The essence of environmental crises in the retrospective of global environmental problems

Being a kind of reaction to the system of relations "man - nature - society", the existing level of ecological culture demonstrates the eco-cultural impoverishment of society due to the dominance of the rational-mechanistic paradigm. In the process of human existence, crisis phenomena in the relations of society with "mother nature" exhibit a cyclical nature, leading to both negative and positive results in the social, material and spiritual spheres. The first part of the article reveals the essence of ecological crises, the reasons for their occurrence and impact on human existence, the transformation processes of modern society, which are in the field of view of various authors-researchers. The second part of the article deals with socio-ecological problems generated by the lack of knowledge about the basics of ecological culture at the stages of separation of society from the natural environment. For clarity of the conclusions obtained by the author, an analysis of environmental problems in modern Russia is provided. The author considers the stages of the origin and formation of environmental crises to identify the main critical points based on the processes of separation of man from nature. The third part of the article presents the results of an empirical study demonstrating the attitude of respondents from among the residents of Primorsky Krai to the main values of human life, including ecology. As part of the study, a theoretical and methodological basis was defined that reflects the essence of the scientific problem. The scientific novelty of the study lies in determining the essence of the ecological crisis of our time, establishing its origins from the point of view of crisis processes in culture and society.