Issue #1, 2021
PROBLEMS OF ECOLOGY, EDUCATION, ECOLOGICAL CULTURE, EARTH SCIENCES
Can we expand the range of our responses to COVID-19 and impending pandemics? (Preface to the Issue)
The COVID19 pandemic has already caused individual and societal health, economic consequences worldwide like no other event since the end of WWII. What is still to come to mankind, e.g. as a result of mutants, cannot be seriously predicted. The forecasts, which have been predicting mantralike for a year that we would live again in three weeks like in 2019, if only we all strictly comply with all conditions, are so unsatisfactory that the demand for a new U.S. facility has been raised — linked with the demand to also question the entire strategy. Are we really prepared for the next — and be it artificially produced — SARSCoV2mutants as well as would be possible with the scientifically available means? And how do we prevent the next pandemic with an as yet completely unknown pathogen? These questions are addressed in this article, various articles in this issue, and the planned focus issue. The approach currently adopted by governments worldwide assumes that any epidemic can be prevented if contact between infected persons and all infectious persons is prevented in an ideal manner. These measures must be enforced by any means necessary until the (world) population has been immunized by vaccination to a sufficient extent and on a permanent basis. From a theoretical point of view, this seems conclusive. But is this feasible in our nonideal world and with which consequences? In addition, it is questionable to what extent it corresponds to reality if no reference is made to the individual influences of the relationship between the virus and the cells to be infected as well as their influenceability by personal social, cultural, economic, etc. factors. Influencing variables are not referred to. It is possible that these hitherto unconsidered areas provide options for additional protective measures. Taking into account the classical knowledge of physiology, epidemiology, social medicine and humanitarian science, it seems necessary to assume dynamic and modifiable processes extending over several levels of different «age» from an evolutionary point of view. This needs to be taken into account: This issue therefore presents some contributions for relevant subaspects, e. g., on basics of nonspecific physiological processes and the different relevance of identical stresses depend ing on e. g., circadian rhythms, holistic principles of human health preserving, formation of individual ecological culture. This paper is also intended to introduce the two parts of the planned focus issue on COVID19: Part one deals with problemoriented possibilities that open up the different processes from occurrence of the pathogen via transmission in the environment to possible contact between infected and infectable person as a prerequisite for the possible approach of an infection of a cell e.g. of the nasal mucosa and further to a possible disease with different outcome. Major conclusions leading to a fundamental expansion of options in the fight against SARSCoV2 (and other pathogens) and COVID19 are presented. They go beyond the proposals that are now available and that have been put forward as solutions from different approaches, e.g., by the S20 or the Independent Panel Each approach claims to be suitable to end the «Era of Pandemics». None makes reference to other «global solutions». One reason for this is seen in the fact that the different disciplines are not interconnectable for methodological reasons. However, the meaningfulness of these approaches would be greatly enhanced if the different approaches could be understood as subsets of a common basic set. Einstein proved that this can be achieved in practice with the technique of principle theories. The second part of the special issue is devoted to this approach for COVID. There, the relevance of the individual processes is also discussed: it is always a concrete person who falls ill, not society — no matter how important the societal, social, economic, cultural, etc. factors are. Key words: COVID19, pandemics, holistic principles of health preservation, ecological culture.
Ecological Culture and The Principle of Universalism
Within the discussion line of the problems concerning formation of ecological culture the factor of application of universal, ontological criteria for giving the ecological analysis the supreme nonaccidental and responsible is additionally emphasized. The weak potential of educational systems in terms of forming a culture of thinking and general reflexive selforganization under conditions of local and global crises is taken into account. Keywords: culture of thinking, ecological culture, education, universalism, humanity, civilization
The proposed material is intended for a commemorative issue. The paper is based on a rethinking of ideas that were developed by the author as a chief researcher under the guidance of prof. Stanislav Nikolaevich Glazachev during the period of professional activity at the Interuniversity Center for Environmental Education Technologies, M.A.Sholokhov Moscow State Humanitarian University (2005–2015). The author offers some phenomenological reflections and a number of practical conclusions. The research was aimed at the development of interactive didactic technologies for the formation of ecological culture in students. Ideas have been repeatedly revealed in our publications. The author asks the reader not to consider sections of the article as a kind of repetition. On the contrary, this is a very relevant interpretation, based on the integration of early obtained results. Keywords: ecological culture of a person, ecooriented worldview, ecooriented values, ecooriented personality, ecooriented activity.
