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Current AffairsCzech Republic swamped by plastic bottles as heat increases consumption
The Czech Republic has been hit by an unprecedented heat-wave in recent
weeks with record temperatures across the country. Naturally, people have
to drink more in this weather. Retailers report an increase in consumption
of water and soft drinks, which very often come in non-returnable plastic
bottles. So how is the country coping with so much discarded plastic?
Katerina Dalesicka is a spokeswoman for EKO-KOM, which acts as a mediator
between producers and distributors of goods with non-biodegradable
packaging and individual communities.
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Press ReviewPress Review
The Pope praying for rain, a Greenpeace protest at a Czech chemical
factory, and Czech soldiers on guard against angry mobs in Iraq - all
feature prominently on today's front pages. MLADA FRONTA DNES has pictures
of Czech troops standing near burning tires, the result of local Iraqi
unrest on Sunday. In several incidents Czech soldiers received minor
injuries from stones thrown by local inhabitants. Worse was an incident in
which one Iraqi man - attempting to jump a vehicle leaving the Czech base
- slipped under the wheels and later died from his injuries.
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One on OneIska Lichter: remembering a time when "we all got along"
Iska Lichter was born Jindriska Zofie Roudnicka in the town of Kolin, in
1930. The daughter of a Jewish father and a gentile mother, she lived a
normal life until 1939 and the Nazi occupation. Her parents divorced -
deliberately - to avoid the family being persecuted. Her father sent the
family to the countryside, he himself went to his mother's town of
Podebrady. He was deported to Terezin in 1942 and later sent to Auschwitz,
from which he never returned. Iska, who now lives in Colorado, says hardly
a day goes by when she does not think of her father, and her life before
the war.
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WitnessKaterina Vondrova - a night to remember on both sides of the globe
Translator and interpreter Katerina Vondrova left communist Czechoslovakia
with her parents in 1981 when she was just ten years old. The family moved
to Sydney, Australia and Katerina went to primary and secondary school
there, without knowing whether she would ever be allowed to visit her
native country again. She was in her final year of high school, preparing
for a university course in Australia, when something happened on the other
side of the globe that altered her plans and determined her future life.
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Press ReviewPress Review
The apparent salvation of the best known travel agent in the country -
Vaclav Fischer - is the big story in all of today dailies, primarily
because there's nothing else happening in the Czech Republic at the
moment. Yes, the silly season or "cucumber season" as the Czechs
say is in full swing - and the papers are awash with the sort of stories
that can only dream of making it big during the rest of the year.
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Press ReviewPress Review
The rise and fall of the prominent Czech businessman and former senator
Vaclav Fischer fill the front pages of all the Czech dailies.
"Fischer fighting for survival" and " More creditors
clamour for their money" read some of the front page headlines.
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Current AffairsEnvironment groups slam ministry's long-term energy policy
The Trade and Industry Ministry has published its long term energy policy
plan up until the year 2030. It has been tailored to gradually meet all EU
criteria, but still aims for maximum self sustainability. The ministry has
revised an earlier decision to phase out black and brown coal mining and
has plans to build three more nuclear reactors. The concept has come as a
shock to environment activists who claim that it would be a serious
setback for the Czech Republic. We asked Vojtech Kotecky of Friends of the
Earth what his reservations are:
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Business NewsConsumer protection turning green
In one of the recent editions of the Economics Report, we spoke about
consumer protection here in the Czech Republic, its history and some of
the main issues. However, consumer protection does not have only legal and
economic dimensions: increasingly, it is becoming intertwined with
environmental concerns. In the same way as sustainable development became
an imperative for the globalising world, environmentalists and consumer
protectionists are now talking about the need for "sustainable
consumption".
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Current AffairsFish and eggs in farms around Spolana chemical plant are inedible due to high content of toxic substances
Farm products in an area around the infamous Czech chemical plant Spolana,
north of Prague have been found to be completely inedible due to a high
content of toxic substances. Experts have found chemicals such as DDT and
mercury in fish and eggs and are examining other species and products. One
of the possible explanations for the contamination is that massive floods
that hit the Czech Republic last summer washed chemicals out into the area
by the plant. A definite cause, however, has yet to be established.
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Talking PointIs life with plastic really fantastic?
Plastic materials - they are everywhere around us, and few of us could
imagine our everyday life without them. However, one of the problems with
them is that some of them release toxic substances when they are burnt.
But not only then - environmentalists say some plastics are toxic for us
even as we use them, such as those which contain chemical substances known
as phthalates.
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