The Environmental Crisis in Eastern Europe: The Price for Progress

Slavic Review ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Kramer

Environmental pollution is the price that has to be paid for industrial development and the development of civilization. Arresting and eliminating these processes is extremely costly and we do not always have the means at our disposal for the necessary action. (Kurier Szczecinski [Szczecin], June 9, 1981)Judging by most indexes of modernization, Joseph Stalin's long cherished dream of the socialist East overtaking the capitalist West remains unfulfilled. Ironically, however, the states of Eastern Europe may be close to preeminence in one unwelcome area: environmental pollution. Atmospheric emissions of sulfur dioxide in Czechoslovakia and Poland reportedly approximate similar emissions in France and the Federal Republic of Germany. Many waterways in Yugoslavia are said to be “polluted beyond all domestic, European, and world standards,” and in East Germany and Romania less than 20 percent of the main water-courses are sufficiently pure to provide potable water. The Slovak capital of Bratislava allegedly possesses the “worst environment among our own and other European cities,” while Western experts consider air pollution levels in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia to be among the highest in the world.

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-44
Author(s):  
Phuoc Van Nguyen ◽  
Hien Thi Thu Nguyen ◽  
Truong Duy Cao ◽  
Lam Minh Nguyen

In this article, the results of predicted environmental pollution load of air, water and solid waste by the operation of the park / industrial zones in Long An province by 2020 are presented. Two mathematic model, ISC3 and Mike 11, were used to determine the spread of environmental pollution of air and water. The results showed that, to make the air environment quality meet QCVN standard, we need to cut gas emission to 57% by 2015 and 80% by 2020. For water environment, the forecast maps on spread of water pollution can help to identify the source that cause water pollution.


1987 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktor van Gemmeren ◽  
Horst Pöttker ◽  
Andrea Schüler

SummaryIt has often been claimed that in the Federal Republic of Germany the television under public law is heavily influenced by the established political parties. To further clarify this hypothesis, the main news programs of ARD and ZDF were analyzed for a period around the parliament elections in 1980. We found that the former government parties SPD and FDP were mentioned in about every fourth news item, whereas the former opposition parties CDU/CSU were referred to in about every sixth. These parties were usually mentioned in a positive context. Especially the ZDF showed the balanced reporting, which has been claimed by the parties. Furthermore, the selection of topics for the news programs strongly supports the hypothesis that the television is controlled by the established political parties: before the elections, reports about environmental pollution and unemployment were rarer and more superficial than reports on vindicatory topics (Eastern Europe). Whether and why this that changed, requires further investigation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-246
Author(s):  
Tobias Brinkmann

This article examines the impact of transit migration from the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires on Berlin and Hamburg between 1880 and 1914. Both cities experienced massive growth during the last three decades of the nineteenth century, and both served as major points of passage for Eastern Europeans travelling to (and returning from) the United States. The rising migration from Eastern Europe through Central and Western European cities after 1880 coincided with the need to find adequate solutions to accommodate a rapidly growing number of commuters. The article demonstrates that the isolation of transmigrants in Berlin, Hamburg (and New York) during the 1890s was only partly related to containing contagious disease and ‘undesirable’ migrants. Isolating transmigrants was also a pragmatic response to the increasing pressure on the urban traffic infrastructure.


