New technologies and scientific applications are radically modifying man's relationships with nature. Increasingly, man occupies the double and contradictory position of being part of nature as a biological species and at the same time, due to his social organization and his work capacity, of opposing it, impacting it, degrading it and impoverishing its resources.
On many occasions, researchers do not take into account the criteria of their colleagues from other branches who, like them, act on nature without considering the laws that govern nature, thus reducing the importance of integrated work.
The current trends are precisely to recover the negotiations, the management of conflicts between all the entities affected and interested, the search for integrative methodologies that respond to environmental problems.
Introduction
New technologies, the transformation of natural areas into agricultural and livestock areas, etc., are causing the water, air and soil to be excessively altered. Chemical pollutants and organisms that can cause disease are spread in them. The water necessary for our hygiene, to drink and to prepare food is losing its natural characteristics. With the air we not only breathe pollutants but through it we get noise and radiation whose risks are difficult to assess. On the ground, rodents and insects compete with man for food, in addition to acting as disease vectors (OMN1985). It is for all this that an integration between all the managing entities and researchers is necessary to, in some way, put an end to this disaster.
In our environment we face mistaken conceptions of development with the needs of authentic human progress, since environmentally negative economic activities are maintained and the natural resource base deteriorates, causing, with this, attacks on human and environmental health.
According to CEDEAM-ICONA, 1983, "… aspects such as the environment, lifestyle, feeling of fulfillment or personal security condition our state of health, this being the result of the interrelation between the person and the environment…" Very true words that set the standard that health, environment and development should be understood as indissoluble realities.
Therefore, the present work proposes to reconsider how the integration of science is the way to solve environmental problems today, addressing some general considerations about the problems that Science, Technology and Society present in our days and analyzing, in addition, the treatment that is given in Cuba to the subject, specifying in the case of environmental studies, through new methodologies of comprehensive planning of the territories. At the end, a series of general considerations and its conclusions are raised.
Some general questions about science, technology and society
Science and technology have had such a boom, so much development that today many fear that science and technology will destroy the world. Today technology is part of the life system of all societies. Science and technology are adding to the social and political will of societies to control their own destinies, their means and the power to do so. Science and technology are providing society with a wide variety of options as to what the fate of humanity might be.
Technology aims to improve or optimize our control of the real world, so that it responds quickly and predictably to the will or whim of society, even if it is not always in its best interest.
Technology is said to have impacts. This spills over society its ramifying effects on the social practices of humanity, as well as on the new qualities of human knowledge.
Since the early days of agriculture or since the end of the Iron Age, human culture has developed technologies, that is, it has increased its ability to modify nature to one degree or another. The technology, from its inception, is considered to have provided considerable benefits in the short term, although in the long term it generated serious social problems.
Some authors consider that the problems that technology has generated are indirectly caused by science, since if we did not have advanced scientific knowledge, we would not have such advanced technology.
We are convinced that one of the characteristics of the present moment is the indissoluble connection, the very close interaction and mutual conditioning of society with science. Science is one of the essential factors of social development and it is acquiring an increasingly massive character, but it is still insufficient.
When studying the effects of science on society, it is not just the effects on today's society, but also the effects on the future society. In traditional societies the functions of the individual were well defined, there was a harmony between nature, society and man. However, the development of science brought with it the disappearance of this traditional framework, the breakdown of the balance between man and society and a profound modification of the environment. Although we should not directly blame science itself, but the way in which man has applied it, that is, without taking into account all the factors involved, only his own benefit.
Technology, as a set of instrumental rules that prescribe a rational course of action to achieve a previously determined goal and that must be evaluated based on its usefulness and practical effectiveness, is created by man in order to satisfy a need. This need is the cause of the evolution of technology. Technology is constantly evolving and objects that do not adapt simply disappear, that is, as the needs are greater or let's say more complicated, it is necessary to create an object that can fill the void, which comes to replace the previous one..
It is told that we live in a technological age. Technology is blamed for the unprecedented economic growth of the industrialized countries and the consequent increase in material wealth. Technology is not an isolated event in today's civilization, but is present in society.
Many believe that if technological advances continue at their current pace, they could lead to the destruction of what we know as planet Earth. But in our understanding technology has enough power to create a new stage, but it all depends on how it is used from now on.
