This book is an edited recording of conversations between scientists and the writer, where they discuss issues of nature conservation, environmental protection. I was attracted to this book by the fact that it is quite old, 1977 release .. Then only began to pay attention to environmental issues. It was interesting to find out what people thought about it in those days, more than thirty years ago. Not surprisingly, the problems have remained the same since then. Prioritizing landscape management over conservation. Still reserves, nature reserves, monuments of nature no one needs, the agencies pass them to each other like hot potatoes. This does not contribute to the preservation of landscapes .. Interlocutors propose to start training biological engineers . Since then, almost every university has mastered the release of the specialty "environmental engineer" .. The level of training of such engineers is usually low, and what they then have to do in production differs significantly from what is taught at the institute. So this did not cause any positive changes .. What also attracted me was that it was a conversation between “our” Ural biologists. Not Siberian, of course, but neighbors . And they discuss those natural monuments that I either know or have heard about them, or I can still go . I read it with pleasure.. I have received almost no information.. There are two things .. First, the authors interestingly describe how “rats can eat a cat” I also heard tales of a cat thrown into a pantry/bar/house with rats being found dead and devoured. in the morning. The authors confirm, yes, the fact that this happens. But it's not that the rats got together and killed the cat, but that he is a "superpredator" he can't stop killing while there are rats around. Hunting exhausts it, the adrenal glands tirelessly release adrenaline, glucose enters the blood until the energy reserve is depleted and the cat falls in exhaustion. Then even rats can finish it and gnaw .. The authors also discuss the “desolation” of the ocean, the problem that has only deepened over the past 30 years. Discuss the possibility of economic use of krill. In the text there is a phrase: "Well, if there are no hunters to easy fishing, which will reduce the root and this animal... This is just a joke.... " So, they made a joke . Shortly after reading the book, I read the article .. Due to the lack of krill, the number of penguins decreases". T. e. and this resource, which in 1977 was seen as inexhaustible, is gradually being exhausted.