ABSTRACT
A comparison between the industries of Western and Eastern Europe suggested that the latter used significantly more fuel and and raw material than did the Western manufacturing industries per unit of production; moreover, this inefficiency was no accident but was imbedded deeply in the centrally planned system. In short, in Eastern Europe the state was both polluter and protector, and there was consequently little incentive for environmental concerns to be promoted over industrial ones. The "ecological barrier" loomed; that point at which any advantages to be gained by a small increase in production would be outweighed by the inordinately great damage caused to the environment, the health of the population, and to the economy itself. The ecological barrier may have been imminent–it may in some areas even have been reached–but time was needed for its educative effect to prod the East European regimes into changing their course.
