With mass awareness of the ecological imperative has begun a sharp politicization of environmental problems and movements, which contributed to the alarmist tone of the first models of global development.
Real threats associated with alarming environmental changes in various combinations related to all regions of the world. For developed countries, the most dangerous are industrial air and water pollution, radiation hazards from nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons tests, transboundary pollution, the environmental situation in large cities and urban areas. And developing countries are relevant desertification and deforestation, greedy plunder of natural resources, the shortage of fresh water and fuel, disease and famine.
It should be noted that in the 70 years, neither capitalist nor socialist countries have not solved these problems. The difference (and very significant) was the provision that states with developed market economies have started earlier to respond to changes in the situation, while
Private and public spending (in 1994) on the protection of the environment (in% of GDP, billion dollars.) Socialist countries, it would seem, is located at the time sufficient funds and arms control, much too late in making this action, relying on the fact that a planned economy almost automatically remove the environmental threat.
It is the developed countries of Western Europe and Japan, where space limitations and high "density" of anthropogenic pressure created especially hard ecological situation, the first to adopt environmental legislation. That's where the "green movement", and later grew into a party of "green", which is already in the 80s were a part of some of the parliaments and the European Parliament. Compound environmental slogans to the fight against weapons raketnoyadernogo increased their popularity. It was under their pressure were initiated the first serious environmental measures governments.
That's how the world was formed государственномонополистическая environmental policy, expressed in:
- The increase in costs of the monopolies and for environmental purposes (in the early 90s in most countries ^ "Big Seven", they accounted for about 1.5% of GDP);
- The creation of all developed and many developing countries, the Ministries of Environment (USSR was only 129y country in the world that has created such a ministry);
- The adoption of state environmental programs and a whole range of environmental laws;
- Education in most developed countries ekologoindustrialnyh large complexes ("ekobiznes"), which included the biggest monopolies, manufacture of pollution control equipment, and so on. D.
All this has brought positive results. For example, in Germany, one of the most progressive countries in the field of ecology, achieved significant environmental improvement in the superdense populated and built-up area, where the focus is traditionally "dirty" production (petrochemicals, ugolnometallurgichesky complex, 19 nuclear power plants, and so on. D.). Rhine ceased to be a "gutter" of Europe: biological treatment are more than 90% of discharged waters there. The modernization of coal-fired power plants, almost "sky" over the Ruhr - the largest cluster of mines, metallurgical and chemical plants. Great success was achieved in the regeneration of raw materials.