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Poland Environmental Groups
The burst of political activity in the late 1980s and
the
early 1990s included establishment of over 2,000
organizations
with environmental agendas. A precedent for such groups
was set
in 1980, however, when the Green Solidarity movement
forced
closure of an aluminum plant in Kraków. The diverse groups
that
appeared in the next decade achieved some additional
successes,
but lack of cohesion and common goals deprived the
movement of
political influence. No environmental group or party was
represented in the Polish legislative branch in 1992.
Among the objects of protest in the 1980s were Poland's
lack
of a national plan for dealing with ecological disasters;
construction of a Czechoslovak coking plant near the
Polish
border; continued reliance on high-sulfur and high-ash
coal in
electric power plants; and the severe environmental damage
caused
by Soviet troops stationed in Poland. In 1986 the
explosion and
resulting fallout from the Soviet Union's Chernobyl'
nuclear
power plant galvanized environmental activism, which in
Poland
was dominated by the professional classes. But
environmental
groups faced several obstacles. Volunteer recruitment, a
critical
aspect of organizational development, was hindered by the
necessity for many Poles to work two jobs to survive.
Refining
practical operational priorities proved difficult for
organizations whose initial inspiration came from broad
statements of environmental ethics. And the agendas of the
many
activist groups remained fragmented and dissimilar in
1992.
Meanwhile, the most influential political parties were
split
between advocates of preserving jobs ahead of protecting
the
environment and those who saw unchanged economic activity
as the
paramount danger to the health of workers and society
(see Solidarity
, ch. 4). Public attitudes toward environmental
problems also were divided. In a 1992 nationwide survey,
only 1
percent of Poles cited the environment as the country's
most
serious problem, although 66 percent rated environmental
issues
"very serious." By contrast, 72 percent cited economic
issues as
the country's most serious problem.
Data as of October 1992
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