Environment in Eastern Europe

[Das war einmal]

As you well know, capitalism leads to environmental destruction. The bourgeois press says that under the socialist rule in Eastern Europe the pollution was way higher than in capitalist countries.

I really need some information regarding this. The bourgeois take as main points the Chernobyl disaster (which was accidental, not on purpose) and the destruction of the Aral lake.

Was there any effort in the Soviet Union or their eastern allies to combat pollution? I know that for a long time the USSR was mainly focused on building heavy industry and providing shelter and work to their people, but did they do anything to clean up the environment?

[Das war einmal]

No one?

[Kléber]

There were environmentalist organizations prior to the 1917 revolution and the movement has continued to the present day. The biggest organization was the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation and there was a plethora of local conservationist and ecologist organizations throughout the Soviet Union. Ecological preserves for research purposes had been established before 1917. The Bolsheviks were initially quite favorable to nature preservation. Lenin's administration passed a law "On the Protection of Nature Monuments, Gardens and Parks" which provided the legal framework for a great degree of preservation. During the Stalin years the state slowly turned against nature preserves. During the 1930's and 40's, creation of new nature preserves declined significantly, and 1951 large areas of forest were re-opened to exploitation and existing preserves were reformed to become "commercial-and-research" instead of purely scientific institutions. Khrushchev was also uninterested in the nature preserves, and his administration amalgamated and closed a few. Many of the bourgeois horror stories are partly true, Soviet industrialization ended up destroying many beautiful sights of the Siberian wilderness and creating lots of nasty polluted areas, but there are still ~100 nature preserves in Russia. They have been in decline recently because the state is forcing them to turn a profit, so they have had to cater to tourism and/or engage in commercial exploitation of the "reserved" land to stay afloat.

Due to resource shortages, pro-Soviet countries were often forced to recycle more than the West. The best example is the Trabant, an East German car that had its frame built from recycled material. There are stories of pigs and cows taking bites out of the car. Many Trabants were also recycled and their remains now lie beneath the paved roads of Eastern Germany.

[Das war einmal]

Interesting, are there any sources on this organisation? I thought that, in retrospective, there was no attention to the environment because states were not aware of the consequences of pollution back then. This may sound naive but aren't the environmentalists a movement since the late 80's?

[GatesofLenin]

Please remember that most if not all of the "environmental protection" groups of today are in it for the money only. They couldn't give a rat's behind about the environment. Look at the daily climate change activists you see on tv.

- Al Gore: still drives his suv's, flies in private planes, lives in a 10000+ square foot mansion. His research office in his mansion has 3 30-inch mac displays for crying out loud.

Do as I say, not as I do apparently.

http://www.impactlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/al-gore-office-tm.jpg