Geografie 1974, 79, 122-131
Geography, Environment, an Its Political and International Aspects
The environment is a part of the world which man is in interaction, i. e. which he uses and to which he adapts himself. A substantial part of that world is the geographical environment, one of the permanent and indispensable conditions of the development of human society and the material life of people. Besides natural historical and technical problems there are by no means less important problems of ethics, culture, internal and foreign policy, problems of peace and war, and, above all, problems falling into the sphere of historical materialism, whose solution reveals a different understanding and the class essence of the problems of environment in different social systems - in the worlds of socialism, capitalism, and developing countries. The set of problems concerning the environment is of a complex and system-like character; the phenomena and processes falling into the scientific and technical spheres and political activities mentioned above influence and percolate each other. A number of those relations, phenomena and processes are reflected in the landscape - the geographical sphere of the Earth - changing and tainting the ecology of the geographical landscape. The continual character of the geographical sphere, in which there occur most various forms and ways of material and energy exchange, can result in a deterioration of the conditions of the environment of a certain landscape, but this unfavourable influence can in turn be transferred to more or less distant regions or even across the boundaries of states. Geography - a system of sciences of geophysical, natural historical, socioeconomic and technical characters - as a sole science competent to study the landscape both as a complex and as a system, can, therefore, substantially contribute to the solution of problems of the protection of the landscape and of the environment. Besides, geography as a subject of the secondary school can guarantee the education af the young generation for the protection of environment in a complex and integrating way. The author further deals with scientific and technical, ecological and socio-political aspects of environment. He points out the advantages of the socialist political and economic systems in solving the problems of environment in contrast to the capitalist system, as in the socialist countries the creation and protection of the environment have become an indispensable assumption of the development of the socialist way of life and both can be guaranteed by the uniform scientific and technical policy of the state. Further the author deals in his paper with international aspects of environment, its international negotiations, and with certain measures for safeguerding a healthy environment on the global scale, which in the forms of resolutions and recommendations were accepted at the 27th plenary session of the U. N., as well as with the measures carried out in the international programme of the countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Aid.
