Environment in the
Czech Republic
Czech culture
Charles university in Prague
Jan Vávra
Lecture outline

Environmental problems
Agriculture
 Car transportation
 Brown coal mining and burning
 Air pollution


Environmental politics and NGOs
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)
Changes 1953-2008
http://kontaminace.cenia.cz
Car transportation

air pollution
mostly CO2, CO, NOx emissions
 VOC, PM, SO2 as well
 Pb almost disappeared


landscape occupation and
fragmentation
CO2 emissions 1990-2007
EC (2010)
Passengerkilometers/person/year in
2009
Zpráva o životním
prostředí ČR 2010.
Landscape fragmentation
(2005)
Příroda a krajina České republiky. Zpráva o stavu 2009
Landscape fragmentation 1980 (81
% UAT)
UAT = Unfragmented Area by
Traffic
> 100 km2
< 1000 cars/day
Příroda a krajina České republiky. Zpráva o stavu 2009
Landscape fragmentation 2005 (64
% UAT)
Příroda a krajina České republiky. Zpráva o stavu 2009
Landscape fragmentation 2040 (53
% UAT)
Příroda a krajina České republiky. Zpráva o stavu 2009
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
Brown coal production
120 000
1t
lignite
100 000
=
60 000
40 000
20 000
Anthracite
Lignite
2002
1998
1994
1990
1986
1982
1978
1974
1970
1966
1962
1958
1954
1950
1946
1942
1938
1934
1930
1926
1922
0
1918
1000 t
1,17 t
CO2
80 000
Mining pits in NW Bohemia
NW Bohemia 1950
NW Bohemia 2008
Overall air pollution
Area with air
pollution
exceeding the
health limits in
2010.
www.chmi.cz
Benzo[a]pyrene
Polycyclic
aromatic
hydrocarbon
benzo[a]pyrene.
Mutagenous and
carcinogenic.
From cars, coal,
smoking, etc.
www.chmi.cz
SO2 air
pollution
Stages of NGOs and env.
policy
late 80’s – ecology and dissent
 1989-1991 – golden age
 1992-1996 – time of political neglect
 1997-2003 – acceptance by politics
 2003-2009 – professionalism
 since 2010 – icing on a cake (again)

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.
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
Golden age of early 90’s

boom of NGOs




good relationship between NGOs and state agencies


800 organizations
support from West
active members
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)
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
1997-2003 improvement of the
state
new government (1998-2002) – social
democrats
 pressure from OECD and EU on
legislation
 continuation of professionalization
 some NGOs became absolutely nonpolitically oriented (conservationism,
education of children)

2003-2009 – environmental
agencies

change to professional agencies
improved fund raising
 lobbying
 changes within the system
 decrease of activism and radicalism

Activities
early 90s – happenings, direct actions
(blockades), protests
 late 90s – happenings, local
demonstrations
 2000s – lobbying, legislation changes,
local activities, happenings, nonviolent direct actions

http://www.greenpeace.org/czech/cz/Multimedia1/Videa/hrbitovvideo/
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
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)
References
Binka, B. (2009). Zelení úředníci se zbytkem vzpurné duše aneb Osud environmentálních hnutí v České republice. Ekolist. May 25 th
2009.
http://ekolist.cz/cz/publicistika/eseje/esej-zeleni-urednici-se-zbytkem-vzpurne-duse-aneb-osud-environmentalnich-hnuti-v-ceskerepublice
Czech Hydrometeorological institute
www.chmi.cz
Databáze sociálního metabolismu Československa
http://lucc.ic.cz/soc_meta/
EC (2009), Energy, transport and environment indicators. Eurostat Pocketbook
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/publications/collections/pocketbooks
Fagin, A. (2000). Environmental Protest in the Czech Republic: Three Stages of Post-Communist Development. Czech Sociological
Review 8 (2): 139-156.
Map layers
kontaminace.cenia.cz
Příroda a krajina České republiky. Zpráva o stavu 2009
http://www.env.cz/C1257458002F0DC7/cz/news_091130_zpravaostavu/$FILE/zprava%20o%20stavu2009.pdf
Zpráva o životním prostředí ČR 2010.
www.cenia.cz