The political changes in Poland have claimed ecology as another victim. For conservative politicians, ecology is just a dangerous whim and they would very happily spend the money allocated to it elsewhere. Michał Olszewski takes a critical look. For the Polish Right (both the politicians and the publicists who support them) environmental protection is the unwanted offspring of the democratic transformation. For as long as I can remember, conservatives have been very energetic in their opposition to decarbonisation, brandishing their tired-out arguments about the national economy, sentimental justifications or references to real improvements in environmental conditions in other areas. They have treated climate change as the invention of western lobbyists. Ultimately, one can even take environmental protection as a sign of madness, as the chairman of the Polish ruling party PiS, Jarosław Kaczyński, did in one interview. Dirty air: Warsaw vs Brussels After the Right took power, that rhetoric took on material form. The evidence is endless: a month ago the Minister for the Environment Jan Szyszko took the European Parliament to the European Court of … Continue reading The reality of environmental protection in Poland