The Soviets Clean Up Their Act

By GLENN GARELIK MOSCOW

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."

| Vorontsov says his goal is to set up and enforce environmental standards comparable to the strict curbs imposed in Western Europe. He maintains that the government has already begun a crackdown. It closed the country's only cellophane plant because of an air-pollution problem, and in the past year has stopped construction of two nuclear-power plants. Yet Vorontsov admits he could face stiff resistance. Because the Soviet people are increasingly restive about shortages of consumer goods, the government will be under pressure to crank up industrial production, and that could bring even more pollution. "Many people are still so concerned with fulfilling their production plans that they don't think about the future," says Vorontsov.

The fate of the Soviet environment may depend in large part on the success or failure of perestroika, Gorbachev's wholesale political and economic restructuring. If the government encourages higher, more realistic prices for raw materials, industry will have greater incentive to increase efficiency and thus curb waste and pollution. And if planning is decentralized, engineers and factory managers are likely to become more sensitive to local environmental concerns.

A major impediment to progress is the sorry state of the Soviets' technological base. Their outmoded machinery is less energy efficient and more polluting than modern equipment. The Soviets realize that they need technology from other countries. They are counting on the U.S., Europe and Japan to recognize that pollution in the Soviet Union can ultimately be dangerous to everyone. In fact, the increasing interdependence of all the world's nations underlay much of the conference, which was held beneath a gigantic photo of the planet earth. As a first step toward forging a united campaign to protect the planet, the Moscow meeting ended with an unprecedented two-hour TV and radio broadcast that was beamed live to more than 100 nations. The broadcast was made possible by the collaboration of Intelsat, the West's satellite communications system, and Intersputnik, its East bloc counterpart -- a good example of the kind of cooperation the environmental movement will need to be successful.

With reporting by Paul Hofheinz/Moscow