ABSTRACT

The environmental crisis in Eastern Europe - air and water pollution, toxic waste dumps, and unsafe nuclear facilities - has been vividly documented since the revolution of 1989. Not only did the communist states have an abysmal record of environmental destruction, but the issue of environmental protection and safety proved to be one of the msot powerful catalysts of unified opposition to these regimes. This collection of essays by both Western and East European experts examines the efforts to develop strategies for dealing with the crisis, both by governments and at the grassroots level of newly emerging Green movements. Among the countries represented here are Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, Slovenia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.