Social Europe and the CIS have relatively stable populations. The region, apart from the FSU, is relatively densely populated and highly urbanized. Many of Europe s major concerns are linked to the highly concentrated consumption of resources and production of wastes of these densely populated areas, and to the fact that per capita production and consumption rates are among the highest in the world. The new democratic and open societies in CEE are now establishing western-style consumption patterns. The enormous consumption of natural resources has now been recognized as one of the root causes for the destabilization of the ecosphere.
Displacements can be huge.
Therefore, precautionary environmental policies must be very much concerned with resource productivities on all levels. In CEE, increasing private car ownership has overwhelmed the existing transportation infrastructure. There is an enormous dichotomy between the economies of western Europe and the rest of the region. This is key to interpreting economic root causes. Agriculture and heavy industry predominate in these economies, in contrast to the manufacturing and service industries in the west.