Didactic Model of Environmental Development of Personality Based on the Principle of Polyculturality
Approaches to the design of a didactic model of the ecological development of a personality based on the principle of polyculturalism are determined. The main content modules of the developed didactic model of the ecological development of a personality are characterized, including the modules « ecological culturology», «environmental culture of a personality», «environmental ethics», aesthetic, ethnocultural modules, module «ecological study of local lore» (culturological perspec tive). The model provides the formation of students\' knowledge about the culturological foundations of ecological development, ecocultural values; about nature as aesthetic value and value of culture; about the relationship between ethnos and nature, about ethnocultural traditions, moral norms of interaction with nature; environmental culture of a personality. Keywords: environmental culture of a personality, didactic model, humanitarian ecology, environmental ethics, ethnopedagogy, multiculturalism
Ecological Culture in The Multicultural Discourse of The Educational Space
The article considers the phenomenon of ecological culture of the individual in the perspective of the new concept of «ecocultural identity», reflecting the multicultural discourse of modern education and acting as a condition for productive ecooriented behavior. Keywords: ecological culture, eсocultural identity, ecological education, educational space.
COVID-19: «Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste (W. Churchill)» (Position Paper)
With the establishment of International SciencePolicy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) the UN created a fundamental extension in the understanding of current and future policy challenges: In addition to the sectoral approaches (WHO, UNEP, UNESCO, UNIDO etc.), there was a need for an institution that evaluates the problems and the options for solving them in terms of their appropriate contribution to future sustainability. This succeeds best if the positions of the «others» are also taken into account with the special «sympathy» recognized by Darwin as a trait of advanced human person. If this succeeds, then particularly diverse networks form — as if by themselves — with surprising positive ecosystem performance and quality of life. Unfortunately, if the needs of the involved actors are not taken into account enough, surprising adverse consequences can also be expected. Thus, for these reasons, we are in an era of pandemics because too little attention has been paid to the individual habitat needs of wildlife and people. COVID19 is just one of the possibilities: Over 800,000 other virus species could lead to more pandemics in the short term. This existential threat was not even an argument for the creation of IPBES. Today, it affects the daily lives of virtually everyone. Nevertheless, it is to be expected that the logically reasonable rebalancing in decisionmaking processes will fail in practice due to countless arguments that seem superficial in the short term. However, the personal involvement of COVID19 gives hope that then pressure of the catastrophe will make it possible for the changeover process to be started in concrete terms. But additional measures must be taken if COVID19 is really to be the last pandemic. To this end, the current defining approach of preventing contact between the infectious and the infectable until the world\\\'s population is vaccinated, as important as that access is, is not enough. But, for example, without exploiting the possibilities of activating viruses in the environment and, in particular, systematically exploiting the possibilities of nonspecific defense, it will not be possible to end the pandemic. Keywords: humanity, pandemic, COVID19, nonspecific protection, ecosystem services
Marine Ecosystem Crisis Caused by Plastic Pollution
Currently, the world\'s oceans are becoming increasingly polluted with plastic. Focused specifically on microplastics, a cause of marine pollution, which is a rapidly surfacing crisis with an adverse impact on the survival of marine ecosystems and human health, this study aims to examine the importance of smart environmental education as a driving force for change in human awareness, in order to prevent the undesirable knockon and cyclical effects of microplastics on marine ecosystems and human society. Keywords: Plastic pollution, marine ecosystems, SDGs, smart environment education
