From: psikos@erato.csi.forth.gr (Panos Psikos)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.greek
Subject: Re: ENVIRONMENT: Greeks buying ''cleane
Date: 21 Jul 92 06:21:39 GMT
Organization: FORTH - ICS, P.O.Box 1385, Heraklio, Crete, Greece 71110 
       tel: +30(81)221171, 229302 fax: +30(81)229342,3 tlx: 262389 CCI

In article <1992Jul20.194830.24314@neptune.inf.ethz.ch>, santas@inf.ethz.ch (Philip Santas) writes:
|> 
|> In article <1473100057@igc.org> Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord@igc.org> writes:
|> >
|> >From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
|> >Subject: ENVIRONMENT: Greeks buying ''cleane
|> >
|> >/* Written 12:11 am  Jul 18, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
|> >Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
|> >print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.
|> >
|> >Title: ENVIRONMENT: Greeks buying ''cleaner'' cars for fresher air
|> >
|> >athens, jul 16 (ips) -- every summer for the last 20 years, athens
|> >chokes under a brownish blanket of smog, known locally as the
|> >''nefos''. but come the year 2000, government has promised to
|> >clear the air as it embarks on a long overdue pollution control
|> >programme.
|> 
|> When I hear such things from Greece, it means that it is again
|> a _toy_ program, or one which facilitates many people to improve
|> the status of their bank account(s) :-(

		I totally agree with your statement about bank accounts!Car importers in Greece are making millions since that law passed!

|>........Text deleted for brevity................................ 
|> 

	Just to add a couple of comments here:
Although a lot of people are making a fortune as described above I do not totally disagree with the above law, for different reasons however than pollution.Ever since that law passed there has been  a considerable drop in the average age of the cars in  streets of Greece.That in itself is a good sign since up to now most of the people could not afford a decent SAFE car!Most cars were more than 10 years old and equipped with anemic engines due to the way the goverment taxes cars (case in point: I think Gree

ce was the only country were you could buy a VW Golf with a 1000 cc engine(!) or an 1100cc(!) Lancia Delta). This is changing.
	Also from what I have read from reputable sources and people who know,  catalytic converters really help deal with the pollution problem.That doesn't mean they are a panacea(sp?), rather that this is the best way to deal with that  problem NOW.
	The biggest problem IMHO is that the government who is trying hard to get averyone to buy a catalytic converter equipped car, does not try hard enough to improve the quality of the fuel distributed to consumers.There have been quite a few cases  described in the papers about people who dilute unleaded gasoline with anything you can think off (water!! etc).Of cource once this mixture goes through the converter.. bye bye converter and ofcource the emissions skyrocket!
	Its even worse with diesel fuel. There is only one reason I can think off that diesel cars seem to work very well in other countries in Europe I have visited (UK,Netherlands) but they emit a  huge smoke cloud in Greece (guessing about that reason is left as an exercise to the reader:-)).
	Finally I tottaly agree with  you about the best way  to deal with the  "nefos". Good ,Efficient public transport.
	However, I feel that untill the situation in Athens improves, there is  only one thing to do : Relocate to another part of Greece !(I moved to Crete 2.5 years ago and I love it!)
			Panos
================================================================================	These are my OWN opinions. I do not speak for anybody else.

        Can I have a Testa Rossa pretty please?
================================================================================