A global geochemical database for enviromental and resource managment / Глобальная геохимическая база данных для рационального использования ресурсов и окружающей среды

“Prevention is better than cure” has been the leitmotiv of UNESCO, since its creation, in addressing world problems: prevention through education at all levels and in all sectors, the advancement of science and its applications, cultural development and adequate information. Whether in facing wars, conflicts or in coping with hazards, natural and technological in origin, UNESCO has constantly favoured an educational, scientific and cultural approach that sees anticipation as the only possible solution. It is the only possible cost-effective way of dealing with potential risks and disasters. It is of vital importance that the world community takes the long-term view and learns to be proactive rather than reactive.

Because of the growing demands on mineral and energy resources, water, soils and materials, problems of pollution and waste disposal, on a scale never seen before, and the rise of megacities and human settlements vulnerable to natural and anthropogenic hazards, we require more knowledge of the structure, composition and dynamics of the earth’s crust and of effects upon human life-support systems. A better understanding of natural physical and chemical fluctuations influencing the environment is important in order to elucidate the role of the lithosphere in global change.

There is now a general awareness among policy-makers, planners and the public at large that the environment is inextricably interlinked with economic development and that the present environmental degradation could threaten our very survival. Fortunately, there also seems to be a widespread political will to translate these concerns into action necessary to bring about “sustainable and environmentally sound development”, as advocated in the Brundtland Report of 1987. <...>