Integration as a way to solve environmental problems
It is evident, the link between natural and social sciences, as a unique science. This corroborates the capacity of geographical science and its place and role in the current moments in which there is a serious threat to the world in which we live; because its reason for being is precisely the interrelated whole, the environment in which we live and develop.
The rational and optimal use of the environment and its harmony with its protection constitute one of the most important problems on which the future of humanity depends.
The bases of the geographical study of the environment are formulated in the Marxist-Leninist principles of the interaction between nature and society, expressed in the fundamental principles, laws and categories of the materialist dialectic. In addition, geographic investigations have a complex, synthetic and comprehensive approach to the study of nature, the economy and the population, which facilitates the investigation of problems, their integration and systematization and the unification of isolated analytical data, obtained by different disciplines., studying both natural and social phenomena.
Environmental problems and the protection of nature are of diverse origin, therefore they are multidisciplinary, they have arisen due to the intense interaction between man and nature, through the production process and become progressively more acute with development. scientific-technical.
Environmental studies are of great significance and are currently on the rise due to their systemic and holistic nature that allows us to see the integration of natural and human components, which constitutes a powerful instrument for the management of any territory.
There are numerous environmental studies on urban settlements (Di Pace, 1994; Pérez, 1996; FAUDUNMI) P, 1996; Maya, 1996, etc) and methodologies proposed by international organizations for the study of different regions of the planet (UNDP, 1997), however, these studies cannot be discussed in the same way for rural areas because they have been given less importance For various reasons, among which we can mention the low population density that these territories present, the lack of systematic information coupled with the high cost of collecting and updating the information, the inaccessibility of these regions, the mistaken belief that these spaces possess an impeccable environment, completely healthy and pure, that is away from pollution, and that can "wait".
As a response to this, in recent times the rural environment has become important again because “… there are two aspects that place the problems of the rural environment at the forefront of attention. On the one hand, land or rural spaces are the ones that continue to predominate in the world and secondly, at the end of the 20th century, two-thirds of the world's population is engaged in agricultural activity… ”, he continues,“ we must take into consideration that food products and raw materials that come from rural areas create the conditions for life and work in cities. ”, Montiel, (1996).
Now, so that from our lands we continue to obtain the food products and raw materials necessary to develop the economy, it is necessary to ensure the good health of the resources and the inhabitants of our rural areas, in an integrated manner.
Treatment of the problem in Cuba
In Cuba, the State is concerned and takes care of everything related to the protection of the environment and the well-being of the population. After the triumph of the Revolution, the Law of Reforestation was promulgated that undertook the reforestation task and 5 Natural Reserves were approved by the old Cuban Academy of Sciences (ACC), currently the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, under the direction by Dr. Antonio Núñez Jiménez, to somehow restore the forest bottom so degraded in previous times.
In these years, various tasks of great magnitude were undertaken with a view to the development of the country. The rapidity with which this process was carried out prevented sufficient scientific research from being carried out at the same time as the tasks were developed, this meant that, by transforming nature for its use and ignoring some interaction mechanisms, inherited problems were maintained and some others arose that affected and affect our country. This was solved with the foundation of the ACC.
In the First Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (1975), in his thesis on National Economic Policy he stated: “… it is essential to take into account what is related to our natural wealth, since the action of our social system on nature and society it gives us the possibility of guiding the planning of all the components of the geographical environment, thus influencing the fertility of the land, the regime of rivers and reservoirs, the climate, the sea and other elements… "
As time went by, it became aware of the dangers that were implicit in development when it was accelerated, so an attempt was made to achieve a balance between development and protection of nature.
The issue also appears in Article 27 of the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba where it is established that: "To ensure the well-being of citizens, the State and society protect nature. It is incumbent upon the competent bodies and each citizen to ensure that the waters and the atmosphere are kept clean and that the soil and fauna are protected. "
In 1981 Law 33 emerged, on the protection of the environment and the rational use of natural resources in our country, making clear the commitment of the whole society to the protection of our common good: Nature.
In 1989, for the first time in the country, a map of the Environment was published in the new National Atlas of Cuba, where a section on this subject was developed, prepared by a group of prestigious professionals from various specialties.
In 1997, Law 33 was corrected and enriched with scientific-technical knowledge and with the knowledge acquired from the mistakes made.
