Environmental Disaster in the Post-Communist Countries: Is There a Solution?

Abstract

The breakdown of the Soviet Union revealed to the world that much of the expanse of the former communist bloc is an environmental disaster area. This paper shows that a switch to a free-market economy has failed so far to produce any significant improvements, and in the future is even likely to reinforce old threats and generate new ones. Thus, the argument states that short-term prospects for environmental restoration and instituting effective policies are rather unpromising where stabilization of both environment and economy is the primary goal and improvements are out of reach.