Environmental Destruction and Air Pollution in Saxony (1982) The steady increase in air pollution in the GDR and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was attributable in no small measure to emissions from power plants fired by brown coal. Air pollution caused caused serious damage to the forest in the Ore Mountains [Erzgebirge] in the border region between the two countries. Hillsides that were unfavorably situated with respect to certain weather patterns were sometimes completely deforested, as can be seen in this photograph from September 1982. Photo by Volker Döring.