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Objectives: - education of a spiritually developed personality, ready for self-knowledge and self-improvement, capable of rational creative activity in modern world; -formation of a humanistic worldview, national identity, civic position, sense of patriotism, love and respect for the values of nature; -development of a culture of reader perception of a literary text, understanding of the author’s position, historical and aesthetic conditionality of the literary process; -mastering the texts of works of art in the unity of content and form, basic literary information and concepts; -improving analysis and interpretation skills literary work as an artistic whole in its historical and literary conditionality using theoretical and literary knowledge; Yulia Mikhailovna Nikolaeva - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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Few people thought that nature does not tolerate violence against itself, and no matter how helpless it may look under the onslaught of guns and bulldozers, it will certainly take revenge on the person who thoughtlessly violates its laws. Yulia Mikhailovna Nikolaeva - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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Born on March 15, 1937 in the village of Ust-Uda, East Siberian (now Irkutsk) region in a peasant family. After school he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Irkutsk state university. After graduating from university in 1959, Rasputin became a freelance correspondent for a youth newspaper. worked for several years in newspapers in Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk. Since 1966, Rasputin has been a professional writer. Since 1967 - member of the USSR Writers' Union. In 1979 he joined the editorial board of the book series “Literary Monuments of Siberia”. In the 1980s, he was a member of the editorial board of the Roman Gazeta magazine. In 1994 he initiated the creation All-Russian festival“Days of Russian spirituality and culture “The Shining of Russia”” (Irkutsk). In 2010, the Union of Writers of Russia nominated Rasputin for the award Nobel Prize according to literature. He died on March 14, 2015, 4 hours before his 78th birthday (Irkutsk time was already March 15, so the writer’s fellow countrymen believe that he died on his birthday). Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin 03/15/1937 - 03/14/2015 Yulia Mikhailovna Nikolaeva - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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Farewell to Matera The story is about the flooding of an inhabited island with the village of Matera before the launch of a large power plant on the Angara. “To talk about ecology today means not to talk about changing life, as before, but about saving it,” said Valentin Rasputin back in 1989. In Rasputin's biography there were many public actions aimed at saving nature and protecting Lake Baikal, and the fight against the diversion of northern rivers, and protest against the liquidation of “unpromising villages.” Yulia Mikhailovna Nikolaeva - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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Farewell to Matera Last days and the nights of Matera - the destruction of the cemetery, the burning of empty huts - for Daria and other old women it’s the same as “the end of the world,” the end of everything. The feeling of guilt in front of the ruined graves develops into bitter bewilderment, into thoughts about an incomprehensible fate, about its elusive meaning, about fate. Sanitary cleaning of a cemetery before flooding is essentially commonplace: they rake up garbage in the yard to burn it. But the more ordinary all this is, the more terrible it is: healthy men in canvas overalls, strangers, like aliens, crosses dumped haphazardly, pyramids with photographs, mounds of bare graves. The necessary and the blasphemous were mixed. Yulia Mikhailovna Nikolaeva - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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It is not for nothing that, despite a good realistic outline, “Farewell to Matera” is in many ways a story - a myth, which is based on the biblical legend of the Great Flood, and the lost Siberian village of Matera in mythological terms turns out to be a model of the world. Farewell to Matera Yulia Mikhailovna Nikolaeva - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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Chingiz Aitmatov was born in the village of Sheker, now the Talas region of Kyrgyzstan. After graduating from eight classes, he entered the Dzhambul Zootechnic School. In 1948 he entered the Kyrgyz Agricultural Institute in Frunze, from which he graduated in 1953. In 1952, he began publishing stories in the Kyrgyz language in periodicals. In 1956 he entered higher education literary courses in Moscow (graduated in 1958). In June 1957, the Story “Face to Face” was published in the Kyrgyz language in the magazine “Ala-Too”. In 1965, the story “The First Teacher” was filmed by Andrei Kochalovsky at Mosfilm. The story “Farewell, Gyulsary!” (1968) brought the author a State Prize. In 1977, the story “The Piebald Dog Running by the Edge of the Sea” was published, which became one of his favorite works in the State Republic of Latvia. In 1978, the writer was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. In 1980, the novel “And the Day Lasts Longer than a Century” was published, for which Aitmatov received his second State Prize. The last work published in the USSR is his novel “The Scaffold” (1986). Since 1990 he headed the USSR Embassy (since 1992 - the Embassy Russian Federation) in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, from 1994 to 2006 - Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to the Benelux countries - in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. He died on June 10, 2008 in a hospital in the German city of Nuremberg, where he was undergoing treatment. He was buried on June 14 in the Ata-Beyit historical and memorial complex in the suburbs of Bishkek. Chingiz Torekulovich Aitmatov 12/12/1928 - 06/10/2008 Yulia Mikhailovna Nikolaeva - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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The complex organism of the novel carries many thoughts and metaphors. We can conditionally distinguish two main ones: the first of the nihanok carries the idea of the historical and moral memory of man and humanity, the second - about the place of man, the human personality, individuality in society, in the world, in nature. In the center of the story is the dramatic fate of a simple Kazakh railway worker Edigei Zhangeldin, nicknamed Buranny.
