Good morning my dear readers!
It is a difficult day and a difficult morning and before I write the first word I exhaled deeply, because I don’t know from where to begin and how to express what needs to be said. It’s all about yesterday, which had a beautiful afternoon so I wanted to walk in the forest outside Stemnitsa. In the beautiful forest of Mainalo…
The walk was so beautiful and peaceful. It’s scary how nature mirrors what we have inside us, silence. Without judging, it is what it is and accepts us, the bizarre humans, just as we are. Does this remind you of something? Nature is love and is freely given to anyone who is open to bear it. Despite the calm in the forest, a worry ran through me. All yesterday I had a strange feeling. That something is wrong… As if something was waiting for me, something unpleasant.
The unpleasantness found me when I returned, at night, to the village square. Mr. Yiannis Lagos, president of Mainalon Social Cooperative Enterprise, informed me that despite the organized reactions of local bodies, the Energy Regulatory Authority gave approval for the construction of 126 wind turbines with a diameter of 145 meters in the central Peloponnese, of which approximately 70 in mountain range of Mainalos and at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters. “Mainalus of sustainable development, alternative tourism and international awards”. About 30 of them are to be placed very close to Stemnitsa, and specifically in the “Rapouni” area, between Stemnitsa and Chrysovitsi.
Both villages, which have been declared traditional settlements, look set to overlook the wind turbines. Instead of seeing the bucolic Arcadian landscape, one will see some lifeless columns of terrifying height (100 meters), coming against the scale and morphology of the place!!! A few years ago, the area, quite by accident, had caught fire and the resident teams were running to save the mountain. I wonder if they did it for bulldozers to come later to destroy both the form of the mountain and the life there.
I don’t know if there are words to express how I feel. I think I’m still in the state of shock I was yesterday when I first heard about it. But this shock is enough for me to talk, shout to be precise. It’ s not possible to put wind turbines on mountains like Mainalo. IT’S NOT POSSIBLE!
It is good to turn to alternative sources of energy, but it is unacceptable to destroy virgin nature in the name of green energy. For the sake of “green” energy to spoil the little real green is left! I am sure that there are places further away from a settlement and with less biodiversity that can accept the placement of these structures that are so invasive to the landscape.
This magical place has been home to many creatures for generations. A huge number of plant species, but also animals, including humans, we all benefit from this small paradise.
Mainalo is not such a beautiful mountain by chance. Its beauty stems from the life it hosts. Life is what makes it beautiful. Where will the hawks and eagles now fly, what horizon will the children see, instead of stars will now be red lights?
Mount Mainalo belongs to all of us, not only to those who live here, but also to those who choose it as a place of recreation and contact with nature. After all, Mainalo belongs to itself! We must respect mountains like Mainalo, and Greece has so many of them… Finally, let’s harmonize with nature, let’s let it enter us. We have forgotten her! A little sensitivity to have someone will agree. We cannot allow places like these, instead of sources of life, to become sources of profit! The mountains should be free of wind turbines for the sake of all of us. Let’s all mobilize now, to the extent that everyone can.
Now that “our backyard”, “our garden of Eden” is threatened, what will we do? Are we going to keep looking at the threat until there is a change or are we going to take a stand?