At the national level, there are various institutions and agencies where studies and research corresponding to the environment have been carried out, with a more inclusive nature, among which are: National Institute of Physical Planning, National Institute of Forest Development and Use (currently National Company for the protection of Flora and Fauna), Institute of Tropical Geography, Institute of Ecology and Systematics, Faculty of Geography, Institute of Hydraulic Resources, Institute of Oceanology, Institute of Soils, Institute of Research in Normalization, National Aquarium of Cuba, etc.
It is very clear that both the health of the environment and economic development are essential conditions for human well-being; This implies that there must necessarily be a compatibility between both variables, and that the achievement of this compatibility should be one of the fundamental goals of the international community, but without losing sight of the integrative nature that science and technology should make use of in our days.
Application of integrative methodology in the hydrographic basins of the Cuban territory
In the proposals for the management and protection of natural resources, FAO recognizes the river basin as a unit of action. It is for this reason that currently in our country it has been drawn as a guideline that integral management and planning projects should be carried out at the basin and sub-basin level. To achieve this objective, isolated methodologies have been created, but these still lack a systemic approach and often do not address important social variables such as the health of the population.
At present, work in this sense is being carried out in the Faculty of Geography of the University of Havana and in the Institute of Tropical Geography and in other Institutions, inserting the environmental units and the population at the same level of importance.
In mountain basins, as is known, deterioration processes due to human action occur in an accelerated way, due to the characteristics of the relief and climate, which favor processes such as soil erosion, floods, etc., and that bring disastrous consequences such as the loss of soil, increasingly periodic floods, loss of valuable animal and plant species, often inestimable, the proliferation of diseases due to water pollution and dirt, in general, the modification of the natural landscape, all this favored, in addition, by the fragile balance that the mountain ecosystems present.
Most of these territories were absorbed at the triumph of the Revolution by the Plan Escambray en Ascenso, current Plan Turquino Manatí, directed by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Rúz and directed, at that time in the central region, by Commander Félix Torres..
This plan, started in the mid-1960s, had as its main objective to populate the region that had been left uninhabited when the rebels decided to take the mountain and make it the center of their horrendous misdeeds. In addition, he established the promotion of livestock and various crops in the foothills regions and the cultivation of coffee in the mountains.
The analysis of the natural and human variables, by the aforementioned methods, shows us that in the area of the mountain basins, in general, there is a great diversity of anthropic activities. In the flatter parts, agricultural and livestock activities stand out with natural pastures and areas of idle land. In the mountains and foothills there are extensive areas dedicated to the cultivation of pastures, scattered areas of forest, self-consumption and mountains with coffee.
In general, the purely forest area has a low percentage since it is only located in the most intricate mountain regions. The soils are washed and eroded due to the lack of vegetation cover and the use of rotating crops that offer little protection from dirt in self-consumption areas and road construction without taking into account conservation projects. The surface waters are contaminated mainly due to the deficient treatment that is given to the residuals coming from Hospitals, hamlets, towns, pig farms, corrals, Teaching Centers etc., distributed throughout the area Also, to a great extent, bad use influences of chemical fertilizers in different crops.
Final thoughts
Since the end of the last century, many researchers from different branches have realized that science and technology is generating a large number of benefits but also, at the same time, a large number of negative impacts and have agreed that it is necessary of a more rational orientation of science and technology. Authors such as Núñez, (2001) advocate for this change and thus reflect it in their various works on Science, Technology and Society.
Today "operating technocratically" is becoming more of an absurdity than previous aliases. Increasingly, the population and the parties involved in a problem are being given greater participation. In this way, more viable and rational solutions are sought for all parties.
Scientists and technicians have realized that many of the solutions, scientifically thought out, overturn the traditional and ancestral knowledge of the inhabitants, who are knowledgeable about the territory and its problems, and that is why now more than ever there is their opinions are taken into account when applying measures to eliminate or correct a problem of any kind.
Integration, that is, group work, brainstorming between specialists from different branches, consultation with populations, that is, the rescue of the subject, among others, are some of the trends that currently distinguish the projects of development and organization of society and the environment. In this regard, it would only be necessary to guarantee the free flow of information about all possible uses and consequences of new discoveries and technologies, so that ethical questions can be debated in an appropriate fashion. All countries must adopt adequate measures in relation to the ethical aspects of scientific practice and the use of scientific knowledge and its applications, this will make science and technology increasingly available to all and recovering the subject,that in short, is its reason for being.
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