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Let's remember the plot of the legend. The Ruanzhuans, who captured Sary-Ozeki in past times, turned their captives into mankurts by putting a shiri - a piece of rawhide camel skin - on their heads. Drying in the sun, the camel skin squeezed the slave's head, and the man lost his mind and became a mankurt. “Mankurt did not know who he was, where he came from, his tribe, he did not know his name, did not remember his childhood, his father and mother - in a word, Mankurt did not recognize himself as a human being. Deprived of an understanding of his own “I,” mankurt had a number of advantages from an economic point of view. He was equivalent to a dumb creature and therefore absolutely submissive and safe. He never thought about running away. For any slave owner, the worst thing is a slave uprising. Every slave is potentially a rebel. Mankurt was the only exception of his kind - the impulses for rebellion and disobedience were completely alien to him. He did not know such passions. And therefore there was no need to guard him, keep guard, and especially suspect him of secret plans. Mankurt, like a dog, recognized only his masters.” Buranny stop station Yulia Mikhailovna Nikolaeva - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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One Naiman-Ana woman decided to find the son of Zholaman, who disappeared during the battle with the Ruanzhuans. And she found him - he became a mankurt, grazing his master's cattle. She tried to restore his memory, told him his name, talked about herself and her father, sang lullabies, but the Ruanzhuans noticed her and gave her son a bow and arrows so that he could deal with his mother. Mankurt was told that this woman wanted to harm him by steaming his head. And Zholaman killed his mother with a bow shot. Buranny stop station Yulia Mikhailovna Nikolaeva - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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Aitmatov's skill as a painter of nature and animals is amazing. Not only people live spiritually and realistically in the novel, but also plants and animals, the steppe itself around Boranly, the smart white camel Naiman-Ana from the legend, the nameless white-tailed kite and the dog Zholbars, faithful to Edigei, and, of course, the camel Karanar, which is very well written. bright and visible, he is almost humanized. Buranny stop station Yulia Mikhailovna Nikolaeva - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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The first episode is the fate of a pair of wolves - Akbara and Tashchainar. What is striking in this book from the first lines is that Aitmatov begins his narrative with a story about wolves, and not about people. The fate of people often intersects with the fate of animals. Wolves were forced to leave the steppes after people staged a gigantic massacre there - a hunt for saigas, during which their first wolf cubs died. A pair of wolves went closer to the mountains, to the lake, but the puppies born there also died when people set fire to the reeds around the lake. Akbara and Tashchainar moved to the mountains, hoping that there they would be saved from people, but their last four wolf cubs were stolen from a hole in the mountains by a man. And when the wolves began to take revenge for their children, people killed them too. “Scaffold” Nikolaeva Yulia Mikhailovna - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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The second storyline is connected with the fate of Avdiy Kallistratov, a young man who was expelled from the theological seminary for heresy; after which he became a newspaper correspondent. But Obadiah felt that this was not his calling, and was constantly looking for his purpose, the meaning of his existence. “Scaffold” Nikolaeva Yulia Mikhailovna - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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Avdiy, who became an accidental witness to this massacre and tried to persuade Kandalov and his henchmen to stop hunting and repent, was tied up and thrown into the back of a car, and then crucified on a tree and left the dying young man alone. “Scaffold” Nikolaeva Yulia Mikhailovna - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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In the third part, new heroes appear, whose destinies are closely intertwined with the fate of Akbara and Tashchainar. Poor shepherd Bazar-bai found a wolf's den in the mountains and took four puppies from there. This rash act of his became the cause of many troubles on the entire state