Introduction
Coexistence of man and nature is matter-of-course. Man lives in nature, uses nature for his own purpose. All along man has tried to accomplish the world around him to make it better for living. It made man the only mammal to inhabit almost every place on the planet - from North to South Pole, beginning with deserts of sand and ending with deep jungle of Amazon.
Concern for the impact on human life of problems such as air and water pollution dates back at least to Roman times. Pollution was associated with the spread of epidemic disease in Europe between the late 14th century and the mid 16th century, and soil conservation was practiced in China, India, and Peru as early as 2,000 years ago. In general, however, such concerns did not give rise to public activism.
Environmental organizations established from the late 19th to the mid 20th century were primarily middle-class lobbying groups concerned with nature conservation, wildlife protection, and the pollution that arose from industrial development and urbanization. There were also scientific organizations concerned with natural history and with biological aspects of conservation efforts.
Now man has reached the level of knowledge and power high enough to change nature. Actions of man affect such natural factors as climate and habitats of other creatures. However, in most cases man cannot predict the consequences and act conscientiously, so he causes harm and damage to nature. To ensure the safety of nature and living creatures, some concepts of right treatment have been established.
But is it so easy? Still sometimes humans forget about nature. It is almost clear that not only humans affect nature, nature affects humans as well. And so we can ask the question: "Do we count nature in?"
We welcome students of different departments (e.g. biology, economics, law, philosophy, medicine etc.) to participate in this conference and try to explore the specifics of their field that are related to nature and the human position in it, and share the results with others.