ecology

ecology

GMO-free Czech Republic / Ceska republika bez GMO

Did you know that the whole EU is free of genetically modified fruit and vegetables? In fact the EU is sooooo anti-GMO that the Czech scientists would like it to embrace more liberal attitudes toward this issue. Proffessor Drobnik who teaches biotechnology at the Charles Univeristy in Prague believes that genetically modified crops are safe and better for the environment than conventional plants because they require smaller amount of pesticides and herbicides. This in turn makes them less expensive and their yields are higher since fewer plants get damaged by pests. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: ecology, food

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ECO-friendly Czech Republic: Multilevel garage for bicycles / Ekologicke Cechy: parkovaci dum pro kola

I knew that the Czech Republic is very bicycle-friendly but I had no idea stuff like this was going on – czech this out! A city in the Czech Republic called Hradec Kralove decided to built a huge muli-level, super ecological and super hi-tech garage for bikes. Here are the features:

  • it can take up to 116 bikes
  • bike will be automatically taken up by an elevator and automatically parked in its assigned spot
  • bike will be safe from bad weather and thieves

Any biker will be able to park his bike there for only 5 Czech crowns which is a very good price.

CZ: Vzdycky jsem si byla vedoma toho, ze Ceska republika je velmi vstricna vuci cyklistum. Cyklisticke stezky existuji snad vsude, divim se, ze jedna z nich nevede pres stred Staromaku ;) . Nasledujici clanek me ale opravdu (mile) zaskocil. V Hradci Kralove totiz stavi cely garazovy dum pro kola! Jak to bude fungovat? Kolo automaticky dopravi na misto vytah. Nejen ze bude chranene od spatneho pocasi, ale lupicove si tu taky ani neskrtnou. Garaz bude moci udrzet az 116 kol. A cena za parkovani? Pouhych 5 korun!

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Tagged as: ecology, sports, travel

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Are the Czechs building us our future sci-fi homes? / Stavi vsem Cesi budouci ‘ufonske’ domy?

Every 2 years the American government  puts out a student contest called the Solar Decathlon in which the contestants compete in designing a self-sufficient solar house. The Czech team placed itself among the 20 finalists for the first time in history. They call their design The Air House, which combines 2 main elements: a wooden box and a light membrane. The wooden box contains all of the technology needed to run a household; it’s also very compact and inexpensive. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: architecture, competition, ecology

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Giant lake Milada – a new tourist attraction? / Obri jezero Milada – nova turisticka atrakce?

A giant Czech man-made lake Milada (located in the northern part of the Czech Republic) may be a ready-to-use tourist attraction by the year 2013. It came to life after a deserted coal pit was filled with 35 thousand million liters of water and flooded three former villages.

Milada is not the only such lake. It is one of the other 3 lakes which were created the same way. Water re-cultivation appears to be an inexpensive way how to beautify the land which was devastated by coal mining.

The locals hope the site to become another Macha’s lake, a place of leisure, filled with thousands of swimmers, dock yards, hotels and cyclists. All this will depend on whether the local community has the money to fund these recreational projects or not.

However, the lake has also a couple of drawbacks. Since it is located in a giant pit, the wind is almost non-existent, which will discourage yachtsmen from coming. The banks are also quite unstable, causing frequent mini-land slides. What is more is that the area still has coal deposits underground (about 100 million tons), which is about 2 to 3 years worth of supply for the whole Czech Republic. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: ecology, sports, tourism

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Top 12 most beautiful mirracles of the Czech nature / 12 nejkrasnejsich prirodnich zazraku ceske republiky

The following list is definitely worth printing out or even memorize if you are planning on visiting the Czech Republic. If you were indecisive about what places to visit, your problem is solved! Here are the top 12 nature landmarks in the Czech Republic. If you want to see a picture of each of them, click here (although the text is in Czech, do not despair,their list has the same number order as mine so go by the numbers). And in case  you want to find out more about these places, just click on each one and it will link you to a more-in-depth resource.

CZ: Novinky.cz zverejnily moc hezky list 12-ti nejkrasnejsich prirodnich zazraku v Cechach. Clovek by si je mel asi vsechny zapamatovat, aby mohl nejenze imponoval sve neceske zname, ale aby je mohl vsechny v tom svem kratkem zivote navstivit a pokochat se jimi!