farm. The wolves began to take revenge on people: they killed many sheep and even attacked people. But Boston and his wife Gulyushkan suffered the most: they lost the most precious thing they had - their son Kendzhesh. “Scaffold” Nikolaeva Yulia Mikhailovna - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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Who then has more humanity, humanity? Wild animals are capable of pitying us, why then can’t we understand and pity them? After all, they are characterized by all the same feelings and experiences as people. People sympathized with Gulyushkan, who, having lost her son, howled just like Akbar when her wolf cubs were stolen from her. But the howl of the she-wolf, instead of pity, evoked only anger in people. The people on the state farm could not forgive the wolves for killing livestock and attacking people, wanting to take revenge on them for all their cubs. “Scaffold” Nikolaeva Yulia Mikhailovna - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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To maintain such order in the state, individual people who tried to fight for justice were sent to the chopping block. But the author shows readers that the state and society, which distort the lives and destinies of people and do not pay attention to their internal problems, of which drug addiction may not be the most serious, are themselves heading to the “chopping block.” “Scaffold” Nikolaeva Yulia Mikhailovna - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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The destruction of animals in the Moyunkum savannah from this point of view is a warning: along with the destruction of nature, the process of destruction of the natural principle in man himself also occurs, and the next in line is himself. “Scaffold” Nikolaeva Yulia Mikhailovna - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
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Viktor Petrovich Astafiev 12.12.1928 - 29.11.2001 Victor was born on May 1, 1924 in the small village of Ovsyanka, Yenisei province (now Krasnoyarsk region). At the age of seven, the boy lost his mother - she drowned in the river. His grandmother, Ekaterina Petrovna, becomes the boy's intercessor and nurse. The boy loses his home and means of livelihood, wanders, then ends up in a boarding school. The boarding school teacher, Siberian poet Ignatiy Dmitrievich Rozhdestvensky, notices a penchant for literature in Victor and develops it. In the fall of 1942, Viktor Astafiev volunteered to join the army, and in the spring of 1943 he went to the front. In the fall of 1945, V.P. Astafiev was demobilized from the army and together with his wife, private Maria Semyonovna Koryakina, came to her homeland - the city of Chusovoy in the western Urals . From 1951 to 1955, Astafiev worked as a literary employee of the Chusovskoy Rabochiy newspaper. In 1959, he was sent to the Higher Literary Courses at the Gorky Literary Institute. In 1962, the family moved to Perm, and in 1969 - to Vologda. In 1975, for the story. “The Pass”, “The Last Bow”, “Theft”, “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess” V. P. Astafiev was awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR named after M. Gorky In 1978 for the narration in the stories “The Tsar Fish” by V. P. Astafiev. was awarded the State Prize of the USSR. In 1980, Astafiev moved to his homeland - Krasnoyarsk. In 1989, V.P. Astafiev was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. He died on November 29, 2001 in Krasnoyarsk. He was buried in a cemetery located on the Yenisei highway. villages of Ovsyanka and Ust-Mana. Nikolaeva Yulia Mikhailovna - 1st year commodity science UTPiT
ECOLOGICAL THEME
IN MODERN LITERATURE
Sad. And there’s no way to understand what’s there
brains the regime: Northern rivers have necks
take away or take away the Gulf Stream!
Fazil Iskander.
Once in the cinema of a repeat film, I accidentally watched
watched the old film "Master of the Taiga". Although it was filmed before my
birth, but I really liked it. Young Zolotukhin played
local policeman somewhere in Siberia, the only one
one side for fifty miles, and the other for five hundred." He bo-
fights poachers and wins. This was two years ago.
That was the first time I thought seriously about why people
nature is treated barbarously. It's amazing that everything has gone so far
I seemed to turn a deaf ear to conversations on this topic. Remember-
moose, of course, and other tapes. I also learned the story of the film "U"
lake", filmed more than twenty years ago. It turns out that
began the struggle for the purity of Baikal, which to this day is not
it's over.
