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Current AffairsTemperatures rising, but are summers really not what they used to be?
The mercury's rising here in the Czech Republic, with maximum daytime
temperatures sitting comfortably at 30 degrees Celsius for days on end,
and thunderstorms becoming a regular feature of the evenings. Pubs and
ice-cream salesmen might be rejoicing in the tropical weather, but those
people wilting in stuffy offices or baking in cars are of course less
enthusiastic. Rob Cameron reports.
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Business NewsWhat do Czech industries think of the EU Emissions Trading plan?
Next year the European Union will launch the opening phase of its ambitious
Emissions Trading programme, which planners hope will help to reduce the
union's overall greenhouse gas emissions. In line with the EU Emissions
Trading Directive, as of 2005 individual EU members will be required to
meet pre-set emissions caps spelled out in countries' National Allocation
Plans. However, companies affected under the legislation will also be
given emissions allowances, which, if saved, will be possible to trade as
credit on a newly-emerging - and some believe - potentially lucrative
market.
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Current AffairsOld cars must be dismantled in official scrap yards under new EU regulations
Abandoning an old car without a licence plate in a remote area used to be a
common way of getting rid of an unwanted vehicle here in the Czech
Republic. But European Union accession has changed the rules for drivers
as well as for owners of car breaking yards.
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Czech ScienceCzech scientists: health effects of air pollution in humans can show after decades
Pioneering research by Czech scientists suggests that the quality of the
air we breathe may affect our health for decades to come. In the early
1980s the most serious pollutant in this country was sulphur dioxide,
produced mainly by coal-fired power plants and households using coal for
heating.
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SpotlightHradec Kralove Solar and Ozone Observatory
This week I've come to the east Bohemian town of Hradec Kralove, to the
Czech Republic's only solar and ozone observatory, which was established
over half a century ago, in 1951. My guide is a physicist named Karel
Vanicek, who has been working here since the mid 1970s. Of course ozone
depletion is now a well-known problem and I asked Mr Vanicek when he and
his colleagues in Hradec first began to notice that the ozone layer was
starting to disappear.
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