From July 13, 2009, to August 5, 2009, in the Documents of International Organizations Reading Room of the National Library of Belarus (the second floor, room 207g) is open a book exhibition “Ecological challenges: looking into the future”.
In the XXI century the world ecology has become a global issue that scientists all aver the world are trying to solve. Humanity faces today a variety of local, regional and global ecological issues. Ozone layer collapsing, forest extinction, pollution of atmosphere, urbanization, radioactive and electromagnetic contamination, smog formation, build-up of waste, climatic change – all these issues claim for joint efforts of different international organizations, governments and the world community on the whole.
During the history, especially in the XX century humanity has destroyed about 70 percent of natural ecological systems on the planet. According to experts’ opinion, in 30-50 years an irreversible process may begin to cause a global ecological catastrophe. That is why the study and dissemination of information on the environmental breaking point is utterly important to change and improve the situation.
Ecological issues are a challenge to human mind. It’s impossible to dodge them; they are to be solved - solved by the effort of every citizen and every country with the object of life-saving of the Earth. Most experts suggest the following measures for ecological issues solving: application of nonpolluting, low-waste and nonwaste technologies; construction of treatment facilities; efficient location of industries and use of natural resources. However, the improvement of ecological culture of a person and serious ecological education are undoubtedly the most important measure to solve the ecological issues and challenges the modern civilization has to face.
The exhibition acquaints visitors with the main international legal documents concerning safekeeping of natural resources; reports on the environment in the whole world and particular regions; publications on environmental safety and perspectives of a sustainable ecological development. A particular section of the exhibition is dedicated to the ecology in Belarus. There are documents on the national policy in the field of an efficient nature management and environment protection, as well as national reports on realization of the global environmental agreements in the Republic of Belarus.
The exhibition covers the following subjects: the modern state of the environment and natural resources exhaustion; international law in the field of safekeeping of natural resources; analysis of the urgent ecological challenges and problem-solving methods; policy of the Republic of Belarus in the filed of nature management and environment protection.
At the exhibition are displayed more than 70 documents of international organizations (the UNO, UNESCO, European Union, Council of Europe etc.) in Russian and English languages: books, periodicals, mimeographed materials of the UNO, brochures and booklets.
The exhibition is designed for scientists, students, specialists in environment protection and everyone who is interested in the urgent issues of ecology.