So gradually, from disparate facts, it began to take shape
idea about the environmental problem, how literature
(I’m not talking about movies anymore) raised this topic. Then at school
had to prepare a report on the topic “Man and nature in production”
the days of Soviet writers." This is what I found out. At the end
last century Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Mimin-Sibiryak and others became
write about the barbaric attitude towards nature, especially towards the forest. But in
During Soviet times, this topic was forgotten for a long time. Lo-
zung that there is no point in expecting mercy from nature, but its bounty
you have to take the wealth yourself. Then a plan arose in Stalin's head
"transformation" of nature, and this campaign actively involved
some writers.
A well-known man raised his voice against the “transformation”
Russian writer Leonid Leonov. His novel "Russian Forest" opened
in the mid-50s, “artistic” ecology. In the 50-60s
K. Paustovsky, V. Belov, V. Li- did a lot for their native nature
Patov and others.
In this essay I would like to talk only about a few
many works and writers.
Viktor Astafiev did a lot to protect nature, awarded
recently awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. He,
for example, (I read about it in the newspaper) revealed the secret of the "object
N 27", which was actually supposed to become a burial ground for
radioactive waste from European countries (thousands of miles would have been transported
them!) near the Yenisei. Who knows, maybe this will prevent
Siberian puppy Chernobyl? In the seventies he wrote
"Last Bow" and "Tsar Fish". Narration in stories
"Tsar Fish" shows us small poachers who violate the rules
rets for hunting and fishing, and big ones, ready for the sake of the plan
ruin the entire taiga. Meanwhile, Astafiev is convinced: “The taiga on earth
le and the stars in the sky were thousands of years before us. The stars have gone out
or were broken into fragments, in their place others blossomed in the sky
gie. And the trees in the taiga died and were born, one tree was burned
struck by lightning, washed away by the river, another scattered seeds into the water,
the wind... It only seems to us, - the writing emphasizes its thought -
tel, - that we transformed... the taiga... No, we only wounded
it was damaged, trampled, scratched, burned with fire. But fear
They couldn’t convey their confusion to her, and they didn’t instill hostility in her.
ness, no matter how hard we tried.
It seems to me that Valentin will agree with these thoughts
Rasputin, who also did a lot to protect Russian nature,
yes. He was among those who raised their voice against the turn
northern rivers. In the story "Farewell to Matera" he draws for us
the suffering of people forced to leave their family and their ancestors
Dinu. Some of those in power, these heirs of Stalin's
"transformers", decided to build a hydroelectric power station on the river.
Dozens of villages are doomed to be flooded. It seems along with
Nature also cries with people. The image of the old tree is majestic: it
they tried to cut it down - the axes bounced off, to cut it down - they wouldn’t take the saw,
Set it on fire - it doesn't burn. The barbarians eventually retreat. Isn't it
Nature also resists: no matter how much they destroy it, it still stands. But
after all, her powers are not unlimited. What if he can't stand it? Will remain
Is the man himself alive? He must take care of nature - it’s his
house. He is not a guest, but a master in it for many millennia.
This problem is raised again in another story by Rasputin
- "Fire." “Cutting down a forest is not sowing bread,” he thinks bitterly
the main character of the work. Lespromkhoz is in a hurry faster than the plan
fulfill, prepare cubic meters. "And the forest was chosen - until the new one
tens and tens of years. They cut it down with the current technology in
years. And then what?” The reader is ready to shout along with the hero:
"A plan?! It would be better if we lived without it. It would be better if there was another plan for-
not just in cubic meters, but in souls! To take into account
how many souls have been lost, gone to the devil, and how many remain
elk! That's true. Where there is no love and pity for nature, there is no
pity for the person. And along with nature, man perishes. At-
than not only morally, but also in the literal sense.
There is another interesting story about this - “Dam” by Vladimir
Mazaeva. Not a very well-known book, really, but it attracted me.
treated with its truthfulness.
The work talks about what is already typical, unfortunately -
nyu, for our days the case. During heavy rain, a breakthrough
there is a sedimentation dam where 600 thousand cubic meters of toxic substances were stored
coke production waste. The black wave is pouring in
into the river, poisoning all living things. The authorities, of course, are trying to eliminate
It’s impossible to fix the consequences, but it’s already impossible to correct much. Who
guilty? Yes, as always, no one. The fact that the dam was built with
violations of technology and a breakthrough was possible, they knew, but did not accept
little measure. There was no warning of a possible disaster
meanings. First Secretary of the City Party Committee never for four
years of leading the city, I was not interested in these problems,
I had no idea about the factory hydraulic dump.
