The new environmental law of Greece that sacrifices the natural environment on the altar of entrepreneurship and capitalism.
Hello my friends. Some days ago, it was the World Environment Day and outside the Greek parliament, a peaceful demonstration of the new environmental law was taking place. This law passed in the Greek parliament on May 5 with completely anti-democratic procedures in the middle of the covid19 pandemic. Out of a total of 214 voters, 158 parliamentarians said "yes" and 56 "no". A total of 141 parliamentarians voted in a letter. It is worth noting that only members of the government voted in favor of the new bill, while the loyal opposition withdrew during the vote.
translation: Lets destroy the capitalism before it destroys our planet.
This law was not passed without reactions from the people as an internet campaign was submitted to the parliament by 93 different environmental organizations with 20,000 signatures which today are many more. Also despite the restrictive measures for the pandemic, on the day of the debate on the environmental law in parliament, demonstrations took place in 10 different cities in Greece. However, the government passed a law sacrificing the country's natural environment on the altar of entrepreneurship and capitalism.
translation: abolition of anti-environmental bill
This law has been called "Modernization of Environmental Legislation" and the changes it is bringing are devastating for the country's natural environment. Below I will list the content of government settings that focuses on 7 points, as they appear coded in the signature collection campaign that was circulated via the internet, with great success.
It removes the essence of Natura 2000 area protection and promotes residential, even mining and hydrocarbon mining in protected areas.
It endangers protected areas by abolishing the autonomy of Protected Areas Management Bodies
It allows the destruction of the environment in the name of investment plans, assigning control of studies to individuals and
imposing suffocating deadlines for service opinions.It promotes the irrational expansion of industrial renewable energy sources, mainly wind farms.
It legitimizes arbitrarily buildings within forest areas and occasionally within wetlands and streams.
It simplifies solid waste management processes and does not take measures against the degradation of streams by the uncontrolled
disposal of urban and industrial wastewater in them.It violates constitutional provisions, European directives and international conventions.
As you can see, the Greek government does not care at all for the natural environment that is estimated to be 20% of the country. In addition to destroying such beautiful natural landscapes, all these changes will negatively affect the health of citizens. Although it has now been adequately documented that the destruction of ecosystems and the environment by the unbridled capitalist, "growth" is the root cause of human covid-19 virus infection and the increase in the incidence of epidemics. They aggravate the problem of the environment and climate change, which is not going to be solved within a system that is organized based on profit. They do not intend to take a step back from their interests, on the contrary, they have adopted a much more liberal governance model that does not tolerate obstacles to profit-making and destroys what stands in its way.
Since the day the environmental bill was passed, "vigilant citizens" spent the night outside the Greek parliament demanding the repeal of the environmental bill and threatening not to leave until the government fulfills their wish. Some of my compatriots call them lazy people who do not work, I admire them for their perseverance and interest in the natural environment of our homeland.
translation: vigilant citizens
So that was it for today. I consider it very important to protect the natural environment, and I am saddened when governments are not interested at all for the quality of life of their citizens and go so far as to pass such harmful laws to in order to make the rich people richer.
I captured all the photographs with my dslr camera nikon d3400.
Thanks for stopping by, see you at my next post.
Refferences: be2green.gr,alfavita.gr,efsyn.gr