Looking down from Olympus

A new possible case study for environmental pollution which connects with a range of other issues.

The Greeks are facing a major austerity crisis at the moment, in fact there was a national strike last month, the latest in a series of 'industrial' disputes. One element of domestic expense is heating bills through the winter.

One of the ways to save energy is to burn fuel such as wood for heating and cooking. This may also be the main source of fuel in the first instance, but has started to replace gas and electricity (the cost of which are increasing). People are cutting down trees and switching to fuelwood for fuel.

There are several consequences of this shift, and one is the extent to which woodland is being illegally removed for fuel - this potentially also causes problems in other ways of course.
There is also an impact on air quality
This is not of the same scale as the issues in Beijing, where the air pollution is frequently at dangerous levels, and has been for some months...

There is a useful article on the BBC news website from January this year. It describes some of the key aspects.
Why not ask students to research this further....

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