Renaissance map of Greece modeled from the Greek maps of the Greek geographer and astronomer Ptolemaios of the second century. Courtesy Bank of Greece Cultural Institution. Ambiguous dream The idea of Western civilization has always been an ambiguous dream among rulers and thinkers in Europe and North America. It sounds good, yet it’s beyond individual or state control. And since the ties of this Western civilization are Greek, and the living Greeks are barely visible, the advocates of Western civilization are always on the defensive. Advocates of Western civilization are right saying we inherited all that makes us distinct – the rule of law, science and democracy – from the ancient Greeks. They document such claims with museums packed with stolen beautiful Greek art, statues, architecture, codes of law, poetry, dramatic plays, and samples of scientific writing in mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, medicine and technology. Underneath the legitimate claims of the advo...

Ράντισμα μυκητοκτόνου σε φυτά καπνού, Νικαράγουα. Φωτογραφία: Peter Essick.  Δρ.   Εὐάγγελος Βαλλιανᾶτος Η ισχύς της χημικής βιομηχανίας   στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες   σχεδόν εξαφάνισε   το Υπουργείο   Προστασίας Περιβάλλοντος ( US   Environmental   Protection   Agency ,  EPA ). Η   πολιτικοποιημένη περιβαλλοντική κυβερνητική υπηρεσία   διαχειρίζεται νόμους και κανονισμούς που προδιαγράφουν τι μπορεί να κάνει.   Ωστόσο, στην πράξη, πολιτικοί διορισμένοι από τον πρόεδρο της Αμερικής αποφασίζουν τι κάνει το  EPA .   Σχετικά με αυτή την πολιτική πραγματικότητα,   και   γνωρίζοντας τις βαθιές ρίζες της επιρροής της βιομηχανίας στο Κογκρέσο και τον Λευκό Οίκο, το   EPA   κάνει το έργο του απρόθυμα τις περισσότερες φορές. Στην περίπτωση των   επικίνδυνων   χημικών ουσιών   , ιδιαιτέρως τώρα με την κυβέρνηση Τράμπ, το  EPA  φοβάται να κάνει το ελάχιστο  ...

My first car I was in the United States for a few years before I bought my first car. It was a long, white used Cadillac, with lots of problems, including bad brakes. The man who sold it to me was a customer in my uncle’s “Sailors Drive In,” a tiny restaurant in South Chicago. I spent some of my college vacation working in that restaurant.  I don’t really know why I bought the car. Its owner was very convincing and I knew nothing about cars.  Yes, I drove it around and spent additional money to increase its safety. But was I trying to impress girls? Was I convinced cars were made for fun? I suppose the answer to these questions is, probably, yes. Being a twenty-something, in the early 1960s, I, too, was caught in the deception of advertising.  Ignorance I did not have a clue about the gases coming out the tailpipes of the car, much less their effects on clean air and climate change. I could not fathom car companies would be so criminal to ma...