Czech air is clear and fresh. At least, it is in Moravia. The skies are open and, unless living next to a motorway or industrial complex, they simply hang around up there supplying the honest Czech citizenry with all their necessary oxygen and ventilation needs. Compared with the collection of sick, diseased gases passed off as firmament in Hong Kong, Manila, Shanghai, Bangkok and a host of polluted Asian cities, the sparkling airs of mid-Europe are positively virginal. Even without directly and personally sampling and comparing each, it isn't hard to visualise the dramatic difference.
And yet, not everything is rosy in the garden. Some poor Czech cities are suffering from an unholy aerial admixture of three things; poor energy planning of the past (meaning many-a downtown power station churns out local smoke), rapid growth in the number of privately-owned vehicles that deliver exhaust particulates to your door, and a whole host of airborne dirtiness wafted in from elsewhere – Poland, for example. The city of Ostrava recently,and unsuccessfully, sued the state for the effects of atmospheric pollution. It's therefore a wonder that smoking is as prevalent as it is – perhaps Czechs crave their hourly tar-filled lungful because they just can't get enough beloved carcinogens from the lovely air they otherwise breathe.
For me, Czech skies are beautiful and pristine, at least those above the ancient city of Olomouc. Since living here my lungs have undergone a good dose of necessary cleansing. Fifteen years daily atmospheric scouring in the Pearl of the Orient must have left an accumulative mark, but hopefully the emphysemic lung collapse has been delayed.
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