Humanity has approached a new frontier in its history, at which the spontaneous development of productive forces, the uncontrolled growth of the population, the lack of discipline of individual behavior can put humanity, that is, the biological species homo sapiens, on the edge of destruction. We are faced with the problems of a new organization of life, a new organization of society, a new worldview. The phrase “ecological thinking” has now emerged. It is primarily intended to remind us that we are children of the Earth, not its conquerors.
Everything is returning to normal, and we must, like our distant Cro-Magnon ancestors, the hunters of the preglacial period, see ourselves again as part of the surrounding Nature. We should treat Nature as a mother, as our own home. But there is a huge fundamental difference between man belonging to modern society and our preglacial ancestor: we have knowledge, and we are capable of setting ourselves developmental goals, and we have the potential to follow these goals.
About a quarter of a century ago, I began to use the term “coevolution of man and the biosphere. It means the behavior of humanity and each individual human being that can ensure the joint development of both the biosphere and humanity. Today’s level of scientific development and our technical capabilities make this mode of coevolution fundamentally feasible.
Here is just one important note to guard against various illusions. Today we often talk about the omnipotence of science. Our knowledge of the world around us has indeed increased tremendously over the last two centuries, but our possibilities are still very limited. We lack the ability to foresee the development of natural and social phenomena in more or less distant times. This is why I am always wary of broad, far-reaching plans. In each specific period, you must be able to distinguish what is known to be true, and build on it in your plans, actions, “restructuring.
And the most reliable is, more often than not, knowledge about what is known to be harmful. Therefore, the main task of scientific analysis, the main, but certainly not the only one, is to formulate a system of prohibitions. This was probably understood as far back as the Lower Paleolithic period by our humanoid ancestors. Already then various taboos began to appear. We also need to work out a new system of prohibitions and recommendations on how to realize these prohibitions.
Ecological strategy
In order to live in our common house, we must elaborate not only certain general rules of conduct, if you like – the rules of dormitory, but also a strategy of our development. The rules of conduct are in most cases of a local nature. They often boil down to the development and implementation of low-waste production, to the purification of the environment from pollution, that is – to the protection of nature.
To meet these local requirements, there is no need for any super large-scale measures: everything is solved by the culture of the population, technological and, mainly, ecological literacy and discipline of local officials.
But here we also encounter more complex situations when we have to think about the welfare of not only our own, but also of our distant neighbors. An example is the river, which crosses several provinces. Many people are already interested in its cleanliness, and they are interested in different ways. Residents of the upper reaches are not very inclined to care about the state of the river in its lower reaches. Therefore, to ensure normal life together of the population of the whole river basin, regulations are already required at the state and sometimes at the interstate level.
The example with the river is also only a particular case. After all, there are problems of planetary character. They require a universal strategy. Culture and environmental education alone will not suffice for its development. Nor will the actions of a literate (which is very seldom the case) government. A universal strategy needs to be created. It must encompass literally all aspects of human activity. This includes new systems of industrial technology, which must be waste-free and resource-efficient. Agricultural technology must also be included. And not only better soil treatment and the use of fertilizers. But, as the works of N. I. Vavilov and other brilliant representatives of agronomic science and plant breeding show, the main way of development is the use of plants with the highest coefficient of useful solar energy. That is, the energy is clean, not polluting the environment.
In order for humans to continue to fit into the natural cycles (circulation) of the biosphere, the population of the planet must be reduced tenfold while maintaining current needs. But this is impossible! The regulation of population growth, of course, will not produce a tenfold reduction in the number of inhabitants of the planet. This means that along with smart demographic policy, it is necessary to create new biogeochemical cycles, i.e. a new cycle of substances, which will include above all those plant species that use the pure solar energy more effectively and without ecological harm to the planet.
Only humanity as a whole can solve problems on this scale. And this will require a change in the entire organization of the planetary community, in other words, a new civilization, a restructuring of the most important thing: the systems of values that have been established for centuries.
The principle of the need to form a new civilization has been proclaimed by the International Green Cross, an organization whose creation was announced in Kyoto, Japan, in 1993. The basic thesis is that man must live in harmony with nature.