Recent efforts have reduced air pollution from heating and industry. Although motor vehicles must comply with emission standards, automobile exhaust, particularly from diesel-powered vehicles, is still a major pollution agent. Water pollution is also a problem, especially in the gulfs of Saronikos and Thermaikos , where untreated industrial wastes, sewage, and municipal wastewater are discharged. Plants and Animals Greece has a great diversity of vegetation. Tulips, hyacinths, and laurel are also characteristic of the area.
Wildlife includes boar, European black bear, lynx, jackal, chamois, deer, fox, badger, and weasel.
Among the birds are the hawk, pelican, egret, pheasant, partridge, nightingale, turtledove, and stork. The soils in Greece is mostly very rocky and very dry, but the country is interspersed with small valleys where the soils are of the rich Mediterranean terra rosa, or red earth, variety. Most of the Muslims are of Turkish descent. About 100,000 Muslims live in Thrace . The remainder of the population includes people of Slavic, Albanian, and Armenian descent, as well as Vlachs, a people who speak a Romanian dialect.