2. ENVIRONMENTAL ChEMISTRy & TEChNOLOGy 2.1. Lectures
2. ENVIRONMENTAL ChEMISTRy & TEChNOLOGy 2.1. Lectures
2. ENVIRONMENTAL ChEMISTRy & TEChNOLOGy 2.1. Lectures
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Chem. Listy, 102, s265–s1311 (2008) Environmental Chemistry & Technology<br />
P43 RISKS FACTORS OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT<br />
AS ENVIRONMENT FOR MANAGEMENT<br />
IVAn MAŠEK a and JAROMíR nOVáK b<br />
a Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, Purkynova<br />
118, Brno, 612 00, Czech Republic,<br />
b Palacký University Olomouc, Philosophical Faculty, Krizkovskeho<br />
12, Olomouc, 771 80, Czech Republic,<br />
masek@fch.vutbr.cz<br />
Introduction<br />
All things, phenomena, and processes have their own<br />
causes and consequences. They bring along pros and cons;<br />
they can be controlled and chaotic, can and cannot be influenced.<br />
Social development has been getting more and more<br />
complicated, undergoing fast changes; being difficult to predict.<br />
If the last century was said to be a century of changes,<br />
this feature will be more significant and determining for further<br />
development. There is more and more urgent need to ask<br />
questions about further development and search for answers<br />
to them. What is our future going to be like? What factors<br />
are there going to become determinants for further phenomena<br />
and processes management? It is necessary to deal with<br />
negative consequences of our decision making processes. For<br />
the purpose of this contribution, concerning the topic of the<br />
conference, We are going to try to briefly describe some of<br />
the crucial factors development, which could be considered<br />
as risks.<br />
Authors think that everybody can be influenced by them,<br />
as well as influence them him/herself. This concerns especially<br />
those people who manage.<br />
Risk factors<br />
F a c t o r 1 – P o p u l a t i o n<br />
A c c u m u l a t i o n D y n a m i c s<br />
The number of the Earth population grows unevenly,<br />
especially in materially immature countries. In materially<br />
mature countries the birth rate is descending, there are a<br />
growing number of seniors. This will evoke changes in processes<br />
as well as in number and quality of human population,<br />
its behaviour and migration.<br />
Population aging will influence its integration into<br />
economic and other socially significant processes. Social<br />
and health systems, material and non-material needs, such<br />
as boarding, dressing, hygiene, travelling, free time, home<br />
equipment; relationship between people and generations will<br />
change. Country defence potential will change, too.It is a big<br />
difference between the needs to negate poverty with a lack of<br />
capital and material production, and, on the contrary, to offer<br />
capital and material production to poverty.<br />
F a c t o r 2 – I n e q u a l i t y o f t h e W o r l d<br />
W e a l t h<br />
There are a few countries that experience a relative prosperity.<br />
On the other hand it is estimated that up to two billions<br />
of people suffer absolute poverty. There are about fifteen<br />
s420<br />
countries on the planet which record growth, but more than a<br />
hundred countries record descent or stagnation. According to<br />
some records there are 85 % shopping expenses for 20 % of<br />
the richest people. On the other hand 20 % of the poorest people<br />
must settle for 1.1 % of the world incomes (as compared<br />
to 1.4 % in 1991 and <strong>2.</strong>3 in 1960).<br />
More than a billion people do not have access to medical<br />
services, basic education or drinkable water, two billions<br />
do not have electricity and 80 % of the world population do<br />
not have the slightest possibility to telecommunicate and this<br />
access new information and communication technologies,<br />
which can, for example, enable distant studies.<br />
It has also been found out that if the world population<br />
used the same ways of development and consumption as<br />
north America, we would need three planets like the Earth<br />
is.<br />
The gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger.<br />
On one side there are great chances to balance the inequalities,<br />
and on the other side they are being deepened. The problems<br />
of justice are to be seriously dealt with. The poor can<br />
not pay for the prosperity of the rich.<br />
The inequalities are deepened not only among countries,<br />
or the north and the South, but also among people inside the<br />
countries. For instance, in the USA the rate between the highest<br />
and the lowest salaries has risen from 35 multiple up to<br />
150 multiple within the last 20 years. We witness deepening<br />
of inequalities even here in our republic. Is it right for the<br />
poor to contribute the rich? How long will it last to the poor<br />
to start taking from the rich or at least make their wealth less<br />
pleasant? There are such cases and most probably there will<br />
be more and more of them.<br />
F a c t o r 3 – T h e E n v i r o n m e n t<br />
Pressure caused by human activities having impact<br />
on nature systems is huge. Generally, it is connected with<br />
great material movement. Unrenewable resources are being<br />
fatigued, wasted, species of fauna and flora perish, water<br />
and air are being polluted, and number of natural as well as<br />
human-caused disasters is growing.<br />
There have been mostly warning and non-optimistic statements<br />
published in the last few years. They are often contradictory.<br />
Yet, they have something in common – they make<br />
us think and act. Acting in the sense of adequate performance<br />
does not appear very often. It is so for many reasons.<br />
Europe, as well as other continents, is going to face<br />
droughts and floods. Water level of seas can rise up to one<br />
meter. There is a threat of devastating winds. World map is<br />
expected to change.<br />
According to the Living Planet Report, published by<br />
the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), standards of our lives can<br />
collapse in three decades. It is because we have been withdrawing<br />
from the planet every year up to one fifth more than<br />
the planet is able to renew. If the development continues this<br />
way, the biological capacity withdrawal deficit will reach up<br />
to 220 % in the half of the century.