Were the Nazis radical environmentalists?

[Tom Condit]

At 10:01 AM 5/10/1998 -0800, Gar W. Lipow wrote:
... I do have one question of fact however.   The
>late  Soviet Union did not have a great overall environmental record -- at
least
>not in its latter years.   When did this start?   Was it strictly a post W.W.II
>phenomenon?    Or did it begin in the early years -- perhaps with one part
of the
>power structure  ignoring environmental concerns even while another paid great
>attention to them?
>
This is an obvious byproduct of an emphasis on production and accumulation.
There's a good deal of argument over when the turning point on this is, not
unrelated to arguments on the question of Stalinism in general. Krushchov's
sterling statement, "First we achieve full communism, then we worry about
water pollution" is the starkest expression of the view of the bureaucracy
in later years (and now). On paper, the SU continued to have strong
environmental laws, it's just that in a police state there's no way for
citizens to do anything about violations of the law.