From 1900 to 2021, world average life expectancy rose from 32 years to 71 years — an astonishing increase that was not the result of people buying nothing and consuming nothing.

Look at Chinese life expectancy under Mao

In 1984, a United Nations report identified East Germany as the most polluted country in Europe; in 1990 the Washington Post reported that Bitterfeld, an East German city south of Berlin, was “the dirtiest place in the most polluted country in the world, according to government statistics and Greenpeace.”

And yet Beijing, one of the most polluted cities a decade ago transformed itself. GDR and socialist countries never got the chance. And don't forget why Clean Air Act had to be implemented .

The article cited:

"Sulfur dioxide is indeed the crucial issue, Mr. Herrmann agrees. The resources-poor GDR depends on native brown coal for 82 percent of its electricity generation, and it has a high sulfur content. Some 4 million tons of sulfur dioxide belched out of East German smokestacks in 1970 and will probably do so again in 1985, the German Economic Institute says. Herrmann disputes this projection and anticipates a slight reduction in sulfur dioxide levels next year."