...When there is guilt about the disturbance of the Natural Landscape, the Pollution of the Environment, the alteration of the Aesthetics of the Landscape, the grabbing and exploitation to extinction of natural resources such as water, soil, subsoil, mountains and atmosphere, the investments that cause environmental damage and irreversible impacts are “usually” always baptized into something more “digestible”...
For example, an Industrial Zone is renamed an Industrial Park, a concentration of crafts in a specific area is christened an Industrial Park, product and service trading areas are renamed Trade Parks, exhibition areas, leisure and entertainment areas are renamed Cultural Parks... and so on, up to the famous Wind Parks....
But what does the term “Park” mean...?;
The simplest definition of a Park generally refers to «...a large public garden or a landscaped area of land with a variety of botanical species and amenities used for recreation...»
It has been proven over the course of just a few decades that there is a direct link between the most polluting and damaging activities with pollution indulgences and “park” baptisms...
There are many cases where polluters, apart from permits for siting, operation, inapplicable environmental conditions, etc., are often awarded with accompanying «exculpatory» names, such as «Parks», «Environmentally Friendly Facilities», «Sustainable Development» and the like...
We are experiencing processes of «tolerance» and cold implementation of an externally imposed «subsidized» energy policy, well coordinated from all sides and levels of administration (local, regional, central government and through Community decisions, directives and regulations) in which the “economic dimension” of projects such as Wind Farms (usually short term with no useful life expectancy) takes precedence in favour of specific technology, equipment and service providers and whatever comes from there in terms of environmental and socio-economic impacts on local communities and the countryside...!!.
At the same time, the «misleading» perception is deliberately spread that knowledge and technology at the levels they have reached today, where they are moving and what they are achieving, are able to cure every alteration, damage and disease that man causes to the environment... This erroneous view, at least as far as the Landscape and its components are concerned, does not seem to be fought or opposed by the scientific community as a whole, at least by those who know Nature and the complex composition of the Natural Landscape, if only for the fact that the authenticity of the Natural Landscape is irreplaceable and cannot be fully restored in the same way as the original...
And to close my thought a little more clearly, I repeat exactly what I have been «chanting» for some months now, that....:
«... the indiscriminate dispersion of Wind Farms in the Greek Territory without serious spatial planning consideration of land suitability, with the value of the authentic and globally unique Greek Aesthetic Landscape as a basic and sensitive core and reference element, is a national crime.... For the Environmental Impact Studies (EIS) prepared and approved by the Services, it is necessary to revise the entire institutional framework focusing on specific Specifications for Wind Farms (Landscape, Deforestation, Noise, Birdlife, Soil, Hydrogeological Alterations, Electromagnetic Radiation, Human Health, Local Agricultural and Tourism Economy, Accident Potential, etc.), how and by whom they will be drafted, except of course by the investor, how public consultation will be carried out, who will evaluate them and what kind of decisions on Environmental Conditions will be issued, but also which investments will be rejected without pity, for environmental reasons, without any room for adjustments to the EIA studies or adjustments to Environmental Conditions, following political and other pressures on Services and Competent Administrations..»
On the other hand, let's also stop the propaganda by investors, ecologists and state control mechanisms that Wind «does not harm» the environment and let's not identify them with Renewable Energy Sources, excluding many others from the discussion..., when in this category there are indeed other, much less harmful and «truly renewable» ones .... (biomass, photovoltaics, hydroelectricity, hydrogen, biogas, biofuels, biocultures, waste recovery, sea waves, etc.)...
And finally, let's stop the perception (stupidity...) that those who argue against the Wind “Parks” by emphasizing the Environmental Impacts resulting from them, especially for the Greek area, indirectly support lignite...!!
