8.4. Ecology and environment

Since ancient times Nature has served Man being the source of his life. For thousands of years people lived in harmony with environment and it seemed to them that natural riches were unlimited. But with the development of civilization man's interference in nature began to increase.

In the 20th century with the rapid growth of science and technology human achievements in conquering nature became so great that man's economic activities began to produce an increasingly negative effect on the biosphere.

Large cities with thousands of smoky industrial enterprises appear all over the world today. The by-products of their activity pollute the air we breath, the water we drink, the land we grow grain and vegetables. Every year world industry pollutes the atmosphere with about 1000 million tons of dust and other harmful substances. Many cities suffer from smog. Vast forests are cut and burnt in fire. Their disappearance upsets the oxygen balance. As a result some rare species of animals, birds, fish and plants disappear forever, a number of rivers and lakes dry up.

Environmental pollution has become a significant obstacle to economic growth. The discharge of dust and gas into the atmosphere returns to the Earth in the form of "acid rain" and affects crops, the quality of forests, the amount offish. To this we can add the rise of chemicals, radioactivity, noise and other types of pollution.

Economic, social, technological and biological processes have become so interdependent that modem production must be seen as a complex economic system. It is wrong to see economy and ecology as diametrically opposed such an approach inevitably leads to one extreme or the other.

The most horrible ecological disaster befell Belarus and its people as a result of the Chernobyl tragedy in April 1986. About 18 per cent of the territory of Belarus were polluted with radioactive substances. A great damage has been done to the republic's agriculture, forests and people's health. The consequences of this explosion at the atomic power station are tragic for the Belorussian nation.

Environmental protection is a universal concern, that is why serious measures to create a system of ecological security should be taken.

Some progress has already been made in this direction. As many as 159 countries - members of the UNO - have set up environmental protection agencies. To discuss questions of ecologically poor regions including the Aral Sea, the South Urals, Kuzbass, Donbass, Semipalatinsk and Chernobyl. The international environmental research center has been set up on Lake Baikal. The international organization Greenpeace is also doing much to preserve the environment.

But these are only the initial steps and they must be carried forward to protect nature to save life on the planet not only for the sake of the present but also for the future generation.

Developing a resource management plan

All projects require resources, from the smallest to the largest. Resources in this case does not mean just people; it means all the physical resources required to complete the project. This includes people, equipment, supplies, materials, software, hardware – and the list goes on depending on the project you're working on. Resource Planning is the process of determin­ing what physical resources are needed, and in what quantity, to perform project activities.

Developing a resource management plan encompasses several processes including Resource Planning, Organizational Planning, Staff Acquisition, Solicitation Planning, and Procurement Planning. The combined outputs from these processes will comprise your resource management plan. We'll cover Solicitation Planning and Procurement Planning in the next chapter.