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p The life of human society cannot be understood outside the context of nature. Recognition of the unity of society and nature is a major and intrinsic principle of the materialist conception of history.

p Society is linked with nature, first of all, through its origin. Science has convincingly proved that man evolved from anthropoid apes. The process of the ape turning into man was gradual and extremely prolonged.

p There are two chief stages in the formation of man. The first stage was when man began to make the implements of labour: this was the stage of the actual formation of man. Recently, in South and Last Africa the remains of man’s earlyancestors have been found in a geological layer 2.5 million years old. Human bones were found together with primitive work implements. The second stage, which began 100,000-40,000 years ago, was marked by the appearance of modern man, i. e. homo sapiens. It is generally accepted that since that time no essential physical changes have occurred in man.

p The process of the emergence of man and human society was analysed by Engels in The 26 Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man. This work states that it was labour, production and use of work implements that played the decisive role in the emergence of human society. It was this that made man’s ancestors straighten up and stand on their feet. In the process of labour the need arose for communication: thus, language appeared. It was labour that singled man out from the animal kingdom and gave him characteristics peculiar only to the human race: the production of labour implements, a highly organised brain, a consciousness and self- awareness, and articulate speech.

p As man became separated from the animal world, he ceased to be merely a biological being. Biological properties (physiological needs, natural gifts, etc.) are typical of modern man too, of course, and play a major role in his life. But they do not determine his essence, nor are they any longer his chief characteristics. Man now belongs to the highest form of the motion of matter-to social life. Man’s essence is characterised by social relations which comprise the social conditions of his life and which he himself creates. What is meant here is man’s affiliation to a certain epoch and social system, a certain class, nation, etc.

p Having emerged from nature and become, to a certain extent, isolated from it, society has not broken offits ties with nature. On the contrary, it 27 constantly maintains close relations with nature, and this is an indispensable condition for the existence and evolution of society.

p Of course, mankind does not interact with infinite nature as a whole, only with that part of it which is involved in the process of human activity. In the course of history, more and more natural phenomena and spheres of nature assume importance and become necessary for man. for example, in the early stages of human history, man mainly used natural sources of the means ol existence (wild herbs and animals, natural soil fertility, etc.) However, with time, ever greater importance was attached to minerals and energy sources. Today, mankind has started to make active use of outer space for its own purposes. Artificial satellites orbiting the Earth are employed to relay television programmes, transmit communications over long distances, forecast the weather, discover deposits of minerals, and so on.

p Nature has diverse significance for the life of society.

p First of all, it is very important for production. In the process of production man transforms natural objects in accordance with his needs and requirements: he smelts metal out ot ore extracted from the Earth, he makes use of the energy of rivers, etc. Even in modern-day production, wher the object of labour to be processed is 28 frequently made of synthetic materials (i. e. materials artificially created by man), the initial material invariably comes from nature. For example, plastics are widely used today in the production of household appliances and many other things; but to make plastics, mineral raw materials, such as oil, are needed.

p Nature which is of great significance for man in production, is significant in other ways too. Communication with nature helps man maintain and restore his physical and moral fitness. It is no coincidence that people who as a rule live in the countryside and spend much time out-ot-doors live much longer than others.

p Nature teaches man to see and understand beauty (the aesthetic significance of nature).

p It is also justifiable to speak of nature’s educational significance. A careful and thoughtful attitude towards the natural environment develops kindness, and compassion towards the weak and defenceless.

p The natural environment plays an important role in man’s life. It may either accelerate or retard the development of countries and peoples, and sometimes it has a decisive impact on the development of industries. Thus, a country’s favourable situation and the wealth of its mineral deposits promote the development of its society. On the contrary, harsh natural conditions (for example, in the Far North of Europe and Asia) 29 or isolation from the rest of the world (some regions in Central Africa and Latin America) have impeded the development of societythere.

p Yet this is not u> say that natural conditions are the chief factor determining the course of social development. Radical changes taking place in society, such as social revolutions, are not caused by changes in the natural conditions, but by the requirements of society itself, by its internal contradictions.

p Relations between nature and society are a kind of interaction, which means that not only nature influences the development of society, but society in its turn has an impact on nature.

