Elena V. Milanova
Department of Geography, Moscow State University
Moscow 119899 Vorobyovy Gory
RUSSIA
TEL: (095)939-37-89
FAX: (095)932-88-36
Priority global ecological problems were modeled at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, Rio de Janeiro, 1992) in order to lay down a basis for the development of a Green ecological ethic, that is, a code of the rights and duties of states which must subordinate the necessity of development to the interests of defending the environment. Russia is distinguished by a graphic share of global ecological problems, many of which demand immediate solution. These problems in our country are tightly connected with many geopolitical, economic, and social problems. On the territory of Russia and the former USSR the processes of the structural transformation of the environment (geospace) are proceeding, they are manifest in its regionalization, on the one hand, and integration, on the other. The social mechanisms of the process of the transformation of geospace (altering types of property and principles of nature use) reveal the contradictions of the actual process of nature use in different regions. On the basis of studying different mechanisms of the interdependence of society and environment and their contradictions, territories with various degrees of ecological unfavorability stood out. A complex characterization of the ecological status of a region should include not only eco-economic, but also eco-cultural and eco-biological features.
The work of geographer-ecologists, directed at the visualization and comprehension of accumulated information, the creation of GIS, adequately reflecting the ecological condition in one or another territory, has great significance for the study of ecological problems. In this connection the experience of the creation of global and regional maps of contemporary landscapes by the geography faculty at Moscow State University may be considered unique. At the beginning of 1994 a global map of contemporary landscapes of the world was published, created within the framework of the UNEP/Moscow State project. For the first time the dynamic trend of the development of landscapes is reflected on a global scale; more animated borders of anthropogenic origin (independent from economic activity) lean on the "frame" of relatively stable natural boundaries. Each contemporary landscape is characterized by a certain set of natural and economic components and is distinguished by specific ecological problems. Contemporary landscape- analogies in different countries demand intent study at the regional and local level so that it may be an object of the application of the forces of specialists (women-ecologists, geographers) of different countries, in order to strengthen capacities for international cooperation in the field of environmental management, directed at the sustainable development of our planet.
Translated by Barbara Welling Hall
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