Nature, according to the writer, takes revenge on its offenders. Semi-
The daughter and son-in-law of the first secretary expect poisoning. Black wave
the dacha village where the managers' dachas are located was destroyed
lei factory.
Writers teach people to think about what they are doing.
in tune with nature?! Too much in recent years Ava happens
ries and disasters, so as not to listen to their wise voice.
Grigory Medvedev in his documentary story "Black-
bylskaya notebook" says that in pursuit of ranks and nakedness -
for many years, academicians, economists and politicians have been deceiving
people, claiming that nuclear energy safe. We know
Now, what did this “security” turn out to be? The story ends
in very strong words of the writer. He walks through the cemetery, where
victims of Chernobyl are buried, and remembers that their bodies are strongly
radioactive and they were buried in zinc coffins. "So
required the sanitary and epidemiological station, and I thought about it, because the earth was in the way
whether to do her last job - turn the bodies of the dead into
dust. Damn nuclear age! Even here, in the eternal human
As a result, thousand-year-old traditions are violated. Even the funeral
thread, humanly cannot be consigned to the ground." You couldn’t say it any stronger...
In the “Ecology and Literature” section he continues to collect a library for you. This time we turned to activists of various environmental organizations and asked them which books influenced them and helped them look differently at the relationship between nature and man. The answers were surprisingly varied: science fiction and sociology, technology and ecology. Check it out, maybe these publications will change your attitude towards the environment?
Ekaterina Method (Education for Sustainable Development Association):
In both Europe and America, nature deficit syndrome is talked about as a very serious problem. When I first heard about it, I thought it wasn’t about us. Our children and their grandmother spend the summer in the village, and go out into nature with their parents. However, having delved into reading the book Richard Louv, “Last Child in the Woods” On the way from Hannover to Minsk, I realized that not everything is so simple. We look, but we don't see. We pass by colors, smells, sounds, without letting them pass through us.
This book, like the one that follows it "Let's Enjoy Nature with Children" by Joseph Cornell, taught me to stop, let the children lead me to an unusual booger or a frozen leaf sparkling in the sun, to find moments to slow down my life and show the kids how to find joy through their sensations.
Pavel Gorbunov (NGO "Minsk Bicycle Society"):
Creativity had a strong influence on me Strugatsky brothers. I can’t help but re-read them at least once a year. Their books are not exactly about environmental problems, but about systemic crises that become the causes of our environmental problems. I recommend reading it "The Doomed City" And "Roadside Picnic"- about civilizations that survived catastrophes.
"Snail on the Slope" is one of their most complex novels, raising many themes, including the ability to "understand" the biosphere. “Predatory Things of the Century” is about consumer society and social thoughtlessness. "It's Hard to Be God", "Inhabited Island", "Attempt to Escape"- about the conflict of simultaneously existing civilizations, brainwashing, the ethics of intervention by more “developed civilizations.” "Ugly Swans" And "Bug in the Anthill"- about the problems that we will face in the near future, when humanity will inevitably be divided into parts according to some criterion (in a sense, we have already faced this). The Strugatskys’ books are multi-layered and about many things at once: they do not open right away, and everyone sees in them what they are ready to see in at the moment time.
Olga Kaskevich (NGO “Bagna”):
This is a book Joseph Wagner And Nadya Shneiderova “The King of Beasts is not a Lion.” It is part of their trilogy (the others being “Africa: Heaven and Hell for Animals” and “Kilimanjaro Safari”).
For me, the publication is valuable because it combines the advantages of an encyclopedia and an exciting adventure book - a diary of the author’s travels and interesting facts about the fauna of Africa. It is written in lively language, beautifully illustrated with ancient African drawings, numerous photographs of Wagner and illustrations by Miroslav Cipar.
The famous explorer and traveler Josef Wagner (Czechoslovakian scientist, creator of the zoo in the city of Dvur Králové, where a wide variety of animal species practically lived in the wild) lived in Africa for many years, becoming an active defender of its natural resources. He vividly and figuratively describes the unique fauna continent, reflects on ways to save African flora and fauna, talks about the most significant national parks, and the life of African peoples.
“On a continent where your life depends only on your own ingenuity, everything has its benefit: North Africa Camel dung is highly valued. On desert roads, where there are no trees, small round, hard, dry balls of droppings the size of a walnut are collected in the morning: they serve as fuel.”
