On Earth Day – April 22 – we are invited to ponder the fate of the planet. Every day we trample, litter, offend, ignore, and despise it, and the Earth is living, say physicists, ecologists, meteorologists, biologists and many others. It is living indeed: it breaths, suffers, and ails.
“The Earth is sick with people,” scientists currently repeat. The Earth is sick with people, because they live on it not as at home. Instead, to quote from the Strugatsky brothers, they made for some short time, compared to eternity, a picnic at the roadside of the Universe, and went on the spree. Mankind has already realized that it must be punished for all its deeds, for example, for the global warming – by earthquakes in Haiti and China, storms and tornadoes in America, floods in Europe, and at present – by volcanoes. But it may be just the beginning, and, instead of the generation that is guilty, its children will have to endure more, for it was written “the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” We should stop and do everything over again in a different way. If only we could do it together and at the same time! Nonetheless, it can be done personally, for each person should be responsible for at least himself. Why does the Earth feel so bad? The question is answered by Mykhailo KURYK, doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, professor, and director of the Institute of human ecology.
Mr. Kuryk, today the humanity is already starting to think about the results of its influence on the environment. In particular, countries undertake obligations to decrease emissions into the atmosphere, since people are frightened by the consequences of their activity. They even say that the volcano, which erupted in Iceland, changed the plans of dozens of thousands people and is expected to have an impact on the economic situation in many countries, is also a consequence of human influence on the environment. What is your opinion in this regard?
“The volcanic activity by itself is actually a more global cosmological phenomenon connected with the processes which take place generally in the Solar system, including Earth. And the things you mentioned are the total result of all negative activity connected with people’s attitude to Earth as to a living substance. For one should understand that Earth is not a soulless creation, with which we can do anything we want.
“Due to this lack of understanding, we have devastation of lands and their contamination with heavy metals. Now this question is very topical for us. In addition, pesticides and nitrates are still kept in soil, they periodically come with food to people’s tables – and thus return to people. But more important is the callous, inhuman attitude of people to Earth itself, even though Earth is the source of food for us. One can never hurt Earth, because it is the foundation of our existence. Without Earth and water people wouldn’t exist. By means of what can we live?
“At present, we have many problems. It happened so in Ukraine, and in Russia too, that the collapse of the Soviet Union led to the collapse of the agricultural system. We have destroyed collective farms, lots of land belongs to nobody, and recultivation is disrupted — the order which was established before. Soil was exhausted and very much spoilt by rape – all that was used as biological fuel. This is because land owners or tenants care about maximum profits, rather than soil preservation. And the situation is that the agrochemical changes in soil automatically influence fertility and all of agriculture.
“One more question: How do people treat such a living structure as Earth? People treat Earth with the same contempt as they treat other people, and Earth reacts in the same way. In nature everything is mutually connected: everything bad going into the ground later returns to people. I’ll give you an example. Someone spilt oil or any organics on the ground. One never thinks that this should be neutralized and that the earth has problems because of it. And then we get all this back with air or food.
“Regarding that volcano, I want to say that in the new millennium we entered a new epoch. Any change of millennia is marked by nature’s cleaning itself, particularly, from what humans have done. This is of a great importance. Judge for yourselves how many floods, unexpected storms, hurricanes, typhoons, and earthquakes take place in the world.
“All of this is a violation of balance. Climate balance was violated, and all of this is reflected in the energy and life of Earth itself, and, in fact, people’s lives.
“One more very important thing. In recent years it became fashionable to grow genetically modified products on Earth. This is a very dangerous experience, because presently we have one unpredictable and unpleasant thing. Thus, horizontal cross-pollination of different herbs and different plants happens via pollen blown by winds. It results in the situation that where there was pure soil and no genetically modified seed sown, there is no purity anymore. Everything is mixed up. And if we say that genetically modified products are harmful for the organism, then it is necessary to control almost all products, for it’s difficult to say that a certain product is ecologically pure. And what will happen to it next? It’ll be difficult to get rid of it. All this stays for many years.
“I want to stress that people in most cases don’t think about what they do and what the consequences of their actions may be. Making experiments, they suppose that everything will settle by itself. But nature also has some limitations and rules of its existence. Therefore, speaking generally about whether nature is sick with people or Earth is sick with people, one should say that in recent years agricultural chemistry, energy of Earth itself, and contamination with heavy metals, pesticides, nitrates, and fertilizers, which are added for better growth and to make grain have an attractive shape, has changed greatly. This is not good for people. This is all reflected in the ecology of Earth and the ecology of the human being as such.”
When, in your opinion, did this disharmony in relations between humans and nature begin?
“I think it started in the mid-1980s, especially after Chornobyl. Contamination in some strips of land became very considerable; the differences of the ecological situation in various places on the planet became substantial too, particularly in the Chornobyl zone. We started measuring this pollution more carefully, observing people’s attitude – and saw that everything is not so simple and that our consciousness is not active enough to do something to change the situation for the better.
“Thus, the situation is becoming worse. Currently economic activity is being done without adherence to any reasonable rules. Such disharmony led to a considerable deterioration of the situation on Earth. In fact, where the soil bore poorly, it now bears even worse, and where it yielded good harvests, because of mismanagement it has also become less productive. This is because there is no owner.”
But there must remain a chance that we will not end up in a catastrophe…
“This is a global question, but we actually should go through the ecology of consciousness and through the change of people’s attitude to themselves and to nature. People should realize what the result of their activity is; this awareness should be on the state level, too. For if a person doesn’t turn to the problem of Earth, nature and all environment, we won’t leave anything to the future generations.
“I want to remind you that at the end of March the European conference of ministers of environment and health took place – the fifth conference with the participation of representatives from 50 countries. For ecological problems worry all Europe very seriously – people understand that we are all connected.
“This conference proved that on the whole, ecological consciousness and ecological education is absent in the population. We have become so indifferent. As long as I don’t feel bad or experience no problems – sickness or sufferings — I don’t do anything.
“There are many things which should have been done long ago through the agricultural complex. They must be controlled very seriously on the level of legislative and executive government, but I think that this won’t happen soon. The reason is clear – we have more mess than order. And the ecology of consciousness must have the first place – people must respect themselves through nature. However, at present everyone is thinking only about how to buy or sell something, but human life doesn’t depend on this. People think if there is no money, there is no life. If there is no normal attitude to oneself – there is nothing, and if we don’t change our consciousness, there will be no sense, for there is no other Earth, no other life. How can we be cutting off the branch we are sitting on?!