p The interaction between man and nature differs essentially from that between nature and animals. The latter, as a rule, have to adapt to nature or sometimes they influence it insignificantly by the very fact of their presence. Man, on the contrary, modifies nature, transforms it, adapts it to his own needs and requirements.

p The scale of society’s impact on nature depends on the level achieved by productive forces, on society’s energy potential, and on its technical power. These factors were negligible at the dawn of human existence but they have grown enormously today. The scientific and technological 30 revolution makes the scale of society’s impact on nature particularly great. Now man’s influence on nature is comparable to mighty natural phenomena. For example, when ploughing land, people annually overturn three times as much soil as all the volcanic waste erupted from the Earth over the same period of time.

p A particular feature of the present stage of interaction between society and nature is that today the entire surface of the globe has been drawn into the sphere of man’s activities. He utilises almost all substances making up the Earth’s crust, and almost all the sources of natural energy. Man has even gone beyond the boundaries of the Earth, into outer space.

p In many cases man’s impact on nature is spontaneous and uncontrolled. While pursuing some short-term, specific objectives, man sometimes cannot foresee the undesirable consequences his interference in nature may have.

p At the present time, the increased scale of man’s impact on nature and its negative consequences have resulted in the emergence of many extremely complicated problems.

p One of these problems is the limited nature of the Earth’s natural resources and the necessity of replenishing many of them, and of artificially producing what man requires. Today, experts are unanimous that the reserves of fuel (oil, coal and gas) and of mineral resources in general, are near- 31 ing exhaustion, though there are some differences of opinion on the overall estimates of the globe’s resources and of how long they will last. In a number of countries there is an acute shortage of natural resources, such as fresh water, pure air and particularly soil, on which human life is directly dependent. To supply the population and industry with fresh water, the governments of several Middle East countries have been planning very expensive and technically complicated projects, involving the transportation of icebergs by waterways from the Antarctic. As the Earth’s population grows and world production increases, natural resources (especially if their use is not brought under control) will gradually be exhausted, for they are as limited as is the size of the globe.

p One of the most complex problems facing society today is the growing pollution and destruction of the environment. Industrial waste and exhaust gases ejected by cars pollute the air with poisonous chemical substances; the quantity of carbon dioxide in the air increases, and the quantity of oxygen diminishes. The Earth’s soil layer and the World Ocean are also being poisoned and destroyed, as a result of which entire species of animals and plants arc dying out. The various types of pollution upset the equilibrium that has been created in nature over millions of years, destroy the existing harmony of different 32 natural processes, and threaten the very existence of man. An ecological crisis looms large.  [32•1 

p Science is faced with the problem of studying and forecasting all the possible effects man’s activities may have on nature, and elaborating and implementing radical measures to avert the negative results of these effects. Man’s practical attitude to nature should be based on the knowledge and application of its objective laws. Man must treat nature with care. He must study its laws as thoroughly as possible, and act accordingly. Marxists believe that it is in this spirit that people, and especially the younger generation should be educated.

p While the scale of man’s influence on nature depends on the level of productive forces, the character of this influence depends primarily on the socio-economic system. The main culprit of the impending ecological crisis is capitalism. Over the years of its existence, production for the sake of profit, militarisation of the economy and the spirit of egoism and acquisition have caused immense damage to nature.

p The crisis of the natural environment, which now threatens capitalist countries, has been de- 33 veloping over many decades owing to the chaotic use of natural resources. It is closely related to the present general crisis stage of the capitalist system ; together with the financial and energy crises, and other such phenomena, it bears witness to the constant and ever deepening decay of capitalism.

p Monopolies are essentially characterised by a predatory approach not only to labour resources, but also to natural wealth as a whole. In addition, harsh competition makes big capital economise on the cost of production, and hence, on environmental protection measures.

p Powerful corporations launch production in the developing countries, where environmental problems have not yet become as acute as, say, in the USA, West Germany and other developed capitalist countries, and where, and this is most important for monopolies, the legislation on environmental protection is not yet very effective. In this way, new geographical regions are constantly being drawn into the sphere of the ecological crisis.

