"Echoes of Ecological Disasters" "Areas of (Natural) Disasters as a Special Ecological Research Testing Ground" TADEUSZ MOLENDA University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Department of Physical Geography, ul. Będzińska 60, 40-007 Sosnowiec e-mail: tadeusz.molenda@us.edu.pl Gas masks used during a rescue operation

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What once happened, cannot unhappen. There is no need crying over the spilt milk. Some words when spoken can't be taken back, you cannot stop a bullet in mid-air, you cannot bring back to life a faded flower. Irreversibility of events and inevitability of their consequences is an inseparable element of life, just like unrelenting flow of time which cannot be reversed. Hence, some consequences of human activities leave us completely speechless or capable only of a short sigh: "Too late.".
It is too late when riverside villages are flooded, when a snow avalanche sweeps a town in the mountains or when earthquakes or volcanic eruptions level ancient monuments. Elements leave no room for negotiations. It is also too late when an oil spill covers the whole bay. It is too late when a nuclear power plant incident leaves nothing but the desert around. It is also too late when, as a result of exploiting valuable for us deposits, the environment is devastated beyond the point it can regenerate. It is even a bigger drama because, unlike natural disasters, it was possible to avoid many of ecological disasters. Unfortunately, just like it is impossible to turn back time, it is impossible to soak up spilled oil or damp deadly radiation.
After an irreversible disaster, there comes time which heals all wounds. Researchers dealing with post-disaster landscapes know a lot about it. They know species which are capable of entering the barren land and prepare conditions for those which will follow. First, the tiny ones, almost imperceptible with a naked eye, then, bigger and bigger ones which will cover the ecological desert with the first green. Ecologists, geologists and taxonomists have already described landscapes after ecological disasters, still there are unanswered questions. More and more sophisticated research methods help answering more and more of them. Many of the answers brings an optimistic conclusion on the rebirth of life: "The strongest will prevail" with an emphasis on: "prevail". Only one question will probably remain without an answer: Can men be stopped in their actions before it is too late again?

Abstract

Economic activity leads to significant changes in the particular components of the geograph-ical environment. In some areas, these changes are permanent, affecting directly or indirectly health and, often lives of people. Areas with drastic changes in the environment are commonly referred to as an ecological catastrophe.
Disasters can be caused by long-term or sudden changes with a consequent accumulation of negative impacts on the ecosystem over the time. An example of such a type of areas can be the places of zinc - lead ore mining and processing in the areas of the Upper Silesia. These areas are of the author's particular research interests. Rapid changes are caused by the most common failures, consequence of which are environmentally harmful substances, often toxic (chemical disasters) or radioactive (nuclear disasters). The best known example of this type of disasters was the explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986

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