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I believe that, for the in-depth discussion of these problems, it would be expedient to hold an in-
ternational conference in Moscow on the stabilization of the present-day climate with the use of
new technologies. The idea of holding such a conference has received the support of President
Dmitry Medvedev.
Viktor Danilov-Danilyan,
Director of the Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
The main areas where processes threatening civilization are taking place are, of course, climate,
fresh water, forests, desertification, and biodiversity. These are the five main areas.
In all of these interconnected areas, the only way to normalize the situation and give hope for sur-
vival is to reduce the anthropogenic impact on the environment. One of the hindrances is the ne-
cessity to divert resources from economic growth in its traditional sense to the protection of the
biosphere. This is where international politics should step in.
I'd like to note that there are economic ways of promoting ethical transformation. I'm referring to
the "internalization of external effects" that was discovered almost a hundred years ago by Arthur
Pigou. It refers to bringing inside a system something that was initially outside.
The main thing is that global value shift from the focus on the value of money to the focus on the
value of the biosphere should begin with public awareness work.
Thus one should support all initiatives and proposals on activating market mechanisms for solving
environmental problems.
Elena Bukvareva,
senior researcher at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Candidate of
Sciences (Biology):
The mechanisms of consuming biospheric resources changed greatly in the second half of the
20th century. As a result, people have transformed ecosystems more rapidly and intensively over
the past 50 years than in any other comparable historical period.
Modern man continues to systematically destroy living nature and natural ecosystems. Politicians
have been unable to stop this process so far.
The end result is that losses from the destabilization of the natural environment become a major
factor in national and global economies. In certain countries, these losses are already comparable
or surpass the annual growth of the GDP, preventing these countries from developing in a sus-
tainable fashion. If this destabilization of the natural environment continues, it will become a major
obstacle to the further economic development of the global community.
Would you agree that genetically modified products are connected with environmental problems?
The importance of what you said is already becoming apparent today. It is necessary to change
the ethics of human behavior and devote a lot of more attention to environmental protection.
Oleg Kalimulin,
consultant to the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate of
the Russian Orthodox Church:
This year, the Russian Orthodox Church through its Department for External Church Relations
has begun to take an active and fundamental interest in environmental problems. For the first time
in its history, the Russian Church has decided to formulate its stance on the entire range of envi-
ronmental issues. All in all, this is completely new for the Church: the environment is a domain in
which the Church had never formulated its stance before. In other words, we are creating this area
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