Wholesale computerization, biotechnology, and the multple recycling of resources, among other things, are opening up a basically new phase in the material and intellectual progress of our civilization. It may be arbitrarily called ecodevelopment.

Ecodevelopment is a process of the rational and purposeful transformation of the environment in the interests of man. These are not immediate consumer interests but long-term goals. they will help Homo sapiens (Man thinking) to become Homo felix (Man happy). The basic objective of an ecologically balanced strategy of development is the maximum correspondence between a planet natural environment and the needs of mankind.

Ecodevelopment is a complex of problems - economic, social, political, philosophical, moral and ethical.

During the last four decades every 15 years the output of goods and services in the world doubled. So did the amount of industrial wastes. Well-fed and smartly dressed people, buying more and more cars and other durable goods gradually came to realize that life amid noise, smog and dead rivers and lakes is far from being pleasant. Life became increasingly abnormal, its material values declining and deteriorating. The devastation of nature gradually led to the loss of the most essential element of existence - a healthy biological habitat. People striving to attain an immediate objective in disregard of natural laws simply destroy nature. Environmental pollution destroys the human habitat and thus enhances the incidence of disease and raises the cost of medical services. The increase in the rate of sickness also reduces the available labour resources. It is hard to believe that about half of the world's population is suffering from a shortage of drinking water. Machine-included soil degradation has assumed a global character. Two-thirds of the globe's forests have been erased from the face of the Earth during the last ten thousand years.

Each year mankind extracts thousands of millions of tons of minerals and and organic substances from the earth. Only ten per cent of this mass is put to use. The rest is returned to nature as wastes, mostly harmful wastes.

Thus mankind's main task is to develop technologies as similar to natural processes as possible. The fact is that nature wastes nothing. Production must utilize all substances present during a technologcal progress. The multiple use of raw materials makes it possible to increase the output of the end product, reduce the extraction of natural resources and thus improve the ecological situation.

Environmental ignorance inevitably aggravates the conflict between man and nature. It can be avoided by fostering a scientific ecological awareness.At present more attention is being paid to teaching the fundamentals of natural sciences. Some educational institutions are training ecologists. Lectures on nature conservation are included in the curriculum at colleges and universities. Much is being done to encourage people to take an active part in nature protection. The love of nature and of everything living around us is an indispensable part of humanism, of man's lofty calling in the Earth.

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