Authors

Discussion

Soviet Environmentalism: First and Second World Modernities in the face of environmental science

Environmentalism in the west, particularly in America, is well-studied in the Anglophone literature. The story of environmental awareness, movements, policy and politics in the USA is well rehearsed. The Cold War impact on this narrative is sizeable, both in the science and politics of environmental thought, but Soviet experiences of the same shifts are rarely explored. This paper argues that the study of Soviet environmentalism is an important complement to this understanding of western environmentalism, embracing so many of the same challenges of the enlightenment, but with a distinct and contrasting understanding of modernity. It argues that western environmentalism cannot be centred in tackling environmental problems and that regional specificity is not just important for regional studies, but enriches theoretical work on global challenges generally.