Neglecting the ecosystemic dimension of life hinders efficient environmental protection from radiation and other hazards

In Russia, V. I. Vernadsky started off his carreer by studying radionuclides environmental behavior and their impact on biocenoses, and this led him to conceive the most advanced planetary concepts in ecology. However, after a while within the radioecology community, consideration of the ecosystem concept, which was central at the very beginning, started to vanish out under the pressure for pragmatic human radioprotection needs arising from the industrial growth of civil nuclear energy. This is why the recent efforts undertaken by the radioecology community to protect the environment against radiation have largely ignored the ecosystem concept. Instead, it has simply transferred to non human biota the concepts and methods developped for human radioprotection. This oversimplification, rooted within a narrow anthropocentric view dominating radiation protection, urgently needs to be corrected. A brief review of the main justifications for designing an ecosystem approach in radiation protection of the environment is synthesized.