Left I on the News

Huge fires have been engulfing the surroundings of Athens, Greece this summer. And they are quite likely arson:

Forest protection is written directly into the Greek constitution...As such, it is difficult to rezone forest land for other uses -- even on the edge of growing cities like Athens

Because there are no official maps indicating the boundaries of forests, though, once the trees have been reduced to ash, developers come in to claim land. "This is the heart of the problem," the researcher from Forest Research Institute said. "Politicians, though, would never touch it. It wouldn't be so difficult to provide good maps, but they don't want to because there are so many votes involved."

Throughout the summer, Greece was full of rumors that many of the fires had been set by arsonists hired by developers looking to build on valuable land inconveniently covered by trees.