In 2011, there was a tragic accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant (Japan). If we compare the accidents at Fukushima and Chernobyl, the difference is following: in Chernobyl, all the waste was thrown into the air at once, in Fukushima, its expiration in a much larger volume continues slowly stretching out for decades. Both here and there the information is given to the public in portioned and incomplete form. Will the decision to drain radioactive water into the ocean become the «Versailles» of the twentyfirst century?! This Fukushima waste contains tritium (halflife of 12 years), carbon 14 (decay time of more than five thousand years), iodine129 (decay time of 16 million years) and other radioactive nuclides. It was considered and decided to drain the radioactive water from the Fukushima tanks which is more than one million cubic meters into the global ocean. At the same time, the real situation about radioactive nuclides in tanks at Fukushima is not reliably known to the global society. Japanese specialists prevent specialists from other countries from going there. It is beyond argument that this decontaminated water of Fukushima does not require draining into the ocean but requires additional serious processing on the basis of new, breakthrough technologies. It is necessary to develop modern computer models for predicting the consequences of the drain of radioactive water into the ocean. Keywords: accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, drain of nuclear power plant radioactive water into the ocean, liquid radioactive waste, ecosystems, mutations, breakthrough technologies.
MEDICAL AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Psychosomatic Health: Holistic Approach
The article substantiates the prospects of using a holistic approach to maintaining and strengthening the human psychosomatic health. The holistic approach is associated here with evidencebased clinical medicine, rather than, as is often the case, with alternative medical practices. The author demonstrates that the holistic approach is closely connected with the systemic vision of the human organism, its consideration as a complex system or a risky structure in accordance with the conception of selforganized criticality within the framework of systems science. To understand psychosomatic health, the methodological significance of the conception of enactivism in modern cognitive science is also shown. Keywords: enactivism, mindbody problem, psychosomatics, selforganized criticality, complex systems, holism, holistic medicine.
Prospects for Adaptive Medicine Techniques in The Era of The New Coronavirus Pandemic
The pandemic of coronavirus infection has become a reality, in which along with reasonable methods of SARS-Cov-2 control (vaccination, timely detection of new virus strains, distancing, means of individual protection, etc.) it is necessary to form a broader view onto the problem, taking into account economic, psychological, medical and social aspects. From the point of view of solving public health problems, it is evident the relevance to substantiate and popularize widely accessible nonmedicinal means of prevention and health promotion, reduction of risk of adverse outcomes of COVID-19 infection, weakening of negative influence for selfisolation, recreational restrictions on human health. Such means may be approaches/methods of adaptive medicine, among which are individually adjusted physical activity/exercising, technolo gies of systemic thermal influences/hyperthermia, hypoxic conditioning. The paper analyzes physiological and molecular biochemical mechanisms of crossadaptive effects formation in the application of the indicated approaches, determining the reduction of the infection probability and development of COVID19 infection complications, effective rehabilitation of patients with post-Covid syndrome, as well as maintenance of psychosomatic human health in modern conditions of high epidemic and ecosocial risks. Keywords: pandemic, coronavirus infection, adaptive medicine, postCOVID syndrome, cross effects of adaptation.
