ENVIRONMENT IN EASTERN EUROPE

1. Intro: Communism was bad for the environment
   1. Examples of environmental devastation: Krakow, Vistula, Katowice, Danube
   2. Plan of lecture
      1. Why Communism was so bad for the environment
      2. What is being done in the search for alternatives, and why these are politically complicated
      3. What makes this a geographical problem?
2. Why Was Communism bad for the environment? (Example: Black Triangle)
   1. Soviet model of rapid industrialization
      1. Production of the Means of Production
         1. Eastern Europe largely agrarian before 1945
         2. Creating proletarian consciousness
         3. Types of industry built post-war
      2. Reliance on low-quality, highly polluting energy sources
         1. Lignite
         2. Geographical concentration of industry around lignite mines in the "Black Triangle"
      3. Few incentives to reduce energy consumption
         1. Subsidization of industry
         2. Soft Budget Constraints
      4. Govt. did not prioritize environmental protection
         1. Consumption vs. production
      5. Public cannot exercise watchdog function
         1. Communist Party control of information
   2. Result: Black Triangle one of most polluted areas in Europe
      1. Use of lignite/scope of problem
      2. Environmental effects
      3. Health effects
3. Solving the Problem
   1. Simple Answer: stop burning coal
   2. Complication #1: Unemployment
      1. PL's coal mining regions
      2. Political clout of miners
      3. Ongoing subsidies for industries
         1. No hard budget constraints
         2. Limited utility of market mechanisms for controlling pollution
         3. Weak regulatory environment
   3. Complication #2: Major Source of Energy
      1. CZ: 51% coal
   4. Complication #3: Potential alternatives to coal are controversial- Nuclear
      1. Temelin Nuclear Power Plant
         1. Basic facts
            1. Distance to Austria
            2. Would raise CZ's percentage of nuclear power to 40% from 28%
            3. Cost: 2.7 billion
            4. Being completed with $317 million loan from US Ex/Im Bank
            5. Approved by US govt. officials
            6. Soviet technology---VVER 230 reactors
         2. Austria is opposed
            1. Worried about nuclear safety, esp. w/proximity to border
            2. Offer to supply CZ with electricity
               1. Reasons this is infeasible
         3. CZ government strongly committed
            1. Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus
   5. Complication #4: Hydroelectric is a controversial alternative.
      1. Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Dam
         1. Basic Facts
         2. Border with Slovakia and Hungary
         3. Scope of project
         4. Effects:Negative
            1. Change international border (potential tariffs for HU)
            2. Drain wetlands
            3. Threaten drinking water by increasing proportion of polluted clay in the water supply
            4. Affect ethnic Hungarian villages in SL
         5. Effects: Positive
            1. Would control flooding
            2. Provide power
            3. Connect SL and HU to the Danube-Main waterway - shipping into EU
         6. Hungary is against: they don't need the power and worry about environmental effects
            1. Enormous pressure from Green NGOs
            2. Stopped work in 1989
            3. Say this is an attempt to seize Hungarian territory
         7. Slovakia is for: it is the only way to meet energy needs
         8. 1997 case in International Court of Justice
            1. Hungary says since Czechoslovakia broke up, all agreements are null and void
            2. Ruling for Slovakia: Hungary must pay for completion
            3. No enforcement mechanisms=no building
            4. SL argues the Hungarians are using the dispute for political ends to serve the Hungarian minority in SL.
            5. HU begins demolition of Nagymoros in 1994.
4. What makes this a geographical problem?
   1. Physical geography
      1. Changes in the natural environment
      2. Shifting face of the landscape
      3. A problem of diffusion: pollution knows no boundaries
   2. Human geography
      1. How industry is organized
      2. Balancing human needs for economic welfare with needs for environment and livable spaces
      3. Transfer of technologies and ideas across space
         1. Models of industrialization
         2. Political-economic ideas (market regulation)
         3. Regulatory ideas
         4. Financing
         5. NGOs