Māris kļaviņŠ, azamat azizov, JĀnis zaļoksnis environment, pollution, development: the case of uzbekistan

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1. INTRODUCTION
Understanding of the environ 
ment, human-nature relations, 
pollu tion impacts and the need to protect environ ment is a necessity 
nowa days for any professional as well a question of the general public 
concern, a driving force for actions of a large number of human 
activities. The idea of the environ ment in which the person lives and 
its quality assurance seems to be simple enough, but actually it has 
been recognized and, more importantly, as a basis for practical action 
only during the recent decades. The content of the concept «environ-
mental science» is new, but within a very short time it has developed 
into an overarching idea crosscutting many activities, a source of 
social developments affecting the research in other fields of science, 
technologies, as well as legislation and government institutional 
framework. There are multiple examples, to mention but a few: 
environ mental legislation, both on a national and international level, 
environ mental protection as one of the main issues of international 
politics. After all, the identified environ mental issues can be assessed 
at the level of the material substances: for example, taxes for 
resource recycling, direct investments in environ mental protection. 
Therefore, obviously, the environ mental quality has become a major 
problem for any society’s functioning, directly affecting development 
of the society: it is the main benchmark to determine whether the 
development is sustainable or not. Thus, the understanding of environ-
mental processes, pollution sources, former, existing and emerging 
threats caused by environ mental pollution and environ mental quality 
degradation is of a great importance to support development and 
consider it as sustainable. Understanding of environ mental pollution, 
the hazards of exposure is essential.
Today the concept of sustainable development is not just an opinion 
on how humanity as such and also each community and society 
should develop; it is principally a set of opinions about the model of a 
society that can ensure its own existence. The concept of sustainable 
development includes physical conditions, political conceptions, the 
notions of the quality of life or welfare and an optimised influence on 
the environ ment to ensure that the resources are equally accessible 
to all generations. The concept of sustainable development is based 
on the understanding of three pillars: development, needs of society 
and needs of the future generations. Within the concept of sustainable 
development, the concept ‘development’ includes not only growth (of 
production, gross national product, welfare) but also the development 
of social and economic spheres that guarantees the preservation of 
natural ecosystems and the human living environ ment. Thus, the