|
Items in cart [1] |
Questions? Call 888-624-8373 |
| Copyright © 2009. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Terms of Use and Privacy Statement |
Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 65
ECOLOGY AND INTERDEPENDENCE
Ecology and Politics: Political Awareness
Development in the USSR
VASILY SOKOLOV AND I. ABALKINA
ECOLOGY AND INTERDEPENDENCE
1930S:
Ecological degradation is growing on a planetary scale. The question
of ecological survival clearly shows the interdependence of the world,
the responsibility of the entire world community for ecological security.
Attempts to provide this security on a nation-by-nation basis are no longer
sufficient.
Ecology as a science and as a practical activity has always been based
on environmental interdependence. In fact, the interdependence of the
world in ecological as well as a social sense was understood conceptually by
Vernadsly, the founder of biosphere theory. Vernadsly wrote in the early
Every event in an out-of-the-way place of any continent or ocean is
reflected and has its consequence~large or small in some other places
or everywhere on the earth's surface ....For the first time the human
realizes that he is the resident of the planet and that he may and he must
think and act in new directions, not only on behalf of his personality,
his family, community, state, or its alliances, but on behalf of the whole
planet.
We do not propose to evaluate political and social processes by biolog-
ical categories and methods but we are persuaded that ecological thinking,
as a method of scientific knowledge, can be of great value to both political
and social science. Specifically, we believe that the "ecology of politics"
(especially international politics) can be created as a branch of science,
focusing on the interdependence of the world. It is important to recognize
that national decisions can sometimes lead to international consequences
and to international responsibility.
65
OCR for page 66
66
SOVIET-AMERICAN DL4LOGUE IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
ECOLOGICAL AWARENESS IN THE USSR: GROWTH STAGES
Every nation has special features in its "environmental mobilization."
In spite of the recent appearance in Soviet political language of the notion
of "ecology," political awareness concerning environmental protection has
a long history in the Soviet Union. We would distinguish four historical
periods of environmental mobilization in the USSR.
The first period is connected with the very beginning of the Soviet
state. Some of the first decrees signed by V.I. Lenin concerned land,
forests, natural reserves, and so on, which proves that the ecological im-
perative can have a place in political consciousness even during in the most
crucial and acute social shifts (namely, civil war, destruction of the country,
and hunger). The other feature of this period the socialization of some
ecological resources (land, forests, and so on) was an attempt to take
"collective action" in their use and protection.
The second period is connected with the so-called industrialization of
the USSR (the 1920s through the 1940s). Although the scientific under-
standing of ecological threats grew during this period (especially through
the work of Vernadsky et al.), actual practice lagged far behind. In real life
and in public consciousness, the smokestack was a symbol of progress in
every sense. The first decisions limiting pollution were episodic.
The main impulse for environmental activities, which we associate with
the third period, was the construction of pulp and paper plants on Lake
Baikal in the 1960s. The adverse ecological consequences of this construc-
tion sparked the public "Baikal movement," which has had- a special impact
on environmental mobilization. The other bad ecological event of that
time was the construction of a series of huge hydroelectric stations on the
Volga River. During the same time, the most fundamental environmental
legislation was adopted, including principles of water legislation (1970),
principles of land use (1968), principles of mineral legislation (1975), air
pollution and wildlife protection laws (1980), and so forth. Special changes
regarding environmental pollution were implemented in the Constitution
in 1977.
But the most impressive developments in environmental mobilization
(speaking both publicly and politically) take place in the fourth period,
which is directly connected with changes in the entire political life of the
country.
PERESTROIKA AND ECOLOGY
Reconstruction in environmental policy was attendant upon two special
circumstances public discussion about transfers of water between Siberian
rivers (and the hard decision to stop these projects) and the Chernobyl
OCR for page 67
ECOLOGY AND INTERDEPENDENCE
67
accident. Deciding against the huge water projects was a crucial moment in
the environmental movement. It showed clearly that (1) the environmental
movement was already a real political force and, (2) ecological goals can be
more highly valued than economic, "departmental," or regional interests.
The nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl was a practical demonstration
of the scale of ecological "mistakes."
But changes in environmental policy were attendant mainly on the
reconstruction of political life. Broad discussions concerning environmental
problems in the atmosphere of glasnost were connected with such key
elements of perestroika as economic reform, democratization, and legal
reform. Even during the very short period from the 27th Communist Party
Congress (February 1986) until the 19th All-Union Party Conference (July
1988), the attention paid by political leaders to ecology increased sharply.
Mikhail Gorbachev connected the economic development target directly
with a radical amelioration of the ecological situation.
There were several results of this new thinking (besides stopping "the
project of the century," that is, the redirection of the Siberian rivers): a new,
most promising resolution "on radical amelioration of nature protection,"
adopted in January 1988; special measures to save the Aral Sea (almost
half of which had disappeared); a halt to construction of the Ignalinsk
atomic station (of the Chernobyl type) in the Lithuanian Republic; refusal
to develop a phosphate rock site in the Estonian Republic; a halt to
construction of the Daugavpils hydroelectric station; and so on. At the
same time, a long-range (until the year 2005) state ecological program was
developed, the Academy of Sciences developed its own long-range research
program on ecological problems (until the year 2015), the independent
State Committee for Nature Protection was started (in 1988), and so on.
It is understandable that the new ecological thinking has not been
adopted by everyone. One of the reasons for this is departmental interests.
A good example of such interests is the Ministry of Land Reclamation
and Water Management. Being denied "the project of the century," the
ministry is making desperate attempts to find other projects to keep its
immense staff and budget intact (almost 2 million people are involved
in irrigation and drainage works). Such conduct, as well as the gigantic
scale and monopolistic nature of these departments, is the heritage of the
command-administrative economic system.
But resistance is not always the case, especially when the public is
involved. Public response to ecological degradation often runs ahead of
the political effort in this sphere because it is the individual who first suffers
the destructive effects of ecological degradation. Public consciousness is
now the main indicator of the acuteness of environmental problems. Public
OCR for page 68
68
SOVIET-AMERICAN DIALOGUE IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
protests, for example, led to cancellation of modernization plans for chem-
ical plants in Volgograd, in Jambul, in Chimkent in the Kazakh Republic,
and in other places.
Mobilization of the public around environmental issues used to be ei-
ther very formal or connected only to the particular objects to be protected.
Some new forms of public involvement are developing now. Demonstra-
tions, meetings, and pickets are being added to the petitions, public dele-
gations, educational and informational activities, and independent scientific
research common before perestroika. New environmental organizations
that are politically oriented, such as the Ecological Union and the Socioe-
cological Union, are being created.
Perestroika shows clearly some lacks in present legislation. An example
is the new state enterprise law, which exempts enterprises from numerous
guidelines and from everyday interference including pollution-control su-
pervision by higher-level officials. Therefore new mechanisms of protection
are needed, including one that would give the public the right to sue an
enterprise directly in the case of violations rather than pursuing it through
the local government. Legal reforms currently being worked on could help
elaborate such mechanisms.
It is clear that successful environmental policy depends very much on
the results of perestroika. In the economic field it depends on the progress
of economic reform, on structural changes in the economy, on limiting
departmental power, and so on. In the legal field it depends on the progress
of legal reform, democratization, improving environmental legislation, and
personal responsibility for environmentally acceptable conduct. In the
political field and social life it depends on the growth of public awareness
and on public impact on the decision-making process. Finally, in the
international field it depends on new political thinking. That means giving
priority to the global environmental situation rather than to spending huge
resources, human knowledge, and abilities on the arms race and other
military and political rivalries.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
environmental policy
