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A Mediterranean Union...
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero and his wife Sonsoles Espinosa are seen visiting the site of the Parthenon yesterday. |
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EDITORIAL |
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Hymettus, death of a mountain
One year after destructive wildfires on Mount Hymettus and just a few days after another blaze at Glyka Nera, the landscape of this much-lauded and heavily scarred mountain looks worse than ever.
The scorched land is being infringed upon, classified as agricultural land and built on. Meanwhile, local municipal authorities are playing a lead role in this rape of the environment with a plethora of contradictory, irresponsible interventions.
Calls from scientists and environmental groups to set up a forest protection program, to clearly define the boundaries of the land, to study the environmental impact of the fires and their aftermath and to have Hymettus designated as a protected zone, have failed to move the state and the government. |
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EDITORIAL:AthensPlus |
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Urban lab
The growing desperation with which Athenians watch their surrounding mountains for any sign of smoke is an indication of how degraded life in the capital has become. A year ago, most of the pine and fir forest on Mount Parnitha was destroyed by a fire that started on the other side of the mountain and, through incompetence and mixed signals on the part of the authorities, was allowed to rage out of control. This year, on June 26, a fire broke out in the lush pine forest on the northeastern slopes of Mount Hymettus, among the last bits of a major reforestry project carried out largely by volunteers after World War II, during which the mountain was denuded by Athenians searching for firewood. |
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