Joseph connected his life with this country: 7 expeditions to this amazing continent, 10 years of fruitful and dangerous work. I think the book is worth reading at least once. I have always been very inspired by the quote that begins with: “In the next century, or maybe even a decade, people will probably not travel to look at the wonders of modern technology. On the contrary, from stuffy, smoky cities they will rush to the surviving corners of wildlife, breathing peace and quiet. Countries that have managed to preserve such oases of nature will evoke universal envy and gratitude, because with nature the situation is completely different than, say, with palaces destroyed by war - they can be rebuilt. But if you destroy the living world, then no one, no force will be able to create it again.”
As a child, I read these and the words of the famous German zoologist, writer and director of the Frankfurt Zoo and spent a long time looking at an African picture with fishermen and an abundance of fish.
Also inspires me "Walden, or Life in the Woods" by Henry David Thoreau.
This is a book about a different state of mind. Its author is an American naturalist, philosopher and writer who lived in the 19th century, who goes into the nearby forest to Walden Pond, builds himself a house, cultivates a bean field, grows peas, potatoes, corn, fishes, bakes bread, dines on blackberries, in a word , runs a household there that is independent from the rest of civilization, lives simply and with the bare necessities. The work describes in detail all the nuances for escaping civilization. His life by the pond, alone with nature, lasted just over two years... The book is very atmospheric, putting you in a certain mood. I would recommend reading it closer to spring, when, upon completion of reading, you can go to a farm, into the forest for a couple of weeks and close from outside world, allow yourself to become part of nature and simply flow in space. It gives you authenticity and helps you see how our landscape shapes us.
The last book for the third mood. This Sebastian Salgado. He is known around the world as a photographer and recently released an autobiographical interview and documentary called "Salt of the earth". I read his interview with greed; I didn’t want it to end. I once wandered into one of the bookstores in Berlin and came across a collection of his stories "From my Land to the Planet".
Salgado is not just a photographer, he is a public figure who fought for the preservation of the Earth's biosphere and spoke a lot on this topic. He is interesting to me because he started with love for man as a being, and then switched to nature, of which man is a part. I love this continuous connection. And what about the names of his projects - “Genesis”, “Exodus”, “Homo Sapience”.
Genesis helped me realize that as we have become more disconnected from nature due to urbanization, we have become very complex animals; as we became strangers to the planet, we became strange creatures.”
Sebastian is one of my favorite photographers. It is deep, on a planetary scale.
I like authors who talk about things and the world that they have experienced firsthand. Practical people. When every word is precisely verified, it conveys the essence, the present. Such authors do not have extra words in their texts that would be written for the sake of decorating the text.
Dmitry Gerilovich (Public campaign “City Forester”):
There is a book that at first seemed to me something very unconventional, as if even a sociological joke. This "The Life and Death of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs (Jane Jacobs "The Death and Life of Great American Cities"). It is not written in an academic style, but it touches on important questions for society: who lives in the city? Is it the architect who created the city, like a demiurge, or are these real residents who fulfill their everyday needs in the city? Jane Jacobs was the first to become interested in this topic and began to research why American cities look the way they do (construction along roads, high use of motor vehicles). She also examined how exceptions emerged in similar cases: how people in specific areas of specific cities remained within the city rather than leaving it.
It raises many interesting questions that got me thinking about modern cities. These questions are universal for the modern urbanist and apply to any settlement in the world. Who lives in your city? Who lives next door to you? Do you know these people? Is it convenient for you to live in the city? I ask these questions about Minsk, where I live: why do we have this particular transport system, this particular approach to landscaping? How suitable are urban areas for recreation? The residents themselves must take responsibility and take back the city. At the same time, this is a two-way process: architects and urban planners must also meet residents halfway, ask their opinions and offer various solutions.
Inna Panchkovskaya (legal service of the Green Network Partnership):
- "Closing Circle" by Barry Commoner- a book about nature, man and technology. Barry Commoner derives 4 laws of ecology that explain global processes in which humans are the main actor. A person who has broken harmonious ties with nature and, behind his desire for prosperity and power, does not notice how the world is going to hell! Using specific facts, figures, and quotes, the author urges the reader to get rid of the illusion of universal prosperity and take a sensible look at environmental threats.
