessment of territories by the level of danger from a scientific point of view. It is also necessary to introduce such mechanisms for managing the situation that at the municipal and regional levels would allow optimizing and normalizing the situation.

At the same time, it is important to clarify the current terminology. In particular, one should not miss the ecological, morphological criterion and the parameter that regulates the level of danger in a particular area. If the first involves the division of all existing living organisms into species, each of which has its own characteristics of morphology, habitat, then the second involves an assessment of pollution and human impact on the life of nature.

Risk Analysis: The Right Approach

To accurately assess the level of danger in terms of ecology andto develop correct programs to improve the state of affairs, it is necessary to be able to correctly analyze the current situation, as well as select criteria and units that would be characteristic of the area under study. In different parts of the planet, it is necessary to use different parameters, taking into account the characteristics of the territory and the specifics of the influencing factors. At the same time, the task of scientists is to create such an algorithm that would allow us to comprehensively assess the state of our world.

Modern approach to environmental problems involves the allocation of priority areas of work. It is important to take preventive measures to prevent a catastrophic state of the planet. To do this, you need to be able to identify areas of increased risk and develop ways to reduce it before a disaster occurs. Scientists around the world are working to create interaction schemes for management personnel and representatives of environmental activists. Without the correct and mutually beneficial cooperation of these two groups of representatives of the human society, it is simply impossible to accurately identify environmental criteria and adjust the situation taking them into account.

Parameters

Examples of environmental criteria:

• technogenic impact on the natural environment;
• quality of environment (water, air masses).

When assessing the situation, it is important to calculate the state of the environment using the method of integrals, including analyzing the biotic component. Examples of an ecological criterion are also the demographic parameters of the selected area. Scientists analyze man-made, naturalhazards specific to the selected site. In total, these parameters give an accurate and detailed idea of all components of the environment: abiotic, biotic.

Criteria: selection features

In order to correctly and accurately assess the state of the environment, it is important to use indicators that reflect the existing hierarchy, including the position of a person in nature, his he alth, and the current situation. This allows us to formulate biological, environmental risks, including those that provoke harm to the environment, biosphere, fauna, flora.

As can be seen from the scientific papers devoted to the issue under consideration, the risks are mainly associated with external factors. These can be natural disasters and the products they create. In particular, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and floods, storms and tsunamis, long periods without precipitation leading to long-term droughts have a significant impact.

Couldn't do without people

It is equally important to take into account the human impact on the environment when selecting environmental criteria. Anthropogenic nature of activity detrimental to the world is the most diverse activity of people. At the same time, the biosphere suffers greatly, the surrounding space is polluted with chemical components that cause poisoning of various life forms. Emissions produced by industry accumulate in soil, living organisms, reservoirs. Through biotic forms, toxic substances spread over large areas.

Specifiedfactors not only lead to significant harm to the environment, but also affect the life safety of an individual person. Already today environmentalists know a huge number of situations when ill-conceived, unreasonable, uncalculated activity of civilization provoked changes in the environment that cannot be reversed. Mostly these are negative processes from which all forms of life suffer, including the person himself.

Risks: Approach Wisely

Ecological risk analysis always begins with the formulation of this concept from a scientific point of view. Currently, the policy aimed at protecting nature, adopted in our country at the official level, sets priorities, revising the norms and rules that were in force in the past.

Such large-scale changes in laws and codes are due to the fact that the current regulatory system has proven to be ineffective. The concept of "norm" in our time is too loose, due to which interested parties can manipulate it, receiving benefits, but not being responsible for the harm caused to the surrounding space. This forces us to adjust the policy at the state level. Pollution is progressing more and more every year and the environmental risk is thus laid a very solid foundation.

What is it about?

Environmental risk is different, much depends on the level of assessment. You can formulate it in a dotted format, or you can - in a global one. In anyIn the variant, this will be a probabilistic assessment of the negative adjustment of the environment, provoked either by human activities or other influencing factors. Environmental risk is formed by three elements:

• the state of the living world;
• human he alth (including forecasts of the number of victims in the event of a disaster);
• the impact of components that pollute space, including accidents, disasters.

If a certain region was classified as a zone of increased environmental risk, then it is referred to as an area with chronic pollution, or with an excess of the hazard level. It can also be a disaster area or an emergency.

Medicine and social sciences

Both doctors and sociologists do not bypass the problem of environmental risks. A specific scale was created, using which it is possible to characterize how great the negative impact of technogenic factors on the environment is. Within the framework of such a scale, four steps are distinguished:

• Prosperous. When life expectancy increases, the likelihood of disease decreases, and the risks are almost zero.
• Tense. The quality of the environment is gradually deteriorating, and the pressure produced by human activities is increasing. Such a zone is characterized by a decrease in people's he alth indicators, but this does not have a strong effect on statistics. It is important to analyze only reliable information. The risk of such a situation is moderate.
• Disaster. That is, such a zone where the quality of the environment is steadily deteriorating and indicators cannot be replenished. housekeepingseverely limited by economic, social factors, the he alth of living people, disability cases are beyond the norm, statistics show a significant decrease in life expectancy. Such zones are characterized by a pronounced environmental risk.
• The last step is catastrophic. Nature is collapsing, restoration processes are impossible, the animal world is undergoing irreversible disruption of life, the population is in need of medical care, and life expectancy is much lower than normal. For such areas, urgent evacuation is necessary, and the risk is assessed as extreme. Living in such an area is impossible.

Conclusion

If the environmental risk is assessed as moderate, pronounced, then the impact of people on the environment is considered threatening to fauna, flora, and humanity. In recent years, the media regularly publish information about the catastrophic situation in our country. But people who have long been accustomed to such reports often do not even pay attention to it, including those who live in dangerous areas. According to statistics, at least one seventh of the territory of our country, where about a third of all Russian citizens live, is a zone with an unsatisfactory state of ecology, and the fluctuations vary from moderate to pronounced. In addition to the capital, St. Petersburg, and many cities of the Central Federal District, as well as the northern regions, are under threat. Norilsk traditionally attracts special attention. However, every year the state of the environment only worsens, and realmeasures to normalize the environment have not been taken.