The International Committee on Nomenclature of the International Society for Chronobiology (ISC) in 1977 formally adopted the definition «chronobiology» as «Chronobiology: science objectively quantifying and investigating mechanisms of biologic time structure, including rhythmic manifestations of life». It also adopted the definition of «circadian» as «Circadian: relating to biologic variations or rhythms with a frequency of 1 cycle in 24±4 hours; circa (about, approximately) and dies (day or 24 hours). Note: term describes rhythms with an about 24hour cycle length, whether they are frequency synchronized with (acceptable) environmental schedules (24hour periodic or other) or are desynchronized or freerunning from the local environmental time scale, with periods of slightly yet consistently different from 24 hours» [Chronobiologia 1977; 4 (Suppl. 1), 189 pp.]. The beginnings of chronobiology as a discipline in its own right are recounted, with emphasis on the critical role played by Franz Halberg to provide all the needed ingredients for the new science to develop and strive, from gathering a critical mass of data in cooperation with colleagues worldwide to developing inferential statistical methods for their analysis and interpretation. By unveiling lawful variations within the physiological range, Halberg\'s clear vision that they have farreaching implications for health and disease has been vindicated, now that a molecular mechanism of circadian rhythms has been documented and the role played by the suprachiasmatic nuclei and clock genes in the periphery continues to be better understood. Chronobiology, however, encompasses more than just circadian rhythms. Evidence is presented herein for the endogenicity of the aboutweekly (circaseptan) rhythm, documented in unicells and early in human life. How they can be used to further optimize treatment timing is illustrated in a few examples, notably in relation to cancer. Keywords: сhronobiology, circadian rhythms, clock genes, suprachiasmatic nuclei, circaseptan rhythms
PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, TECHNICAL SCIENCES, EXACT SCIENCES
Modern Charged Particle Gas Pedals and Their Applications
The paper reviews the application accelerators in different scientific and technical investigations, and industry. The many possibilities these methods give for the exact determination of elemental abundances in different samples, the production of radioisotopes for medicine, and the manufacturing of nuclear membranes. These applications of nuclear radiation prove that they can be widely used in solving a great variety of problems, including ecological safety. Keywords: charged particle gas pedals, nuclear physics, microcosm, acceleration methods, safety
HUMANITARIAN SCIENCES
Ecologization of Consciousness — a Necessary Condition of The Imperative Global Security
The article considers the problem of ecologization of the consciousness of modern society, the solution of which is a necessary condition for ensuring the global security of the development of civilization in the XXI century. It is shown that this problem is becoming a key one in the context of the growing complex of global threats that are currently manifesting themselves in the natural, economic, social and humanitarian spheres, as well as in the field of international relations. Their further development may lead to the extinction of humanity as a biological species in the second half of the XXI century. To counteract these threats, it is necessary to form a new scientific direction — the ecology of consciousness. The structure of the subject area of this direction and the content of priority tasks are given. Keywords: global security, security imperative, crisis of civilization, ecology of consciousness.
Thesaurus Approach of Shakespearean Studies
The background for Shakespearean studies gains importance in interdisciplinary context. The thesaurus approach of studying Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and the daily life of his epoch helps to concentrate on the aspect of interdisciplinary studies of Shakespeare\'s creative works. Following this task, the author of the article researches the key areas of Shakespearean studies. Today, Shakespeare is not only the genius of AngloSaxon literature, but also one of the pillars of AngloAmerican educational system both at school and at university. Shakespearean studies have long gone beyond the framework of the Englishspeaking cultures. Turning to Shakespeare, researchers of the largest educational centers of the world study not only the literature of the late Renaissance period, the evolution of Shakespearean poetics in the context of world culture, Shakespearean reminiscences on national literature; not only the development of dramaturgy, the history of the theatre, music, the cinema, but also other disciplines seemingly unconnected to the world artistic culture. The research oriented at philosophical understanding of the great playwright\'s work has gained special significance for scientific and teaching activity. Studying Shakespeare\'s work in the 21st Century is closely connected to the Internet and information technologies. In a sense, the thesaurus approach in modern humanities should be transformed and become a method of analyzing the concepts and conceptospheres that form thesauri. Keywords: W. Shakespeare; thesaurus approach; method; analysis; interdisciplinarity; Vаlery Andreevich Lukov; VladimirAndreevich Lukov; Shakespearean studies
Formation of The Ecological Culture of Students in a Multicultural Educational Environment
The article considers the experience of implementing the program of ecooriented multicultural project activity in a multicultural educational environment in the formation of the ecological culture of students. Keywords: ecological culture, multicultural approach, ecocultural identity, project activity, multicultural education.