Winter in the Czech Republic is usually cold and frosty. Grey mornings, icy days, and dark nights combined with delicate snowflakes and smoke rising from chimneys create an idyllic but unfortunately much more prosaic atmosphere. Many people in Czech villages face the current energy crisis and have to seek alternative sources of heat. Due to financial reasons, they cannot afford expensive energy and must return to traditional methods of heating. Czech Republic is still recovering from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as dealing with rising oil and gas prices on world markets due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The government is trying to reduce its dependence on Russian gas while also helping approximately 150,000 households that haven’t been able to afford to replace their old boilers with new ones for economic reasons.

As part of this topic, I have focused on two different stories that illustrate how often people must resort to non-ecological and sometimes even illegal sources of heating.

The first story focuses on a young female couple who live together on the outskirts of a small village. Although both women work, their income is not enough to afford proper heating. Therefore, on cold days, they heat their home illegally with a wood burning stove. In addition to buying firewood from a store, they rely on collecting it from a nearby forest. Under the cover of darkness, with only their headlamps on, they go to cut wood to avoid the attention of the residents. Unfortunately, the wood is wet, and they don’t have time to let it dry for at least two years, which would be optimal. This means that they burn it in a state that releases a large amount of carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the air.

The second story centres around the daily life and rituals of a small village located in a remote area. Due to high energy prices and a lack of financial resources most of the villagers rely on traditional methods of heating using wood or coal. In April 2022, a law was approved to delay by two years the ban on using non-ecological solid fuel boilers in residential buildings. This means that many households can legally keep their outdated and highly polluting boilers.