[ahartmetz]

In the 80s, the GDR had unfiltered or less well filtered coal power stations, more widespread use of toxic chemicals such as PCBs, less safe nuclear power stations, and the standard car type had a two-stroke engine. Did you see the blackened house facades in the East in the early 1990s? It really was worse than West Germany. Doesn't mean that everything was fine in West Germany.

Open-pit mining holes and other permanent problems from mining like the need to pump out water to prevent flooding aren't really preventable except by not mining. It's mostly HOW things were done in the East that was worse. They had fewer spare resources to do things "nicely" and the state controlled both industry and the media (even the population via Stasi), so problems could be swept under the rug more easily.