Patterns of environmental movements in eastern Europe

Abstract

Environmental movements played an important part in the transitions of 1989/1991. They grew steadily in the early 1980s, and rapidly by the late 1980s. Now they have shrunk considerably. They fed on a legacy of environmental damage, but the pattern of their growth across different countries has varied. There have been notable turning points: ‘phosphorite wars’ in Estonia; Baikal and Chernobyl in Russia; the Danube dam in Hungary. Yet the relative involvement of the public, scientists, and intellectuals has also varied. Evidence from a 1993 survey in these countries shows that the capacity and opportunity to organise movements is more important than the actual level of environmental damage in explaining these patterns.