supercar Posted September 27, 2007 #1 Share Posted September 27, 2007 (edited) MOUNT PENTELI, Greece - If history is any guide, vast acres blackened in Greece's deadly wildfires will eventually sprout anew - with luxury villas, fancy hotels, and expensive vacation homes. The fires, which killed at least 64 people across the country and threaten to topple the government, have forced Greeks to ask painful questions about what caused the blazes and how they were able to spread such destruction. Among the most insidious triggers, according to officials and environmentalists, is a practice by builders of torching forests to render the land available for development. Greece is the only country in the European Union that does not have a forest registry. Once a forest burns down, the legal status of the land also goes up in smoke. Without records, designating the land for reforestation is too difficult, and the land is often up for grabs. In some cases, developers have moved in with the help of corrupt officials. "Historically, this is a very big problem," said Dmitri Karavellas, chief executive of the Greek branch of the World Wildlife Fund. "There is no doubt that at least some of the fires this week were due to arson linked to property development." Firefighters battled their last major blaze in southern Greece yesterday after a week of fires that wiped out at least 1,500 homes and cost the country at least $1.6 billion. Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who faces a close race for reelection in fewer than three weeks, promised to rebuild all homes destroyed by the fires through a disaster relief fund made up of state and private contributions. He said homeless families would initially get prefabricated homes. Yesterday, Greece's one major remaining fire swept through the hamlet of Kato Kotyli, near Karytaina in the Peloponnese. Residents and firefighters prevented it from destroying the 30 or so homes. As an investigation into the suspected arsons continues, authorities said six people have been charged with deliberately setting fires. The arson trend has been especially damaging on Mount Penteli, once a thick-forested hill 15 miles north of Athens and now an overbuilt affluent suburban enclave, where four fires in the last decade have been blamed on arsonists. Flames that stalked the mountain last week topped the ridge and spread down through the northern edge of the community, incinerating homes and forcing hundreds of well-to-do Greeks to flee. Resident George Papageorgeou, a retired Air Force officer, was surveying the damage Wednesday and said he was convinced that this fire, like ones in the past, could be blamed on a scheme to grab the land. "Houses here are very expensive," he said, adding that he has watched dozens of homes spring up around him, including on land cleared by fire. http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/ar..._to_developers/ Edited September 27, 2007 by supercar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chemical-licker Posted September 27, 2007 #2 Share Posted September 27, 2007 dont surprise me in the least, money before life, thats how these people think, but if they weren't under so much pressure to make money they wouldn't do this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mekorig Posted September 28, 2007 #3 Share Posted September 28, 2007 supercar? Are you really supercar? Havent your account been hacked? Strange your post is some form of Super dippy the USA is da best type of propaganda........you can not be supercar, please, call the Mods, his account has benn hacked. In other things, i was suspecting it. Its is more common than you tought, the action od clearing a forest to sell the terrain and gain a lot of money its not uncommon among land sellers and builders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
girty1600 Posted September 28, 2007 #4 Share Posted September 28, 2007 Well isn't that nice. You would think a respectable country like Greece would protect forests and national interests a bit better. Its like when GWB called upon the hurricane to destroy slummy Parishes in Louisiana so decent middle-class houses could be built in place of the run-down houses. Wow. I need a nap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle Posted September 28, 2007 #5 Share Posted September 28, 2007 They'd already raped most of the land of trees, but you won't hear the environmentalists giving them a bit of flack for their atrocities. The powers that be won't be implemented at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el midgetron Posted September 28, 2007 #6 Share Posted September 28, 2007 Its like when GWB called upon the hurricane to destroy slummy Parishes in Louisiana so decent middle-class houses could be built in place of the run-down houses. what?... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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