2020 ◽  
pp. 63-67
Author(s):  
Yu. P. Galchenko ◽  
◽  
G. V. Kalabin ◽  

The antagonistic contradiction between the biological essence of man and the abiological ways in which he obtains energy from the Sun for the creation of a food base and personal habitat is the determining factor shaping the image of our technocratic civilization. In order to address this contradiction in the development of the mineral and raw materials complex, it is necessary that the requirements for environmental security not be imposed on individual operations or processes but form the basis of a promising technological paradigm. In this way, the conservation of the Earth’s natural biota becomes a requirement and an inherent feature of the technologies created and applied. It seems abundantly clear that from a methodological point of view, technological responses to environmental challenges should be sought in the study of systems where these answers have already been obtained. Namely, these answers present themselves in biological systems taking form in nature-like technologies. Recent changes in public consciousness have inevitably led to the greener thinking in all spheres of human activity. The most illustrative ref lection of this phenomenon is the growing interest in nature-like technologies, which are associated with the main aspirations in the settling of a global environmental crisis generated by a long-term antagonistic confrontation between the technosphere and the bio- sphere. In considering the concept of nature-like technologies as a designation of the principal trend in the modernization of the general technological paradigm, it is necessary to distinguish two specific areas. Depending on whether or not the technologies that we use are present or absent in wildlife, we must first consider the construction of technologies by duplicating effective processes already observed in wildlife in the technosphere (nature-reproducing technologies) and, secondly, the creation of technological systems by transferring the effective functional structure of the circulation of matter and energy in biological systems to the technosphere (convergent technologies). The general theory of the creation of “similar to nature“ technologies is presented, based on the well-known principles of homeostatics - methods of maintaining the vital parameters of the interaction of natural and technical systems by controlling the contradictions between antagonists. The main directions of the structural and functional convergence of technical and biological sciences are identified when updating the technological paradigm of industrial development, based on the reproduction in the technosphere of systemic solutions that ensure the functioning of complex biological systems. Regarding the ecologization of the technological paradigm of the mineral resource complex, the methodology of creating an ecologically balanced technology as a multiobject cluster is based on the well-known principles of homeostatics, i.e., on the phased formation of a technological homeostat on the basis of the structure of a biological homeostat with the replacement of its essential elements with geotechnological target analogues. The result of this transformation is the construction of a convergent mining technology for integrated field development. Its use will ensure the development of technical systems that make it possible to limit external environmental impacts owing to the postexploitation self-restoration of natural biota phytocoenoses. The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Project No. 19-17-00034.


Author(s):  
N. Rogozhina

This article deals with the role of developing countries in strengthening the global ecological security, because the focus of environmental crisis has been shifting towards them. Taking into consideration the dynamics of their socio-economic and demographic changes, these countries will determine environmental situation in the world. Ecological crisis in developing countries is subjected to the industrial society formation that is accompanied by heavy demand on natural resources and pollution of environment. The author concludes that inevitable environmental costs of extensive economic growth are multiplied by continuing population growth and poverty increase. Today the developing countries are in extremely hard situation: they won’t overcome economic gap which is the main cause of ecological disruption without accelerating the development. But at the same time, the uncontrolled increase of economic production results in intensification of environmental crisis. It determines the urgent need to shift from the traditional model of industrial development relying on the postulate "growth first clean up later" to the model of "green" development. This economic concept is defined as eco-industrial revolution. In order to carry this task these states have to include the elements of post-industrial "green" development into the model of the industrial type development catch up. In its practical realization this model may cause further differentiation of developing countries and inequality on the global level. The emerging economics of the Asia Pacific region possess enough technological, financial resources and political will to join the "green world". But scarcely the poor countries of Africa or South Asia will demonstrate the same high interest in providing secure ecological development. Sustainable economics will probably facilitate entering the "green world".


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 2294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Xie ◽  
Chunlin Chen ◽  
Yihua Yu

While China’s rapid industrialization has brought great pressure on environmental pollution, great variations appear in terms of environmental pollution levels among industries. The effective assessment of the environmental performance of different industries is not only conducive to identifying the major sources of pollution in China but also of great significance to the Chinese government in formulating differentiated industry environmental control policies in a targeted manner. Using data of 36 Chinese industries from 2006 to 2015 and a multiple data envelopment analysis (DEA) with a Gini criterion as well as a systematic clustering approach, this study first calculates the environmental efficiency score of Chinese industries and then identifies those pollution sources based on a ranking and clustering analysis. The main result indicates that the ranking of environmental efficiency of various industries overall varies greatly by time. In addition, using a clustering analysis, this study finds that 13 labor-intensive light industries and heavy chemical industries with high energy use and high emissions are medium- and high-pollution industries. Important policy implications are drawn to achieve green industrial development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-200
Author(s):  
ALEKSANDRA NOWAK

The article provides an overview of the causes of the current environmental crisis, with three main sources being identifi ed: industrial development and large-scale agriculture, a rapidly growing global population, and environmental crime.The most serious environmental problems, such as global warming, air and soil pollution have also been characterised. The author briefl y charac-terises the defi nitions related to eco-criminology. The international commu-nity, governments, and NGOs are involved in improving the effectiveness of police cooperation in the fi ght against eco-crime, but it is still not effective enough.Environmental protection is currently one of the most important issues that humanity must address. The quality of our lives and maybe our surviv-al depend on it.


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