Environment: The Soviets Clean Up Their Act

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The capital of the Soviet Union, where religion was suppressed until recently, seemed an unlikely spot for a gathering that included hundreds of religious leaders, from a Russian Orthodox Metropolitan to the Grand Mufti of Syria. Equally unusual was the notion of holding a global environmental conference in a country where the environment has long had a low priority. Yet last week in Moscow the Soviets played host to some 1,000 delegates from 83 countries at a Global Forum designed to bring together scientists and political and religious leaders to discuss ways to combat the growing threats to the earth's environment.

By agreeing to host the week-long conference organized by the U.S.-based Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival, the / Soviets sent a clear signal that they want to join the worldwide crusade to save the planet. Throughout the meeting, Soviet officials made an unabashed plea for more technological help from other countries in the battle against pollution. Said Mikhail Gorbachev in a speech to the conference: "The time is ripe to set up an international mechanism for technological cooperation on environmental protection." The need for a Soviet cleanup could hardly be more urgent. According to Alexei Yablokov, the outspoken deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet's ecology committee, as many as 50 million Soviet citizens live in areas where pollution levels are at least ten times as high as state safety standards permit. In parts of the Aral Sea region, which is heavily contaminated by chemical fertilizers and pesticides, two-thirds of the people have reported environment-related health problems.

Such conditions have stirred a wave of public anger. Dozens of environmental groups have staged demonstrations against dirty steel mills, hazardous chemical factories and suspect nuclear reactors. Even the Kremlin has joined the demonstrations. At last year's Nov. 7 parade commemorating the Russian Revolution, official floats carrying such slogans as GIVE US CLEAN AIR moved through Red Square along with the usual rockets and tanks.

This new awareness is a direct reflection of changed political realities in the Soviet Union. Nearly 40% of those who won election last March to the new Congress of People's Deputies included environmental concerns in their campaign platforms. The new Supreme Soviet has set out to overhaul the country's environmental laws. In the works is a resolution that would call for environmental-impact statements for all construction projects, a reappraisal of the Soviet nuclear-energy program and a review of the chemicals used in industry and agriculture. The costs will be considerable. Yablokov estimates that for the next ten years the government will need to spend more than $40 billion annually on environmental programs.

Much of the responsibility for enforcing the cleanup will fall on Nikolai Vorontsov, who last year became chairman of the State Committee on the Protection of Nature. A noted biologist and environmentalist, Vorontsov, 54, is the first non-Communist ministerial-rank member of the Soviet government since the Bolshevik Revolution. Observes a Western diplomat in Moscow: "Three years ago, I'd never have thought it possible that environmentalists would get this far."