Environment in the Czech Republic

Prezentace na téma: "Environment in the Czech Republic"— Transkript prezentace:

1 Environment in the Czech Republic
Czech culture Charles university in Prague Jan Vávra

2 Lecture outline Environmental problems Environmental politics and NGOs
Agriculture Car transportation Brown coal mining and burning Air pollution Environmental politics and NGOs

3 Intensive agriculture
soil too much compact fast runoff of precipitation - floods soil erosion 50 % of arable land is in risk of water erosion extreme use of fertilizers usually nitrogenous and phosphorus affecting mostly watersheds more than 10 % of environmentally friendly agricultural land (meadows, not arable land)

4 Changes

5 Car transportation air pollution
mostly CO2, CO, NOx emissions VOC, PM, SO2 as well Pb almost disappeared landscape occupation and fragmentation

6 CO2 emissions EC (2010)

7 Passengerkilome-ters/person/year in 2009
Zpráva o životním prostředí ČR 2010.

8 Landscape fragmentation (2005)
Příroda a krajina České republiky. Zpráva o stavu 2009

9 Landscape fragmentation 1980 (81 % UAT)
UAT = Unfragmented Area by Traffic > 100 km2 < 1000 cars/day Příroda a krajina České republiky. Zpráva o stavu 2009

10 Landscape fragmentation 2005 (64 % UAT)
Příroda a krajina České republiky. Zpráva o stavu 2009

11 Landscape fragmentation 2040 (53 % UAT)
Příroda a krajina České republiky. Zpráva o stavu 2009

12 Brown coal mining CO2 and SO2 emissions landscape destruction
settlements moving 116 abandoned and moved settlements brown coal power plants make 48 % of electricity production

13 Brown coal production 1 t lignite = 1,17 t CO2

14 Mining pits in NW Bohemia

15 NW Bohemia 1950

16 NW Bohemia 2008

17 Overall air pollution Area with air pollution exceeding the health limits in 2010.

18 Benzo[a]pyrene Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon benzo[a]pyrene.
Mutagenous and carcinogenic. From cars, coal, smoking, etc.

19 SO2 air pollution

20 Stages of NGOs and env. policy
late 80’s – ecology and dissent – golden age – time of political neglect – acceptance by politics – professionalism since 2010 – icing on a cake (again)

21 Hnutí Duha opinons (when?)
Hnutí Duha is convinced that Czech public can have healthier and cleaner environment, as well as our European neighbours have. We suggest that kind of solutions of ecological problems, that will bring profit to everyone. We see the causes of contemporary global crisis in the philosophy of non-regulated economical growth, chase for still increasing consumption and centralisation of society. Overload by goods and information distratcs people from the problems which must be solved to ensure our sruvival…We don’t believe that present days political parties are able to deal with the crisis.

22 late 1980’s official organizations (conservationists)
Czechoslovak Union of Nature Conservationists Brontosaurus (part of Socialist Youth Union) Ecological Section of Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences Ecological section of Charta 77 part of the dissent

23 Golden age of early 90’s most important NGOs boom of NGOs
800 organizations support from West active members good relationship between NGOs and state agencies environmentalists went to agencies Green Parliament meetings of biggest NGOs at Ministry of Environment unity broke in mid 90’s different approaches radical, political, not neccessary most important NGOs Greenpeace, Hnutí Duha (Friends of Earth), Childern of Earth, Společnost pro trvale udržitelný život (Society for Sustainable Living)

24 1992 – 1997 political marginalisation
new political parties (right-left) new direction economical liberalisation, fast growth, less regulations NGOs challenged the purely economic worldview non-party politics perceived as a problem by Václav Klaus lack of communication between government and NGOs cutting of funds for NGOs decrease of public support for environmental issues deradicalization, proffesionalization

25 1997-2003 improvement of the state
new government ( ) – social democrats pressure from OECD and EU on legislation continuation of professionalization some NGOs became absolutely non-politically oriented (conservationism, education of children)

26 2003-2009 – environmental agencies
change to professional agencies improved fund raising lobbying changes within the system decrease of activism and radicalism

27 Activities early 90s – happenings, direct actions (blockades), protests late 90s – happenings, local demonstrations 2000s – lobbying, legislation changes, local activities, happenings, non-violent direct actions

28 2010-2013 Environmentalism is again „icing on a cake“ or enemy
Growth, competitiveness, austerity are the catchwords Civic democrats (neo-liberals) govern Ministry of Environment Intentional disintegration of the office

29 Hnutí Duha opinons Hnutí Duha is convinced that Czech public can have healthier and cleaner environment, as well as our European neighbours have. We suggest that kind of solutions of ecological problems, that will bring profit to everyone. (2006) We see the causes of contemporary global crisis in the philosophy of non-regulated economical growth, chase for still increasing consumption and centralisation of society. Overload by goods and information distratcs people from the problems which must be solved to ensure our sruvival…We don’t believe that present days political parties are able to deal with the crisis. (1991)

30 References Binka, B. (2009). Zelení úředníci se zbytkem vzpurné duše aneb Osud environmentálních hnutí v České republice. Ekolist. May 25th 2009. Czech Hydrometeorological institute Databáze sociálního metabolismu Československa EC (2009), Energy, transport and environment indicators. Eurostat Pocketbook Fagin, A. (2000). Environmental Protest in the Czech Republic: Three Stages of Post-Communist Development. Czech Sociological Review 8 (2): Map layers kontaminace.cenia.cz Příroda a krajina České republiky. Zpráva o stavu 2009 Zpráva o životním prostředí ČR 2010.