Ecological culture

About 200 years ago people lived in greater harmony with their environment and nature, because industry was not much developed and the world not as crowded as now. Today the contradiction between man and nature is acquiring a dramatic character. There are more than 100 smoky cities in our country that need special protection. One of them is Nizhny Tagil. And the polluter is iron-and-steel plant. Some time ago it was decided to build a new coking plant there. As it was built in a hurry, the design was poor and the system was left unfinished. When the new coking plant went into operation it became even harder to breathe in the city. A detailed plan of measures necessary to improve the ecological situation in Nizhny Tagil has been drawn up, but it hasn't been realized yet and the people of the city suffer from smog and lung diseases. Another example is Pervouralsk Silica Plant. Every year it pollutes the atmosphere with great amounts of dust and other harmful substances.

Over 18% of the Urals population lives on territories with the density of air pollution exceeding the threshold level and over 70% on territories that are on the verge of a crisis. The level of the surface water pollution is also quite high. Two thirds of the Urals population face a high risk of an environmental disaster that may be caused by toxic industrial wastes accumulated in storages that do not meet standard requirements. The critical state of the natural environment has affected the Urals demographic situation, which is almost critical.

Environmental pollution affects people's health. Ecological ignorance leads to such diseases as asthma, bronchitis, cancer, baldness, affection of the central nervous system. Waste from factories, plants and atomic power stations gets into lakes, rivers and seas, it poisons the atmosphere and forests, destroys plants and animals. That is why serious measures of nature protection should be undertaken.

The scientists of the Urals pay much attention to protection of plants and animals. There are two nature reserves arranged in our region: the llmensk reserve and the reserve of the Lake Turgoyak. Specialists work there on tree-planting because forests can clean the air, they also protect water resources and save animals from extinction there you can find some rare species of animals registered in the Red Book.

"Raduga" Ekaterinburg committee was organised for supporting ecological activities and coordinating youth ecological movements in the Urals.

The Urals Architectural-Arts Institute and youth ecological organisation "Raduga" have developed the Ecological reconstruction project. The main idea of the project is to get our businessmen and specialists economically interested in its realization and to form ecological awareness and social self-conciousness.

Surely the technological revolution has brought us both advantages and disadvantages. But we must not be blind to the terrific consequences of this progress. The Urals is our home, we all must protect it and it's time to pay off debt to nature.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-08