Coping with Crisis in Eastern Europe's Environment

Along with the winds of political change in Central and Eastern Europe have come the realities of severely polluted air, water and soil. Among the greatest challenges for Eastern Europeans in the coming years will be to cope with these environmental problems during a difficult economic and political transition period. While much has already been written about environmental problems in Central and Eastern Europe, most of it has been by authors from outside the region. But what do Eastern Europeans themselves have to say about the situation? This book is one of the first publications written since the revolutions of 1989 that gives the point of view of top environmental experts from six Central and Eastern European countries on these issues. The countries represented are Bulgaria, the Czech-Slovak Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. Contributors include the Chairman of the Czech Environmental Commission, the Director of the Institute of Ecology in Bulgaria, and Poland's Minister of the Environment. In individual chapters of the book these experts analyze the air and water quality situations of their countries in depth.
Much of the data and analyses contained in these chapters are being made available for the first time to an international audience. This volume not only gives an overview of the current environmental situation, but also presents many ideas for reforms and actions needed for coping with the environmental crisis in each country in the short run. These include suggestions for institutional and economic reforms, as well as specific recommendations for technology transfer and training that are most needed for environmental protection.