p Since monopolies represent the main source of damage to the environment and the chief obstacle to reaching a solution to this problem, the struggle to protect the environment has become part of the broad anti-monopoly movement led by the working class, the most advanced and organised social force of bourgeois society.

p .! 1143

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p Immense damage is done to the natural environment by the arms race and imperialist wars.

p As hostilities in Vietnam and the Middle East have proved, modern weapons not only impose suffering on the peaceful civilian population, but can also completely destroy what nature has created over the centuries and what man has been building for his own benefit for many generations. It is well known that the war in Vietnam waged by US imperialists caused great damage to nature, destroying vast tracts of the jungle and contaminating reservoirs and rice fields.

p The arms race and production of mass destruction weapons causes damage to the natural environment. Radioactive fall-out caused by nuclear bomb tests pollutes the atmosphere, and the disposal of chemical and radioactive waste from the production of weapons of mass annihilation contaminates the waters of the World Ocean. Taking such weapons into outer space and the use of near-Earth space for the preparation of a thermonuclear war is very dangerous. If a thermonuclear war were to break out, it would not only wipe out the overwhelming majority of mankind, but will also make our planet unfit for any kind of life.

p However, if only some of the many billions of dollars senselessly spent on the arms race were to be allocated for nature conservation, most of the 35 vital problems involved could be successfully solved.

p Even under socialism, the problem of environmental protection and the rational use of natural resources may become very serious. But the approach to it and the opportunities for its solution differ fundamentally from those under capitalism.

p Socialism, with its social ownership of the means of production and its planned economy, ensures as a whole the necessary interaction between society and nature, and makes it possible to outline and implement scientifically-based measures to preserve nature.

p The Communist Party and Soviet state have always shown concern for the thoughtful use and replenishment of natural resources, in order that they would suffice not only for the present generation of Soviet people, but also for future ones.

p The Soviet Union was the first country to implement extensive government measures to protect and transform nature. In the very first years after the Revolution when civil war was still raging, several laws on the protection of the environment were adopted on Lenin’s initiative.

p A system of special legislation to protect the environment has been adopted in the Soviet Union. As the economy develops, and towns and industrial centres grow, the Soviet state increases allocations for this purpose. The country’s 36 policy to make rational use of natural resources and a caring attitude towards the environment in general was formalised in documents adopted at CPSU congresses, in the Soviet Constitution (Arts. 18 and 67), and in Party and government resolutions. At the December 1983 Plenary Meeting of the CPSU Central Committee it was noted that the present scale and development rate of productive forces require a new approach to be taken to the protection of the environment and the efficient utilisation of natural resources. This is a task of enormous economic and social significance, for it ultimately involves the people’s health and the careful, thrifty utilisation of the country’s national wealth. Moreover, the future is also involved. The conditions under which future generations will have to live depend on how these problems are dealt with today.

p The problem of protecting the environment from depletion and devastation has now assumed global proportions. It now faces everyone throughout the entire world, both in developed and developing countries and in capitalist and socialist nations alike. Pollution of the environment has ceased to be a domestic problem of each individual state, since wind and water currents carry toxic substances all over the planet regardless of state borders. Suffice it to say that the USA is responsible for discharging into the atmosphere almost half of the world’s industrial waste.

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p Many industrialised capitalist countries have erected extra-high smokestacks to prevent waste from falling out in places where industry is concentrated. This is the case in Great Britain, where the air in industrial areas has indeed become cleaner but southerly and south-westerly winds have carried the smoke from these stacks to Scandinavia. Fish have died there in hundreds of lakes and rivers, the growth of forests has been retarded, and the soil, which was never very rich, has become still poorer.

p No country is secure from the threat of pollution even if it has no developed industry of its own.

Therefore, joint efforts by all peoples and governments are needed to conserve nature throughout the globe and ensure the possibility of life for future generations. The Soviet government was the first to call on all countries to co-operate towards this cause. Such co-operation exists today among the countries of the world socialist community within the framework of the CMEA. The Soviet Union and other socialist countries also take an active part in various inter-governmental programmes on the protection of the environment within the framework of the United Nations. Much is being done in this respect on the basis of bilateral agreements concluded by the USSR with France, Finland, and other countries.