ECOLOGICAL CRYSIS AND HIDDEN SPECIES


Ecology is not environmental protection,but a science of the relationship between organism and environment,which is based on several conceptions. The first two conceptions were suggested by great russian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky. The first concept:there is no unoccupated ecological niches in nature. The 2nd:the biomass of biologhical sphere is constant,about 1 000 trillion tonn.The third concept was found by G.Gause:a growth of biological mass of every species is limited.It is demonstration of of general phylosophical principle of the impossibility of for any process to develop witout limit. We should remember all this concepts whe consider basic events taking place in the biosphere. Varoius changes occurs in the biosphere regulary.Sometimes this changes may be rather dramatic.Calculation by some ecologicsts indicate that today the rate of extinction is one species per hour ,or 10 000 per year(B.Carpenter et.al.). Are you scared?Don't be afraid.It is a rare case that a species dies witout living a trace.As a rule, the "dying-out"of a specoes means merely that the number of a species have been reduced below lewels that can be registered by methods of field ecology.In addition,there are a lot of "hidden" species on the earth,which are known to exist,but cannot be fixed because of small number. They are Bigfoot,nessi of monster of Laurenty river fixed by professor Robert Morgan.

Bigfoot,nessi of monster of Laurenty river fixed by professor Robert Morgan.
Local disasters result in the death of many organisms.The laws of global ecology,howe-
ver,say that unoccipated places are filled immediately.Even the most considerable ecologi-
cal disasters are unable to significantly change the mass of the biosphera.A reduc tion of
the mass in the one place is always compensated by an increase in another place.An incre-
ase of anthropogenic pressure in Westen Europe,e.g. has resulted in a significant decrease
in the combined mass of animals and plants.At the same time,the opposite processes is ta-
king place in European Russia.The number of animals and plants is increased.Many hidden species are between them.

Human-made disasters are such smaller in scale that natural ones.It is an almost es-
tablished fact that asteroids fall to the Earth every 50 - 60 millions years,which result is
global changes in the climate and structure of the fauna.This does not cause the destruc-
tion of the biosphere.Instead one soecies is simply replaced by other ones.Obviously,one of such disasters has resulted in the dying of dinosaurus.Mammalia,beeng before a"hidden'' class, occupated the Earth. Homo sapiens is the only species whose number have been growed over millenniums.The continuation of human life is continiously increasing.Thus we can say from the point of view of ecology,the species Homo sapiens is thriving.A demografic crysis has not yet come.Danger of overpopulation is also absent, because the rate of population imcrease is declining.According to forecast,the stubilisation of population may expected in 2020-2030.Danger of global famine does not exist as well. Man is a omnivorous animal. Almost all plants and animals may be consumed by man.This was the very reason that has allowed our ancestors to populate the entire earth.The biomass of the Homo sapiens species is much less than the mass of the biosphere.Therefore,man's reserve of nutritional products is almost limitless. To "organise"a famine would be a very complicated task.Even modern russian goverment can't do it. The intensification of the exploration of natural resources by man is also not limited. Manking exhausts any sources of raw materials sooner of later.Once the lack of a raw material seems to be a real possibility manking alwaus finds new and more progressive technologies to overcome this problem.The fear in the face of a shortage of non-ferrous metals forced ancient societes to begin using iron instead of bronze. A thread of running out of coal resources gave birth to the oil industry in the 20th century.All resouces of raw materials have finally remainded.The coast of basic raw materials have finally rema inded.The cost of basic raw materials is permanently decreasing.

Our epoch has created a lot of crysis.The hardest economic crysis induced by world
bank system takes place within former USSR.In the global scale,however,there are no ir-
repatable crysis at all. What has been said above,is far from beeng intended to deny the
necessity for environment protection.I'd just like to remark that the rational use of natu-
re does not require political slogans,but the true knowledge of ecology and the ability of
soberly estimate a situation,which should be free from the influence by the conceps of catastrophism.



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