The Soviet Union controls the lion’s share of the earth’s mineral resources. Soviets are keenly aware that fuel and raw mineral export is by far their biggest source of income—the difference between a chance at economic survival and none whatsoever. The ecology movement, an import from the West, has barely begun to educate ordinary citizens about the consequences of a culture of fossil-fuel waste. Energy production has been overly labor intensive since the earliest days. The question, as with so many other industries, is how to become profitably efficient without pauperizing workers and the surrounding community.