Mikhail Gorbachev on the Environment

Abstract

The threat of thermonuclear war the need to industrialize after the 1917 revolutionthe great size of the USSR and its rich resource base all were reasons for the Soviet government to ignore the environment. Even when environmental problems occurred on a large scale the government was slow to react. Economic restructuring (perestroika) led also to a restructuring of the governments view on ecology. The Congress of Peoples Deputies included in its guidelines of domestic and foreign policy a fundamental way of thinking about nature which Mikhail Gorbachev called ecologization of politics. The Supreme Soviet developed emergency measures to improve the environment. Since many areas of the USSR remain relatively unaffected by humans Gorbachev proposed to expand the protected areas by almost 3 times by 2000. These areas could serve as natural laboratories. In June 1990 at the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival Gorbachev announced that the USSR backs conservation plans and actions of the UN. It favors an international legal mechanism to protect unique natural zones such as the Antarctic. It advocates the creation of an international mechanism for technological cooperation in preserving the environment. The USSR believes the world community must establish a mechanism to monitor various ecological systems. It agrees with its European neighbors that individuals and groups of people should participate in formulating ecological policies. Finally the USSR stresses the need to limit military activity such as ban all thermonuclear tests and destruction of chemical weapons to prevent war and to protect the environment.