I read Barry Commoner's book back in school. Then, in 2009, I didn’t know how serious everything was, but Commoner knew back in the early 1970s. Against the backdrop of protests taking place at that time due to the construction of a chemical plant in my town, the book made the problem of my locality non-unique for me. Commoner often talks about social injustice, how a healthy environment becomes a stumbling block for a large group of residents and a small group of those in power.
I recommend reading this book to dispel illusions about humanity's success in separating itself from nature and to accept the fact that there is an environmental crisis. And also in order to connect the logic of the environment with all those economic, social and political forces that govern our everyday life, and the course of history in general.
Ecology in the works of modern writers
“We cannot allow people to direct towards their own destruction those forces of nature that they were able to open and conquer."
The modern writer V. Rasputin argued: “To talk about ecology today means to talk not about changing life, but about saving it.” Unfortunately, the state of our ecology is very catastrophic. This is manifested in the impoverishment of flora and fauna. Further, the author says that “a gradual adaptation to danger occurs,” that is, the person does not notice how serious the current situation is. Let us recall the problem associated with the Aral Sea. The bottom of the Aral Sea has become so exposed that the shores from the sea ports are tens of kilometers away. The climate changed very sharply, and animals became extinct. All these troubles greatly affected the lives of people living in the Aral Sea. Over the past two decades, the Aral Sea has lost half its volume and more than a third of its area. The exposed bottom of a huge area turned into a desert, which became known as Aralkum. In addition, the Aral Sea contains millions of tons of toxic salts. This problem cannot but worry people. In the eighties, expeditions were organized to solve the problems and causes of the death of the Aral Sea. Doctors, scientists, writers reflected and studied the materials of these expeditions.
V. Rasputin in the article “In the fate of nature is our destiny” reflects on the relationship between man and environment. “Today there is no need to guess “whose groan is heard over the great Russian river.” It is the Volga itself that is groaning, dug up length and breadth, spanned by hydroelectric dams,” the author writes. Looking at the Volga, you especially understand the price of our civilization, that is, the benefits that man has created for himself. It seems that everything that was possible has been defeated, even the future of humanity.
The problem of the relationship between man and the environment is also raised by the modern writer Ch. Aitmatov in his work “The Scaffold”. He showed how man destroys the colorful world of nature with his own hands.
The novel begins with a description of the life of a wolf pack that lives quietly before the appearance of man. He literally demolishes and destroys everything in his path, without thinking about the surrounding nature. The reason for such cruelty was simply difficulties with the meat delivery plan. People mocked the saigas: “The fear reached such proportions that the she-wolf Akbara, deaf from the gunshots, thought that the whole world had gone deaf, and the sun itself was also rushing about and looking for salvation...” In this tragedy, Akbara’s children die, but this is her grief doesn't end. Further, the author writes that people started a fire in which five more Akbara wolf cubs died. For the sake of their own goals, people could “gut the globe like a pumpkin,” not suspecting that nature would also take revenge on them sooner or later. A lone wolf is drawn to people, wants to transfer her maternal love to a human child. It turned into a tragedy, but this time for the people. A man, in a fit of fear and hatred of the she-wolf’s incomprehensible behavior, shoots at her, but ends up hitting his own son.
This example speaks of the barbaric attitude of people towards nature, towards everything that surrounds us. I wish there were more caring and kind people in our lives.
Academician D. Likhachev wrote: “Humanity spends billions not only to avoid suffocation and death, but also to preserve the nature around us.” Of course, everyone is well aware of the healing power of nature. I think that a person should become its master, its protector, and its intelligent transformer. A beloved leisurely river, a birch grove, a restless bird world... We will not harm them, but will try to protect them.
In this century, man is actively interfering with the natural processes of the Earth’s shells: extracting millions of tons of minerals, destroying thousands of hectares of forest, polluting the waters of seas and rivers, and releasing toxic substances into the atmosphere. One of the most important environmental problems of the century has been water pollution. A sharp deterioration in the quality of water in rivers and lakes cannot and will not affect human health, especially in areas with dense populations. The environmental consequences of accidents at nuclear power plants are sad. The echo of Chernobyl swept across the entire European part of Russia, and will affect people’s health for a long time.
Thus, as a result of economic activities, people cause great damage to nature, and at the same time to their health. How then can a person build his relationship with nature? Each person in his activities must treat all life on Earth with care, not alienate himself from nature, not strive to rise above it, but remember that he is part of it.