1. The Southern Bohemian desert in Trebonsko (Poust v Jiznich Cechach)
2.The Prokop Valley (Prokopske udoli)
3. Primeval forest in Beskydy (Prales v Beskydech) [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: ecology, nature, practical, UNESCO

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Potato nation out of potatoes? / Bramborovy narod nema brambory?

uhappy potato google imageThe Czech Republic covers luscious, fertile land which produces various types of fruit and vegetables. It may seem surprising to you (as it was  to me) that most of the produce is imported! For example, 51,000 tons of last year’s crop of domestic apples were exported, while 71, 000 tons of apples consumed by the Czechs came from abroad. This quite ineffective system weakens the local economy, increases the prices of local goods and the constant semi-truck movement across the border worsens the air pollution.

The Czech Republic is a potato nation (almost every other folk song is about potatoes) but strangely most potatoes are currently being imported from Germany and also Poland. As far a garlic grown in Czech goes, it is pretty much impossible to find it in the stores. Where does it come from? Over 80% of it comes from China (!!) which is 21,000 km away. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: ecology, economy

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Prague is not so green after all…../ Praha neni to nejzelenejsi mesto….

2802730821_5432d206851Prague is not a very ecology-friendly city. That is what came out of a recent British study which worked out the so-called Green City Index. Among the 30 participating metropolises Copenhagen (Denmark) came out as the most ecological city in Europe. Second place was won by Stockholm and third place belongs to Oslo. Prague, on the other hand, ‘won’ th 24th place (the whole list can be found below).

The cities were rated on 30 various indicators such as the energy consumption, CO2 emissions, trash handling, public transportation usage and the government’s attitude toward the environment. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: ecology, EU, politics

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Help! Global warming is killing Czech beer! / Pomoc! Globalni oteplovani nici ceske pivo!

czech beer google imageA recent study of the Czech Hydrometerological Institute concluded that “even with the modest warming so far experienced, hop yields in the Czech Republic have stagnated and quality declined”. The increasing temperatures (although very suttle) have been taking  the toll on the ‘beer plants’ which in turn could reduce their yield  by a further 7-10%. Perhaps the most worrying is the decline in the quality of the Saaz hops, which produce our good old Czech pilsners. “The “Alpha” acid content – “a major determinant of quality”, according to the team, as it’s the compound that produces a pilsner’s defining bitter taste – is likely to fall a further 13-32% if the predicted warming occurs. The study found that the concentration of these acids has fallen by 0.06% a year since 1954.” [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: beer, ecology, statistics

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When I tried to recycle for money…/ Moje “Vratne Lahve”

3750985417_99ce4e5fbaHave any of you -frugal people – tried to return recyclables at the recycling center? You should, it’s an experience of a lifetime! First of, it is not this orderly deal like when we used to return glass bottles during communism (to get the feel about what was it like, watch Return Bottles by Zdenek Sverak). Your mom sent you out with a bag of empty Mattonis and usually very unhappy lady in a grocery store exchanged them for couple of crowns and then you went home. Let me fill you in a bit on why did I decide to be this frugal while living in America. Our landlord (let’s call him Mike) has been digging through our trash for quite some time, claiming that one can make a ‘pretty good money’. Mike digs through our trash on a regular basis, especially after he hears us emptying our recycling containers into the main recycling bin. Mike is also not ashamed of this – he does it in the middle of the day or in the middle of the night. He also does some other strange things but that’s another story.

As I have been watching him day after day, digging through our trash, I decided I would give it a try myself. “Heck, who does not need some extra cash in these days?”, I thought to myself. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: communism, ecology, humor

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Breaking news about Czech spiders! / Zhava novinka o ceskych pavoucich!

the biggest Czech spiderWhat a ‘beauty’, right? Can you guess where was this picture taken? No, it wasn’t shot in some hot desert state like Arizona or Nevada; this spider lives in the Czech Republic! Him and 3 other spider species  are not only  very rare kinds in nature but they are also THE BIGGEST SPIDERS IN CENTRAL EUROPE (!!) and – let me repeat – they all live in the Czech Republic, namely in the county of Olomouc. All of these four guys are living happily together in one particular area without having the need  to compete over each other or eat each other up as it often happens in nature.

These spiders can grow up to 4 cm in diameter and their mandibles can be up to 1 cm wide. But don’t worry they are not poisonous and don’t like to bite humans -  they would rather snack on tasty Czech beetles and other bugs. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: animals, ecology, nature

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