Ecological Awareness as a Threshold for Discerning Threats to the Natural Environment

Abstract

The topic is well under the process of being absorbed by various societies. It may not be a totally new question, as regards our responsibility for the threat to the ecological environment. yet it addresses the three most important subjects of the said responsibility in a very unambiguous way. We may mention here 1) a conscious responsibility of the subjects making law (the Seym, Government); 2) an ecological awareness in law in relation to the subject making use of that law, i.e. the state administration; 3) the third subject is the addressees of law and its regulations within criminal, administrative, financial, labour and civil law, a law that is related to the environment, that is to all those who may potentially collide with decisions of law.

The paper explains the ecological awareness as threshold of discerning the threats to the natural environment. It is quite a topical theme, for in many publications too little is said about the theoretical part of ecology and protection of the environment. The paper is divided into three paragraphs. The first one presents quite an exhaustive explanation as to what the "awareness" in the philosophical and psychological sense is, as regards the lives of people. Awareness comes here as a mental state which is carried on through the internalization of the known contents and accepting them as one’s own. The second paragraph seeks to put two terms into one whole, for its is termed as an "ecological awareness". This putting together of the two terms sheds light on the importance and necessity to address the topic under discussion, for the environment must be protected. And it will be protected, when our awareness is satisfactory. From the practical point of view it is well known that ecological education has been neglected. People have not been made aware of the fact that our environment has been weakened in its landscape values and the ecosystem. Therefore one may appeal to lawyers, to the people of the good will, those who make law, to execute the law concerning in its regulations and norms the protection of the environment. The third paragraph points to the ecological awareness in law, that is in the field which with its legal regulations challenges people to responsibility for the protection of the environment, addressed to those who receive the established law. We refer here to various authors and theorists which help us in defining and explaining the stated problem, i.e. to what extent the ecological awareness influences good law, its proper execution and penal reception by those who disregard and trespass it. Our considerations take up the long-term discussion on the level of "ecological awareness" both in those who decide in state administration and those responsible for legal regulations directed to the citizens of a given country. The paper seeks to make attempts at enhancing ecological awareness at all the levels of living among people.