I have a short commentary piece on this summer’s Greek fires in the Chicago Tribune.

“… The August burning of Greece revealed the deplorable, unacceptable and dangerous situation into which the country has fallen.
Greece is a tourist nation, almost entirely devoted to serving foreigners for a few months a year; however, the country is bereft of self-sufficiency and sustainable infrastructure for the protection of nature, including forests, agriculture and agrarian life. Greek government’s corrupt policies make it possible for gangsters, usually associated with builders and bankers, to burn national forests or parklands, which, in time, the government privatizes for apartment buildings. No Greek law exists that criminalizes such behavior.

A woman from Sparta said to me her family lost all its olive trees. What young person, she asked, would stay or return to farming when it takes about 10 years for the new olive tree to bear fruit”

download it here at the top of the opinion page

firesmap.jpg

(NASA satellite image showing plumes of smoke)