The book of Yu.A. Shkolenko, a well-known specialist in the problems of interaction between society and nature, a doctor of philosophical sciences, gives a broad ecological picture of today's world, shows the symptoms of an impending crisis of the human environment, its historical origins and causes. It raises the question of the future of civilization, critically considers the bourgeois concepts of the interaction of society with nature, carries out the idea of ​ ​ the importance of combining socialist practice with environmental knowledge.