I dont understand how basic stuff like not polluting rivers is the craziest thing you have ever witnessed. And not sure why it would lead to the downfall of the USA. But ok.
It really is a shame that communists cloak themselves in these sorts of good intentions because we all want clean air and rivers, obviously, only a psycho wouldn't. It's such an effective trogen horse for them because it's obviously a good thing and it's very difficult to imagine how to accomplish it without empowering the state. So if empowering the state is your aim it makes a lot of sense to ride in the Trojan horse of environmentalism. It's kind of an all communists are environmentalists but not all environmentalists are communists sort of thing... (of course not literally all, just almost all)
If you go around the wealthier suburbs of the big cities, you will find many people with strong environmental values. These people are business owners, executives and otherwise highly successful members of capitalist society. They shop at Whole Foods, ride expensive Italian bicycles and separate their recyclables.
They are also about as far removed from communists as you can get. So I don't really accept your premise.