Human ecology - an integral part of ecology as a science

Man as a biological species, a man as a part of society, a man as part of nature in a large-scale understanding of this word - these are the aspects on which such scientific discipline as human ecology works.

Ecology is a very capacious concept. She studies all possible connections and relationships that can arise between living organisms and their environment. Those. Everything that happens in one way or another in animate and inanimate nature is within the competence of the ecology.

The term "human ecology" was first widely spoken in 1921, but the actual scientific direction was received in the 70s-90s. Twentieth century, when a serious conflict arose between nature and the technical activity of man. The epoch of the scientific and technological revolution not only proved the great mental potential of man, but also brightly highlighted the tragic contradictions both within human society and between man and nature. The end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century was marked by natural disasters associated with man's technogenic activity. And the physical, mental, moral state of society began to cause serious concern among specialists. Therefore, the ecology of nature in general and all its components in particular have become the subject of close study of scientists.

Consider an independent branch of science that studies the conditions of life and their impact on the human body. The name of this branch is human ecology. Within the framework of it a number of interbranch directions are singled out:

• Urban ecology, i.e. Human life in a city, starting from a small average town and ending with the inhabitation of a man in a metropolis;
• Technical ecology - the impact of scientific and technical progress on a person, the pros and cons associated with human activities in this field;
• Environmental psychology - the problems of the psychological and social sphere associated with the modern life of a person;
• Ethical ecology, studying the problems of a moral and moral nature, arising in human society. For example, the terms "ecology of conscience", "ecology of morality", considered in the framework of ethical ecology, were very popular some time ago;
• Ethnic ecology, studying the cultural and historical features of an ethnos and advocating the preservation of its unique features;
• Medical ecology - studies the emergence of new diseases, the causes of their occurrence and ways to combat them, the physical and mental health of society;
• Many other directions.

Naturally, they all exist and are developed not in themselves, but in close connection with each other. For example, ecology of the environment as a constituent part of the ecology of nature in general, is also associated with human ecology. After all, the last in a global scope of the subject of study took the relationship of the world of nature and human society on a global scale. So there was anthropological ecology. And the study of the spiritual life of society and social ecology served as the basis for such areas as the ecology of culture and the ecology of the spirit.

Human ecology, which studies the world of people at all stages of its development, focuses on the following problems:

1. The number of individual human communities and humanity as a whole;
2. The age and sex ratio of people in a particular community;
3. The level of health of the community, viewed through the ratio of the average life expectancy of people in it, the most common diseases and the characteristic causes of death;
4. Features of nutrition of people in this or that era of their existence, the culture of cooking, the number of calories consumed by people on average and for a certain time period;
5. Labor activity of people, the main branches of labor, its tools and mechanisms. What sources of energy people used in the household and economic spheres;
6. Areas of inhabitation of human communities, the reasons for human habitation of certain territories and their withdrawal from them;
7. Culture and hygiene of people in different eras of their existence.